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Bartolome De Las Casas and

the Americas

##Bartolome De LasBartolome De Las

Casas and theCasas and the

AmericasAmericas

sam395

Bartolome De Las Casas and the Americas Copyright © 2016

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ContentsContents

Preface

viiIntroduction: The Discovery

1ChaChappterter 1.1.

The Spanish Voyage and Encounter of Hispaniola(1492-1502 C.E.)


Hispaniola: The Encomienda System and Plight ofthe Natives


Bloodshed and Taino Revolt16

ChaChappterter 4.4.On the Mainland: 1507-1542


Las Casas's Defense of the Indians25

ChaChappterter 66..Las Casas's Social Experiments on Tierra Firme

30ChaChappterter 77..

Las Casas and the New Laws of 154234

ChaChappterter 88..Las Casas's Final Debates

36

ChaChappterter 9.9.Bibliography

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PrefacePreface

Our reasons for writing a story about Bartolomé de LasCasas was to provide an alternative to the myths aboutChristopher Columbus usually found in books and storiesfor children. Ideally we would have liked to write a storythat focused more on the perspective of native people inthe Americas, but to do it justice would have been a mas-sive undertaking beyond the scope of this class. As it is,there are enough books and stories written about nativepeople by non-natives. We believe that it’s important totake responsibility in how and what young kids read aboutAmerican history and literature. As Bill Bigelow writes in“Rethinking Columbus: 500 Years Later,” the lessons chil-dren learn from history are carried with them throughouttheir lives, and influence how they think about the worldaround them.

It’s important to teach children of all ages how to thinkcritically about what they learn in school, and to help themmake connections to what’s happening in the present.History and literature should not be studied from a dis-tance, as though what students learn in class is completelyremoved from their lived realities. We hope this story canserve as an exercise for showing children that even liter-ature and history from centuries ago can reveal profoundideas that still impact the world today.

-Michelle Li, Alexis Romero, and Sharita Sharmin[English 395]

Introduction: The DiscoveryIntroduction: The Discovery

The New World was a startling, majestic, dangerous placefor the Europeans just starting to explore it. Many thoughtit was “paradise,” like something only an alternative“world” could bring. It was like finding Hawaii, before anyEuropean invasion or influence, solely embellished in nat-ural beauty- the clear sea with a hue of blue from mirroringthe rich blue sky above it, decorated in sparkles as thebright, tropical sunlight reflects off of it, surrounded bypalm trees of different sizes and heights. carrying sweetcoconuts, covered by brilliant green palm branches. Theselands were not just a slice of paradise. It became a safehaven and “land of opportunities” for the peasants, farm-

ers, and artisans of Spain. It proved to be a treasure chestfull of the finest jewel, metal and stones for the alreadyprivileged and wealthy of the continent. But how and whydid the Columbus settle on this land? What would be theresults? What was the perspective of someone living dur-ing this time? Most importantly, what of the native peoplewho called these islands home? These question and morewill be considered throughout the book.

Decades before the discovery of the New World, Por-tugal was the most powerful and wealthiest empire afterdiscovering Africa and profiting from the slave trade inAfrica, while also gaining resources not previously foundin Portugal, such as gold, animal skins, gum arabic, cotton,camel, parrot, and other goods. To one up Portugal,Columbus proposed to Isabel and Ferdinand (Queen andKing of Spain) sail directly west across the Atlantic Ocean(opposite direction from the Portugal’s east water route toAfrica) to reach Asia before Portugal could. Instead, theyencountered (what would later be called) the Americancontinents 3000 miles to the west, blocking the passage tothe East (Bartolome De Las Casas And The Conquest ofthe Americas; Clayton; 13&14).

One point important to note is that Columbus did notreally discover the New World, since millions of peoplealready lived there. Still, his journeys marked the begin-ning of centuries of conquest and colonization of manylands and their native people. This encounter would leadto a complete change in the environment, landscape anddemography of these lands. One of the most influentialand well-know figures of sixteenth century to documentand be involved in European colonization was Bartoloméde las Casas.

