...Bartolome De Las Casas’ A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies describes the massacre of innocent natives, the atrocities committed against them and other horrific excesses by the Spaniards who came under the pretext of religious guidance. These native inhabitants were described by Casas’ as “people who should surely have been a joy and delight to any true Christian (pg. 52).” The natives welcomed the Spaniards with open arms and even revered them as gods. However, after being subject to the Spaniard’s unprovoked declaration of war and immense cruelty, the native people began to realize that “these men could not, in truth, have descended from the heavens (pg. 14).” Understanding the ethics of the Spanish conquistadors requires...
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...of attributes does de las Casas give to the Indians? Why were his ideas considered very risky to say? He says that the Indians were humble, patient, peaceable, that they held no grudges, and that they were from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. His ideas were considered very risky to say because the more weak and vulnerable the Indians were, the easier it was for the Europeans to control and conquer them and the harder it is to endure heavy labor. 2. How do his descriptions of the Natives contrast with his depictions of the Spainards? Describe some examples. His descriptions of the Natives were much more honorable than his depictions of the Spaniards. He described the Native Americans as "the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve," whereas he depicted the Spaniards as those who "act like ravening beasts, killing,...
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...Different from Diaz and Leon, de Las Casas uses a different approach to explaining the lives of the native peoples of the New World. Considering that he was a friar and then a Dominican, he has a bias towards religion yet he uses it properly to express the side of the natives which was not covered by Diaz or Leon. He describes the natives as simply genuine and kind people who could have been Christian but the Spanish chose wrong ways of converting. The author uses an interesting way of explaining their good characters: “they are without malice or guile, and are utterly faithful and obedient both to their own native lords and to the Spaniards in whose they now find themselves” . Although this is not a native source, one can see the justice it...
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...Introduction The source that is being reviewed in the paper is a book written by Bartolome de las Casas and Stafford Poole titled In De Fense of the Indians. The piece was written at a time in history when the Spaniards colonized part of America and were exploiting the original habitants to acquire silver and gold. The Spaniard government assembled to determine what was going on in the new world and consequently what should be done about it. The author was addressing the assembly informing them of the plea of the oppressed Indians and at the same time disagreeing with the points brought up by another scholar, Gines Sepulveda. Sepulveda wanted the continuation of mining in the new world at the expense of the Indians terming them as barbaric and uncivilized, He gave a weak argument that made him look particularly selfish and greedy. Las Casas’ arguments were genuinely true and trustworthy whike Sepulveda’s were half thought and illogical. The thesis of the paper states, “The main goal of colonization is to effect positive change; however, colonialists quickly lose sight of this fact after discovering riches and other benefits.” Summary...
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...Bartolome De Las Casas’s timeless human rights classic Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Explain the significance of De Las Casas’s autobiography during the colonial period? Bartolome de las casas the author was a Spanish historian as well as a social reformer. His extensive writings mainly focused on the mayhems carried out by the colonizers against the home-grown people. He had witnessed these violence first hand during the colonization and thus felt obligated to document them. Casas reports that the Spaniards once they came to the Indian villages they would torture and kill them for the gold that they might be hiding or more so force them into slavery (Felix, 2002). These people whom he referred to as “blackguards” would worse more kill pregnant women, the elderly and children by burning them alive, running them through with lances or setting brutal dogs on them. According to him he sarcastically explains that the Indians welcomed the Spaniards only to be rewarded with torture, murder slavery and to serve them. De Las Casas helps us understand the torture that the innocent souls at the island were suppressed to by the foreign kings losing so many people and more so rendering the land to wastage. What were its lessons for humanity? According to the Spaniards their aim to destroying these innocent souls were to subject the king of Spain who had passed out the command to kill and enslave. Their main aim of destroying the vast and blameless souls was to acquire...
