| Summary: | In partitioning the New World, Pope Alexander VI in the papal bulls of 1493 (Inter Caetera) granted sovereignty of these lands to Spain and Portugal, ordering the religious conversion of the indigenous people by the Spaniards in exchange. Even before the arrival of Cortès in Mexico, the temporal and spiritual conditions of the sovereignty motivated the missionaries and started the conversion dynamic that would seal the fate of the natives to become vassals and Christians. Though brutal conversion tactics were utilized, the religious souls of the natives were re-ignited as Christians, and in the eyes of the missionaries responsible, provided the opportunity to establish a new and more virtuous church in the New World.
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