By the time Columbus was at the height of his fame,

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Bartolomé de las Casas was about fifteen or sixteen andjust commencing his career. He would learn a lot fromhis father about Columbus and the awe-inspiring things ofthe New World since his father was a voyager on Colum-bus’s ship. Having the privilege to study and travel, duringa period when so little could do so, he later became-apriest, friar and a scholar who who traveled to the NewWorld with the mission of increasing the SpanishEmpire’s wealth and converting the indigenous people.Recognizing that the vicious acts of the Spanish colonizerswere inhumane crimes against the natives, he would laterbecome a humanitarian and a man conflicted by his intu-ition of what was the right and his observations of the mal-ice surrounding him. He held fast to his beliefs that thenatives of this New World (which was only new to theEuropeans, as it had existed for millennia before they hadarrived) were human beings who deserved to have theirrights respected. During his struggle for the human rightsof the natives, De Las Casas wrote volumes of informa-tion about Columbus, his return from the New World, thestory of the New World before and after European set-tlement and the hundreds of ways in which the Spanishcolonizers brutalized and often massacred large groups ofnative people in the Americas. Their names and faces wereforever burned into Las Casas’s mind.

Studying the writings of Bartolomé de las Casas hasbeen one of the most common ways to use pri-mary sources to study Columbus’s voyages, the discov-ery of the New World and its consequences as many schol-ars consider it the most reliable and extensive primarysources available about this period (Tinker and Freeland).Las Casas arrived at Hispaniola in 1502, at a time whenthe indigenous population was already rapidly decreasing

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and all their resources were being taken from them; yet,he was able to witness and participate in the invasion andconquest of Cuba. Hence, his records contain detailed andvaried accounts of the European experience and perspec-tive of the New World and Spanish conquest. Hisaccounts show his in-depth exposure to and experiencewith the natives. Because Las Casas had access to first-hand accounts as a few men from his family traveled withthe Spanish colonizer Colón, and his father traveled withColumbus on his second voyage. He also kept documentsand archives, allowing him to be accurate in his records. Itis for this reason these writings are the basis for the infor-mation in this book. Many scholars have translatedhis works (as it was written in sixteenth century Spanish)in an attempt to have a better understanding and knowl-edge of the conquest of the Americas. We hope these nextfew chapters will provide for you a concise and precisereport of the origins of Columbus day and its conse-quences through the eyes of Bartolomé De Las Casas.

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11

##The SpanishThe Spanish

VVoyage andoyage and

Encounter ofEncounter of

HispaniolaHispaniola

(1492-1502 C.E.)(1492-1502 C.E.)

HispaniHispanioolala ((nnooww knknoownwn asas ThThee DominiDominicancan RReepupubbliliccanandd HaiHaititi)) was the first island in the Indies in which theSpanish explorers stumbled upon, as they were really onroute for Asia.

Map of Hispaniola, 1633.

The island of Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-

largest island of the Antilles, lying east of Cuba. Christopher Columbus

arrived there on December 5, 1492, and on his second voyage in 1493

founded the first Spanish colony in the New World on it.

JustJust imaimaginginee asas ththee SpaniaSpaniardsrds jumjumpedped offoff ofof ththeieirr boaboatstsinintoto ththee wawarm,rm, clear water of the Caribbean, sunk theirboots in the fertile soil, good for cultivation, and beganto remove layers of their clothing as they felt sweat dripfrom their foreheads because of the hot, dry climate suf-focating their skin. As they looked up, they are greeted

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by indigenous people called Tainos, who are first hesitantto approach the lavishly dressed Europeans with theirimpressive armory. Noticing the lavishness of theirapparel, ships, and weaponry, the Natives quickly becomecurious too. They then, as explained by De Las Casas, theTainos flocked to the Spaniards from all directions, fromthe sea, land, roads and towns, and welcomed them. Ofcourse, the Spaniards were not looking for friends, goodsoil to farm on, or nice vacation under the hot summersun. They were in search for gold and goods to bring backto the Spanish monarchy. As the natives greeted themwith such, the Spaniards realized that they had hit thejackpot, and the natives would be forced into cruelty andslavery because of it.

ThThee SpaniaSpaniardsrds, led by Admiral Christopher Columbus,were awe-inspired by colorful and unique natural beautyof the island. According to the personal account of Bar-tolome De Las Casas, the voyagers were so amazed thatthey captured and returned to Spain with green parrots,


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the natives’ masks made of precious stones and fishbone,gold and many other metals, animals, objects never beforeseen in Spain. Most outstandingly (and disturbingly)the conquistadores even brought an unknown number ofIndians of which only seven survived the maritime jour-ney. Columbus was, as he is today, treated as a hero, onewho brought the natural riches of the “Indies”to Europe, and brought Catholicism (which they inter-preted as spiritual salvation) to the natives. He describedthe natives as simple and gentle people prepared to acceptthe Europeans’ faith and convert and their land as filledwith riches. The news of the “discovery” of (what theSpaniards called) The Indies spread through all of Spainlike wild fire. Joy and Happiness abounded. The wealthprovided by the land that Columbus and his menexclaimed about had evidence of pleased the king andqueen as their financial states was steadily decreasing. Many began to make plans of settling in the formerlyunknown land with the hopes of increasing the and con-verting the natives. Christopher Columbus efforts andconquest were celebrated. The Spanish launched a secondexpedition, in hopes that Columbus would encountermore islands plentiful in gold. Eventually two more werefunded.

