9. Spain: First colonizers, first debates against slavery[1]
The invasion and ousting of Muslim armies
In 718 CE, Muslim armies invaded the Iberian Peninsula. All attempts to push them back failed. In 1182 Alphonse VIII, King of Castile, reconquered a Muslim held area. His men captured about 2.000 adults and children. Six years later, Sultan Abu Yusuf Yacub and his troops regained this territory. He returned to the Maghreb with 3.000 Christian women and children, to be sold as slaves.[2] For centuries the fights went back and forth. On both sights hundreds of people got killed or captured and enslaved. The Moorish wars kept providing fresh supplies for the slave markets in Granada. Slave markets remained essential for the Iberian economy until the end of the 15th century.[3] So, when Columbus left Palos de la Frontera in August 1492, hoping to discover a shortcut to India, he left a part of the world where killing and enslaving enemies was widely accepted. This background was ingrained in the mindset of Columbus and most other conquistadors and colonists that crossed the Atlantic.
1492 did become an historic year for quite another reason. On 2 January 1492, after an ethnic war that lasted for more than a decade, Sultan Abu abd Allah Muhammad XII[4] surrendered. The fall of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Iberia became a fact. Already in November 1491, the Sultan, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile had signed a capitulation treaty with the Mudéjars, the Muslims that wanted to stay. The treaty guaranteed freedom of religion. No Christian should enter their Mosques or their houses. Even, Christians were not allowed to peep over their walls. Enslaved Muslims that might have escaped from their Christian masters and taken refuge in Granada need not be returned. In stead, the owners would be compensated.[5]
King Ferdinand II hoped that friendly interactions with Catholics would nudge Muslims to conversion. He chose a laissez-faire approach. Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros preferred harsher methods. In 1498, he banned Muslims from Granada and sent “uncooperative” Muslims to prison. There they were maltreated or even tortured until they converted. The cardinal also confiscated sacred Muslim texts and burned them publicly. The Mudéjars rebelled. Their insurgency was subdued in 1501. Mudéjars, now called Moriscos, were given three options: to convert, to be enslaved or to be expelled. Queen Isabella I feared that converted Muslims might be influenced to shift back to Islam. 15February 1502, in an attempt to unite all her subjects under one religious umbrella, she decreed that all Jews and Muslims must convert to Catholicism or leave Castile and Leon.[6] Thus, she flatly ignored that the Capitulation Treaty guaranteed religious freedom for all.[7]
The rise of Queen Isabella I
What kind of person was Queen Isabella I of Castile and Leon? For sure, she was a remarkable lady. She deserves some extra attention. She was born in 1451. Her parents were Juan II, King of Castile and Aragon (1406 – 1554) and his second wife: Isabella of Portugal (1428-1496) and sister of Alfonso V. Henry, the brother of Isabella I, was the third child of Juan II and his first wife Maria of Aragon. Only Henry survived the childhood years. When Juan II in 1454 died he became his successor. Isabella and her mother moved to a castle in Arévalo, where living conditions were poor and money was scarce.[8]
Several plots were being concocted to betroth Isabella to a suitable prince. She rejected them all. When she met Prince Ferdinand of Aragon, she knew that he was the prince of her dreams. Alas, there was a problem. Ferdinand was her second cousin. Church Law did not allow this marriage. But the cunning and devious Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja produced a dispensation “signed” by Pope Pius II, who had died five years earlier.[9] To make sure that she would get what she wanted, Isabella eloped to her half-brother King Henry IV. Simultaneously, Ferdinand crossed Castile, disguised as a simple servant. The two met in Valladolid and married on the 19th of October 1469. Isabella I gave birth to seven children and was proclaimed Queen on 11 December 1474.
Half-brother, King Henry IV, died on the 10th of December 1474, aged 49, had. He left no children. Aged 15, he had married princess Blanche of Navarre, but this arranged marriage never worked. One historian asserts that Henry loathed his wife.[10] Others think that he was gay. The people nicknamed him Henry the Impotent. In 1453, the Bishop of Segovia annulled the marriage.[11] In 1455, Henry IV married princess Joan of Portugal (1439-1475), the younger sister of his father’s second wife. The two were cousins, but Pope Nicolas V granted King Henry dispensation to marry her. After six years Queen Joanna gave birth to her first child. It was a daughter, also called Joanna (1462 – 1530). Rumours have it that the King’s advisors, Beltrán de la Cueva, had fathered her.[12] This scandal led to a second divorce. King Henry knew that he could not be her biological father. Therefore, he proclaimed that Isabella I would be his legitimate heir. And so it happened.[13]
The story did not end here. King Alfonso V of Portugal (1432 – 1481) did not accept this state of affairs. He concocted a marriage plan that would create the merger between Portugal and Castile and Leon. May 1475, Alfonso V married Joanna la Beltraneja and proclaimed himself King of Castile and Leon.[14] This ignited the Castilian Succession War, which led to the battle of Toro. This battle ended in a draw, but King Ferdinand II convinced his allies that he was the real winner. This enabled Queen Isabella I to reinforce her position.
