DBQ 2 Nicholas Gilman

1. How do Mother Marie and Father Serra describe the natives that they encountered? Were they
hostile or welcoming? Were the natives easily led/taught?

Mother Marie describes the native girls she has brought into monastery as good natured, obedient, and
eager to learn, stating that “there is nothing so docile as these children. One can bend them as he will…if
they are to pray…or perform some little piece of work or task, they are ready at once, without murmurs
and without excuses.” Father Serra also has a similar description of his first encounter with what he calls
gentiles, referring to non-Christian natives. Father Padre exchanged gifts with the gentiles and explain
through an interpreter that they had no reason to fear them and that they could trust the mission. The
gentiles initially signed that they understood. While it seemed that some natives took to the conversion
to Christianity others opposed it and engaged in revolt against the missions. Father Serra writes of the
revolt and subsequent enragement of the native when they try to pursue the guilty party for the burning
of the mission and killing of the Padre. He concludes this part of the story saying, “the solders are there
in the presidio and the Indians are back to their gentile way of being.” (word count 191)

2. Father Serra describes a revolt of native peoples in his excerpt. Why does he plead for leniency
with the Spanish colonial governor?

Father Serra is requesting leniency so that the guilty parties can be forgiven and still saved. He again
says further in his request to, “…let the murderer live so he can be saved, which is the purpose of our
coming here and reason for forgiving him.” More than a plea for compassion I find this to be greater
evidence of a mindset of arrogance and superiority by the European colonizers. Regardless of Father
Serra’s opinion of the native culture he does what leniency to further his cause of converting the natives
to the Christian faith. He goes on to say to, “help him to understand, with some moderate punishment,
that he is being pardoned in accordance with our law…to prepare him, not for his death, but for eternal
life.” He wishes for the guilty to made to understand that the punishment they are to receive for their
revolt is just another mechanism to prepare their soles for salvation though Jesus. (word count 160)

3. What divisions in colonial society do Jorge Juan and de Ulloa note in their report? How is the
emergence of that society a consequence of European expansion?

The divisions in colonial society in South America was much more diverse and articulated than that of
North America, where the distinction lay with the exclusion of black and Native America from white
colonial society. South American colonial society was divided into a caste system with distinctions
between Whites, persons derived of interrace marriages (for example, those with white and black
parents were referred to as Mulattos, those with White and Mulatto parents were referred to as
Tercerones), and African Americans. Further division existed within these castes, such as the distinction
between whites born in country and Europeans, as well as free and enslaved African Americans. These
caste distinctions were a result of Europeans emphasis on the importance of the purity of a person’s
blood. The varying caste are a direct result of European expansion as there simple were not enough
people in these developing colonies for the white Europeans to maintain their pure bloodline. This
sometime led to families marrying their children to maintain the dignity of their bloodline. (word count
170)
 4. What do these reports tell us about the Europeans and they view themselves and their role in
the world?

The reports are incredibly telling of the sense of superiority in culture and religion they felt over the
natives. The events described above involving the revolt of natives against the missions in California and
Father Serra’s description of the events reenforce this belief. Father Serra makes no mention of why he
feels the natives are revolting. The concept that the European colonizers should demonstrate respect for
the native culture and lands is entirely lost on them. Father Serra says in his plea to Spanish governor
that, “for as long as the missionary is alive, the soldiers should guard and watch over him as God would
guard the apple of his eye.” This comparison only further demonstrate the idea that the mission and its
religious clergy represent a superior religious authority as God’s chosen and favorite people. Not only do
they see themselves as superior to other cultures of the world but they feel the need to propagate their
economic, social, and religious values on the rest of the world. This is seen not only with the Mother
Marie and Father Serra’s mission work but with the European colonization of South America by the
introduction of trade outposts and enslavement of the black community.