General
• First Name: Bartolomé
• Last Name: de Las Casas
• Middle Name: X
• Birth Date: 11 November 1481
• Gender: Male
• Ethnicity/Nationality: Spanish
General Info:
Bartolomé de Las Casas lived during the 16th century. He was one of the first people to settle in the New World. He is most famous for being a social reformer who indeed introduced many social reforms to the world never seen before. At first, Bartolomé de Las Casas participated in the persecution of the native people of the New World. But, something made him raise his voice against the terrors the Spanish colonizers did to the Native Americans. Exactly in the year of 1515 he changed his mind about the colonization subject and persecutions of the Native Americans. He changed
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His father was a wealthy man, and he decided to send him to the best schools and colleges that were available at that time. Bartolomé de Las Casas first went to the University of Salamanca, where he studied the Canon Law. He also studied at the University of Valladolid . He got himself two degrees in canon law. The first degree he got in canon law was the bachillerato degree from the University of Salamanca. The second degree he got in canon law was licenciatura at the Univeristy of Valladolid . Just before his first to America, he graduated from two universities and was very fluent in Latin language, both in spoken and written aspect of it. The knowledge of the Latin language later helped Bartolomé de Las Casas throughout his life and …show more content…
While he was preparing the sermon for the Christian holiday Pentecost, he read a passage in the Holy Bible - Wisdom of Sirach 34:18-22 and thought about the meaning of that passage. It seems that the Bible passage he read enlightened Bartolomé. He realized that all the action the conquistadors and colonists did against the domicile population - murders, exploitations, slavery, were a sin, immoral and illegal. He announced that he would abide the encomienda and all of his slaves. Bartolomé tried to convince other conquistadors and colonizers they should stop with their atrocities and find another solution for the native population of the New World, but it was to no avail. With the help of Pedro de Córdoba, and taking Antonio de Montesinos as his company, he left for his homeland Spain to fight for the rights of the Native Americans in September of