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CCoollumumbusbus reqrequesteduested fforor aa thithirdrd eexxpedipedititionon, which wouldrequire eight ships, two for merchandise being exportedto Hispaniola and six for Columbus’s personaluse. Columbus also planned to leave 330 men there perma-nently on a wages to establish trade. Receiving loans fromthe king, these men were required to engage in trade, paytheir debt to the King, and keep the proceeds. Of course,this would be accomplished by the intense and cruel phys-ical labor of the natives, while the European foreignersgained all the financial advantages. Those emigrating weresoldiers, goldsmiths, farmers , handymen andwomen (who were listed in De Las Casas’ account), aphysician, pharmacist, herbalist, and musicians forthe their enjoyment. Most importantly, the friars (memberof any of certain religious orders of men) and clergymenwere brought to administer sacraments to the other Euro-peans and convert the natives. Among these were Bar-tolomé de las Casas. Evidently, Columbus planned to cre-ate a community of European customs and culture. The


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natives’ life would be dramatically diminished within sev-eral years of this settlement.

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##Hispaniola: TheHispaniola: The

EncomiendaEncomienda

System and PlightSystem and Plight

of the Nativesof the Natives

Spanish settlement in the New World quickly turned intothe Spanish invasion, as they took over of lands

belonging to the native people, enslaving and/or killingthem, and forcing them to perform manual labor to

extract the natural wealth and resources of the Americas.This was known as the encomienda system, which had

already been established by Columbus is 1495 in Cibao, onthe island of Hispaniola.

The Spanish colonists who maintained this system of slav-ery were called encomenderos. Many of them werewealthy Spaniards, but a large majority were common menlooking to make a new life for themselves in the Americasbecause there were so few opportunities to do so backhome. However, this was achieved at the cost of the liveli-hoods of the Indians, who had their lands stolen fromthem, and who were also forced into slavery.

Christopher Columbus and the other Europeans hadbeen there years earlier, and had already set up a system

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for grabbing whatever they could- land, gold, naturalresources, and even people. They didn’t even spare chil-dren or women from being forced into slavery. More andmore Spanish colonizers came with ships and goods andpeople looking to make a new life for themselves.


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##Bloodshed andBloodshed and

TTaino Revoltaino Revolt

But the Indiansdidn’t take Spanishabuse without afight. There weremany uprisingsand revolts againstSpanish brutality,most of whichended badly for theIndians. Still, therewas no denyingthat they were pre-pared to defend their homes, their people, and their cul-tures from invading forces. Just think about it. The Tainosand other indigenous groups of the dubbed “New World”

considered the land their home, which thy shared amongsteach other. They cultivated crops for survival, and sharedthe land with whomever settled there. They greeted theSpaniard with kindness; yet, the Spaniards treated themas if they were expendable and savagely murderedthe natives. They had nothing to lose since, if they didnot die from the exhaustion, heat stroke, or diseases, theywould die at the hands of the Europeanns. It was thus timeto stand up and take charge!

Two indigenous were most prevalently described inEuropean accounts- the Caribs and the Tainos. TheCaribs were fierce resisters to Spanish oppression andattempts of conversion. The name “Carib” was dubbed bythe Spaniards in reference to their alleged cannibalisticpractices for their more aggressive (which anthropologistshave thought to be fables and exaggerations by Spaniardsdue to their defiance towards Spanish invasion. Tainos,though, received this name for, what the Spanishdescribed as, their good nature and more willing spirit toconform. (Puerto Ricans in the United States; 11)

Cacique Hatuey was one of the most famous examplesof Taino resistance against European violence. [A caciqueis the name for an Indian ruler]. He was courageous andwilling to sacrifice his life for the cause of his people, evenif it meant dying a painful and horrible death. When herealized what they wanted to do to him, he fled Hispaniola.The Spanish had chased Cacique Hatuey all the way fromHispaniola to Cuba so that they could make an exampleof him. During his last few moments of life, the Spaniardsstill attempted to forcibly convert and oppress Cacique.

