For the Good of Their Souls: Sacred Justification for Colonial Violence in Mexico

Abstract

The Catholic Church has been part of various controversies, one of those has been its participation in the conquest of the Americas. From the fifteenth to sixteenth century the Spanish Crown used the Roman Catholic Church as a tool for colonial control throughout Central and West Mexico. The Catholic church became a colonial institution that used religious ideology to force conversion, enact violence, and justified the enslavement of the indigenous population. This article examines how the colonial institution maintained their authority using three strategies: destroying Indigenous sacred places, suppressing spiritual practices, and clerical enforcements. It covers Central Mexico and West Mexico and provides insight on the Catholic Church's influence in asserting Spanish Colonial rule over those respective areas.