The Spanish Inquisition
Queen Isabella I was raised as a devout Catholic. She dreamed of a Christian Castile, a purely Catholic nation without Jews and Muslims. In 1478, she and King Ferdinand II petitioned Pope Sixtus IV to found an Iberian branch of the Inquisition. At first the pope was reluctant, but he agreed after Ferdinand threatened to withdraw his troops from Rome’s defence forces.
The Inquisition’s main task was to uphold Catholic orthodoxy. Immediately, the new inquisitors began to persecute all converted Jews and Muslims, suspected of secretly holding on to their former religion. In 1481, its leading duo – Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martin – celebrated their first results with a spectacular auto-da-fé (act of faith). Despite its devotional name, such an auto-da-fé was a horrific event, designed by devilish minds. Behind closed doors, inquisitors used torture and false testimonies to build cases that would lead to a conviction and a death penalty. This shady activity was followed by a solemn procession, a holy mass and a collective prayer. During mass the priest blamed, castigated, disgraced, and vilified the convicted heretics. Next, the victims were led outside the city, tied to a stake, and burned alive. This spectacle was watched by hundreds or even thousands of men and women.[15]
In 1483, Tomás de Torquemada became Grand Inquisitor of the Tribunal of the Holy Office. He had been prior of the Dominican monastery of Santa Cruz, Segovia. He also was the confessor of Isabella I. Torquemada stemmed from a family of truly converted Jews. Did this make him extra fanatical to catch fake converts? Anyhow, he traced, persecuted and incarcerated countless converts and set up several Holy Tribunals. He promulgated 28 articles of guidance for inquisitors that resulted in smooth procedures, more verdicts and more death penalties. He expanded the catching area with perpetrators of sorcery, polygamy, and usury. Anonymous accusations were accepted as valid testimony. He promoted torture as modus operandi for obtaining “evidence.” During his watch about 2,000 men and women were burnt to death.[16] It is deemed undoable to estimate the total number of victims of the Inquisition.
How Cristopher Columbus happened to discover The Americas
Cristoforo Colombo was born in Genoa in 1451. He was fascinated by the travels of Marco Polo. Like him, he longed for an adventurous life. He joined the merchant navy and experienced more dicey adventures than he had asked for. On his trips to Great Britain, Iceland and the coasts of Tropical Africa he faced heavy storms. He even survived a shipwreck. Aged forty, he valiantly participated in the siege of Granada. But what really did make him world famous then, and notorious now, was the unintended but huge impact of his failed projects to find a shorter passage to India. Such a shortcut would save lots of time and money and put ships and crews at fewer risks. Failing to do so, but finding The Americas instead, led to colonization, genocide of indigenous people and the enslavement and forced migration of millions Africans.
Columbus had a hard time to find wealthy investors for his mind-blowing project. In 1484, he presented his plan to King Juan II of Portugal. The king rejected the whole idea, because his advisors had discovered that Columbus had made faulty calculations. In 1486, he approached Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Also their experts concluded that Columbus underestimated the distance from Spain to Asia. In 1492, right after the fall of Granada, he approached the Spanish Crown again. This time he asserted that the shortcut would facilitate attacking the Muslim world from behind. This time Isabella I and Ferdinand II fell for the idea because this shorter route would enable them to increase their power over big parts of Asia, enhance the trade with India and, last but not least, energize their plan to convert the rest of the World. They promised Columbus to make him Admiral of the fleet and Viceroy of the newly discovered territories if he would succeed. He also would receive one-tenth of all revenues from the new lands.[17]
The first Atlantic crossing of Columbus
Columbus left Palos de la Frontera on the 3rd ofAugust 1492 with only three ships. The carrack The Santa Maria was quite big. The Niña and The Pinta were much smaller. His crew totalled 90 men. The crossing started well, but after three weeks his compass got unreliable.[18] For weeks the fleet seemed to follow a random course. On the 10th of October, Columbus quelled a mutiny of sailors that wanted to return home.[19] Two days later, after midnight, sailor Rodrigo de Train aboard the Pinta sighted land first. His shouts awakened the whole crew. Captain Martin Alonzo Pinzón fired a gun to alert Columbus aboard of the Santa Maria. Later, the mischievous Columbus told everyone that he had sighted this land first. Thus, he could claim the lifelong pension promised to the person that would first see the coast of India. 12October, Columbus landed on the sighted island. It was rather small. The locals called it Guanahani. Columbus did not bother to learn this name and christened it San Salvador. Since he was convinced that he had reached India, he called the natives “Indios”. The surprised natives approached their alien visitors in a friendly and civilized way. They presented food, drinks and other objects. Columbus described these friendly people as follows:[20]
“Many of the men … have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion.”