“When“When tiedtied toto thethe stake,stake, thethe CaciqueCacique HatueyHatuey waswas toldtold byby aa FranciscanFranciscan


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friarfriar whowho waswas present…present… somethingsomething aboutabout thethe GodGod ofof thethe ChristiansChristians andand

ofof thethe articlesarticles ofof thethe Faith.Faith. AndAnd hehe waswas toldtold whatwhat hehe couldcould dodo inin thethe briefbrief

timetime thatthat remainedremained toto him,him, inin orderorder toto bebe savedsaved andand gogo toto heaven.heaven. TheThe

cacique,cacique, whowho hadhad nevernever heardheard anyany ofof thisthis before,before, andand waswas toldtold hehe wouldwould

gogo toto thethe InfernoInferno where,where, ifif hehe diddid notnot adoptadopt thethe ChristianChristian Faith,Faith, hehe wouldwould

suffersuffer eternaleternal torment,torment, askedasked thethe FranciscanFranciscan friarfriar ifif ChristiansChristians allall wentwent

toto Heaven.Heaven. WhenWhen toldtold thatthat theythey diddid hehe saidsaid hehe wouldwould preferprefer toto gogo toto Hell.Hell.

SuchSuch isis thethe famefame andand honorhonor thatthat GodGod andand ourour FaithFaith havehave earnedearned throughthrough

the Christians who have gone out to the Indies.”the Christians who have gone out to the Indies.”

-Bartolome de Las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies pg 45-Bartolome de Las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies pg 45

It was a good thing then that Las Casas was a very differentman from Columbus. But he wasn’t perfect- far from it.Even though he spent his entire life fighting his own peo-ple to protect the Indians from being wiped off theirhomelands by the Spanish colonists, he still believed thatthe Spanish had a purpose in the New World. That wasmainly religious- he wanted to convert them all to Chris-tianity because he truly believed that their souls alsoneeded to be saved. At the end of the day, there was stillsome part of him that believed he knew what was best forthem. Though he treated them with more respect than hisfellow Spaniards, he still felt that the Christian religiouswas superior to anything the Indians believed in. His atti-tude towards the Indians was much better than others in asociety that didn’t hesitate much to enslave, and kill hun-dreds and thousands of innocent people. But isn’t it weirdto not care about the religious and cultural practices of thepeople you want to protect? Shouldn’t he and the otherpeople who wanted to protect the Indians from furtherharm at least have cared about their belief systems, evenif they didn’t share them? They didn’t even have a choice-

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it was convert peacefully or face the wrath of the Spanishmilitary invaders.

The Spanish burning Cacique Hatuey alive

CCanan yyouou pipicctureture iit?t? WhaWhatt mmustust iitt hahavvee beenbeen liklikee fforor ththememtoto bebe onon ththee receireceivinvingg enendd ofof sucsuchh brutalibrutality?ty? CCanan yyououimaimaginginee wwhahatt ourour wwororlldd wwoulouldd llooookk liklikee nnooww ifif ththee Euro-Euro-peanspeans hahadndn’’tt ininvavaddeded ththee AmAmeriericas?cas? WWee mimighghtt hahavvee greagreattflourishinflourishing king kinggddoms of Toms of Tainaino peoo peoppllee, f, for eor examxamppllee..

Many of the vivid descriptions of violence and blood-shed on Hispaniola, as well as the mainland, have beentaken from Las Casas’s The Devastation of the Indies: ABrief Account. Historians and scholars have debatedwhether or not Las Casas was exaggerating the violenceand cruelty with which the Spaniards treated the natives.But we also don’t have that many alternatives to comparewith- Las Casas was one of the few who kept such detailed


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record of what he witnessed first-hand in the Americas.His writing is also valuable because it provides a hugechunk of the knowledge we have about the early history ofthe conquest of the Americas, as well as much of what weknow about Columbus and his voyages to the Indies.

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##On the Mainland:On the Mainland:

1507-15421507-1542

In his accounts, Las Casas highlights the arrival of a“most cruel tyrant” on the territory called “The Main-land” in 1514. This governor exterminated “more than 500leagues of people. He and other encomenderos developedcertain ways to torture the natives to reveal alleged goldand other sources on the land. Having this gold was adeath sentence fo natives, since the Spaniards would killentire towns of natives to uncover more gold within theland for themselves.

