Case Study: Las Casas vs. Sepulvada
Emperor Charles V
(1500 – 1558) was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556. Through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four million square kilometers and were the first to be described as "the empire on which the sun never sets."
What three major events happen during Charles V's life?
(1500 – 1558) was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556. Through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four million square kilometers and were the first to be described as "the empire on which the sun never sets."
What three major events happen during Charles V's life?
Guiding Question:
|
Reading:
|
For this case study you are to analyze Chapter 14 Changing Attitudes and Beliefs (Pgs. 456 - 461) and review the sources provided below. You are expected to be able to answer the guiding question in full depth with specific historical evidence and supporting details.
|
The Encomienda System
Policy: the Spanish had the right to force Native Americans to work on the haciendas (to work the land). In exchange, the Spanish were to give their workers protection and a Christian education. |
Racial HierarchyPeninsulares = Spanish born
Creoles = Spanish born in America Mestizos = Spanish and Native born Native Indians |
Is the encomienda system ethical?
Junta (meeting) called in 1550 by Charles V (Philip II’s Father)
Who Attends: • Scholars • Explorers • Theologians Questions that Charles V asks:
|
|
Questions
Historical Arguments
Read the following arguments made by Sepulvada and Las Casas. Determine what evidence each uses to form their argument and what you think Charles V should decide.
Juan Gines de Sepulveda |
Bartolome de Las Casas |
Introduction
Source: Dr. Bonar Ludwig Hernandez, Professor at San Francisco State University, 2001
“I am the voice crying in the wilderness...the voice of Christ in the desert of this island...[saying that] you are all in mortal sin...on account of the cruelty and tyranny with which you use these innocent people. Are these not men? Have they not rational souls? Must not you love them as you love yourselves?” These phrases, spoken in 1511 by Antonio de Montesinos, one of the first Dominicans to arrive in the island of Hispaniola, reflect that the Spaniards were not a monolithic band of greedy conquistadores who merely sought to exploit and kill the American Indians. On the contrary, the Spanish discovery and subsequent conquest of the New World inspired a serious, if not heated, intellectual controversy regarding the rationality and Christianization of the Indians. The debate reached its height in 1550, when the King of Spain, Charles V, ordered a junta, a group of jurists and theologians, to meet at Valladolid in order to hear the arguments in favor and against the use of force to incorporate the Indians into Spanish America. On the one side was one Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, a prominent humanist and Greek scholar who justified conquest and evangelization by war. His opponent, friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, in contrast, was a staunch advocate of peaceful and persuasive conversion. So it was that the most powerful man, Charles V, leader of the most powerful nation in the world, Spain, suspended all wars of conquest and the expansion of the encomienda system until a group of intellectuals grappled with the morality of Spain’s presence and enterprises in America. The debate, however, was carried out in a strictly theoretical manner; that is, in seeking to determine the legality of waging war as a means of Christianization, Sepúlveda and Las Casas exclusively relied on European secular and religious sources.
Source: Dr. Bonar Ludwig Hernandez, Professor at San Francisco State University, 2001
“I am the voice crying in the wilderness...the voice of Christ in the desert of this island...[saying that] you are all in mortal sin...on account of the cruelty and tyranny with which you use these innocent people. Are these not men? Have they not rational souls? Must not you love them as you love yourselves?” These phrases, spoken in 1511 by Antonio de Montesinos, one of the first Dominicans to arrive in the island of Hispaniola, reflect that the Spaniards were not a monolithic band of greedy conquistadores who merely sought to exploit and kill the American Indians. On the contrary, the Spanish discovery and subsequent conquest of the New World inspired a serious, if not heated, intellectual controversy regarding the rationality and Christianization of the Indians. The debate reached its height in 1550, when the King of Spain, Charles V, ordered a junta, a group of jurists and theologians, to meet at Valladolid in order to hear the arguments in favor and against the use of force to incorporate the Indians into Spanish America. On the one side was one Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, a prominent humanist and Greek scholar who justified conquest and evangelization by war. His opponent, friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, in contrast, was a staunch advocate of peaceful and persuasive conversion. So it was that the most powerful man, Charles V, leader of the most powerful nation in the world, Spain, suspended all wars of conquest and the expansion of the encomienda system until a group of intellectuals grappled with the morality of Spain’s presence and enterprises in America. The debate, however, was carried out in a strictly theoretical manner; that is, in seeking to determine the legality of waging war as a means of Christianization, Sepúlveda and Las Casas exclusively relied on European secular and religious sources.
