The Just War Among The Indians Summary

The 1550 debate at Valladolid, Spain is considered to be one of the most important debate in the history of conquest of the New World because it questioned its legitimacy. The objective of the debate between Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda and Bartolome de Las Casas was to discuss the capability of the Indians to govern themselves. Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda was a humanist theologian, who served as Charles V official historian. In his book, On the Reasons for the Just War among the Indians (1547), Sepúlveda represented the colonist vision and beliefs. On the other hand, Bartolome de Las Casa was a Dominican friar, writer, and advocate for the humane treatment of the Indians in the New World. In his book, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies

It is clear from his writing style and use of words that he was a well-educated man. In fact he was educated in Italy and followed the Aristotelian ideas of “natural slavery”. One of Sepúlveda’s strongest arguments in his book, On the Reasons for the Just War among the Indians (1547), was that there are men “who by nature are masters and other who by nature are slaves”. For Sepúlveda, the Indians were inferior, barbarous, and incapable of self-governance. That Indians needed to be govern by someone else and if they resisted to accept the ruling of the superior being (Spaniards), they could be forced into accepting it. Furthermore, one of his weakest argument is about the spiritual practices of the Indians. He argued that their religion is an “impious religion”. This is because of the human sacrifices that Indians practiced. He mentions that “… they sacrificed victims by removing the hearts from the chests…With this ritual they believed that they had appeased their

After witnessing the exploitation and brutalities that the Indians suffered at the hands of other encomenderos, he decided to give up his encomienda and became an advocate for the human treatment of the Indians. Like Sepúlveda, Las Casas writing style and use of words shows that he was a well-educated man. In a Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, Las Casas gives a detailed eye-witness account of the atrocities committed by the encomenderos against the Indians. For instance, Las Casas mention that Spaniards burned alive Indians, forced them into heavy labor, stabbed and dismembered them. One of Las Casas strongest argument is against the legitimacy of wars against the indigenous population and the enslavement of Indians. According to Las Casas, “Spaniards …have gone there to extirpate those pitiful nations and wipe them off the earth is by unjustly waging cruel and bloody wars… killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold…”. It is clear that Las Casas appeals to the reader’s emotions when describing the actions performed by the encomenderos. De Las Casas motivation for writing this document was to draw the attention of the Spanish crown so they could do something to end the oppression against the