The map of Gutierrez from 1562 shows Native Americans only ...



The map of Gutierrez from 1562 shows Native Americans only in South America and at that they are depicted as naked, cutting up animals (although the meat is drawn so it could just as well be a human), and cooking them over open fires. No homes or Native American villages are shown, and the depiction shows them to be uncivilized savages.

Even more interesting, although it only shows the rivers, towns, and developments made by explorers along the coasts of North American and South American – and mainly the East Coast, it shows nothing of any of the large Native American cities that existed at the time. We can assume that this is either because Gutierrez had no information about anything in North America past the Appalachians (which are labeled and named such for the first time on the map) or past the coastal areas of Central and South America.

Looking at this in Europe, the nations that were looking for colonies could easily justify to themselves that there were large amounts of land that the Native Americans were not using that could be assimilated into their own country. In addition, the images show them as naked savages, so it would only be right and just and fair to the religiously minded Europeans to be able to come to the Americas and help educate, dress, and give religious training to the Native Americans they would assume were here.

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