Bartolome de las Casas’s Destruction of the Indies Essay

Bartolom de las Casas was a Spanish historian and a social reformer who was writing in the 16th century, during the time of the Spanish occupation of the Indies. In A Short Account of the ravaging of the Indies, Casas provides a scathing commentary on the cruelty exercised by the Spanish colonizers on the natives of Hispaniolaas well as explain the aims that motivated this behavior. The account acts as not only an observation on the practices of the colonizers, merely is to a fault a reflection of the imperial policies of the Spanish Empire. Through writing A Short Account of the final stage of the Indies, Casas aims at bringing the Spanish leads attention to the atrocities committed by the citizens of the empire on the natives. In keeping with that aim, he utilizes a rhetoric that seeks to arouse the sympathy of his readers towards the natives and a sense of crime over how they are existence treated. Right from the beginning of the account, in the preface, he paints an image of the natives as world simple, and harmless. He describes them as, the simplest people in the worldthey are without malice or guiltnever quarrel just about or belligerent or boisterous, they harbour no grudgesindeed the notions of revenge, rancour and hatred are rather foreign to them.In contrast to that, he describes the Spaniards as ravening wolves who fell upon the natives like tigers or fell lions who had not eaten meat for days . Casas sets up a parity between the helplessness of the natives and the savagery of the Spaniards, and this comparison holds throughout the document. Examples of this comparison are in the frequent accounts he gives of the before and after native world levels once the Spanish occupy an areawhen the Spanish first journeyed here, the indigenous population of the island of Hispaniola stood at some three million today only two hundred survive or not a living soul remains today on any of the islands of the Bahamas. Casas uses concrete numbers in descri bing the drop in the population level, in the number deathshe does this as a means of stressing the official reputation of the document, to lend it a sense authority. These numbers in any case help in giving his readers a truly clear idea of the terrifying extent of the Spanish cruelty. He enumerates the different styles through which the locals are being exterminated, which gives a fair idea of the general colonial practices in the Indies through forcible shipping, unjusttyrannical war, working the natives to thepoint of deathCasas gives an example of a man who worked the natives under him so hard that in spite of appearance a month, out of three hundred, only thirty survived.More importantly, Casas reveals the motives behind the general cruelty as being simple, materialistic greed. He explains that the greed for the gold that the natives take on is the driving pressure behind the actions of the Spanish. The one instance that effectively reflects this fanatical greed is o f the local lord who makes an offering of cabaret thousand castilians to the Spanish and is still seized and tortured for more goldtying him in a academic term position to a stake set in the ground, lit a fire under his outstretched feet to induce him to hand over yet more goldwhen he produced no further gold, they carried on until all the marrow ran out through the soles of his feet. What is worth noting is that Casas when first talking about this greed, refers to the Spanish as Christiansthe reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed. Casas obviously uses the term Christian ironically to draw attention to the un-Christian behavior that the Spanish are displaying in the colonies. Casas was the Bishop of Chiapas.He was a clerical man, and so his primary concern was the un-Christian activities that were taking straddle in the colonies. He exclaims that the colonizers have little concern over their natives souls as for their bodies, all the millions that have perished, having at peace(p) to their deaths with no knowledge of God. This clearly defines exactly what A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies as a text isit is not a text that is arguing for gibe rights, it is instead a text that shows the priorities and concerns of a man living under the Spanish Empire at the time. Casas views the natives not as people equal to the Spaniards, but as potential Christians. He describes them as being, innocent and pure in mind and have a lively intelligence, all of which makes them particularly receptive to learning and understanding the truths of our Catholic faith and to being instructed in virtue. Casas is outraged because the Spanish policy of conversion and saving of souls as first priority was not being followed. Instead, it was being utilise as an excuseThe gulf that yawns between theory and practice has meant that, in fact, the local people have been presented with a n ultimatum either they adopt the Christian religion and swear allegiance to the Crown of Castile, or they will find themselves faced withmilitary action.He describes how the Spanish would unnecessarily pillage an area, but would essentially be within their legal rights as they would make sure that they presented the natives with the royal ultimatum. Casas account is a good reflection of the general imperial policy of expansion of the Spanish Empire. The Spanish Empire used religion as a tool to further its aimsthe Spanish Inquisition, for example, was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella as a way of increasing their political authority via religion and to suppress any tenseness that may arise from social and cultural differences. While the activities of the colonizers wasnt the same as the inquisition, as Casas points out, the Spanish in the colonies were using religion in a similar way.Therefore, CasasA Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies giv es important insight into the practices of the Spanish Empire. It also presents an interesting perspective from someone who is a part and within the empirewho is aware and recognizes the malpractices of the Crown and more importantly, is attempting to do something to put a stop to it. Its also important that the way he goes about this, is through literatureit shows us the importance of the written article in the process of trying to affect a change. Though Casas sentiment in the account ability not be a common one at the time, it does signal a rising sense of the moral blindness displayed in the activities of the empires/colonies.Works CitedBartolom de las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, trans. Nigel Griffin (London Penguin Classics, 2004), 9-37. Bartolom de las Casas, Bartolom de las Casas, in Norton Anthology of American Literature, ed. Nina Bayme and Robert S. Levine. (New York WW Norton & Co, 2012), 38.