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...In the 16th century, Bartolomé de Las Casas was a Spanish historian who became famous for defending the rights of the Native Americans. Spaniards brutality and devastation to the Natives allow Bartolomé to stand against all odds on the conquest and colonization of the New World. He was ultimately named the sole protector of the Natives. Additionally, with his family being connected with Christopher Columbus during the second voyage, Bartolomé de Las Casas became editor for Columbus journals further on in history. On the voyage to creating the New World by the Spaniards, Bartolomé was part of the audience who witnessed the devastation the Christians brought upon the Indians. Abundance of food was taken, women and children were put to death,...
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...Sanchez Bartolome de las Casas Bartolome de las Casas was a Spanish Dominican who became famous for his defense of the rights of the native people of the Americas. He has been recognized by the history as a great man who stood up to a corrupt system. Bartolome de las Casas decided that he wanted to be a priest so his father sent him to the best schools, the University of Salamanca, and the University of Valladolid. He studied Canon Law and earned two degrees. In 1502, Bartolome de las Casa finally came to America. He has seen a lot of things like watching people die by the exploitation and disease. He learned more about the sad situation of the natives when he was studying. In 1514, he finally decided he could no longer be involved in the exploitation of the natives. The first experience he tried was convinced Spanish authorities to allow him to try and save natives by taking them out of slavery and placing them in free towns. But he failed because the region he wanted to experiment was selected had been heavily raided by slavers. So, it is so hard to overcome. In 1537, Bartolome de las Casa wanted to try again to show that natives could be controlled peacefully and the violence were unnecessary. His second experiment finally worked, the natives were brought under Spanish control peacefully. The experiment was called Verapaz or “true peace.” Unfortunately, the colonists took the lands, and enslave the natives and undoing almost all of Bartolome de las Casa’s work. But he...
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...1. Pedro Naranjo was an Indian prisoner, a native of the Pueblo of San Felipe, of the Queres nation. He was captured at the Pueblo of La Isleta. He speaks Castilian, his mother tongue and Tegua. According to Naranjos testimony, in the past, several Indian sorcerers had planned to revolt on several occasions, but because not all the pueblos agreed and the revolts were delayed, but the want for freedom was always in their hearts. Eventually, while Pope was hiding from secretary, Francisco Xavier, he had a vision of three “demons” who told him to make a rope and tie some knots in each one, the knots would signify the number of days until the rebellion. If a pueblo agreed to participate, they would send a smoke signal. Two days before the go date, two runners were captured by the Spanish so the revolt happened a little prematurely. Once the Spaniards left, Pope commanded all the Pueblo people to reclaim their land by tearing down anything representing Christianity, saying that “now they were as they had been in ancient times, free from the labor they had performed for the religious and the Spaniards, who...
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...The settling of the New World brought gold and riches for some, religious freedom for others, but death and the loss of culture for those already residing in the Americas. People came to the New World for one of two main reasons, religious freedom and personal financial growth. William Penn, a pacifist, was a member of a group in search of religious freedom, while Bartolome De Las Casas, was a priest who traveled with the Spanish in search of God, glory and gold. Through analysis of William Penn’s Letter to the Indians, combined with an understanding of Las Casas’ documentation of Spanish treatment of Native Americans, one can conclude that the motive for settling determined the treatment of Native Americans. The north was comprised of colonies who settled on the basis of finding religious freedom in the New World. This reason for settling helped to shape the nature of the relationship the settlers would have with the Natives. William Penn, in an attempt to achieve good standing with the Natives, sent a letter explaining his intentions and hopes for a harmonious relationship. Penn opens the letter stating his position with God and the lessons instilled upon him and his people through the word of God (Penn). This is an attempt to show the good nature with which he plans to treat the Natives, this is also a good way for him to bring up God in a first attempt at conversion of Natives. “I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much exercised towards...
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...My name in Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. I am a mercenary seaman and shipbuilder. I am a navigator and explorer, known for exploring the West Coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire. After the conquest of Mexico, I remained in the Spanish service as an officer under Pedro de Alvarado. With Alvarado, I explored through lower New Spain and into Guatemala. I am the first European explorer to navigate the coast of California in the United States. I also helped find the city of Oaxaca in Mexico. I am searching for the Strait of Anián that connects the Pacific Ocean to Hudson Bay, providing a route for the Northwest Passage for trade. In the battle between the Spanish and the Aztecs, I fought as captain of crossbowmen. Metal weapons, good tactics, and...
