Who is the protector of the indians

Latest Key Figures. Latest Financial Press Releases and Reports. Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Share Information. Specialty Products. Catalogs, Flyers and Price Lists. Open Access. Open Access for Authors. Open Access and Research Funding. Open Access for Librarians. Open Access for Academic Societies. About us. Stay updated. Corporate Social Responsiblity. Investor Relations. Review a Brill Book. Chart 1. Chart 2. Reference Works.

Primary source collections. Open Access Content. Contact us. Sales contacts. Publishing contacts. Social Media Overview. Terms and Conditions. Privacy Statement. Login to my Brill account Create Brill Account. Author: Mauricio Novoa. I saw all the above things … and numberless others. De las Casas also saw, with rare insight, the ulterior motive of many conquistadors.

Ambition, not altruism, was the driving force; gold, not God, was their goal. He suspected they had crossed the Atlantic not only to spread the word of the Lord, but to find the gold that washed through the rivers of Amazonia and the minerals that lay beneath their rampaging feet.

The systematic eradication of indigenous ways of life and beliefs is still used as one of the most potent weapons in the oppression of tribal peoples. Such is the religious zeal of some extreme evangelist groups today, that they still promulgate the line that people are condemned to hell unless they adopt Christianity.

In extreme examples, contemporary missionary organisations such as the New Tribes Mission have even set out to force the first contact with tribal peoples, with devastating and destructive consequences. If the greed of the conquistadors knew no bounds, neither did the integrity and outraged courage of de las Casas.

Are they not men? De las Casas reformed his views, giving up his Indian slaves around , and set about exposing the lies. He felt morally bound to inform the Spanish court what was being carried out in the name of Christ. Published in De las Casas was very much in the vanguard of this missionary approach. Such beliefs are often held, however, at great personal cost. De las Casas suffered the disapproval, anger and threats to his life of many of his contemporaries; many missionaries since him have been murdered for their humane principles.

De las Casas was driven not by a self-regarding agenda but by a deeply-rooted sense of justice. De las Casas knew the Indians were not inferior to their oppressors. He was granted 92 years of life. For most of the invaders, this was not a serious consideration.

In their view, the Indians were a primitive, lesser breed; as Aristotle taught, some people were born to be slaves and others to be masters. While the church endorsed the conquest as an opportunity to extend the Gospel, there were few theologians of the time prepared to see the Indians as fully human and equal in the eyes of God.

To an extraordinary degree the life of las Casas was bound to the fate of the Indians. As a boy of 8, he witnessed the return of Columbus to Seville after his first voyage to the New World.

With fascination the young boy watched as the Admiral of the Ocean paraded through the streets, accompanied by seven Taino Indians the surviving remnant of a larger number who began the voyage. After later studies in Rome for the priesthood he returned to the New World, where he served as chaplain in the Spanish conquest of Cuba. Though a priest, he also benefited from the conquest as the owner of an encomienda, a plantation with Indian indentured laborers.

In these years, he witnessed scenes of diabolical cruelty, which he later chronicled with exacting detail. He described how the armored Spaniards would pacify a village by initiating massacres; how they would enslave their captives and punish any who rebelled by cutting off their hands; how they would consign them to die before their time through overwork in the mines and plantations. Such scenes, replayed constantly in his memory, haunted las Casas for the rest of his life.

In , las Casas, 30, gave up his lands and the Indians in his possession and declared that he would refuse absolution to any Christian who would not do the same. Eventually, he joined the Dominican order and went on to become a passionate and prophetic defender of the indigenous peoples. For more than 50 years he traveled back and forth between the New World and the court of Spain, attempting through his books, letters and preaching to expose the cruelties of the conquest, whose very legitimacy, and not merely excesses, he disavowed.

Oh, great and eternal God! Who is there to whom that is something? With this insight it followed that every ounce of gold extracted by their labor was theft; every indignity imposed on them was a crime; every death—whatever the circumstances—was an act of murder. Although the main attraction for the Spanish in the New World was gold, the conquest was ostensibly justified by evangelical motivations.

The pope had authorized the subjugation of the Indian populations for the purpose of implanting the Gospel and securing their salvation. With shame, he recounted the story of an Indian prince in Cuba who was burned alive. As he was tied to a stake a Franciscan friar spoke to him of God and asked him whether he would like to go to heaven and there enjoy glory and eternal rest.

In their sufferings, he argued, the Indians truly represented the crucified Christ. For las Casas there could be no salvation in Jesus Christ apart from social justice. Las Casas did not oppose the goal of evangelization. But this could never be achieved by force. Even then, they were bitterly debated. Nevertheless, las Casas did win a hearing in Spain, where he was named Protector of the Indians.

The earth can no longer bear such steeping in human blood. The angels of peace and even God, I think, must be weeping. Hell alone rejoices. In , with court officials in Spain eager to be rid of him, las Casas was named a bishop. While he spurned the offer of the rich see of Cuzco in Peru, he accepted the impoverished region of Chiapas in southern Mexico. There he immediately alienated his flock by once again refusing absolution to any Spaniard who would not free his Indian slaves.