20. 1500-1600- Encounters in the New World
Women in the Americas saw their world altered dramatically as white men from Europe poured onto their shores. Many lost their lives to European diseases, and their customs to a new social structure, with indigenous people at the bottom. Despite all of that, some aspects of pre-contact life endured.
How to cite this source?
Remedial Herstory Project Editors. "20. 1500-1600 - ENCOUNTERS IN THE NEW WORLD" The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2025. www.remedialherstory.com.
Trigger Warning: This chapter references rape and sexual assault
When Columbus sailed the Atlantic and began lasting contact between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia, gender dynamics in the New World changed substantially. Indigenous societies including the Aztec and Incan Empires - interacting with the Spanish patriarchies for the first time - changed considerably, according to the few surviving accounts of life before the Spanish and Portuguese.
Painting titled, “Luther burns the Papal bull in the square of Wittenberg year 1520”
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First Contact
When Columbus first arrived on the island of Hispaniola, originally called Ay-ti by the indigenous Taino population, they had positive interactions with the Native Americans there. Columbus wrote to his patron, Queen Isabella, and described their kindness and all of the gifts that they bestowed upon him. But that kindness was clearly abused.
Prior to Columbus, the Taino lived in a semi-segregated society where women and their children tended to live separately from the men, gathering for religious ceremonies, procreation, and in times of intertribal war. This meant that Taino women had sizable power over their families, politics, religious practices, agriculture, and more. While prior to Columbus this arrangement was probably a positive one for women, upon the arrival of the Spaniards over the coming decades, this often meant that women encountered the invaders first, and could be subject to systemic rape, pillaging, and forced to serve as hostages in negotiations.
Isabella wrote in her later instructions to Spanish explorers,
Because we have been informed that some Christians in the above said islands, and especially in Hispaniola, have taken the Indians’ wives and other things from them against their will, you shall give orders, as soon as you arrive, that everything taken from the Indians against their will be returned [...] and if Spaniards should wish to marry Indian women, the marriages should be entered into willingly by both parties and not made by force.
Sadly, the need for this declaration gives us some insight into the ways that indigenous women of the Taino community were treated in these early years of exploration.
Despite such orders, the mistreatment of the Taino on Hispaniola persisted. They were subjected to forced labor, raped, mutilated, made homeless by the rampaging Spanish conquistadors, and victimized by other horrific crimes. Women were often disproportionately victimized, as they faced physical and sexual abuse, were often left widowed in the wake of wars of conquest, struggled to maintain crop production amidst illness and damage to the land, and more. Women and children might also be taken for slave labor or forced marriage. In situations so complex, we also find that women helped to support resistance efforts as well as protect their families or seek personal advancement through cooperation.
However, no amount of cooperation could stop the Taino from dying en masse after being exposed to European diseases and subjected to horrific living conditions. European diseases such as smallpox spread rapidly throughout native population, which had no immunity to new pathogens. Historians estimate that up to 95 percent of the indigenous population of the Caribbean and Central America died in the 100-150 years after Columbus’s voyage in 1492 as smallpox, measles, and other such highly-contagious viruses tore through these vulnerable populations. The establishment of forced labor among the Taino and surrounding populations also contributed to the spread of disease and the impacts of both disease and displacement affected their ability to produce food, which affected the health of all.
Exploration stretched far beyond Hispaniola, affecting the Taino population of surrounding islands and continued to bleed through the Caribbean, Central, and South America. The maltreatment of indigenous populations and the spread of disease only increased with each passing year.
Drawing of Cacique (Chief) Taína of the island of Hispaniola
Joan of Arc’s capture
Joan of Arc’s execution
Bartelome de la Casas
Bartelome de la Casas was a Spanish priest who made several trips to the Americas in the 16th century, and came to abhor the treatment of the indigenous population he witnessed. He wrote that the Spanish had become conceited and mistreated the Natives with growing contempt. He said they, “thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades.”