Las Casas visited the mainland of North, Central, andSouth America sometime after. What he saw there was ashorrific as his experiences in Hispaniola, Cuba, and theother islands in the Indies. He was so ashamed of whathe witnessed, as he believed that instead of fulfilling theirpurpose of converting the natives to Christianity, theSpaniards greedily craved gold and committed countlessmurders to get what they wanted without having to do theintense labor. What would you think about the Spaniardsif you were Las Casas?

The common ways mainly employed by the Spaniards who call

themselves Christian and who have gone there to extirpate those pitiful

nations and wipe them off the earth is by unjustly waging cruel and

bloody wars… Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite

number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to

acquire gold… It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and

ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their

villainies. (Las Casas, Devasation, pg 31)

Pedro Arias d’Avila, the governor of Darien (the borderbetween Panama and Colombia today) came to the main-

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land with a group of Spanish settlers in 1514, who contin-ued to enslave and kill thousands of Indians in the pursuitof gold and other precious resources. When the Indianscouldn’t produce what they wanted, the Spaniards cameup with even more ways to torture them into giving infor-mation about the location of gold. Of course, there was noinformation to give, because there wasn’t actually muchgold- but that didn’t stop the Spaniards from cutting Indi-ans into pieces and mercilessly slaughtering them, no mat-ter if they were men or women, young or old. Many hadtheir limbs cut off, some were eaten alive by rabid dogs,and several were tied to stakes and burned to death to asan example for other Indians of what would happen if theyresisted the Spanish conquerors.

Province of Nicaragua:Province of Nicaragua:

In 1523 Pedro Arias d’Avila came to Nicaragua to commitmore atrocities against the flourishing Indian kingdomsthere. [add more details] They attacked and pillaged thenatives in their pursuit for gold. They also set up anencomienda system to take advantage of the fertile landand all the Indians that they could force into doing freelabor. Many of them died from exhaustion from beingoverworked. There was also widespread starvation, duringwhich 30,000 Indians died.

NEW SPNEW SPAIN:AIN:

New Spain was discovered by the Spanish in 1507. It wasan enormous region, spanning hundreds of miles. Begin-ning in 1518 until 1530, for 12 years the Spanish had beenterrorizing and massacring the Indians of the city of Mex-


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ico and its surroundings in the most horrible ways imagin-able. They claimed their purpose there was to settle Chris-tians in that area, but all they did was massacre the nativesor use them for back-breaking physical labor.

The City of Cholula had a population of more than30,000 natives, who welcomed the Spanish into their townwith great respect. Yet the Spanish still rounded them upand massacred them. They requested to speak with thecaciques and nobles, and then took them prisoner, even-tually killing almost all of them. They even burned downtheir temple in order to get at the Indians taking hiding inthere from the Spanish.

The Spaniards did something similar in the city ofMexico, where again the Indians opened their homes tothem. On the night of a fiesta, when the whole city wascelebrating, the Spaniards attacked and killed them. TheSpanish even captured their king, Montezuma. Havinghad enough, the Indians retaliated and killed a good num-ber of the Spanish, forcing them to call a truce and backoff. They returned the next day however, in full force, andlay waste to the entire city, killing countless natives anddestroying the surrounding provinces.

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##Las Casas'sLas Casas's

Defense of theDefense of the

IndiansIndians

Bartolome de las Casas was a passionate defender of Indi-ans against Spanish tyranny. His main objective was tostop the slaughtering, torture, and enslavement of theIndians by the Spanish. But he also wanted to save theirsouls by having them be peacefully converted to Chris-tianity, and become citizens of the Spanish crown. LasCasas was especially horrified by the encomienda system,which was the Spaniards’ primary method of exploitingIndian labor on the island of Hispaniola. Even before hebecame a fierce advocate for their human rights, he repeat-edly criticized the horrid conditions of the encomiendasystem. The Spaniards didn’t pay the Indians what theyhad agreed upon and routinely abused them, and whenthey dared to run away from these horrific conditions,the encomenderos would catch them and torture them aspunishment.

Las Casas first discovered his calling to defend the

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Indians’ human rights when he heard Fray Antonio deMontesinos give an impassioned speech in 1511 in SantoDomingo (on Hispaniola) condemning the Spaniards’treatment of the native population. What finally helpedhim make up his mind completely to oppose to Spanishtyranny was the massacre of Indians he witnessed inCaonao, Cuba, when he decided that he couldn’t stand byand watch as his countrymen committed countless atroci-ties against these people. He travelled to Cuba with Panfilode Narvaez and Diego de Velazquez, who aimed to con-quer Cuba.

