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Valladolid Debate Summary

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The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) was the first moral debate in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of a colonized people by colonizers and even to discuss whether native Americans should be considered as humans. It was held in the Colegio de San Gregorio, in the Spanish city of Valladolid. It was mainly a moral and theological debate about the colonization of the Americas, its justification for the conversion to Catholicism and more specifically about the relations between the European settlers and the natives of the New World. A number of opposing views were expressed; about the way natives were to be integrated into colonial life, their conversion to Christianity and their rights and obligations. A controversial theologian, Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas, argued that “the Amerindians were free men in the natural …show more content…

Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo and Manuel Garcia-Pelayo) (1941). Tratado sobre las Justas Causas de la Guerra contra los Indios. Mexico D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica. p. 155). The position of De las Casas was supported by Francisco de Vitoria. In three lectures (relectiones) held between 1537 and 1539 Vitoria, just like Palacios Rubios, concluded that the Indians were rightful owners of their property and that their chiefs validly exercised jurisdiction over their tribes. He denied the right of the pope or Charles V to claim over Indian lives or property. He ultimately contended that no violent action could be taken against them, nor could their lands or property be seized, unless they had caused harm or injury to the Spanish by violating the latter’s lawful rights. ( Pagden, Anthony (1991). Vitoria: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). UK: Cambridge University Press. p. xvi). In De iure belli, Fransico de Vittoria, a supporter of the just war theory, pointed out that the conditions for a "just war" were "wholly lacking in the

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Spanish monarchs pushed to establish settlements to finalize their claims once Spain received rights to this land. The Spaniards still believed they had rule over this land because of the Native Americans religion. Once Spain had assuredly become the most dominant European power, they created New Spain to show that they could use the New World to help out the Old. The Spanish Monarchs then allowed the conquistadors to rule over the Indians living in already subdued towns in the New World, as long as any treasure found was sent back to the monarchs to distribute. This created the system of encomienda which “in theory, was supposed to guarantee order and justice, be responsible for the Indians’ material welfare, and encourage them to become

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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.

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of schedule Spanish conquistadors, numerous evangelists considered themselves to be siding empathetically and defensively with the indigenous people groups. In 1537, Pope Paul III pronounced that Indians were not mammoths to be slaughtered or oppressed, but rather people with souls fit for salvation. At the time, this was comprehended to be an edified perspective of indigenous individuals, and one that good natured teachers tried to empower. Letters from ministers who lived among the Indians give us a feeling of the worries numerous held for the welfare of tribal people groups. A letter by Franciscan monk Juan de Escalona reprimands the "shocks against the Indians" conferred by a Spanish legislative head of what is presently New Mexico.

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The war between Mexico and America from 1846 to 1848 had raised many controversial opinions, both approve and disapprove. Followings are some of the arguments made by supporters of this war as well as the opponents. First of all is Albert Gallatin, who was strongly against this Mexican War. Gallatin was born in January 1761 and died in August 1849. He was a Swiss-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist.

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The first aspect that De Las Casas addresses about the inhabitants comes within his amazement to the diversity of the people residing in the Indies. Along with that statement, De Las Casas also alludes to his religious perspectives of the inhabitants, saying such things as "People inhabits these Countries, that it seems as if the Omnipotent God has Assembled and Convocated [sic] the major part of Mankind in this part of the World." As Las Casas continues his description of the natives, the concept of humanity is brought into light with his defense of the Indians. As comparative to the Europeans, the natives are supposedly much more malleable as people due to their previously restricted access to other nations in the world. Here, Las Casas

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However, the Natives had not done anything wrong to make the Spaniards act to cruel towards them. Las Casas wrote in great detail what the Spaniards did. He wrote of the destruction and slaughter that the Spanish brought to the Natives. Las Casas wrote about indians being thrown into pits of stakes. He wrote of children being torn away from their mothers and killed.

