Debate about the treatment of Indians in sixteenth-century Spain

Résumé du document

Since the discovery of the Caribbean and South America, these territories had been progressively ruled all along the sixteenth-century by Spanish settlers, who looked for labour forces to exploit the new lands for revenue of the Crown and for themselves; and also by missionaries sent by the Crown and the Church to Christianize the Indians. This conquest of the New World had been considered as an extension of the reconquest of Spain, also, the Spanish government wished these new territories to be integrated smoothly and peacefully into the Spanish system of government, and so, that is why Spanish settlers and missionaries had been sent. At the same time, however, ecclesiastics and the Castilian government agreed that the conquest should be done in respect of the rights of the natives and prevent the plundering of the conquerors. As a result, many questions about the way Spanish people should treat the natives of the Caribbean and South America aroused along the sixteenth-century and led to many debates between the advocates of the Indian cause and the defenders of the conquest.As a result, we will examine each of these themes and see why they triggered off a debate and what the arguments of both parts were.

Extraits

[...] Finally, we know that the junta ended by the recognition of the humanity of the Indians but it did not resolve the problem of how to treat them since even if they were recognised as human being they still were not Christian and as a result, Spanish authorities did not know how to define their rights and since then how to treat them. Las Casas claimed at the junta of Valladolid that the Indians were able of becoming Christians since he noticed in his studies of Indian culture a high spirit of religious devotion which, according to him, could be directed to the service of the God. Indeed, the Spanish Crown and the Church considered since the beginning of the conquest that their role was to Christianize and civilize the Indians so as to include them into the Spanish Empire. [...]

[...] The sovereigns asked layers whether these Indians “could be sold with good conscience”, that is to say if they could be considered as human and so how they should be treated. Likewise, a Dominican friar named Antonio de Montesinos made a public protest against Indian slavery in America in 1511 and claimed: ‘Tell me, by what right or justice do you keep these Indians in cruel servitude? On what authority have you waged a detestable was against these people, who dwelt quietly and peacefully on their own land? [...]

[...] Pageden, Spanish Imperialism and the Political Imagination: Studies in European and Spanish-American Social and Political Theory, 1513-1830 (New Haven & London, 1990) A. Pagden, European Encounters with the New World. European Encounters with the New World, p. 57. [...]

[...] He said that their heads were not as the heads of ‘other men. They were not, in fact, heads at all, but rather hard and thick helmets [ And just as their heads were hard, so their understanding was bestial and evilly inclined.' Finally, because the Spanish government wished to treat the natives in respect of their rights, a junta was organised in Valladolid in 1550 where both parties defended their ideas. In Sepúlveda's opinion, the Indians were barbaric, uninstructed in letters and the art of government and cruel. [...]

[...] However, while ecclesiastics were arguing about the legacy of the conquest of the new- found lands and the way the Spanish should farm the lands in respect of the Indians' rights, it seems that their debate was already obsolete since Spanish settlers had already monopolized the lands and established the encomienda system by which groups of Indians were assigned to Spanish. Thus, these one enjoyed free labour force and goods and in return they were supposed to provide protection and religious instruction for the Indians. However, this system was on the one hand defended by the conquistadors and Sepúlveda as necessary and on the other hand, it was attacked as un- Christian. Indeed, Las Casas maintained that only ecclesiastics could explain the Christian faith to the Indians and initiated them to it. [...]