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...SOAPSAC: S: The author of this source is a scribe who recorded the testimony of Pedro Naranjo, a Keresan Pueblo man of the Queres Nation from the pueblo of San Felipe. Naranjo was a prisoner of the Spanish during their campaign of reconquest in Latin America. Naranjo was captured during an attack on the pueblo of La Isleta. Naranjo spoke three separate Indian languages but was not proficient in Spanish. Because a scribe recorded this source, the point of view is third person. O: This source was produced on December 19th 1681 at the Place of the Rio del Norte. This was a period of time in which preexisting sporadic resistance from the New Mexican Pueblo people against Spanish attempts at conversion and subjugation through forced labor demands had become organized under the leadership of El Pope. It was a time of cultural tension and explosive violence....
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...Bartolome de Las Casas, a brave and famous explorer. There was not much known about his early life except he was born in a Seville, Spain in 1484 (Issues). He became a missionary, and was quickly inspired to study Latin. After studying, he became a priest and never graduated from any university (Las Casas Facts). Bartolome de Las Casas was an explorer mostly known for working against the cruel behavior and slavery towards Native Americans. This cruel behavior was completed by the Spaniards and Europeans that traveled to the Americas (19). Because he wrote uplifting articles about Natives while freeing them from bondage and slavery, Bartolome de Las Casas belongs in the hall of fame. Firstly, Casas teamed up with King Ferdinand II to make...
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...others. Also in the countries the governing body of them had their way or the highway they did not care what had to be done or who had to be killed. If the ruler of a certain country did not like something they did not care what had to be done to stop it. Powerful countries at the time such as Spain and Portugal only cared about power and one word that sums them up is greed. During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century Spain was one of the most powerful countries. When Columbus set sail in 1492, he founded the Americas and all that came with the, such as gold spices, and other expenses, this is how Spain became extremely rich and powerful. This land that Columbus founded was known as the New World. It is described by Michel de Montaigne in Of Cannibals " New World so lately discovered: for that almost touched upon Spain, and it were an incredible effect of an inundation, to have tumbled back so prodigious a mass, above twelve hundred leagues." Columbus was known for founding the Americas, the truth was he set sail for the Indies. When he landed in the America's he thought it was the Indies. As Columbus wrote in his letter to the King and Queen he said " As I know you will be rejoiced at the glorious success that our Lord has given me in my voyage, I write this to tell you how in thirty-three days I sailed to the Indies…" Spain sent Columbus to the Indies to get gold and spices to make their country richer and more powerful. This goes back to the idea of greed...
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...entire truth about Christopher Columbus. All they know about is how the three ships sailed across the ocean blue. Little do they know about the mass murder, mass rape, enslavement, torture and the spread of Christianity using their swords. Columbus Day shouldn't be worth celebrating or having parades for. Columbus's "discovery" led directly to torturing and killing innocent souls on the island of Hispaniola. Initially, Bartolome de Las Casas states about the Europeans, "they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of his island had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer" (Bartolome de Las Casas). In other words, the Europeans had no feelings towards the Natives and treated them like they owned them, which no one deserves to be treated like that anyday. Secondly, according to Bartolome de Las Casas, the Europeans, "...spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women... not only stabbing them but cutting them into pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughterhouse" (Bartolome de Las Casas). The Europeans would also torture the Natives by making them work and then just eating the food the Natives...
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...Masculinity revolves around the view that men must dominate and control women—in all aspects—and is filled to the brim with double-standards. In his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007) argues on the validity of masculinity. Diaz writes from the point of view of Yunior de Las Casas, a college roommate of our protagonist, Oscar De León (nicknamed Oscar Wao). Through Yunior, Díaz is able to show us Oscar’s struggle between succumbing to masculinity or being true to himself. Through the dichotomy of Oscar and Yunior, Diaz shows that no matter if you abide to the Dominican masculine mold or not, you cannot get out unharmed. Oscar Wao’s plight throughout the story showcases what happens when you do not abide to the Dominican...
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