In stead of gratefully thanking them, Columbus cold-bloodedly captured some of them. He ordered his aides to find the exact location of the source of all the golden rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces that these natives were wearing. When the latter refused to lead them to the place where they mined their gold, Columbus ordered his men to torture them. Having learned that Columbus was not to be trusted, they kept their lips tied.
Soon Columbus realized that he was wasting his time. He continued his search for mainland India and China. October 28, the crew sighted a bigger stretch of land. Columbus assumed that this must be northern China. In reality it was Cuba. He and his men explored the island for weeks, but failed to find a big city. Hence, Columbus sailed northwards, hoping to find the fabled city of Zaiton (Ghangzou, China). Adverse winds carried The Santa Maria to another big “West Indian” island. The indigenous people, the Taíno, called their island Ayiti. Columbus assumed that it was Cipangu (Japan) but he called it: La Isla Española[21]. There, on the first day of Christmas 1492, the carrack Santa Maria ran aground. To shock the natives, Columbus used the wreck as a target for practicing cannon fire. Losing his flagship was a huge setback for Columbus and for its captain and owner: Juan de la Cosa.
Columbus went back to Europe with the two remaining ships. He left some men behind to build a settlement, using wood from the wrecked Santa Maria. The return journey was hell. A severe gale storm forced him to seek shelter in Santa Maria, Azores. There, the Portuguese authorities put him, and his crew, in prison. Columbus could prove his high status and was allowed to sail on. Another heavy gale storm snapped his main mast and ruined some of his sails. In spite of these setbacks, he arrived in Barcelona on the 16th of January 1493. Immediately he brought a visit to the king and queen. Proudly he presented them a selection of souvenirs, such as brightly coloured parrots, precious spices, and a small number of captured natives to be sold to cover some of the costs.[22]
The news about his astounding discoveries and his exotic gifts made him famous, though he had returned with only a meagre amount of valuables. Columbus wanted to get another chance to discover India, and to return with more gold and other precious goods. This time, the Spanish monarchs and other investors, were more willing to participate. Even Pope Alexander VI had gotten interested. They helped him to prepare a strong fleet that would make it easier to conquer new “Asian” territories. For the pope, the king and the queen a major purpose for equipping a big fleet was to convert subjected natives. Isabella and Ferdinand instructed Columbus to develop and maintain friendly relations with the natives.[23] 4 May 1493, the pope, believing that his power as God’s deputy on earth had no limits, issued a new bull. In Inter Caetera, he simply divided the western hemisphere in two. Portugal could claim the southern part and Spain the northern part. Hence, Spain could keep all the land that Columbus already had claimed.[24] The next year Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, ratifying this division of the West.
The second Atlantic crossing of Columbus
24September 1493, Columbus sailed from Cadiz, Spain, with fleet of 17 ships, 1,300 salaried men, 200 private investors plus a small group of cavalry.[25] Two months later he set foot on Hispaniola again, this time as Viceroy. From there he began to explore other “West Indian” islands. In February 1495, after natives had rebelled, Columbus rounded up 1,500 Arawaks, also known as Taino. He chained 550 of the strongest ones, and crammed them below decks, to ship them to Spain. More than 200 of them died during the crossing. He arrived in Cadiz in June 1496, with circa 300 surviving natives. He presented them to the king and queen as a consolation gift for not finding gold again. However, Ferdinand and Isabel did not like this. Their intention was to exploit new colonies with the help of their new subjects, newly baptized and converted natives, though without enslaving them.[26]
In 1501, Queen Isabella I made her position crystal clear. She decreed enslavement of Native Americans illegal. In her view, all these “Indios” had become her subjects. So, they must have the same rights as her subjects in Aragon, Castile and Leon.[27] So, in 1501, Queen Isabella I became the first European leader that forbade colonial slavery. She deserves to be credited for that. Alas, the net effect of her decree was very disappointing. Thousands of sea miles away the colonists dared to ignore her ruling. By then they were convinced that their colonies could not survive without exploiting slaves.