In Cuba, Las Casas participated in the peaceful con-version of its native people. However, he still possessed hisown encomienda, and the Indians he owned who workedin the fields and goldmines contributed to his increasingwealth. This posed an important question: how could LasCasas criticize the other Spaniards for exploiting the Indi-ans if he also kept some of them as slaves?

A few years into the conquest of Cuba, the Spaniards,under the command of Panfilo de Narvaez, slaughteredabout 2,000 Indians in the town of Caonao, killing themin the most brutal fashions that Las Casas had ever seen.Las Casas had a crisis of conscience after witnessing thisnightmare. He ended up freeing his encomienda Indians,and prepared a sermon that he would deliver in 1514 to theSpaniards who had taken over Cuba and established newcities there. His audience was shocked and offended bywhat he had to say to them.

Las Casas knew that he alone couldn’t put a stop to theatrocities occurring in the Indies, so he went back hometo Spain to petition to the highest authority in the land-the Spanish king himself. Las Casas was finally able to pre-sent his case to King Ferdinand, and then his son Charles


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after he had died. Both monarchs and the church decidedthat Las Casas had a good argument about needing tochange what was happening the in the Indies. EventuallyLas Casas was named “universal protector of the Indians,”and then set off to try and make these important changesin the Spanish colonies in the Indies. He also pushed forthe complete elimination of the encomienda system,which would be difficult because none of theencomenderos wanted to give them up and would fighthard to keep them. Las Casas returned to Santo Domingoin 1516, and brought with him a group of religious figureswho would help him with his mission.

The encomenderos of the new world absolutelydespised Las Casas for wanting to take away theirencomiendas, which would stop the flow of wealth theywere receiving by using Indians for slave labor. Manythreatened him with violence to the point that he had tosleep with one eye open for fear of being attacked. Theymade it very hard for him to make any sort of progressin protecting the Indians from continued abuse while stillcontinuing the ongoing colonization of the new world.Even the priests that he had brought with him were reluc-tant to follow in his radical footsteps because they felt hewas going to far, too fast. As the encomenderos feared thattheir livelihoods would be ruined by having to free theIndians that they had enslaved, they began working themeven harder to make as much profit as they could beforethe whole system was abolished. As a result, the Indiansfaced even worse conditions than before- even women,children, and pregnant women were forced to work harderand harder.

Seeing that things weren’t going to improve the wayhe had planned, Las Casas returned to Spain in 1517 to

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come up with another plan to protect the Indians thatwouldn’t put them at even greater risk for harm from theSpanish colonists. Things were getting even worse thanthey already were- Las Casas’s mission became even moreurgent than before.


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##Las Casas's SocialLas Casas's Social

Experiments onExperiments on

Tierra FirmeTierra Firme

From the years 1518-1522, Las Casas fought hard in theSpanish courts to create projects that he could implementin the Indies that would allow both native people andSpanish colonists to live together peacefully. Back in theIndies, there were already some friars on the mainlandwho were trying to both peacefully convert the nativeswhile also stopping the Spanish from abusing and killingthem. Las Casas wanted to expand what they were tryingto accomplish.

In court, Las Casas attacked the Spanish conquista-dors who had settled in the Americas, condemning themfor their horrible treatment of the natives. Most impor-tantly, he said things that very few people of his time had

ever even considered- that they deserved the same humanrights that the Spaniards and other Europeans had, andthat they were justified in resisting the violence of theSpanish conquistadors.With the help of his allies, manywho were religious folks and who had personally wit-nessed what was going on in the Americas, Las Casas pre-sented an elegant and spiritual argument for why thenatives were free and rational-minded people whodeserved to be treated fairly and humanely.

He argued his position so passionately and with suchforce that King Charles and members of his court couldn’thelp but be moved to action.

His horrific descriptions of the how the Indies werebeing destroyed by the greed of the Spanish settlers bothelicited the sympathy of the King, and alerted him to thefact that all of his opportunities to convert an entire newcontinent to Christianity while making tons of moneywere being wasted.

Las Casas had 2 specific plans for his vision of improv-ing the situation in the indies. One was that he wanted tofill the islands and the mainland (Tierra Firme) with hard-working and honest Spanish farmers who would “trans-plant the virtues of the Spanish race to the New World.”His second plan was to restrict any Spanish settlers fromoccupying any more land or exploiting the Indians. Onlypriests and friars would be allowed, so that they couldundertake their mission of converting the natives.Together these plans would help repopulate the Americas(since the population of natives was being decimated bydisease and Spanish violence). After a lot of bickering withhis political enemies who tried to thwart his every move,Las Casas was finally granted 300 leagues of land on TierraFirme on which to conduct his social experiments of


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bringing the native people and the Spanish colonizerstogether in relative peace.

