Why were Catholics generally more successful than Protestants in their efforts to convert Indians?

Answer 1

All four of the previous answers are wrong.

The reason is that in most cases the Friars and Jesuits made great efforts to learn native languages and culture to speak to them within the terms of their own thinking. They also often allowed elements of native culture to continue but reinterpreted in a Christian manner.
There were exceptions to this. The Franciscans in the American Southwest [who were a later generation] failed to use this approach and subsequently created resentments that lasted for a long time. This is like the protestant approach, which always set out to destroy native cultures and make them like the Anglo-Saxons exclusively.

Answer 2

They usually did it at the point of a sword, at least in the very beginning. Afterward, they most likely did what the very early church. They didn't so much sweep away the old beliefs as incorporate them into the Catholic faith. For example, look at the Day of the Dead. It was absorbed as a day to celebrate the dead ancestors, but the next day was tacked on as All Saints Day, to celebrate the saints as well. Once the two were associated together in the minds of the Native Mexicans, Catholicism became easier to swallow. On the other hand, Protestants expected to convert Native Americans wholesale--believe our way, you heathens.

Answer 3

Well, since I'm not sure if you are refering to specifically North American Natives, I'm going to assume you mean all of the predominantly Catholic Middle and South Americas. Most of this has to do with the Colonization system used by the Catholic Spanish, which involved the toppling Aztec and Incan rulers, but allowing most of the civilians to continue on with their normal lives. Since most of the systems were still in place, and there was now a new ruler, most of the civilians began to accept the ways of the Spanish, many of them converting willingly to Catholicism. Warfare proves to have been a much more effective tool in converting the Natives than the rather peaceful, missionary way that the Protestants used on the Northern tribes.

Answer 4

The Spanish tended to use Indians as slave labor, and used religion as coercion. The English/Americans just wanted the land and were not as interested in converting them until the reservation system developed.

In New Mexico and Arizona unsatisfied with the Spanish crown and the god of the church it imposed, the people turned to their old gods. This provoked a wave of repression on the part of Franciscan missionaries.

For example, in 1675 Governor Juan Francisco Treviño ordered forty-seven Pueblo medicine men arrested and accused them of practicing witchcraft. Four medicine-men were sentenced to death by hanging; three of those sentences were carried out, while the fourth prisoner committed suicide. The remaining medicine men were publicly whipped and sentenced to prison.

The Pueblos revolted and were free of the Spanish for 17 years. New Mexico pueblos were forced into reconversion, but the Arizona tribes maintained their freedom. Even today the Hopis refer to the Catholics as the "slave church".

Answer 5

In the Spanish colonies the conquistadors used the faith to explain there hardship.

If you look to North America (where there where protestants), the Catholics tried to understand the Indians and they learned there languages. They came unarmed (like father Desmedt) and not with guns like some preachers did.
Also the missionaries where well motivated people and not everyone was send by the order as a missionary. There was a selection by the order which didn't have with the protestants (its more individualist).

Answer 6

-- is Catholic--

wehwalt above is right. Catholic missionaries tended to engage, participate in, and respect what is good in the cultures of those that they are sent to. Protestant missionaries (mainly Puritans/Calvinistics early on) tended to wish to destroy "pagan cultures" and transpose white European culture on them.

As much as Roman Catholicism is focused on Rome, there is no focus or drive for those that convert to loose their legitimate cultural heritage. That is why Catholicism varies in its cultural makeup from society to society. One Faith, plurality of expressions.

When it comes to north America, the US did seek to wipe out the Native American population, a move of "Manifest Destiny". This idea can find its roots and supports within certain Protestant theologies. While there was oppression and atrocities by the Spanish in S. American and western US, it was not to the point of destroying the legitimate cultural practices (some cultures were destroyed that were in fact morally evil) and the Church never legitimized such oppression of "pagans" as a natural obligation, but rather railed and strove against such practices.

An Interesting read would be
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03397a.htm
I would also recommend reading the book
SILENCE by Shusaku Endo a historical recreation of Catholic missionaries in Japan (with some notes on Protestant missionaries). Very moving work.

I would also suggest comparing two movies, both historical fiction, but deals well with the various attitudes.
THE MISSION (Catholic Missionary Focus)
HAWAII (Protestant Missionary Focus)

Answer 7

Well, you should keep in mind that the religion went along with the colonization. And his most catholic majesty the king of Spain wouldn't suppord the spread of any other religion.
Being there before the other European powers gave Spain and catholizism an advantage.

And most of the other answer have some weight too.

Answer 8

Spanish missionaries. Spain became a Catholic united states of america and they managed a large chew of the Americas (very almost all the mainland). Had not something to with being Protestant or Catholic,

Answer 9

The Catholics were better educated and trained. And also it is fact that the Catholics had a reputation for being more humane to the Indians and other people around the world.

Answer 10

thanks for an easy one. the catholics were wise and holy enough to employ public torture prior to murdering resistors. those foolish protestants just beat them up a little and then hoped for the conversion. and, of course, the pope, the jesuits and the then version of opus dei did sanction this behavior since the savages , prior to seeing the light, had no soul anyway. surprisingly, many of the savages converted immediately after a few torture sessions. saved the catholics a lot of work. the catholic church is, hands down, responsible for more cruelty, greed, hypocracy ruthlessness and cold blooded murder on this planet than any other single agency. btw ask them how the counter reformation is going. cheers