The downfall of Columbus
In December 1498 Columbus arrived in Hispaniola for the third time; this time as its first Spanish Governor. He reign began with granting encomiendas to a small number of colonists. These are large plots of land with the right to demand labour and produce from all the people living there.[28] Native Chiefs living there had to assign a number of indigenous workers to the grant owners. In return, the encomedores must protect the Natives against attacks from other tribes. Also they had to offer them “benefits” such as teaching Castilian and conversion to Catholicism. Alas, in no time, the system degraded from a kind of feudalism into brutal slavery.[29]
After a while, some colonists began to accuse Christopher Columbus and his brother Giacomo of taking bribes, enslaving natives, and mismanaging local revolts. [30] In 1499, The Crown sent Judge Francisco Fernández de Bobadilla to Hispaniola to investigate these accusations. Judge Bobadilla had earned his mettle by leading a religious-military order. His crusaders had fought the Moors. In 1500, Judge Bobadilla arrived in Hispaniola, together with 500 Europeans and 14 Amerindians that had been Columbus’ slaves. There, the judge received even more complaints. Convinced that the accusations were valid, he expelled the Columbus brothers. Christopher and his youngest brother Diego were put on board of La Gorda. There, the two brothers were put in jail – think of the smallest, darkest ship’s cabin you can imagine. Six weeks later, King Ferdinand ordered their release and summoned them to come to their palace in Granada. The two brothers denied all charges and King Ferdinand declared them free.
Nicolás Ovando: Repressive Governor of Hispaniola.
On the other side of the ocean, also Bobadilla’s style of governing left much to wish for. He too, forced natives to work in the goldmines that finally had been discovered. He told the Taíno people, that The Spanish Crown was not interested in their agricultural products. What Kings and Queens really want is gold, silver and precious stones. So, he needed miners. The rest of the natives could stick to farming. Two years later, Isabel I and Ferdinand II assigned Nicolás Ovando y Cáceres, a Knight of the military order of Alcantara, to lead a fleet to Hispaniola. February 1502, the largest colonial fleet ever left Spain. Thirty ships carried about 2500 new colonists, representing a cross-section of its populace, including Ladinos – African descendants, raised and Christianized in Spain. Being Christianized was important, because these two extremely pious monarchs feared that importing non-Christian Africans might harm the faith of their newly converted converts. Also on board were General Francisco Pizarro and priest Bartolomé de las Casas. The general would conquer the Incas and become famous. Now, his acts are being evaluated less positively. Passenger Bartolomé de las Casas developed into a staunch fighter against slavery and would be appointed as “Protector of the Indians.” He still deserves our admiration for publishing a book that exposed many atrocious acts committed by colonists.[31] Reading about these atrocities turned many people into abolitionists.
Nicolas Ovando took office as the third Governor of Hispaniola. In the fall of 1503, he and his party of 300 marched to Xaragua. There they were lavishly welcomed by Queen Anacaona (Golden Flower), her nobles and the chieftains. However, Ovando and his advisors did not trust this grand welcome ceremony. They suspected that this lavish welcome party might be organized as a distraction for a carefully planned insurrection. Hence, Ovando ordered the arrest of Queen Anacaona and all her chieftains. The common Taínos were slaughtered, the chieftains were bound and burnt, and Queen Anacaona was hanged.[32] After a few more heinous campaigns and bloody massacres Ovando believed to have pacified all indigenous people. To commemorate this victory, he founded the town of Santa Maria de la Verdadera Paz.
Nicolas Ovando was cursed with very orthodox convictions. He was shocked to see that many colonists cohabitated with Taíno women. Some had married daughters of chieftains. He commanded all of them to end these non-Christian liaisons. Following Church prescriptions, he ordered them to marry one of their female partners and to abstain from having sex with the other women. Marrying one of their wives was easy, but “divorcing” the other wives was a different matter. For them it meant a gigantic loss of social status. Either they were completely ousted from the household or degraded to maid-servant. For society as a whole it was no less than a disaster.
