Botticelli, Venus and Mars, 1483

Humanities 3II. Spain and the New World

Lecture 7

Fishing for Souls, PunishingBodies

Outline

• Who was Bartolomé de las Casas?

• The argument of the Short Account

• Justice and Natural Law

• Friday movie pick:

Werner Herzog, Aguirre, Wrath of God(1972)

Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1576)• Arrives in New World

(Hispaniola) in 1502• Participates in the conquest

of Cuba and witnesses themassacre of its inhabitants

• Becomes a priest in 1510• In 1514 frees his serfs and

begins to protest themistreatment of nativepeoples by the Spanish

• 1520 Las Casas convinces Charles V tosupport the plan of a colony of farmcommunities inhabited by Spanish and freeIndians.

• 1522 Plan fails because of the opposition oflocal land owners. Las Casas begins hisHistory of the Indies.

• 1537 Pope Paul III issues bull declaringthat American Indians are rational beingswith souls.

• 1542 On the basis of the Short Account LasCasas persuades Charles V to pass lawsputting an end to the encomienda system bylimiting serfdom of natives to a singlegeneration.

• 1544 Appointed bishop of Chiapas;attempts to enforce new laws. Colonists(including clergy) resist. A year later thelaws are rescinded by Charles V.

• 1550 Public debate with Juan Gines deSepulveda over treatment of Indians.

Argument of the Short Account• Writing to the future king of Spain, Philip

II (and to his father, the Holy RomanEmperor, Charles V), an official report(relación), to inform him of the abusestaking place in the colonies.

• Las Casas seeks a reform of colonialpractices, including the end ofencomienda (serfdom).

Encomienda system• To prevent settlers from creating feudal

fiefs, F & I decreed that all land wouldremain the possession of the Crown

• Indians were compelled to work on behalfof landholders, in exchange for which theywere offered the protection of the Crown,instruction in the Christian faith, and a smallwage. (p. xx)

• Legally, the native peoples were “subjectsand vassals” of the Spanish crown (p. xvii).

Papal Bull Granting Spain the Right tothe New World (1493)

“…kingdoms grantedand entrusted by Godand His Church so thatthey might be properlyruled and governed,converted to the Faith,and tenderly nurtured tofull material andspiritual prosperity.” (6)

How Bad Was It?• “The actions of the Europeans, throughout

the New World, were without exceptionwicked and unjust: worse, in fact, than theblackest kind of tyranny.” (23; see also 25)

• But note: Las Casas doesn’t challengeSpain’s right to be in the New World and to“nurture” its land and its peoples.

Pre-contact America• In 1500 population of the Americas est. to

be 80-100 million. Aztec empire (Mexico)and Incan empire (Pacific coast/Andes) eachhad roughly 20 million

• By 1600 the populations of these twogroups had fallen to about 1 million each

• Most died as a result of diseases brought byEuropeans (smallpox, bubonic plague,influenza, measles)

A Case of Genocide?• Writing in 1542 Las Casas claims 12-15

million killed over previous 40 years (12)• Pre-contact population of Antilles between

.5 and 8 million. By 17th c. Arawak people“virtually extinct” (24, n. 31)

• Motivated simply by greed? (13)• Failure to recognize the indigenous people

as fully human? (“piles of dung in themiddle of the road,” 13)

Religious Motive• For Las Casas, “the conversion and the saving

of souls has first priority” (32; see 10-11).

• Yet he denies that this can be done by force: asthough Christ “intended heathens, living inpeace and tranquillity in their own lands, to beconfronted with a demand that they convert onthe spot, without their ever hearing the Wordor having Christian doctrine explained tothem.” (32)

Requerimiento (1513)

“Leaders and citizens of such-and-such atown of this Mainland. Be it known to youthat there is one true God, one Pope, andone King of Castile who is the rightfulowner of all these lands. You are herebysummoned to pay allegiance, etc. Shouldyou fail to do so, take notice that we shallmake just war upon you, and your lives andliberty will be forfeit, etc.” (33)

What’s the real complaint?

• Death and physical suffering of theindigenous people?

• Failure to convert them, or save theirsouls?

• Wickedness of Spanish “Christians”?• The consequences of all of these for

Spain?

Failure of Conversion• “These would be the most blessed people on

earth if only they were given the chance toconvert to Christianity.” (11)

• Las Casas writes his Account “to helpensure that the teeming millions in the NewWorld, for whose sins Christ gave His life,do not continue to die in ignorance, butrather are brought to knowledge of God andthereby saved” (127; see also 6 and 126)

The Consequences for Spain

• “My deep love for Castile has also been aspur, for I do not want to see my countrydestroyed as a punishment for sins againstthe honor of God and the True Faith.” (127)

• Compare Savonarola’s prophecies of divineretribution for the moral and spiritual lapsesof the Florentines.

Upsetting the Order of Things• There is a natural order to human affairs

instituted by God.• A Catholic king is the divinely appointed

ruler, to whom others are naturally subject.(5)

• Natural law governs the actions of humanbeings. This law requires that we act justlyand avoid unnecessary cruelty.

Just War

• Justice governs the waging of war and thesubjection of foreign peoples (see 53-4)

• By natural law, the native peoples arejustified in waging war against the Spanish(69-70)

The natural outcome of injustice is divineretribution:“The only rights these perfidious crusadershave earned which can be upheld in human,divine, or natural law are the right to eternaldamnation and the right to answer for theoffences and the harm they have done theSpanish Crown by… invalidating all claimsthe Spanish Crown may have to theterritories of the New World.” (53-4)

No Europe Without “America”

“The world we have today is the gift of theNew World.”

-- Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress

• “An indispensable condition for theestablishment of manufacturing industry wasthe accumulation of capital facilitated by thediscovery of America and the importation ofprecious metals” (Marx, 1847)

• New crops imported to Europe (potatoes,maize) increased its agricultural output,allowing its population to increase

• African slaves shipped to Americas toreplace indigenous people labored on sugar,cotton and coffee plantations.