How Did Bartolome De Las Casas

Even though the Indians were seen as uneducated because they were different it is in no way a reason to justify the Spaniard 's goal of waging war against them. In contrast, the Indians were able to learn new ways from the Spaniards such as getting new weapons to protect themselves with, learn about the sciences, record keeping, and the alphabet. Third, the Conquistador 's justified their opinion by their goal of spreading the Christian faith. This can

The attitude of the Spanish to the people living in the New World was that they were uncivilized and heathen. The natives were abused, oppressed, exploited, and ill treated by the Spanish Conquistadors. The Indians lost their freedom, their rights, their culture and religion. It’s truly shocking

In the first section of the book, he mentions Christians first rather than the Spaniard. Las Casas would never imagine that Christians can commit such cruelties to the indigenous people. When voyaging to the New World, Hispaniola was the first land to be demolished and substantially reduce the population of Indians through the hands of Christians. In this excerpt, Casas documents all the things he sees. He states that Christians began subjugating women and children and taking them away for ill-use. They would also take their food that was earned by labor and toil (Casper and Davies 10). These acts would eventually lead the Indians to hide their food as well as women and children. Some would migrate to the mountains. Yet, Christians continued to act harshly attacking the Indians until they arrive at the village nobles, who they also misuse. Casas describes the Christians behaviors as “temerity and shamelessness” (10). He also affirms that these actions lead the Indians to expel the Christians from their lands. However, Indian weapons were ineffective against the Christians because they are "very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense" and that it is for this reason that "the wars of Indians against each other are little more than games played by children" (10). I

de la Casas describes the second voyage that he embarked upon with Columbus. He described how each island was depopulated and destroyed. His observations of the land were no so descriptive of the native people and the land, but of the gruesome images the Spanish painted upon the Indies. de la Casas says, “…the Indians realize that these men had not come from Heaven (9).” He goes into detail about how the Christians would take over villages and had no mercy describing one particularly crude act to show how ruthless the Spanish were. He says, “Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer (9).” The Spanish were so coward and angry anytime an Indian was actually capable of slaying a Spanish man that a rule was made; for every Christian slain, a hundred Indians would die. Natives were captured and forced to work jobs like pearl diving where they would very rarely survive due to man eating sharks or just from drowning and holding their breaths

While trying to adapt Native Americans to European customs, Columbus and his followers took advantage of the Indians. The Spanish burned the Natives sacred objects and would not allow them to practice their own religions. They also abused the Natives, enslaving them, taking land from them, and raping their women. Because of the conquistadors quest for gold and other riches,

1. What was the view of Las Casas in relation to Spanish treatment of the indigenous people of the Indies?

The belief in spreading Christianity into the Native population was one of the reasons why Columbus sailed to the Americas. Everytime the Spaniards visited a native community, they informed the members of the Christian truth and asked for their conversion. If the natives refused, the Spaniards felt justified to enslave the Indians since they defied the Church. Another reason the Spanish invaded the Americas was the idea that gold was in abundance there and their desire for gold. One native named Hatuey realized the Spanish were desperately after the precious metal and threw all his gold to the bottom of the river to protect his people. However, he was later burned alive. The Spanish required the Indians to pay a certain quota of gold every three months; anyone who didn’t had their hands chopped off. Since the amount of available gold was actually small, the Spaniards went on killing sprees. The Spanish murdered for fun, inventing brutal ways to spill blood. Indian babies were fed to hungry dogs and Indian men were slashed open as their innards spewed out. The Spaniards only cared for quick wealth too, despite human costs. In order to maximize profits and, the encomienda system was established and masters had complete control over their slaves. Enslaved Indians were worked to death and fed extremely poorly, many died of starvation. Those who were too ill or

The way that this debate, between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Gines Sepulveda, played out allows us to see both sides of the dispute. Las Casas was formerly from the Spanish military, during which time he served in Cuba with direct contact to the Native Americans. Because of this influence on this life, and some of the people that he met while he worked there, he then dedicated himself to improving life for the native people. Later, in August of 1550, he engaged in a debate with Sepulveda which was called the Great Debate at Valladolid before the Council for the Indies.

Bartolome de Las Casas can be described as a friend and civil rights activist of the Native American people during the early 1500s. After Hernan Cortes conquered the new world; he exploited the generosity and riches of the Native America Population. This exploitation allowed Spain to gain major financial gain at the cost of Native America sufferings. This suffering would be due to a cruel system known as the encomienda’s system. In addition, many Native Americas died due to the atrocities of this systems.

