What caused the Pueblo Revolt of 1680? Historians have come up with many reasons as to how this had happened but I believe that the Pueblo Revolt had been caused by three reasons: Catholicism, the Spaniards’ diminishing authority and the Pueblos’ desire to stay alive.
One of the major reasons the Pueblos had started the revolution was because of the Spaniards’ missionaries and how they cruelly convert the Natives into Christians. At first, the Pueblos were willing to allow the Spanish missions to occur because the Natives had done it as well. Pueblos had seen the Franciscans as superhuman beings because they thought their god wasn’t as superior compared to the Spaniards. As time passed by, the Spaniards lost their charm and magic in healing, producing rain, etc. But what really made the Pueblos extremely upset was how the Franciscans “punished” their children when they would revert to idolatry. They would be whipped until “they bathed in their own blood”. Sometimes, the fathers would even beat their children to death merely out of fatherly love. These actions would fuel the Pueblos’ rage further and further and would be provoked to murder and be a reason to revolt against the Spaniards.
Another important cause to the Pueblo revolt is because of the Pueblos’ desire to keep their people alive. Ever since the Spaniards had colonized New Mexico, it has been difficult for the Pueblo peoples. They had gone through many troubles such as drought, famine, and Apache raids. Since the Spanish relied heavily on maize and corn, this caused the soil to lose its nutrients and become useless to grow future crops. Also, with the lack of Spanish protection and Franciscans’ “magic” to create rain, this further made the Pueblos to believe that the Spaniards are not the superior beings that they had presumed earlier. Their mere presence had to vanish from the Pueblo’s eyes and became another cause to rebel against the Spaniards.
Finally, one of the crucial causes of the Pueblo...