Unfortunately Las Casas’s vision for this new worlddidn’t go as planned. In the background of his negotia-tions with the Spanish crown and clergy, the Spaniardscontinued to assault the Americas. Conquistadores werepushing their way further into the mainland, conqueringdifferent nations of native peoples. Mexico, Perú, PuertoRico, etc. They brought back reports to Spain boasting ofriches and other wealth to be acquired in the Americas. Ofcourse this news excited the whole country, and encour-aged more voyages to the new world in search of this fabu-lous wealth that others had brought back. This was exactlythe opposite of what Las Casas wanted. Once he actuallygot to Tierra Firme, he was displeased to find that the busi-ness of slavery and of seeking out riches was well under-way. Even the religious settlements that had been estab-lished there were falling apart. Things were getting so badthat it didn’t matter anymore who was there to convertthem and who was there to enslave them- the native peo-ple had had enough of these invaders. They launched anumber of attacks on the missionaries in a region calledCumana, part of modern-day Venezuela, which was oneof the places that Las Casas was attempting to carry outhis goal of peaceful conversion of the native population.Soon after that, a very disheartened and world-weary LasCasas returned to Hispaniola and took some time off fromworldly affairs to meditate on what his next steps wouldbe.

When Las Casas left Hispaniola once more in 1534,he ended up landing in Nicaragua after being blown offcourse and nearly lost at sea en route to Peru. He wasenthralled by the country’s beauty and its gentle people.

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However, he soon found that most of the Indians had beenenslaved and sent to other colonies. The slave trade inNicaragua was catastrophic for the native people there,slowly decimating them. Las Casas attempted to interveneand spoke out against the governor of Nicaragua, but heand his family were a scary bunch who controlled mostof the region, and they took every measure to keep LasCasas from condemning them for their actions. There wasevery possibility of them personally executing him for hisactions. Seeing that he had very little power here to makeany effective changes, Las Casas decided to leaveNicaragua and focus his efforts where they would be betterreceived. So he spent the next years in Guatemala andMexico. In Guatemala he was given permission to evan-gelize a certain portion of the country, though he clashedfiercely with the local settlers and encomenderos as he dideverywhere else.

Las Casas finally returned to Spain in 1540, beginningthe last few chapters of his exciting and oftentimes dan-gerous life.


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##Las Casas and theLas Casas and the

New Laws of 1542New Laws of 1542

Upon his return to Spain, Las Casas worked furiously tocreate and pass some kind of legislation that would allowthe Spanish crown to legally enforce rules in the colonieson the treatment of the native people of the Americas. Hewanted to make sweeping reforms that would impact theentirety of the colonized Americas. Working with othersupporters of his cause to protect the Amerindians, LasCasas made his case for the protection of the Indians inthe Spanish courts, appealing directly to King Charles andhis councilors.

Though Las Casas published the final version of TheDevastation of the Indies in 1552, before that he read draftsof it, along with thick volumes of his other writings, aloudto a special council dedicated to the problems of governingthe Indies. He presented his writing in overwhelmingdetail to an almost comical degree, reading aloud atrocity

after atrocity for hours on end. However, he still managedto captivate his audience, whether they agreed with him ornot. This was evident in the fact that in spite of how rad-ical Las Casas’s arguments were, King Charles still passedthe New Laws in 1542, which Las Casas had a hand in craft-ing based on . The New Laws expected the end of Indianslavery, and for measures to be taken that would slowlyphase out the encomienda system, without abolishing itcompletely. They also assured that the Indians would besubjects of the Crown, that all wars of conquest wouldbe prohibited, and that strict laws would be created toenforce the New Laws of 1542. This was one of the mostimportant contributions Las Casas had made to his entiremission as “universal protector of the Indians.”

The Spanish conquistadores were shocked and out-raged at the audacity with which the Spanish Crown andLas Casas could take away their rights to utilize the landand exploit the labor of the Indians as they saw fit. Therewere violent revolts against them all across the Americas,with encomenderos and their supporters outright refusingto apply or obey the laws. Still Las Casas was unsatisfied,as he felt the laws didn’t go far enough and were still amoral compromise because they didn’t outright abolishthe encomienda system, instead mainly turning it over theSpanish monarchy.