Juan Gines de Sepulveda, “Democrates Secundus, or The Just Causes of War Against the Indians”
Juan Gines de Seulveda was born in 1490 into a Spanish aristocratic family and studied ancient literature and philosophy at the University of Alcala in Spain. With ambitions for a scholarly career, he moved to Italy, the center of Renaissance, where he studied and taught for twenty years. He later served as a chaplain and official historian for King Charles I of Spain and later for his son Phillip II. Sepulveda wrote a number of original philosophical and theological works. His views that superior peoples had the right to enslave inferiors was an elaboration of an argument founded by Aristotle. His first expounded his theory in 1547 in his “Democrates Secundus, or The Just Causes of War Against the Indians”. The arguments he advanced in 1550 against Las Casas were based on this work. Sepulveda died in 1573, embittered by the controversies that had clouded his old age.
****
It is established then…that the dominion of prudent, good and humane men over those of contrary disposition is just and natural. [In the case of the Roman Empire], God conceded to the Roman a very extensive and glorious empire in order to keep grave evil from spreading among many people who , in search of glory, coveted riches and other vices…God gave the Romans their empire so that, with the good legislation that they instituted and the virtue in which they excelled, they might change the customs and suppress and correct the vices of many barbarian people.
Turning then to our topic, whether it is proper and just in nature, customs, and law rule over their inferiors, you can easily understand…if you are familiar with the character and moral code of the two peoples, that it is with perfect right that the Spaniards exercise their dominion over those barbarians of the New World…For in prudence, talent, and every kind of virtue and human sentiment they are as inferior to the Spaniards as children are to adults, or women to men….
And who is ignorant of the Spaniards…virtues: courage, humanity, justice, and religion? I refer simply to princes and to those whose aid and skill they utilize to govern the state, to those, in short, who have received a liberal education…Now compare these qualities of prudence, skill, magnanimity, moderation, humanity, and religion (Christian) with those little men of America in whom one can scarcely find ay remnants of humanity. They not only lack culture but do not even use or know about writing or preserve records of their history – save some obscure memory of certain deeds contained in paintings. They lack written laws and their institutions and customs are barbaric. And as for their virtues, if you wish to be informed of their moderation and mildness, what can be expected of men committed to all kinds of passion and nefarious (wicked) lewdness and of whom not a few are given to the eating of human flesh. Do not believe that their life before the coming of the Spaniards was one of…peace…On the contrary, they made war with each other almost continuously, and with such fury that they considered a victory to be empty if they could not satisfy their…hunger with the flesh of their enemies…in other respects they are so cowardly and timid that they scarcely offer any resistance to the hostile presence of our side, and many times thousands and thousands of them have been dispersed and have fled like women on being defeated by the Spanish force scarcely amounting to one hundred. So as not to detain you longer in this matter, consider the nature of …the Mexicans…[tells story of the defeat of Montezuma by Cortez)…
I have made reference to the customs and character of the barbarians. What shall I say now of the impious religion and wicked sacrifice of such people, who, in venerating the devil as if he was God, believed that the best sacrifice that they could placate him with was to offer him human hearts?...These are crimes that are considered by the philosophers to be among the most ferocious and abominable perversions, exceeding all human iniquity (injustice)…
How can we doubt that these people – so uncivilized, so barbaric, contaminated with so many impieties and obscenities – have been justly conquered by a nation excellent in every kind of virtue , with the best law and best benefits for the barbarians? Prior to the arrival of the Christians they have the nature, customs, religion, and practice of evil sacrifice as we have explained. Now, on receiving with our rule our writing, laws, and morality, imbued with the Christian religion, having shown themselves to be docile to the missionaries that we have sent them, as many have done, they are as different from their primitive condition as civilized people are from barbarians, or as those with sigh from the blind, as the inhuman from the meek, as the pious from the impious, or to put it in a single phrase, in effect as men from beasts.
Juan Gines de Seulveda was born in 1490 into a Spanish aristocratic family and studied ancient literature and philosophy at the University of Alcala in Spain. With ambitions for a scholarly career, he moved to Italy, the center of Renaissance, where he studied and taught for twenty years. He later served as a chaplain and official historian for King Charles I of Spain and later for his son Phillip II. Sepulveda wrote a number of original philosophical and theological works. His views that superior peoples had the right to enslave inferiors was an elaboration of an argument founded by Aristotle. His first expounded his theory in 1547 in his “Democrates Secundus, or The Just Causes of War Against the Indians”. The arguments he advanced in 1550 against Las Casas were based on this work. Sepulveda died in 1573, embittered by the controversies that had clouded his old age.
