THE CONQUEST

The Spanish conquest of Central and South America, accomplished with surprising speed and facility, brought a vast new territory and its hitherto unknown inhabitants into the European field of vision. The event not only broadened men's horizons but was to have incalculable repercussions on the European mind, opening up new problems of law and politics, feeding men's imaginations with visions of Utopia and raising entirely fresh problems to challenge notions of geography and natural history. The impact of Europe on the native inhabitants of America was even greater. The shock at the first sight of horses and guns was as nothing compared to the trauma that followed the defeat of the old gods, the conquest and murder of Indian emperors and the enslavement of peoples. Nowadays, we are perhaps better qualified to understand the psychological shock that resulted from the confrontation of races with totally conflicting attitudes than were the participants. The Indians that the Spaniards conquered ranged from primitive nomadic tribes such as the Pampas to members of highly-developed cultures like those of the Incas in the Andes, the Aztecs of Mexico and the Mayas of Central America.

But even these highly-civilised communities were not at all on the same wave-length as the Spaniards. Their culture, technology and social organisation were based on nature-religions.