How did the Spanish spread Christianity in America?

Answer 1

The answer to this question will have to be a bit lengthy for the simple reason that "The Black Legend" which came from the English and Dutch propaganda machines has been taught as real history well into the twentieth century, and it is only recently that the truth has come out. Most of this answer is directly attributable to Dr. Diane Moczar, the esteemed historian and writer, particularly from her book, Seven Lies About Catholic History, chapter 7 "A Black and Expedient Legend; and to Dr. William H. Carroll, a famous Catholic historian and author who founded Christendom College in the United States, and wrote Our Lady of Guadalupe: And the Conquest of Darkness.

In short, here is the "Black Legend" ...

[T]hat the Spanish were historically a cruel and brutal people, as evidenced by the way they treated the native American tribes they conquered in the sixteenth century. The fact that the Conquistadors were Catholic made it worse: they and their missionaries viciously suppressed the religion and culture of highly civilized peoples such as the Aztecs, bring death, disease, and servitude, while ramming Christianity down their throats.

This was pure political propaganda of the worse kind, motivated by nationalism, colonial rivalry, and the religious fanaticism of the "protestant reformation". It was included in historical textbooks in both England and American as late as 1966. Even the Saturday Evening Post published a story about the colonial Spanish infecting the Indians with smallpox to exterminate them. The last was particularly obnoxious, as we now know for certain that the only time this ever happened, it was the British in North American sending gifts of infected blankets to the Indians to kill them off, while the Spanish were busy shipping vaccines to the native Americans!

To answer your question, when Cortez landed in Mexico in 1519, he was joined on his march to the capital city of the Aztecs by literally tens of thousands of natives, who had for too long been used for the thousands of human sacrifices the Aztecs made to their "gods" each year. When Cortez established friendly relations with Montezuma originally, when they found out about the most sinister cult in all of human history, they moved to end it immediately. Montezuma cooperated but was killed by a stone thrown by an Aztec and war ensued. After Cortez conquered the city, they immediately rebuilt the city, gave grants of land to prominent Aztecs, and set up self-governing towns which were off-limits to Spaniards both to live and work in. Cortes allowed no slavery, and King Philip III later abolished all Indian personal servitude and employment on sugar plantations. By 1539 the Pope had excommunicated anyone guilty of enslaving or robbing the Indians. (Contrast this with the later behavior of the English and Americans behavior with their conquest of the North American Indians).

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The King appointed the Bishop of Mexico as "Protector of the Indians", and he had the first Spanish governor replaced as abusing his authority.

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from Seven Lies About Catholic History Infamous Myths About the Church's Past and How to Answer Them by Diane Moczar, c 2010 by TAN Books, Charlotte, North Carolina

Under Cortex, the first hospital for Indians was established, and by 1534 there were schools for Indian girls. In 1539 the first printing press in the New World was set up, printing translations of all sorts of writings for the Indians. Orphanages, trade schools, and colleges followed, and even a university founded for Aztec students, founded in 1551. . . . a full-blooded descendent of Montezuma was later appointed viceroy of Mexico by the Spanish king. Racist the Spanish were not.

Pope Paul II in 1537 [wrote] that the Indians should not 'be treated like irrational animals and used exclusively for our profit and our service . . . [They] must not be deprived of their freedom and their possessions . . . even if they are not Christians; and on the contrary, they must be left to enjoy their freedom and their possessions." The Pope emphasized that Christian principle that "Every person is my brother or sister." (I will not spin out the obvious comparison between this Catholic view of the rights of indigenous peoples, which the French colonists in North America also shared, and the manner in which the English and their descendants viewed the Indians they had to deal with. Who was it who said, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian"?)

In the first years following the conquest, conversions of the Aztecs and other Mexican tribes to Christianity proceeded only slowly, despite the best efforts of dedicated Franciscan missionaries. . . . In 1531, however, came the mysterious and instantaneous appearance of the image of a young woman - clearly the Virgin Mary - on the cloak of a middle-aged Aztec.

This was the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was to survive for four centuries now (on a cloak of native fiber that, at best, has forty years of use before it starts to disintegrate). Miracles have been associated with this image from the first, and many of the symbols on the cloak convey a spiritual message to the Aztecs. This accomplished the mass conversion of the natives, and the Spanish not being racially prejudiced (in sharp contrast with the English) were more than willing to intermarry with the natives producing the racially homogenous society that has never existed north of Mexico. As Dr. Moczar points out "This sort of thing was simply not done, at least in any great numbers, by the discriminating English.

Answer 2

by force.

Force and conquering never have ever spread Christianity, since true Christian faith requires personal assent. Force only makes enemies. If this is the methodology used then it is misguided at the least and utterly evil at worst. In any case it doesn't spread Christianity, although it may indeed spread a certain brand of religion, but force can never ever change a person's heart. They may submit for the sake of peace but they will inwardly be in rebellion.

Answer 3

Catholicism was not used by Spain to spread its empire. As the Spanish explored the new world they brought both Priest and Monk to minister to the Spaniards on their journey and to evangelize the inhabitants.

Answer 4

Even before the conquest of the Americas, the Portuguese and Spaniards used slavery as a means of spreading Catholicism. The popes required that African natives not be enslaved if thay had already been baptised, providing an incentive for some to hurry to baptism, but those who were enslaved were forcibly converted and remained slaves.


The conquest of new territories in the New World provided many opportunities to save souls, by violence or threats of violence. In other cases, there was no actual threat made to the lives or safety of the Indians, but the magic of guns and sailing ships, and the presence of armed forces, made the work of the missionaries easier. Spanish missionaries were always willing to adapt Catholicism to local beliefs and customs in order to win converts. Nowhere was this more striking than in what became the most famous shrine of the New World, that of Our Lady of Guadalupe outside Mexico City. There had been a temple of Tonantzin, 'Mother of the Gods', at Tepeyac, where according to the Guadalupe tradition the Virgin Mary asked to have a chapel built in her honour. Adrian Hastings (A World History of Christianity, Latin America) says that 'Idols' might survive, if transmogrified into a sufficiently Christian form, and discusses the development of the Juan Diego legend. Doctor Vivian Green (A New History of Christianity) discusses how, in 1996, Guillermo Schulenberg, abbot of the chapel to the Virgin of Guadeloupe, questioned the historic existence of Juan Diego.