****
It is established then…that the dominion of prudent, good and humane men over those of contrary disposition is just and natural. [In the case of the Roman Empire], God conceded to the Roman a very extensive and glorious empire in order to keep grave evil from spreading among many people who , in search of glory, coveted riches and other vices…God gave the Romans their empire so that, with the good legislation that they instituted and the virtue in which they excelled, they might change the customs and suppress and correct the vices of many barbarian people.
Turning then to our topic, whether it is proper and just in nature, customs, and law rule over their inferiors, you can easily understand…if you are familiar with the character and moral code of the two peoples, that it is with perfect right that the Spaniards exercise their dominion over those barbarians of the New World…For in prudence, talent, and every kind of virtue and human sentiment they are as inferior to the Spaniards as children are to adults, or women to men….
And who is ignorant of the Spaniards…virtues: courage, humanity, justice, and religion? I refer simply to princes and to those whose aid and skill they utilize to govern the state, to those, in short, who have received a liberal education…Now compare these qualities of prudence, skill, magnanimity, moderation, humanity, and religion (Christian) with those little men of America in whom one can scarcely find ay remnants of humanity. They not only lack culture but do not even use or know about writing or preserve records of their history – save some obscure memory of certain deeds contained in paintings. They lack written laws and their institutions and customs are barbaric. And as for their virtues, if you wish to be informed of their moderation and mildness, what can be expected of men committed to all kinds of passion and nefarious (wicked) lewdness and of whom not a few are given to the eating of human flesh. Do not believe that their life before the coming of the Spaniards was one of…peace…On the contrary, they made war with each other almost continuously, and with such fury that they considered a victory to be empty if they could not satisfy their…hunger with the flesh of their enemies…in other respects they are so cowardly and timid that they scarcely offer any resistance to the hostile presence of our side, and many times thousands and thousands of them have been dispersed and have fled like women on being defeated by the Spanish force scarcely amounting to one hundred. So as not to detain you longer in this matter, consider the nature of …the Mexicans…[tells story of the defeat of Montezuma by Cortez)…
I have made reference to the customs and character of the barbarians. What shall I say now of the impious religion and wicked sacrifice of such people, who, in venerating the devil as if he was God, believed that the best sacrifice that they could placate him with was to offer him human hearts?...These are crimes that are considered by the philosophers to be among the most ferocious and abominable perversions, exceeding all human iniquity (injustice)…
How can we doubt that these people – so uncivilized, so barbaric, contaminated with so many impieties and obscenities – have been justly conquered by a nation excellent in every kind of virtue , with the best law and best benefits for the barbarians? Prior to the arrival of the Christians they have the nature, customs, religion, and practice of evil sacrifice as we have explained. Now, on receiving with our rule our writing, laws, and morality, imbued with the Christian religion, having shown themselves to be docile to the missionaries that we have sent them, as many have done, they are as different from their primitive condition as civilized people are from barbarians, or as those with sigh from the blind, as the inhuman from the meek, as the pious from the impious, or to put it in a single phrase, in effect as men from beasts.
- For Sepulveda, what qualities of the Spanish make them superior?
- How does he “prove” the inferiority of the Indians?
- If one were to accept the author’s premises concerning the Indian’s inferiority, would one be forced to accept his conclusions?
- What might the judges at Valladolid have found convincing in Sepulveda’s arguments? What weaknesses might they have discerned?
“They Are Our Brothers” Bartolome de Las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1576) was born in Seville, and, at age eighteen, left Spain for the New World where he took part in the colonization of Cuba. The barbarity of the Spanish conquistadores shocked him, bringing about his conversion and entry into the Dominican order. Thereafter, he devoted himself to the defense of the Indians, and the cataloguing of Spanish atrocities against them. He was not alone in this — many Jesuit priests defended the Indians in the same way, some even dying on their behalf. It is the books of Las Casas, however, which shocked and informed Europe at the time and continue to influence to this day. Las Casas was radical but not heretical — he believed that Columbus was an instrument of God to bring the Gospel to the New World and did not advocate revolt against the Spanish Crown, whose legitimacy to rule in South America he accepted. His ideas had little immediate effect on changing Spanish attitudes in South America — the lust for gold was stronger than the recognition of religious or moral justice amongst the conquistadores. In the longer term, however, his books and actions earned him the title “Defender and Apostle to the Indians.”
