1. PEOPLES and EMPIRES
BY DJ HESTON

2. Bartolome de Las Casas

 Bartolome de Las Casas (1474-1566)
was a Spanish Dominican bishop of
Chiapas in Mexico.
 Known as the “Apostle to the
Indians” he was the fiercest and
best-known activist of the rights of
the American Indians in the
sixteenth century.
 Las Casas was a prolific writer of
histories, political and theological
treatises, ethnographies and
innumerable pamphlets.

3. Bartolome de Las Casas

 In 1511 a Spanish Dominican named
Antonio de Montesinos gave a sermon
before Spanish dignitaries and Bartolome
de Las Casas which sparked a debate over
the rights of conquerors.
 He questioned the Spaniard’s cruel
treatment of the Indians with three
questions. “Are these not men? Do they
not have rational souls? Are you not
obliged to love them as yourselves?”
 Following Montesino’s speech, Las Casas
became a changed man and dedicated
himself to tell the world that the American
Indians were human and were true
subjects of the Castilian crown.

4. Bartolome de Las Casas

 Today Las Casas is best remembered for two
things; his chronicle of horrors against the Indians
in A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and
his debate with Gines de Sepulveda.
 In 1544 Sepulveda had written a dialogue
justifying the wars waged against the Indians
against the Spaniards but the work was turned
down by the theologians.
 Sepulveda was furious and demanded a debate
before the Council of the Indies to plead his case
for his book to be published.
 They both presented their case before judges in
Valladolid but the outcome was inconclusive.
 Sepulveda’s book was not published until the
nineteenth century which was later understood as
a victory for Las Casas who later became a symbol
of the fight against the injustices of colonialism.