Bartolome de Las Casas, was a friar and latter a Dominican, who is considered by many as one of the few authors who does justice to the native people of the New World. Casas has a particular purpose on his writings, that being letting the King of Spain at that time Charles V know, of the miseries that were being done to the native people of the New World. De Las Casas does not condemn the arrival of the Spanish in this new land, nor does he condemn the conversion of these gentle and innocent people to Christianity, however, he condemns the measures taken to convert these people into Christianity. He is one of the few writers that extends in different places, and it is certain that he was one of the few who travelled all around the New World.

A Spanish conquistador, Bartolome de Las Casas believed others should not rule the Indians, instead they should teach the Indians their Catholic Faith, and not force a man to do something beyond his will. Where the Catholic faith has been preached, all men are to accept the faith of Christ, at the same time, no man can force another to accept it. In addition, no one who is wicked should be punished, unless they harm another person or their property. In their faith, someone must return the favor if they were given a favor. No one can force this, nor be punished for not following the faith. Bartolome saw the Catholic faith for what it truly represents and the others went against all laws of God and nature itself, for how they treated the Indians.

As soon as Columbus met the native people of the Bahama Islands, he placed possessional value on them instead of valuing them as humans. He wrote, “They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Zinn page 1. The indigenous people showered these strangers with gifts, and what did they gain by doing so? They gained nothing and ended up losing their land, freedom and will to go on. The natives of the places Columbus claimed for Spain were subjected to inhumane conditions. Their living conditions were horrid, with the constant torment by the Spaniards. Las Casas’ accounts are horrifying and reveal the truth. Mentioned in his accounts is how the Spaniards treated them and valued them, “thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades.” This is just cruel and immoral. Also mentioned in Las Casas’ accounts is the working conditions. The men were nearly worked to death in the mines, with the futile task of unearthing what little gold there was. While the women were tasked with the laborious job of working the land. They were overworked, and as a result could not properly tend to the care of their children.

In 1492 the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus set sell from the Spanish port, in a quest to discover a western sea route to Asia. Christopher Columbus disembarks on Hispaniola in 1492 proclaiming it for Spain. However, the New World was home to millions of people known as Indians. The Indian society had already established a form of government, religious practices, language, agriculture, and hunting. Once, Columbus reported this news to Queen Isabella of Spain, she declared that the Indian were her subjects and should be treated humanely, and converted to Catholicism. Yet, their quest moved towards conquering, colonizing, and exploiting their newly discovered resources in the New World; which lead to the manslaughter of a multitude of Indian and tribes. Thus, Dominican priest Bartolome de las Casas documented the atrocities of the conquest. Bartolome de las Casas wrote, “The Devastation of the Indies” discussing his perspective of the nature and character of both the Indians and Spanish, and the Spanish cruel treatment of the Indians.

The largest native population was in 1542, having about 10,000 leagues on the coastline of Hispaniola. They were unaware of hatred and revenge, but the Spaniards made them come to acknowledge it real fast. Spaniards killed the natives for their own selfish desires, because they pretended to be Christians, which made it easier to kill. If any Indian didn’t show sign of resistance, they were murdered, or put to work and were made slaves. In 1542, Spaniards tortured the natives, leaving only 200 out of the 3 million population alive. Within 40 years, Spaniards murdered about 12 million natives, completely wiping out the islands. To this day, no person lives on these islands, leaving them abandoned. With being tortured over religion and pure selfishness, the Indians are the most pleasant and forgiving people on the face of the earth. They are “utterly faithful and obedient both to their own native lords and to the Spaniards” (De Las Casas). It’s without say that even after the torture they were put through, the natives were still faithful to the Spaniards because of forgiveness. “These would be the most blessed people on earth if only they were given the chance to convert to Christianity” (De Las Casas), meaning if only they weren’t forced upon religion and Christianity, the natives would be the best people out there, not caring about the world or its problems, enjoying life by themselves. Natives needed to know more

The Spanish authorities showed their superiority to forced native people, that had lived and adored their beliefs of centuries to leave their religions, the adoption of Christianity and pay tribute to the Spanish lords. Every that their possessed land and their spirituality were destroyed along with the spiritual objects with which their ceremonies had always been performed. For generations were oppressed, and a religious leader named Pop organized a revolt by Native Americans against a Spanish. He offered liberation and told them they will free from the labor they performed for the religious and the