Bartolomé de las Casas

This article is about a Spanish priest in the 16th century. For more uses on Las Casas, see Las Casas (disambiguation)

Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P. (August 24, 1484 – July 17, 1566), was a 16th century Spanish Dominican priest, and the first resident Bishop of Chiapas. The Order of Preachers ( Latin: Ordo Praedicatorum) after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is Events 49 BC - Julius Caesar 's General Gaius Scribonius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River Events 180 - Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians The Spanish Empire (Imperio Español was one of the largest Empires in history and one of the first Global empires In the 15th and 16th centuries The Order of Preachers ( Latin: Ordo Praedicatorum) after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is A priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites in particular rites of sacrifice to and propitiation of a deity or deities A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, located towards the southeast of the country As a settler in the New World, he was galvanized by witnessing the torture and genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish colonists. The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia. Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental is intentionally Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. He is commemorated as a missionary in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on July 17. The Lutheran Calendar of Saints is a listing which details the primary annual festivals and events that are celebrated liturgically by the Lutheran Church The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( ELCA) is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago Illinois.

Biography

Bartolome de las Casas was born in Seville in 1484. Seville ( Spanish: Sevilla, see also different names) is the artistic cultural and financial capital of southern Spain. ^[1] With his father, he immigrated to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1502 on the expedition of Nicolás de Ovando, during which he witnessed the extermination of the Taínos. The Caribbean (ˌkærəˡbiən kæ'rəbiən Cariben|Caraïben or Caraïben; Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Caribe is a Region consisting Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest and most populous Island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of See the talk page for details--> The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. He became a priest eight years later, and served as a missionary to the Arawak (Taino) of Cuba in 1512. The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for Cassava flour was used to designate the Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Republic of Cuba (ˈkjuːbə or) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles) Isla de la There, he received a repartimiento (a grant of native labour) which he exploited. The Repartimiento de Labor was a colonial forced labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America and the Philippines. Starting in 1514, however, he became an adamant opponent of Spanish colonialism, joining the Dominican Order in 1522. The Spanish colonization of the Americas was Spain 's conquest settlement and rule over much of the Western hemisphere. The Order of Preachers ( Latin: Ordo Praedicatorum) after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is His 1520-21 attempt to create a more equitable colonial society in Venezuela was sabotaged by his colonial neighbors, who incited a native rebellion against him. Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the

Historical importance

Las Casas became well-known for his advocacy of the rights of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, whose cultures he described with care. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. His descriptions of the caciques (chiefs or princes), bohiques (shamans or clerics), ni-taínos (noblemen), and naborias (common folk) in the Caribbean clearly showed a feudal structure. Cacique or Cazique (female form Cacica) from the Taíno word for the Pre-Columbian tribal chiefs or leaders, of the Taino A cleric ( Ancient Greek κληρικός - klērikos clergyman (pl Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations Feudalism, a term first used in the early modern period (17th century in its most classic sense refers to a Medieval Europe Political system composed He was a mentor of Taíno rebel Enriquillo in his early age, being later a conciliator between him and the conquistadors. The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. Enriquillo was a Taíno Cacique who rebelled against the Spaniards from 1519 to 1533 This article is about the Spanish explorer soldiers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuriesfor other uses see Conquistador (disambiguation A Conquistador His book A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (original title in Spanish: Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias), published in 1552, gave a vivid description of the atrocities committed by the conquistadors in the Americas – most particularly, the Caribbean, Central America, and what is now Mexico – including many events to which he was a witness, as well as some events he reprints from others' eyewitness accounts. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar This article is about the Spanish explorer soldiers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuriesfor other uses see Conquistador (disambiguation A Conquistador The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Together with Las Casas' "De Regio Potestate o Derecho de Autodeterminacion" published in 1571, they inspired the Dutch to write their "Act of Abjuration" or "Dutch Declaration of Independence" in 1581. Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. A maritime and economic power in the 17th century Holland today consists of the Dutch provinces of Las Casas' "Doctrine of Self Determination" maintained that all power derives from the people; power is delegated to rulers in order that they may serve their people; and all important governmental acts require popular consultation and approval. “No state, king, or emperor can alienate territories, or change their political system, without the express approval of their inhabitants,” he wrote. In one of his last works, De thesauris in Peru, he vigorously defended the rights of the natives of Peru against enslavement by the early Spanish Conquest. De Thesauris in Peru is a treatise by Spanish Dominican priest and reformer Bartolomé de las Casas (1484 – July 17 1566 who was the first resident Bishop of For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. This article is about the Spanish explorer soldiers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuriesfor other uses see Conquistador (disambiguation A Conquistador The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was a process through which a group of forty (40 Spaniards led by Francisco Pizarro succeeded in toppling the Inca The work also questioned Spain's right to take the treasures derived from Atahualpa ransom during the Inca Conquest, as well as those valuables found and taken from the burial sites of the Indian population. Atahualpa, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, or Atawallpa ( Quito – Cajamarca, August 29, 1533) was the last sovereign

