What role do you think the Europeans’ sense of their own cultural supe

What role do you think the Europeans’ sense of their own cultural superiority played in the conquest and colonization of the “New World?” Use examples from both Spanish and English experiences to illustrate your argument.

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
Both the Spanish and English relied heavily on the assumption of their own cultural and racial superiority to justify their brutal treatment of native peoples and their importation of African slaves. Consider: the actual operation of the encomienda system and haciendas in New Spain; African slavery in the Caribbean; English assumptions of the racial inferiority of blacks eased the adoption of African slavery on the mainland; early English settlers assumed that God had cleared the way for their settlement by decimating native tribes (by disease epidemics) prior to their arrival