*****
[The Native Americans] have a lawful, just, and natural government. Even though they lack the art and use of writing, they are not wanting in the capacity and skill to rule and govern themselves, both publicly and privately. They have kingdoms, communities, and cities that they govern wisely according to their laws and customs. Thus their government is legitimate and natural…From these statements we have to conclude that that the rulers of such nations enjoy the use of reason and that their people and inhabitants of their provinces do not lack peace and justice. Otherwise they could not be established and preserved as political entities for long…Therefore, not all barbarians (Native Americans) are irrational or natural slaves or unfit for government. Some barbarians (Native Americans)…have kingdoms, royal dignitaries, jurisdiction, and good laws, and there is among them lawful governments.
Now if we shall have shown that among our Indians of the western and southern shores…there are important kingdoms, large numbers of people who live settled lives in a society, great cities, kings, judges, and laws, persons who engage in commerce, buying, selling, lending, and the other contracts of the law of nations,…Sepulveda has spoken wrongly…From the fact that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they incapable of government and have to be ruled by others, expect to be taught about the catholic faith and to be admitted to the holy sacraments. They are not ignorant, inhuman, or bestial. Rather, long before they had heard the word Spaniard they had properly organized states, wisely ordered by excellent laws, religion, and customs. They cultivated in friendship and…lived in populous cities in which they wisely administered the affairs of both peace and war justly and equitably, truly governed by the laws that at very many points surpassed ours…
Now if they are to be subjugated by war because they are ignorant of polished literature, let Sepulveda hear Trogus Pompey: Not could the Spaniards submit to the yoke of a conquered province since Casear Augustus, after he had conquered the world, turned his victorious armies against them and organized that barbaric and wild people as a province once he had led them by law to a more civilized way of life. (In this quote, Las Casas references when Spain had been occupied by the Roman Empire 1100 year before and how the Romans called the Spanish barbaric and used the term to justify its conquest of Spain).
Now see how he called the Spanish people barbaric and wild….Does he [Sepulveda] think that the war of the Romans against the Spanish was justified in order to free them from barbarism?...Did the Spanish wage an unjust war when they vigorously defended themselves against them?
For God’s sake man’s faith in him, is this the way to impose the yoke of Christ on Christian men? Is this the way to remove wild barbarism from the minds of barbarians?...The Indian race is not that barbaric, nor are they dull witted or stupid, but they are easy to teach and very talented in learning all the liberal arts, and very ready to accept, honor, and observe the Christian religion and correct their sins…once priests have introduced them to the sacred mysteries and taught them the word of God…
Furthermore,…so very beautiful in their skill and artistry are the things this people produces in the grace of its architecture, its paintings, and its needlework…In the liberal arts that they been taught up to now, such as grammar and logic, they are remarkably adept (skillful)…
From this it is clear that the basis for Sepulveda teaching that these people are uncivilized and ignorant is worse than false. Yet even if we were to grant that this race has no keenness of mind or artistic ability, certainty they are not, in consequence, obliged to submit themselves to those who are more intelligent and to adopt their ways , so that, if they refuse, they may be subdued by having war waged against them and be enslaved, as happens today…We are bound by the natural law to embrace virtue and imitate the uprightness of good men…
Therefore, not even a truly wise man may force an ignorant barbarian to submit to him, especially by yielding his liberty, without doing him an injustice…Hence every nation, no matter how barbaric, has the right to defend itself against a more civilized one that wants to conquer it and take away its freedom…
Again, if we want to be sons of Christ and followers of the truth of the gospel, we should consider that, even though these peoples may be completely barbaric, they are nevertheless created in God’s image. They are not so forsaken by divine providence that they are incapable of attaining Christ’s kingdom. They are our brothers…Christ wanted love to be called his single commandment. This we owe to all men. Nobody is excepted.
Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1576) was born in Seville, and, at age eighteen, left Spain for the New World where he took part in the colonization of Cuba. The barbarity of the Spanish conquistadores shocked him, bringing about his conversion and entry into the Dominican order. Thereafter, he devoted himself to the defense of the Indians, and the cataloguing of Spanish atrocities against them. He was not alone in this — many Jesuit priests defended the Indians in the same way, some even dying on their behalf. It is the books of Las Casas, however, which shocked and informed Europe at the time and continue to influence to this day. Las Casas was radical but not heretical — he believed that Columbus was an instrument of God to bring the Gospel to the New World and did not advocate revolt against the Spanish Crown, whose legitimacy to rule in South America he accepted. His ideas had little immediate effect on changing Spanish attitudes in South America — the lust for gold was stronger than the recognition of religious or moral justice amongst the conquistadores. In the longer term, however, his books and actions earned him the title “Defender and Apostle to the Indians.”