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Straight off he claims, “From the fact that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they are incapable of government and have to be ruled by others, except that they have to be taught about the catholic faith and to be admitted to the holy sacraments. They are not ignorant, inhuman, or bestial.” (pg.3 paragraph 1) De La Casa acknowledged that, while their practices were less evolved than the Spanish, it did not mean they were any less human or developed than the Spanish, and only need a guiding hand to the Catholic faith. He described how the Spanish treated the natives like dogs, forcing them to mine for precious minerals, and compared the Conquistadors to Romans. He wrote an argument defending the natives, explaining they were not any less intelligent then the Spanish and “…they are so skilled in every mechanical art…”

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Coping strategies are crucial to the success of the Vietnam War troops. In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien conveys the experiences of War World Two soldiers, and the way soldiers cope through shifts of tone, setting, and character development. The Things They Carried, is multiple short stories put into one book that follows a group of soldiers told from the perspective of the narrator, who is also a character in the book during the time of War World One. The book is structured to reveal what the soldiers carry not just physically but also mentally.

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The treatment of the native inhabitants varied among the three explorers. The worst treatment of the natives was seen in great detail through the perspective of De Las Casas. During his expedition in the Indies, he and his comrades killed millions of the natives to take everything and anything they wanted. He stated, “And thus they have deprived the Indians of their lives and souls, for the millions I mentioned have died without the Faith and without the benefit of the sacraments. This is a well-known and proven fact which even the tyrant Governors, themselves killers, know and admit.

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In 1550, Emporer Charles V summoned a debate to determine how Spain would deal with the Native Americans. Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda and Bartolomé de Las Casas engaged in discourse about this topic: Sepúlveda denigrated the Natives while de Las Casas defended them. Sepúlveda felt that the Native Americans were basically barbaric sub-humans, and that the Europeans were greatly superior to them. He felt that Christianity was far more altruistic than the Natives’ religions. However, Las Casas felt that the Natives should be treated equally, since he believed Jesus died for the Natives just like he died for the Europeans.

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On these islands I estimate there are 2,100 leagues of land that have been ruined and depopulated, empty of people.” (Las Casas) Nothing positive came from the people of Spain setting foot on the land of the Indians. Depopulation was just one of many hazardous effects that the Spaniards

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Las Casas, believed that instead of just conquering the Indians, they should have a chance to defend themselves. "Hence every nation[s], no matter how barbaric, has the right to defend itself... And take away its

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In the 16th Century, Spain became one of the European forces to reckon with. To expand even further globally, Spanish conquistadors were sent abroad to discover lands, riches, and North America and its civilizations. When the Spanish and Native American groups met one another, they judged each other, as they were both unfamiliar with the people that stood before them. The Native American and Spanish views and opinions of one another are more similar than different because when meeting and getting to know each other, neither the Spaniards nor the Native Americans saw the other group of people as human. Both groups of people thought of one another as barbaric monsters and were confused and amazed by each other’s cultures.

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He believed that the way the Indians were treated by Christians was wrong, unjust, and contrary to their beliefs. “This unjust thing, this cruelty without precedent, being seen by the Indians perpetrated upon so many guiltless innocents…” (p. 32). De Las Casas expressed his disapproval of the Spaniards treatment of the Indians. He believed it was wrong of them to act in such a way to the innocent and naïve

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This power imbalance and these payments are key in the subjugation of the natives. Furthermore, the paternalism of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples is obvious: “Captain [Cortes] stared at him [Cuauhtemoc]…then patted him on the head” (p.117). Post-conquest, and still today, “difficult relations” between the descendants of the Indigenous peoples and the “others” (p.117) still exist. The European view of the natives “as idolatrous savages” or, on the contrary, as “models of natural virtue” (p.175) demonstrate the versatile and often contradictory views held. Similarly, the Aztecs at times saw the Spaniards as gods, and other times as gold-hungry savages who “fingered it like monkeys” (p.51).

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