He recorded his observations meticulously, and noted very different social norms as well as the freedom enjoyed by women with regard to control over their own bodies and relationships with men. He wrote,
Marriage laws are non-existent: men and women alike choose their mates and leave them as they please, without offense, jealousy or anger. They multiply in great abundance; pregnant women work to the last minute and give birth almost painlessly; up the next day, they bathe in the river and are as clean and healthy as before giving birth. If they tire of their men, they give themselves abortions with herbs that force stillbirths, covering their shameful parts with leaves or cotton cloth; although on the whole, Indian men and women look upon total nakedness with as much casualness as we look upon a man’s head or at his hands.
Whether he wrote this with a sense of admiration or disbelief about the differences between indigenous and European societies, it certainly would have produced shock among European readers, and encouraged a sense of cultural superiority.
Las Casas also wrote of his shock surrounding the forced labor imposed on Natives. The point of colonization was to find wealth and send it back to Europe. Thus, indigenous men, women, and children were forced to search for gold that the Spanish could bring back to their investors. The Spanish sought quick fortunes and violently used the indigenous people as a means to that end. La Casas described the toll this inflicted on women and their families, writing,
Thus husbands and wives were together only once every eight or ten months and when they met they were so exhausted and depressed on both sides [...] they ceased to procreate. As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation [...] In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work, and children died from lack of milk [...] and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful and fertile [...] was depopulated [...] My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write [...] there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it.
He took his case back to Spain to debate the treatment of indigenous people.
The subsequent Valladolid Debate (1550-51) was commissioned by the Spanish Crown to consider the importance of converting indigenous populations to Catholicism, but also about the rights and humanity of indigenous people living under colonial rule. Las Casas argued that Natives were free people in God’s eyes and deserved to have their way of life protected. His opposition argued that the ritualistic, pagan beliefs of the Natives - the practice of human sacrifice playing a starring role in this debate - was an insult to God and needed to be stopped, even if that required force. While many grew to agree that the Spanish were violating human decency in their treatment of the Natives, there was not a clear “winner” in this debate, and it did little to change what was happening an ocean away. However, it shows us that the Spanish - and other Europeans who followed - were well aware of the highly questionable morality behind their actions.
Abhor (v.), regard with disgust and hatred.
Illustrations from a printing of Las Casas’s book on the treatment of Indigenous People
Malintzin
As Spanish conquest dug deeper into Central America in the 16th century, they began to encounter large tribes and organized empires. They expected that this could mean greater resistance to their efforts to assume control of the New World. When encountering the mighty Aztec Empire, both the conquistadors and the Aztec leadership tried to tread carefully until one could ensure an advantage over the other.
When Hernan Cortes and his 500 conquistadors landed in modern-day Mexico in March 1519 and began claiming the land for Spain, he faced resistance right away. The combination of European firearms, armor, and disease made devastatingly quick work of the first tribes he engaged with. As a “prize” for one of his early victories, he was given 20 female captives, which included the controversial Malintzin, or La Malinche.
Her life exemplifies the contradictions of oppression experienced by young elite women in the path of colonialism. Similar to later figures like Pocahontas in Virginia, and Krotoa in the Dutch Cape Colony, she was born into an elite family and became a crucial mediator between the colonists and indigenous society. She was given as a gift precisely because of her status in her society, and was welcomed by Cortez because she provided access to Aztec society. She became Cortez‘s interpreter and was witness to his violent conquest of Mexico, which included deception and massacres of Native people.
