Bartolomé de las Casas

Dominican friar and defender of Amerindian rights Bartolome de Las Casas is a controversial character in the drama of the Spanish New World. Las Casas is generally viewed in a positive light by scholars for his persistence in the field of Amerindian rights. Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism, by Daniel Castro acts as a corrective work in the scholarly conversation. Castro judges Las Casas not on his intent as most scholars do, but…

Las Casas embarked on numerous expeditions to the New World and saw first hand the injustices being done to the natives by the Spaniards whom he categorizes into one overarching label of “Christians”. After seeing in person the unfair treatment of the Indians, Las Casas decides to become an advocate for the Indians and he wrote a series of his personal accounts called A Short Account…

more than twelve million men, women, and children. In truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain is more like fifteen million.” The foregoing quote was written by Bartolome de Las Casas, in his Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies (1552). Las Casas’ reveals the negative effects of Spanish contact with the Native peoples of the Americas. He emphasizes some of the key results of European exploration and colonization—namely destruction and death. The…

Primary Source Document 1 Casas, Bartolomé De Las. “Bartoleme De Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies.” The Cuba Reader, Jan. 2009, pp. 12–14., doi:10.1215/9780822384915-003. Bartolomé de las Casas created this document. He was a 16th century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. His significance was that he was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there. He arrived…

care about the utter genocide of the native populations. One man named Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar and historian, played a monumental role in bringing the knowledge of this destruction to Europe. After spending time among the conquistadors in the new world, Casas would return to Spain and begin writing to the emperor, Charles I of Spain, about the atrocities committed under the guise of conquest for the crown. Casas would push for the creation of laws that would stop the abhorrent…

Historians Written by Bartolome de las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies was created to inform Prince Philip about the horrible acts inflicted on the Native Americans by the Spaniards. Through this document, las Casas pleads the Prince to do justice to the “unassuming, long-suffering, unassertive, and submissive” natives by preventing Spaniards from getting licenses for ventures and conquests in the New World. las Casas’ A Short Account left me aghast when I finished…

Although the conquistadors of both Bartolome de Las Casa and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda reached the shores of Mexico in the early 1500’s, both had a varying impact on the Natives living there. It was this said treatment that led to multiple cases of mass executions by the Spanish which founded historical figures such as Las Casas and Sepúlveda that would later change the course of human interaction. Considering this, the arguments of Las Casas and Sepúlveda had both positive and negative impacts on…

Bartolomé de Las Casas’s book “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies,” is an eye opening narrative into the tragic massacre that took place in the sixteenth century. Millions of indigenous people were brutally killed and slaughtered by the Spanish in endless ways due to their beliefs and idols. De Las Casas, a Catholic Priest, shares what he saw while on his voyage to the New World throughout the book. De Las Casas divided the monstrosities he witnessed geographically. He began with…

Bartolome De las Casas, a Spanish priest describes the horrible actions taken by the Spaniards in the New World. They kill, torture, terrorize, and destroy the most guileless, faithful, and obedient people only for their wealth. In Bartolome’s view, it is absurd…

Christopher Columbus and Bartolome de Las Casas have similar ideologies and/or world views. At one point they did have the same views. Both were conquistadors, exploring for Spain. Both were slave owners, who treated their slaves horribly and without mercy. However, something happened to Bartolome de Las Casas, he went through a religious revelation and he changed his ways going from a slave owner to what he earned his nickname to be, “Protector of the Indians.” De Las Casas does not receive the…