Seductive Beliefs (Thomas Sowell)

Whereas the advent of the Anglo-sphere impoverished and almost exterminated the North American indians, the Spanish influence was much more mixed. In some cases the Spanish were somewhat beneficial to the economic well being of the natives of so called ”Latin America.

What follows is my summary of American Beliefs by John McElroy.
McElroy notes that there were four main colonial powers in America, and each of them found different things and wanted to do different things: Spain found bronze-age civilization, and conquered them in a conventional manner as they would have liked to have done in Europe, especially England. Since they found a going concern their only interest was in dominating and exploiting it, rather than creating it. So the only people they sent to their colonies were soldiers and gentlemen to be in charge. No Spanish peons need apply. France found in Canada not a going bronze-age civilization but a stone age one. But like Spain, France's primary motivation was control - of navigation of the St. Lawrence River - and trade with the natives. So there was need of traders, but mostly of gentlemen and soldiers to control. Very few peons, even French ones and certainly none other, were needed. Portugal found stone age peoples in Brazil. In order to exploit Brazil they sent over workers - in the form of African slaves. Plus of course, gentlemen to control the operation. England (it wasn't Great Britain until later) found in the portion of North America which it was able to claim nothing but stone-age people and forests. The land was rich and had tremendous agricultural potential but wasn't farmland until it had been laboriously cleared of trees and vines. The English colonists found that gentlemen were pretty useless; what the situation cried out for was farmers. So England sent over poor people - some, including some of my ancestors, came from Lutheran Germany - and so the American polity was dominated by practical people (even if they often had religious motivations for wanting to come, still they learned that the situation required diligent work). The conclusion is that Americans respect any honest work. If you reflect on English costume drama, you will realize that we didn't get that attitude from England - where the emphasis was on who you were rather than what you did - but in the American melieu where people who were respected because they were useful, and were respected for the caluses on their hands.
Writing a paper on conservatism
So looking at the European influx into the Americas from the POV of the indigenous peoples, you could say that the French generally had a businesslike relation with them, the Spanish generally had more of an exploitive relation with them, and the Portuguese and the English more or less found them to be in the way of their designs on the development of all that real estate.
I think that mileage undoubtedly varied in individual cases.

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