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Bartolome De Las Casas Destruction Of The Indies Summary

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Larry Gilley
Mid-term paper
Topic 1 During the time of colonial conquest in the New World by Spain there were many wrongs committed on the indigenous populations and these were committed by the Spanish empire and justified through their search for gold and desire to Christianize the New World. However these atrocities committed by the Spanish on the Indigenous people did not go unnoticed by others and some people spoke out against these heinous crimes. One of the most prominent people to speak out against the slaughter of these indigenous people of the New World was Bartolome De Las Casas in his book A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. In this text Las Casas tells horrifying tales about the abuse of the Indigenous populations …show more content…
In A short account of the Destruction of the Indies Bartolome De Las Casas is writing a letter to the King of Spain describing the horrors that are taking place in the new world. Las Casas is very careful not to put the king to blame for any of this stating “For, granted the innate and natural virtue of the ruler…for he will not tolerate any such evil for a moment longer than it takes him to right it” (Las Casas pg 5). Las Casas does this because he is not against the government of Spain just against the brutality …show more content…
Las Casas refers to the indigenous populations is similar ways to animals. He also, besides key tribal leaders that unique situation befall on, refers to tribes as of single units or people. This creates a lack of individualism within the Indigenous populations which makes it harder to see the Natives as humans. It seems that Las Casas argues for the Indigenous populations more because he wishes to spread Catholicism by converting and teaching the native populations about Christianity rather than believing the Natives should be treated as

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