Why did the spaniards punish the natives too severely?

Answer 1

Ethnocentrism. They viewed the natives as animal like because of vast differences in culture. Since they were like animals, they were not human and could be treated as such.

Answer 2

And why aren't there almost natives in USA or Canada? The answer is obvious. Racism. This same racism existed in Spain. Although the Spanish people mixed with natives, so they were not such a cruel as the black legend asserted. And this means that there are a lot of people who are a mix of white and native race. In USA or Canada the natives were massacred.
And by the way the queen Isabel la Católica ordered to protect natives, she did not want that they were bad treated. But there are always evil people in everywhere.

Answer 3

You have several good pieces to your answer above. The earliest Spanish explorers were insane for wealth. General Greed was their primary motivation. The Indians tended to be poor workers in mines or plantations. (That's why Africans would later be imported - they worked better.) Brutal treatment of the native workers was an outpouring of frustration and rage that the Spanish overlords weren't get rich quickly enough.

Answer 4

The Spanairds wanted slaves.

In 1452, the Catholic Pope issued a "Papal Bull" declaring that it was good for Christians to kill, steal, and plunder the lands of non-Christians.

This was meant primarily at Muslims, but the Spanish extended this to Indians.

The Spanish killed 95% of the Indian population. The largest genocide in the history of humanity.

Answer 5

Don't know.
The Spaniards punished everyone too severely.

Answer 6

Fear is the most persuasive human emotion, instill fear, you own 'em. The Spaniards knew that.

Answer 7

Because they could, because they considered them expendable, and because the Spanish at the time of the conquest notoriously lacked compassion and empathy.

Answer 8

Not too severely if you consider they wanted to keep their control. Or do you mean 'very severely'? Well, because they wanted to keep their control.

Answer 9

For the same reason that the British/Americans did to the American Indians!

Answer 10

Because they were outnumbered 10,000 to 1 and had to install fear, or die.

The same tactic has been used by ruling minorities before anyone ever wrote it down. Sometimes it is racial or ethnic, sometimes it isn't. Slave revolts have been recorded since ancient Greece (Helots vs. Spartans) and ancient Rome (Spartacus).