conquest for North America?

Question

In the race for the conquest of the North American continent, How did the various countries (England, Spain, and Netherlands) portray the country and it's Native people?

Answer 1

Obviously the English portrayed them as savages, as a people that there was no problem with conquering. They wanted to expand into North America and saw no impediment, at all, from taking Native American lands. The Dutch were slightly more cooperative with the Native Americans. The Spanish were centered mostly in Central America where the land was to be exploit4ed, the peoples oppressed and used, and the degradation of an entire civilization was seen by them as no real issue, since they were not Roman Catholic, and if they were, they had converted, they were still people of lower classes, meant to be oppressed and suppressed.

Answer 2

The Spanish were centered mostly in Central America where the land was to be exploit4ed, the peoples oppressed and used, and the degradation of an entire civilization was seen by them as no real issue, since they were not Roman Catholic, and if they were, they had converted, they were still people of lower classes, meant to be oppressed and suppressed.

A correction: Since Mexico is part of North America it is pertinent to correct the false assertion regarding the treatment and portrayal of the indigenous population by the English and the Spanish.
After "discovery" a brief period of brutal conquest followed in the Spanish occupation of the American continent. The actions of the conquistadores are described by Bartolome de las Casas. The violence of conquest was indeed gruesome. Yet, in 1512 the first European laws on the American continent are enacted. Las Leyes de Burgos detailed the rights of the indigenous people and established the institution of the "encomienda" to have indigenous people brought up into christendom by "good willing" spaniards.
Well, the system was abused and the indigenous population was repressed into acculturation. The system of encomienda facilitated miscegination. There is little doubt to me that the Latin American race (of which i am a part) was borne by rape.
The laws nonetheless protected the indigenous populations of the Spanish Domain from the lengthy and systematic genocide endured by the indigenous people under English and later US rule. In fact, slaves were protected by the laws of Burgos and later by Papal edicts regarding the treatment of Indians and Blacks.
So, while non-whites were exploited and humiliated in the South. There is little doubt that they were protected. I am aware of at least two cases in 19th century slave-holding Brazil where slaves and freedmen contended their rights in courts against their own masters.
As far as i know, no such protections existed in the US. SO that there was little miscegenation. Added to the unbound repression of non-whites in the US, there were repressive waves against Mexicans, Natives and Blacks, often with genocidal intent and usually ending in vast massacres.

The point is, the european conquerors were brutal, but they were not equally brutal. The states created by independence also differ vastly. For the most part Native populations in the south were allowed to thrive, if under economic repression. In the North they were systematically "wiped off the map".

As for their representations in Europe, the literature abounds. There is no easy answer and i will not venture into one.