They wore little clothing, lacked "civilized" government and were completely oblivious to Christianity. Columbus later found himself in the Indies, surrounded by similar pagans. The national passion and religious fervor with which the Spaniards had previously fought the Muslims was now directed at the Canarians. The "pagans" however, presented a different challenge for the Spaniards. The Muslims had been infidels who knew about and had rejected Christianity, but the Canarian Guanches possessed a "primitive innocence" in the area of European religions. It seemed the perfect opportunity for conversion, for "it was thought that their uncorrupt state peculiarly fitted them to hear the gospel." With this in mind, the Spanish were presented with a new dilemma - is it just to wage war with pagans? The Guanches were not like the evil Muslims; they were simply ignorant. The pope stepped in and provided an answer. He would grant spiritual and temporal lordship to the conqueror of any new land. If its inhabitants resisted the imposed lordship or refused to convert, war was justifiable because having rejected Christianity, they would become "infidels" and subject to enslavement or exile. If the natives converted, then they became vassals of the crown and worshippers of God. And so began the Spanish technique of integrating conversion and conquest, combining political and religious objectives in perfect harmony to extend their empire and spread their culture.
The methods of Spanish warfare were far superior to those of the natives. Spain, as well as a later Columbus, used "sword, cannon, musket, horse, and dog to subdue- the natives. The indigenous peoples had access to no such weapons, and though they held out valiantly, eventually succumbed to the superior technology along with the foreign diseases the Spanish inadvertently brought with them. Before the Spanish adelantados could be victorious in warfare against a group of people, the conversion part of Spain's expansion philosophy was implemented.