Las Casas

Topic Las Casas
Academic Level : Bachelor
Paper details
First formal essay: As you know from reading part of Luis N. Rivera’s book A Violent Evangelism: The
Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas, the first major theological and philosophical dispute about
the New World centered on the humanity or bestiality of its inhabitants. In fact, in Vitoria’s words, those who
defended the legitimacy of Spanish domination of “the barbarians of the New World” insisted on the
anthropological inferiority of the natives, “who really do not seem to be far from brute beasts.” By 1550, two
theological positions had crystalized, each with its own legal and theological views on the status of the
peoples of the New World. Las Casas defended the humanity of the Indians, while Sepulveda took the
opposing view and theologically justified enslavement and colonial domination. Based on your
understanding of these debates, discuss the intimate link between disregard for the humanity of the Indians
and their use as beasts of burden. In this connection, how did Las Casas come to realize the vast economic
interest behind Sepulveda’s description of the Indians as bruta animalia (“Those that are esteemed and
appreciated less than beasts…are taken as means and instruments to acquire riches.”)? Given the
undeniable fact that the Spanish conquest of the Americas perpetrated a genocide of the Indians – one that
was continued by the founding and development of the Anglo-American colonial settler-state called the
United States of America – to what extent do Americans bear collective responsibility for the destruction of
Indian societies? Finally, how does the genocide of indigenous peoples around the world continue to haunt
the present, and what do you think should be done locally and globally to address the oppression of
indigenous peoples today?
Well developed thesis with supporting claims with quotations from the writing (Luis N. Rivera, from A Violent
Evangelism