Page 118 - American Stories, A History of the United States

from that of the whites and Indians in the British backcountry. The Spanish exploited
Native American labor, reducing entire Indian villages to servitude. Many Indians 4.1
moved to the Spanish towns, and although they lived alongside the Europeans—some-
thing rare in British America—they were consigned to the lowest social class, objects of
European contempt. However much their material conditions changed, the southwest- 4.2
ern Indians resisted efforts to convert them to Catholicism. The Pueblo maintained
their own religious forms—often at great personal risk—and they sometimes murdered
priests who became too intrusive. Angry Pueblo Indians at Taos reportedly fed the 4.3
hated Spanish friars corn tortillas containing urine and mouse meat.
The Spanish empire never had the resources necessary to secure the northern
frontier. The small military posts were intended primarily to discourage other Euro- 4.4
pean powers such as France, Britain, and Russia from taking territory claimed by
Spain. It would be misleading, however, to stress the fragility of Spanish colonization. Quick Check
The urban design and public architecture of many southwestern cities still reflect the How successful were the Spanish in
vision of the early Spanish settlers, and the old borderlands largely remain Spanish assimilating the Pueblos to imperial 4.5
speaking to this day. rule?

the impact of european ideas

on American culture

4.2 How did european ideas affect eighteenth-century American life?
t he character of the older, more established British colonies changed almost

as rapidly as that of the backcountry. The rapid growth of an urban cosmo-
politan culture impressed eighteenth-century commentators, and although
most Americans still lived on scattered farms, they had begun to participate
aggressively in an exciting consumer marketplace that expanded their imaginative
horizons.

American enlightenment

European historians often refer to the eighteenth century as an Age of Reason. During
this period, a body of new, often radical, ideas swept through the salons and universi-
ties, altering how educated Europeans thought about God, nature, and society. This
intellectual revolution, called the Enlightenment, involved the work of Europe’s great- Enlightenment Philosophical and
est minds, men such as Newton and Locke, Voltaire and Hume. Their writings received intellectual movement that began
a mixed reception in the colonies. On the whole, the American Enlightenment was in europe during the eighteenth
tamer than its European counterpart, for while the colonists welcomed experimental century. it stressed the use of
reason to solve social and scientific
science, they defended traditional Christianity. problems.
Enlightenment thinkers shared basic assumptions. Philosophers of the
Enlightenment replaced the concept of original sin with a much more optimistic view
of human nature. A benevolent God, having set the universe in motion, gave human
beings the power of reason to enable them to comprehend the orderly workings of
His creation. Everything, even human society, operated according to these mechanical
rules. The responsibility of right-thinking men and women, therefore, was to make
certain that institutions such as church and state conformed to self-evident natural
laws. It was possible to achieve perfection in this world. In fact, human suffering was
the result of people’s losing touch with the fundamental insights of reason.
For many Americans, the appeal of the Enlightenment was its focus on a search
for useful knowledge, ideas, and inventions to improve the quality of human life.
What mattered was practical experimentation. A speech delivered in 1767 before the
members of the American Society in Philadelphia reflected the new utilitarian spirit:
“Knowledge is of little Use when confined to mere Speculation, But when speculative
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