Bartolome de las Casas’s Destruction of the Indies Essay

Bartolom de las Casas was a Spanish historian and a loving reformer who was writing in the 16th century, during the time of the Spanish ancestry of the Indies. In A Short draw of the Destruction of the Indies, Casas provides a critical 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 non only an observation on the practices of the colonizers, but is in like manner a reflection factor of the imperial policies of the Spanish Empire. Through writing A Short depict of the Destruction of the Indies, Casas aims at bringing the Spanish baksheeshs tending 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 plague over how they are being treated. Right from the beginning of the account, in the preface, he paints an image of the natives as being simple, and harmless. He describes them as, the simplest plurality in the realismthey are with unwrap malice or guiltnever quarrel near or belligerent or boisterous, they harbour no grudgesindeed the notions of revenge, rancour and iniquity are quite foreign to them.In contrast to that, he describes the Spaniards as ravening wolves who fell upon the natives like tigers or savage lions who had not eaten nucleus for days . Casas sets up a comparison between the helplessness of the natives and the ferociousness of the Spaniards, and this comparison holds by means ofout the document. Examples of this comparison are in the frequent accounts he gives of the before and after native population levels once the Spanish repose an areawhen the Spanish offset printing journeyed here, the indigenous population of the island of Hispaniola stood at some three million right away only two hundred run short or not a living soul remains today on any of the is lands of the Bahamas. Casas uses concrete numbers in describing the decline in the population level, in the number deathshe does this as a performer of stressing the official nature of the document, to lend it a sense authority. These numbers in any case help in giving his readers a very clear judgement of the terrifying extent of the Spanish cruelty. He enumerates the different ways through which the locals are being ex terminal figureinated, which gives a fair idea of the general colonial practices in the Indies through forcible expatriation, unjusttyrannical war, running(a) the natives to thepoint of deathCasas gives an example of a man who worked the natives on a lower floor him so hard that at heart a month, out of three hundred, only 30 survived.More importantly, Casas reveals the motives arsehole the widespread cruelty as being simple, secular greed. He explains that the greed for the sumptuous that the natives have is the driving force behind the actions of the Sp anish. The one instance that effectively reflects this fanatical greed is of the local entitle who makes an offering of nine thousand castilians to the Spanish and is still seized and tortured for to a greater extent goldtying him in a sitting position to a stake set in the ground, lit a fire on a lower floor 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 broad scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is plainly 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 associate was the un-Christian activities that were taking place in the colonies. He exclaims that the colonizers have little bring up over their natives souls as for their bodies, all the millions that have perished, having gone to their deaths with no companionship 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 allude 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 match 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 curiously 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 used as an explicateThe gulf that yawn s between theory and practice has meant that, in fact, the local people have been presented with an ultimatum either they adopt the Christian religion and swear devotion 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 animate being 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 surmount any tension that may arise from social and cultural differences. era the activities of the colonizers wasnt the same as the inquisition, as Casas points out, the Spanish in the colonies w ere victimisation religion in a similar way.Therefore, CasasA Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies gives important insight into the practices of the Spanish Empire. It also presents an interesting persuasion 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 word in the process of trying to locomote a change. Though Casas sentiment in the account might not be a common one at the time, it does signal a rising awareness 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 B ayme and Robert S. Levine. (New York WW Norton & Co, 2012), 38.