La Malinche was used as a propaganda tool for the Spanish who argued the indigenous peoples wanted their presence, while she is remembered in much of Latin History as a traitor as a result. One version of her name - malinchista - became Mexican slang, referring to someone who abandons their people for another. However, the extent of her efforts and support for Cortes is questionable at best. She was not a volunteer member of his entourage, but a prize of war, given to him by her tribe. She served as his translator, but using this skill may have been something that was forced upon her through violence or intimidation. A famous story includes her supposedly warning the Spanish of an ambush she overhead being planned, leading the Spanish to massacre the people in question, but others say that she may have just been used by the Spanish as an excuse for their actions. We do know that she gave birth to Cortes’ first son, and thereby became a symbol of the American future, one forever influenced by Spain, yet again, the level of her consent in that sexual relationship is a mystery. Many of her actions may have come down to simple survival. At the same time, this does not discount that La Malinche may have, indeed, been a willing and avid supporter of Cortes, as countless men and women have chosen to act in their own personal favor over any notion of “common good”. We simply do not know.
We do not have records from her directly, which means she will remain a complicated figure in history. Nationalist history suggests she was a cunning girl who saw an opportunity out of slavery with the Spanish or that she was the traitor who turned on her people for her own gain. Newer scholarship suggests that as a woman with few options, and she simply tried to survive in a chaotic and cruel world. In any and all versions of the story, the Spanish remain the real culprit of the horrors experienced in Latin America.
La Malinche
Mediator (n.), a person who attempts to make people involved in a conflict come to an agreement; a go-between.
Drawing of the Battle of Tepotztotlan, where La Malinche is depicted holding weapons
Contributors to Conquest
Not all women were bystanders nor distant or unwitting accomplices to European exploration and conquest of the New World, others were active participants. Inés Suárez was a woman who first came to the Americas in 1537 in search of her husband who had taken part in early Spanish explorations of South America’s western coast, particularly Chile and Peru. Upon arrival, she found out that her husband had died, and thus declared a war widow, she was granted land and slaves in Peru.
A single Spanish woman was a rarity in the New World, and she quickly caught the eye of Pedro de Valdivia who was spearheading the Spanish effort to conquer Chile. Valdivia insisted on bringing Suárez with him under the guise of being his servant. Much of her work was based around caring for Valdivia and the other men; her time was mostly spent cooking, cleaning, nursing, and maintaining food and water supplies.
Valdivia’s crew founded the city of Santiago, which they – including Suárez - defended against Indigenous populations several times. Historian Mariño de Lobera wrote that during one of the battles, Suárez,
put a coat of mail over her shoulders and in this way, she went out to the square and stood in front of all the soldiers, encouraging them […] she told them that if they felt fatigued and if they were wounded she would cure them with her own hands […] she went where they were, even among the hooves of the horses; and she did not just cure them, she animated them and raised their morale, sending them back into the battle renewed.
Amid one battle that appeared lost, it was Suárez who came up with the extreme solution of decapitating some Indigenous hostages to scare off their tribesmen. According to some, she was even the one to do the decapitating. After victory in the battle, Valdivia proclaimed, “you have saved all of us.”
Alternately, Catalina de Erauso also acted as an early conquistadora, but did so disguised as a man. Born in Spain, Erauso trained alongside her brothers who were preparing to follow their father into military life. However, like her sisters before her, she was expected to live a life in religious service as a nun. She spent nearly a decade in the convent but never aligned herself with the work or the faith and escaped around the age of 15. Because men traveling alone would be less suspicious, she took on the appearance of a man, and lived by many different names, but most notably, Antonio. She served in a number of roles as a man and was even sent to prison for a month for fighting; the start of a lifelong pattern.
In 1603, she took on a job as a cabin boy in a ship bound for the Americas. Aboard several ships, Erauso spent time in Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, and ultimately settled in Peru. She spent more time in prison, first for cutting the face of a man she was dueling, and later for killing one of his friends when the man came to get revenge. After a tumultuous life in Peru, Erauso joined a military expedition in Chile in 1619. Shockingly, the secretary of the Spanish governor in Chile was Erauso’s own brother, who did not recognize her. She earned a reputation for her military skill in the subsequent Arauco War, even commanding troops in battle, but also gained a reputation for cruelty to Indigenous Peoples. That cruelty flowed elsewhere as well. Her temper seemed to boil, facing multiple imprisonments for killing members of their military party in duels, including her brother.
