Was Mexico colonized or assimilated? I mean, Did the spanish come and make the natives speak spanish and become christians, then leave them where they are, so most of todays mexicans are natives, or did they make them speak spanish and become christian, the send them off to reserves and colonize Mexico with spaniards, so most mexicans are of spanish descent?

By your (incorrect) term, of colonization and assimilation, they were assimilated. The biggest population of Mexicans are Mestizo, that is, People of Native Indian and white mixed ancestry, followed by more or less pure American Indians closely followed by white people.

Most mexicans are mixed spanish native american, the spaniards who came to the americas were usually men who traveled alone, so they had to pick a local native american girl if they wanted a woman (or the daughter of some previous spanish native american marriage)

You could say mexicans are paternally spanish and maternally native americans, altough they do have many millions of full blooded native americans in the south, and around 8% of the population is pure spanish, but most are mixed.

I think you have poor definitions of colonization, though. Spain controlled their American territories. They gave Spanish nobles land and forced the people on the land to work for them. British colonies were unique in that they isolated themselves from the Indians and drove them off. But it wasn't just cultural assimilation, Spaniards settled on the land and intermixed with the population (and forced the population to do things for them).

True, in Spanish America the native americans were subdits, payed taxes etc, were converted to christianity, learned spanish, and intermarried with the spaniards, they had a very similar position to peasants in medieval europe, with he spaniards as the feudal lord-


In english america the colonization was very different.

Depends on the place. Where the native population density was lower (like the deserts of the North) most of the people were Spaniards. But where it was higher (like in the Yucatan) even today there are essentially "Indian" cultures.

Of course, bear in mind that the population density, in every location, when the Spaniards started serious settlement, was 1/10 of what it had been pre-smallpox.