The Native Americans who live today are a small fraction of their population in the mid-fifteenth century. The European countries that came to the Americas in search of new territory treated the Indians poorly and affected the population drastically. Spain was one of the first to come explore the new world and made their way through Central America. The Spanish explored the New World in search of gold, glory, and god, they sent many different types of people to the new world, and they had an overall negative affect on the Indians.
Spaniards were constantly in America spreading religion or seeking gold and glory. Spanish priests went into the New World on a missionary goal. In these missions the priests evangelized to the Natives. Here the Natives would learn of the catholic religion, the Spanish laws and lifestyles. The missionaries tried to tame the natives so that they could live in a village under the King. The few golden trinkets that the Indians wore sent several people on a gold hunt and fleets of people came across the Atlantic seeking their fortune. The Spanish would go from to town-to-town asking where the gold was, torturing the Indians until the got an answer that was usually false. Some explorers just wanted to make a name for themselves. These Conquistadors would travel through America with their armies fighting any opposing force. The villages and forts that the Spanish made needed cheap labor and slave traders saw a golden opportunity. African Slaves were frequently being ship out from Europe into America to sell to settlers and soldiers.
The Spanish sent a wide range of people into the Americas. The majority of the people sent by Spain were conquistadors and their soldiers out to claim, new land and conquer the natives of the land. The conquistadors may have been the famous invaders of the land, getting all the glory but others were sent as well. The catholic priests set up various missions to convert the Indians to the catholic religion.