After this, she once again was forced to escape and reinvent herself, but her past habits seemed to follow her. She fled to modern Argentina but never seemed to settle anywhere for long before she faced legal trouble or exploited someone for money and moved again. When troubles began to mount toward the punishment of execution, Erauso confessed her identity to a bishop in 1623. The bishop had local matrons confirm her gender and virginity, and then helped provide her passage back to Spain.
She eventually returned to New Spain in 1630, settling in modern Veracruz, where she died in 1650. Erauso wrote an autobiography of her adventures, but this was not published until centuries later, which calls into question its authenticity. The same is true of Erauso’s gender identity and sexuality. While some argue that Erauso was a lesbian given the descriptions of relationships with women, others note that these were often part of a ruse to make money before fleeing the area. Others refer to Erauso by the name of Antonio and use male pronouns with the theory that Erauso identified as male. However, Dr. Suzanne Litrel insists that within her autobiography she never identified herself as a man. Litrel writes, “In her own words, she was a woman--just wanted the liberty to live like a man.”
Painting depicting Suárez decapitating Indigenous hostages
Catalina de Erauso
Gender Imbalance
For the first century after exploration of the New World began, the Spanish were far and away leading the efforts of European colonization. They even secured consent from the Pope to dominate the new Western Hemisphere, while the Portuguese - who only had rights to a portion of modern-day Brazil - dominated the Eastern Hemisphere. Each was granted such an honor from the Pope to spread that Catholic faith, but also to prevent war between the two wealthiest Catholic nations of the time.
In the Spanish and Portuguese colonies that were developing in the Americas and Africa, there was a ratio of one European woman to every four European men. Thus, European men often ended up taking indigenous wives. The conjugal relations between European men and Native women were rooted in the dynamics of colonialism, as many of these relationships were coercive and involved rape, sexual assault, and domestic slavery. In other cases, Native women attached themselves to European men in order to secure protection of their children and extended families from the ravages of colonialism.
This act was more prominent in the Americas, and a generation later, mixed-race relationships between Spanish men and Indian women resulted in a new class of people called the mestizos. Eventually, this class of people would become the largest in Mexico, however, the Spanish degraded the mestizo class, regarding them as illegitimate citizens and subjects. Nonetheless, mestizos and mestizas enjoyed slightly better status than indigenous people. Mestizas served as domestic servants, worked in shops as retailers, and manufactured items like candles. Some of these women became very wealthy. An illiterate mestiza named Mencia Perez was married and widowed twice to two wealthy Spanish men. She assumed responsibility for their businesses, becoming a very rich woman by the 1590s.
Yet, her story was an exception to the plight of most mestizo women. For most women, conquest meant sexual violence and abuse. Rape was common as enslaved women worked under the authority of European men and were often forced to perform sexual acts. Others were manipulated or forced to help the Spanish achieve political aims.
Unmarried Spanish men and the continued practice of intermarriage in the new colonies were seen as a problem by the Spanish Crown, so by the mid-1500s, there was an effort to send more Spanish women to Mexico to become wives to Spanish soldiers and settlers. Later, the English colonies also dealt with a gender imbalance but actively worked to import more women as indentured servants and tobacco wives. Sometimes, women were even kidnapped off the streets. Yet, many women went to the New World willingly, as it offered greater prospects than their static lives in Europe did. The presence of Native women as domestic servants made life in the Spanish colonies for Spanish women enticing. Maria de Carranza encouraged her sister-in-law to join her in the New World, saying, “[leave] the poverty and need which people suffer in Spain!”
Spanish women shared the privileges of their race with their husbands, but they were clearly subordinate to them because of their gender. Spanish women were barred from holding public office, viewed as weak, and in need of protection. Yet, they bore the Spanish legitimate children, the means for transmitting wealth and ensuring their legacy into future generations. This continued the Spanish legacy of focusing on “purity of blood“ seen previously in their liaisons with the Jews and Muslims under Isabella. Interestingly, in neighboring Brazil, Portuguese women owned and managed sugar plantations, and even received grants to do so, because Portuguese inheritance law allowed women to inherit the lands of their fathers and husbands.