The book was dedicated to King Philip II of Spain. Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598 Las Casas explained that he had supported the Spanish conquest when he first arrived in the New World, but that he soon became convinced that it would eventually lead to the collapse of Spain itself in an act of Divine retribution. Divine retribution is a supernatural punishment usually directed towards all or some portions of humanity by a Deity. According to Las Casas, it was the responsibility of the Spanish to convert the Indians, who would then be loyal subjects of Spain, rather than to kill them. To address the labor needs of the Spanish colonists, Las Casas proposed that Africans be brought to America instead, though he later changed his mind about this when he saw the effects of slavery on Africans. Largely due to his efforts, New Laws were adopted in 1542 to protect American Indians in the colonies. The New Laws (or Leyes Nuevas in Spanish) of 1542 were created to prevent the exploitation of the indigenous people by the encomenderos

Las Casas also wrote Historia de las Indias and was the editor of Christopher Columbus' published journal. Christopher Columbus (1451 &ndash May 20 1506 was an Italian Navigator, colonizer He was instrumental, on his repeated return trips to Spain, in gaining the temporary repeal of the encomienda regulations that established virtual slave labor gangs in Spanish America. The encomienda system is a Trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the In 1547, De Las Casas initiated theological debates with the priest Sepulveda en Salamanca. Las Casas returned to Spain and was eventually able to bring about the great debate of 1550 in Valladolid between himself and the advocate for the settlers, Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. The Valladolid debate (1550 – 1551 concerned the treatment of natives of the New World. ||-||} is an industrial city and it is a Municipality in north-central Spain, upon the Pisuerga River and within the Ribera del Duero wine-making region Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1494 - 1573 was a Spanish Dominican, philosopher and theologian. Though the encomienda system triumphed, championed by the colonial Spanish classes who were profiting from it, the writings of Las Casas were translated and republished across Europe. His published accounts are central documents in the "Black Legend" of Spanish colonial atrocities. The Black Legend ( La Leyenda Negra) is a term coined by Julián Juderías in his 1914 book La leyenda negra y la verdad histórica ( The Black Legend They influenced the essayist Montaigne's views of the New World. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth specifically the Americas and Australia.

See also

• Population history of American indigenous peoples
• Valladolid debate
• San Cristóbal de las Casas

Notes

Further reading

• Bartolomé de las Casas, Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Paperback). Translated by Nigel Griffin. Penguin Classics; 1st ed edition (September 8, 1999) ISBN 0140445625
• Bartolomé de las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies, a Brief Account. Translated by Herma Briffault. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1974. ISBN 0801844304
• David Orique, O. P. Thesis: [1]
• Bartolomé de las Casas: Apologetic History [2]

External links

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/bartolomedelascasas/

• Works by Bartolomé de las Casas at Project Gutenberg
  • A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, available at Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works