Comparison and Contrast between Spanish and French
Author: Grace Hui Chin Lin, Texas A&M University, Dept. of Teaching, Learning, and Culture
Catholic Schooling is a significant issue in the early American history. After Christopher Columbus landed in 1492, the English people, French, and Spaniard extended their territories and assimilated Indian by assigning missionaries and governors to develop Catholic schools in the New World. The Catholic schools in European colonies were established not only for educating European¡¦s own Catholic descents but also for making Saint Mary and Jesus Chris known by Indians. Spanish priests had accomplished better missionary tasks than the other European colonial empires like France and England. Their Catholic preaches arrived the in southern parts of the Mississippi River before 1700, and the west and south area of the Mississippi after 1700.
I believe the reason why Spanish accomplished the missionary job more successfully than the others is that they paid enough reverence to Indian¡¦s tribe traditions and customs. Spanish missionaries understood that the tribe people have to retain their habits like complex cosmology worship, hunting game, and defending practice; therefore, they preserved Indian¡¦s traditional activities when converting them into Catholics. Spanish bishops transformed Indian¡¦s superstitions into Christianality step by step gently and gradually. At the same time, the Spanish missionaries traveled and fight together with tribe military soldiers from hostile attacks and introduced new industrialization technique to improve Indian¡¦s agriculture. This apparently revealed Spanish¡¦s determination to assimilate Indian and to transfer Spanish civilization to improve Indian¡¦s daily lives.
Compared with French, Spanish missionaries were more effective and lucky because they encountered stronger and bigger tribes like the Mayans, the Incas, the Aztec, and the Sioux. Bigger tribes were more stable and their people were willing to learn and assimilated. They arrived in these stronger tribe areas in the US from Mexico and West Indies and transmitted the grace and love of God to settled communities such as the Pueblo of New Mexico. On the contrary, the French missionaries came across weaker nomadic tribes like the Mi'kmaq the Algonquian in Maine, New York, Illinois and Louisiana from Canada and finally did not Christianized them aggressively and effectively.
In 1694, a French explorer, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac took control of the area around Detroit, and urged that the northern tribes come to live in the settlement, mingle with the French settlers, learn the language, and intermarry. He wished to lead mixed force of...