Coercive (adj.), relating to or using force or threats.
A painting depicting a white father, an indigenous mother, and a mestizo child
A painting depicting the racial hierarchy in Spanish colonies
The King’s Daughters and Correction Women
While the Spanish were far and away the most dominant European power in the first century after exploration of the New World began, their French counterparts began their exploration efforts by the 1520s. By 1555, they attempted their first permanent settlement in Brazil before being removed by the Portuguese, and inevitably they established permanent holds in the Caribbean as well. However, the French saw their greatest territorial hold in North America.
Starting in 1534, the French began to explore the rich fishing grounds around Newfoundland, and worked their way into the continent through the Saint Lawrence River. As trading towns and small settlements began to develop in “New France,” the French sought to drive deep into the continent in search of animal furs that could be sold for high prices in European fashion markets. At the forefront of this were men known as coureur de bois (“runners of the woods”) who made first contact and established trading relationships with Indigenous tribes. These men not only engaged with Indigenous women in trade, but many also married Indigenous women as part of their effort to establish positive relationships.
Just as the Spanish crown grew concerned about the growth of the mixed population within their New World holdings, so too did the French. During the 1660s and 1670s, King Louis XIV sent around 800 young women to the colonies in New France known as illes du roi (“king’s daughters”). These women were to become wives to French men in the New World, thus providing full-blooded French children, but also encouraging more French men to immigrate and boost the population further.
In France’s more southern colonies, established in areas of Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, another group of women was transported for much the same purpose, but with a much darker tone. Like the king’s daughters, who were mostly volunteers recruited on the hope of a new and improved life in the colonies, the women sent into the South were originally known as the “casquette girls;” the first landing in Alabama in 1704, and later groups landing in Mississippi and Louisiana. However, these women quickly found that life in these southern colonies was difficult, and most begged to be returned to France, but were refused. As volunteers dried up, the “correction women” were forced instead.
Originally, 7,000 women - mostly orphans, vagrants, and criminals - were slated to be forcibly relocated to France’s southern colonies, but only 1,300 arrived. A number are known to have died in protests and uprisings, and many others from disease, but the numbers still tell a harrowing tale of these women’s fates. Those who made it to the New World were then sold off in marriage to colonial men, including many who had been criminals themselves. While the monarchy had expected such French women to bring order and domesticity to colonial society, these women continued to show their resistance in any form they could. One of the officials charged with their care in 1721 wrote, “Eighty-eight girls arrived [...] nineteen of them have been married off [...] So that fifty-nine girls are still to be provided for (ten have died). This will be difficult as these girls are not well selected [...] Whatever the vigilance exercised upon them, they could not be restrained.”
“King’s daughters” coming to Quebec in 1667, in order to be married to the French colonists
Pseudonym (n.), a fictitious name, especially one used by an author.
Heretical (adj.), believing in or practicing religious opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine.
Conclusion
Indigenous women lost so much in these early years of colonization. Disease decimated their communities, and they were increasingly excluded from the courts and colonial social systems as more patriarchal systems, mirroring those of their European colonists, were imposed. Nevertheless, these women persisted. For example, despite the colonial patriarchy imposed on them, Andean and Mayan women continued the tradition of leaving personal property to their female descendants.
Mistreatment, murder, and disease had a devastating impact on indigenous populations in the Americas. Aside from the horrific human cost, this presented an economic predicament for the colonists settling and establishing plantations. Who would work the land? They sought enslaved people that were immune to these diseases and would therefore provide a more stable workforce, and this led to the importation of African slaves and the growth of the transatlantic slave trade. As the transatlantic slave trade consolidated in the 17th century, the lives of indigenous people as well as enslaved became ever more connected, and women’s lives were fundamentally entangled with the various slave systems that emerged in the Americas.