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##Las Casas's FinalLas Casas's Final

DebatesDebates

When Las Casas returned to Spain from Chiapa, heengaged in fierce debate over a number of years with theencomenderos and their supporters who had revoltedagainst the New Laws. His most famous opponent wasJuan Gines de Sepulveda. Sepulveda was a scholar of Aris-totle’s philosophy, which he used to argue that the nativesof the new world were fit to be slaves by nature becausethey were naturally inferior to the European race. Theydebated in front of the Council of the Indies in 1550: “thiscouncil was to determine the larger truths of the matter:was the conquest legal; and were the Indians themselvesdenied their basic rights as human beings?” (Clayton129-130) This was one of the most fundamental questionsabout Spanish colonization in the Americas, and onethat’s still being debated today, but in very different ways.Sepulveda believed that Europeans were “born to rule”

and the natives of the new world were “born to be ruled”(Clayton 130).

This Euro-centric view tinged with racism was quite common to all

European peoples of the sixteenth century- not only the Spanish and

Portuguese, but also the English, French, and Dutch, as… they too

extended their claims to the New World. What stands out is Las Casas’s

challenge to this view, seeing the world more and more from the other

side, that of the native American peoples. (Clayton 132)

Las Casas wanted all conquests in the Americas tostop, and for the Indians to be freed from slavery and theencomienda system. Sepulveda viewed Spanish civiliza-tion and Christianity as infinitely superior to cultures andreligions of the Amerindians. In response, Las Casasdefended their religious and cultural practices, arguingthat they were not enough of a reason to wage “unjustwar” against them the way the Spaniards were doing.

The issues raised by the debates between Las Casasand Sepulveda called into question the very legitimacy ofSpanish presence in the Americas. If Las Casas’s argumentwon, that would mean the Spaniards would have no legalor religious justification for invading the Americas. Thiswas a tricky position to be in, because Las Casas didbelieve Spanish presence in the new world was valuable-if mainly for religious purposes, as he truly believed thatit was important for the natives to be converted to Chris-tianity.


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##BibliographyBibliography

Bigelow, Bill. “Talking Back to Columbus: Teaching forHope and Justice.” Rethinking Columbus: Teaching About

the 500th Anniversary of Columbus’s Arrival in America. 1991.38-43. Web.

Bigelow, Bill. “Why Rethink Columbus?” Rethinking

Columbus: Teaching About the 500th Anniversary of Colum-

bus’s Arrival in America. 1991. 3-9. Web.Casas, Bartolomé de las, and Sanderlin, George

William. Bartolomé De Las Casas; a Selection of His Writings.

1st Ed.]. ed. New York: Knopf, 1971. Print. Borzoi Books onLatin America.

Casas, Bartolomé de las. History of the Indies. New York:Harper & Row, 1971. Print. European Perspectives.

Casas, Bartolome de las. The Devastation of the Indies: A

Brief Account. Trans. Herma Briffault. Baltimore and Lon-don: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1992. Print.

Castro, Daniel. Another Face of Empire: Bartolome de

Las Casas, Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism.Durham and London: Duke University Press. 2007. Print.

Clayton, Lawrence A. Bartolome de las Casas and the

Conquest of the Americas. Wiley Blackwell. 2011.Donovan, Bill M. “Introduction.” The Devastation of the

Indies: A Brief Account. Baltimore and London: The JohnsHopkins University Press. 1992. Print.

Slapin, Beverly and Doris Seale. Through Indian Eyes:

The Native Experience in Books for Children. Philadelphia:New Society Publishers. 1992. Print.

Images:Tinker, G. E. & Freeland, M. “Thief, Slave Trader,

Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Popu-lation Decline.” Wicazo Sa Review 23.1 (2008): 25-50. Project

MUSE. Web. 30 May. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.Picture of “The Age of Exploration”

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=portuguese+in+africa+1450&view=detailv2&&id=35EBC043577F2085C3E7DEB076656A603F935AA7&selectedIndex=1&ccid=srAm9WQV&simid=608017918155689915&thid=OIP.Mb2b026f56415592f748d0cb47f0c0705H0&ajaxhist=0

Paradise 1 picturehttp://kizie.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/

Hawaii-ocean.jpgDiscriptio America (title on top)http://www.raremaps.com/maps/medium/8648.jpgLas Casa writing picturehttps://ewaldvanvugt.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/

a087-1552-bartolome-de-las-casas.jpgEncomienda system picturehttps://eccechristianus.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/

sugar600.jpgEncomienda 2http://c3e308.medialib.glogster.com/media/34/

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https://ewaldvanvugt.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/a087-1552-bartolome-de-las-casas.jpg

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https://eccechristianus.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/sugar600.jpg

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