A Spanish Conquistador: Bartolome De Las Casas

Bartolome’ de Las Casas was a Spanish colonist and a Dominican friar. His uncles and father were part of Christopher Columbus second voyage to America. There were rumors of all the gold, spices and other valuables going around Europe, so the Spanish built small colonies on the island of Hispaniola. Las Casas in 1502 traveled to the New World to serve as an officer of the king. He was given a group of Native Americans forced to serve and obey him. However he released his laborers and spent the rest of his life protecting the Native Americans.

As stated in “History of Mexico: 2” documentary film by History Channel, the Spanish believed it was their responsibility to save the souls of the natives by converting them to Christianity. Even thought the natives were forced to convert, the natives eventually accepted Catholicism into their everyday life, creating a mixture of cultures and eventually a mixing of heritages known as “Mestizo”.

The argument of Juan Gines de Sepulveda is that of negative feedback to what was experienced in the first encounter of the Spaniards and American Indians in the Sixteenth Century. Also, Sepulveda demonstrates through his opinion that war against the Indians is a rightful act due to the fact that the Indians are seen as lower beings. The proof that Sepulveda uses to support his position is the glimpse the Spaniards noted in the short time they observed the Indians. Sepulveda thought that the Indians were uneducated individuals that were uncivilized in the way they conducted their lives. This can be seen in that Sepulveda comments on how Indians are not educated because they seem not to have an alphabet, any knowledge of the sciences, or any

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

Every artist's dream is to create something that leaves a lasting impression. The Last Conquistador follows the story of a sculptor who does exactly that. John Houser spent nearly a decade painstakingly crafted a 34-foot tall equestrian statue featuring the infamous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate y Salazar. Following in the footsteps of his father who assisted in the carving of Mount Rushmore, Houser's fantasy of leaving his mark in one of the largest bronze equestrian statues in the world finally became a reality (Valadez). However, what an artist attempts to express and what message is truly received may not be one and the same. While the Hispanic elite of El Paso praised (and funded) the magnificent piece, the Acoma were horrified by the towering symbol of oppression and genocide looming overhead. This film not only provides a window into the conflict and controversy surrounding Houser's work, but also showcases several aspects of Texas political culture and highlights the dismissive attitude toward Native American culture that is still prevalent today.

Christopher Columbus and Bartolome de la Casas are similar in most ways but have a major difference. They were both explorers of the New World and came to convert the natives into Catholics. The two explorers worked on the Spanish’s behalf. Columbus wrote accounts of the New World in his journal. La Casas wrote the Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. Both gave accounts of the native people they saw. Columbus’s journal entries aim to give a positive light on the Spanish and their relationship with the natives. La Casas’s Brief Account does the opposite. While this is true, both explores worked faithfully in favor of the Catholic Church, but they each held different beliefs on the treatment of natives as slaves.

Spain’s goal of spreading Catholicism was undoubtable strengthened when the Pope sanctioned all Spanish efforts. Thus, slavery of Native Americans was justified, and would liberate them in the eyes of God. In effort to prevent British protestant influence, Spain declared that Non-Spanish citizens and Non-Spanish Christians were not permitted to settle in their borders.

The role of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain’s conquest and colonization of continental America was a two-fold process whereby under the façade of conversion and control lay the primary goal of gaining wealth, enforcing laws and the inevitable extension of control while condoning the beginnings of European slavery in the Caribbean.[i]

The Conquest of Mexico and the conversion of the peoples of New Spain can and should be included among the histories of the world, not only because it was well done but because it was very great. . . . Long live, then, the name and memory of him [Cortés] who conquered so vast a land, converted such a multitude of men, cast down so many men, cast down so many men, cast down so many idols, and put an end to so much sacrifice and the eating of human flesh! —Francisco López de Gómara (1552)

In Age of Expansion, Spain sent conquistadors to take over new land to gain gold, spread the word of God, and bring glory to Spain. During this conquest, the Spaniards acted very rude to the natives of the New World and saw themselves as highly superior. These first travels were led by Cortez, who made it very clear that they were the ones in charge. In an excerpt from document 1, the Spanish tell the Indians that they must “agree to let the Christian priests preach to you” or else the Spanish would take them as slaves or kill them.

Both of the colonies wanted religious conversions from the Native Americans. The Spanish colonist were very forceful with converting Native Americans to Christianity. Spanish conquerors, called conquistadors, travelled with the armed Spanish Military as well as Roman Catholic Dominican or Franciscan Friars to force religious conversion to any Native American village in the newly claimed Spanish colony. In the New England colonies, leaders of Wampanoag tribes were forced to sign their land over to the English at gunpoint. In addition, select Native American villages were turned into “Praying Towns”, in which the English would convert all of the Native Americans into the Puritan religion and force the Native Americans to give up all of the native traditions. These differences occurred because of the strong beliefs of the colonist. In both the Spanish and English colonies, the colonist believed that their religion was the correct religion, whether that be Catholic in the Spanish colonies or Puritan in the New England Colonies. However, one way that the Spanish and New England colonies varied in their treatment of the Native Americans was the use, or lack of use, of forced labor in the colonies. The Spanish colonies thrived off of the use of Native American labor through the Encomienda system. The Encomienda system granted the forced labor of Native Americans to the owner of the land in the colony. Through this system, the Spanish colonies were able to thrive, however it was deadly to the Native American population. For Native Americans who resisted the Encomienda system, they were killed and in some cases, to the near extinction of a tribe. Noteable, the Indigenous Taino People rebelled against the Spanish and succeeded a peace treaty, however lost ninety percent of their tribe. Meanwhile, the New England colonies hardly used forced labor from the Native

After the Spanish gained the Native Americans trust they converted them to their religion because they believed that if the Natives had the same beliefs as they did that they would be easier to manipulate. The Spanish made missions to protect the popes, however because the walls were not tall enough, the Indians were able to escape. After they ran away and returned to their tribes they would revert back to their former ways and because they all looked so similar, the Spanish could not tell them apart, meaning they couldn’t just go and point out which Natives were their escaped

In his treatise as well as Cruelties of Spaniards, Bartolomé Las Casas supported the Native Americans by explaining that they were just as human as the Spaniards were. He states in his treatise that “…it is unlikely that anyone will resist the preaching of the gospel and the Christian doctrine.” Because he has been in the New World, he has seen the acceptance of Catholicism from the Natives, unlike the crown whom have never seen such cooperation. He continues by taking shots at the Spaniard colonists who fought with the Natives, even though their kings “have prohibited wars against the Indians of the Indies…” It’s rather confusing to find out where Las Casas

The founding of religion gave birth to quite a few contentions between separate groups, raising moral dialectics. These moral bickers from religion fueled groups to spread their specific beliefs or ideals. For example, in the year 1769 Spanish Missionaries, led by Junipero Serra, attempted to christianize those Native Americans who habited California. The missionaries accumulated thousands of semi-nomadic Indians to strong missions which taught ideas like horticulture. Missionaries fiercely shoved the idea of christianity down the throats of the natives, yet they did so with retaliation. It was common for the natives to violently rebel against the religious influences pushing into their private, peaceful lives. Also, French-Catholic Missionaries called Jesuits, attempted to "save" Native Americans and convert them into Christianity. Jesuits went as far as to try and convert Native Americans even though they were rebellious to the point of violence, like the Native Americans in California. A majority of the Jesuits' attempts failed because copious amounts of the conversions were not permanent. In the small world of politics and religion, philosopher John Locke emphasized the separation

Because the Indians and Spanish lived in different areas in Latin America, the Indian culture and society did not change significantly. Or did there society change?