*****
[The Native Americans] have a lawful, just, and natural government. Even though they lack the art and use of writing, they are not wanting in the capacity and skill to rule and govern themselves, both publicly and privately. They have kingdoms, communities, and cities that they govern wisely according to their laws and customs. Thus their government is legitimate and natural…From these statements we have to conclude that that the rulers of such nations enjoy the use of reason and that their people and inhabitants of their provinces do not lack peace and justice. Otherwise they could not be established and preserved as political entities for long…Therefore, not all barbarians (Native Americans) are irrational or natural slaves or unfit for government. Some barbarians (Native Americans)…have kingdoms, royal dignitaries, jurisdiction, and good laws, and there is among them lawful governments.
Now if we shall have shown that among our Indians of the western and southern shores…there are important kingdoms, large numbers of people who live settled lives in a society, great cities, kings, judges, and laws, persons who engage in commerce, buying, selling, lending, and the other contracts of the law of nations,…Sepulveda has spoken wrongly…From the fact that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they incapable of government and have to be ruled by others, expect to be taught about the catholic faith and to be admitted to the holy sacraments. They are not ignorant, inhuman, or bestial. Rather, long before they had heard the word Spaniard they had properly organized states, wisely ordered by excellent laws, religion, and customs. They cultivated in friendship and…lived in populous cities in which they wisely administered the affairs of both peace and war justly and equitably, truly governed by the laws that at very many points surpassed ours…
Now if they are to be subjugated by war because they are ignorant of polished literature, let Sepulveda hear Trogus Pompey: Not could the Spaniards submit to the yoke of a conquered province since Casear Augustus, after he had conquered the world, turned his victorious armies against them and organized that barbaric and wild people as a province once he had led them by law to a more civilized way of life. (In this quote, Las Casas references when Spain had been occupied by the Roman Empire 1100 year before and how the Romans called the Spanish barbaric and used the term to justify its conquest of Spain).
Now see how he called the Spanish people barbaric and wild….Does he [Sepulveda] think that the war of the Romans against the Spanish was justified in order to free them from barbarism?...Did the Spanish wage an unjust war when they vigorously defended themselves against them?
For God’s sake man’s faith in him, is this the way to impose the yoke of Christ on Christian men? Is this the way to remove wild barbarism from the minds of barbarians?...The Indian race is not that barbaric, nor are they dull witted or stupid, but they are easy to teach and very talented in learning all the liberal arts, and very ready to accept, honor, and observe the Christian religion and correct their sins…once priests have introduced them to the sacred mysteries and taught them the word of God…
Furthermore,…so very beautiful in their skill and artistry are the things this people produces in the grace of its architecture, its paintings, and its needlework…In the liberal arts that they been taught up to now, such as grammar and logic, they are remarkably adept (skillful)…
From this it is clear that the basis for Sepulveda teaching that these people are uncivilized and ignorant is worse than false. Yet even if we were to grant that this race has no keenness of mind or artistic ability, certainty they are not, in consequence, obliged to submit themselves to those who are more intelligent and to adopt their ways , so that, if they refuse, they may be subdued by having war waged against them and be enslaved, as happens today…We are bound by the natural law to embrace virtue and imitate the uprightness of good men…
Therefore, not even a truly wise man may force an ignorant barbarian to submit to him, especially by yielding his liberty, without doing him an injustice…Hence every nation, no matter how barbaric, has the right to defend itself against a more civilized one that wants to conquer it and take away its freedom…
Again, if we want to be sons of Christ and followers of the truth of the gospel, we should consider that, even though these peoples may be completely barbaric, they are nevertheless created in God’s image. They are not so forsaken by divine providence that they are incapable of attaining Christ’s kingdom. They are our brothers…Christ wanted love to be called his single commandment. This we owe to all men. Nobody is excepted.
- For Las Casas, do the Spanish have any qualities that make them superior?
- How does he “dis-prove” the inferiority of the Indians?
- If one were to accept the author’s premises concerning the Indian’s superiority, would one be forced to accept his conclusions?
- What might the judges at Valladolid have found convincing in Las Casas’ arguments? What weaknesses might they have discerned?
Final Question
Based on the evidence (keeping in mind the cultural norms of the time period in which he lives) what should Charles V do concerning the ecomenienda system and treatment of natives in his empire?