In 1504, Ovando organized a new military campaign. This led to another massacre. Ovando ordered that all indigenous fighters that defended their own territory must be killed. Again, captured chieftains were burnt. A third campaign and a third massacre resulted in complete subjugation.[33]
Governor Ovando was an efficient administrator. He founded several new cities. He developed a local mining industry and introduced the cultivation of the sugar cane with plants from the Canary Islands. This was good for settlers, but bad for natives. Thousands of indigenous workers were forced to work on plantations or in mines until they dropped dead. To Ovando’s dismay, a considerable number of enslaved Africans escaped into the wild. As a form of protest this was often much more successful than open rebellion. For the planters these escapes formed a sharp and recurrent pain in the neck. The escapees kept stealing food, valuables, and utensils that served them well in the rough. Ovando feared that blacks, fresh from Africa, might stir up indigenous people. In vain, he asked The Crown to stop sending these “untamed” Africans or Bozalos.[34] The Crown did not listen. In stead, in 1509, King Ferdinand II recalled Ovando to Spain to answer for his extremely bad treatment of Natives, thus fulfilling a promise he had made to his beloved wife Queen Elisabeth I, just before she died in November 1504.[35] In Spain, Ovando was not sentenced. He only lost his function of Viceroy and much of his status, but could live in luxury until he died in 1511.
Soon after the first Spaniards landed on American soil, numerous natives fell ill and died from European diseases. Others lost their life in fights with better armed invaders or died an early death because of exhaustive forced labour. The Taíno population was mitigated by more than 80 per cent, within a very short time, say 15 years. Also the European intruders lost numerous men. A significant percentage of sailors, adventurers, fortune seekers and potential settlers died during the crossing, in fights with natives, or as a consequence of tropical diseases. Yet the colonization process went on, by word and by sword.
Humanist Antonio de Montesinos and The Burgos Laws
In 1510, King Ferdinand II sent a dozen missionaries to Christianize Native Americans. Friar Antonio de Montesinos, felt compelled to report back that colonists committed many crimes. He found it very hard to convince mistreated natives that his God, the God of the oppressors, was a God of love, peace, and mercy. Hence, Montesinos berated colonists that enslavement was wrong. He confronted them with nagging questions and accusations:
“Aren’t they humans? Shouldn’t we guard and fulfil the prescripts of Christian charity and justice? Didn’t they own their own land and their own men and women? … You are all in a state of mortal sin; you live in it and you will die in it for the cruelty and the tyranny you use with these innocent people.”[36]
Antonio de Montesinos requested King Ferdinand II to protect the rights of the Indios. The colonists chose Friar Alonso de Espinal as their spokesman, to defend their interests, but their plan backfired. King Ferdinand commissioned a group of wise men to produce new legislative ideas. This led to new laws, a bit more humane. The New Laws, also known as the Burgos Laws, promulgated in December 1512, stated that “Indians” are free, albeit in a limited way. They had to be converted and incorporated in encomiendas, ranging from 40 to 150 persons. They had to work in gold mines for five months, followed by recovery periods of 40 days.
The Burgos Laws contained 35 specific rules, stipulating that the length and nature of enforced labour should not endanger someone’s health or conversion. Cottages had to be built to house 12 enforced workers. Natives should have their own plots for growing vegetables. Huts and cabins should be built next to the houses of the Spanish. Each encomienda must have a church for grantholders to attend Holy Mass with “their Indians”, though the latter were allowed to perform their own ritual dances. Encomendieros were obliged to test the knowledge of the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins. Failing grantholders must pay a fine of six gold pesos. Since it was believed that natives would be more ready to accept the Gospel from one of their own, each grantholder must pick an intelligent boy, preferably a son of a Chief, to teach him to read and to write, with a strong focus on biblical texts. Next, the trainee was ordered to teach his fellow Indians until the Christian faith was ingrained in their minds.[37] Pregnant women and women with small babies or toddlers were exempt from heavy physical labour. Children younger than 14 should help their parents with light chores. For them, adult jobs, like mining, were forbidden. Inspectors had to maintain law and order, keep a close eye on the workers and prevent physical abuse. An amendment decreed that Natives were free to leave after two years of service. It was assumed that:
“By this time they will be civilized and proper Christians, able to govern themselves.” [38]
Human Rights historians see the Burgos Laws as a first small, but important step to a fair treatment of indigenous people. Alas, overseas the Burgos Laws had very little effect. Colonists ignored the new rules. Promulgating new laws only is a first step: necessary, but insufficient. Without implementation it leads to nothing. The same is true for policies built on wrong assumptions. The idea of establishing trading factories, like the Portuguese had done in highly East Asia, failed because the culture and characer of Native Americans was very different from Asians.[39]
Conquistador Hernán Cortes (1485-1547)
It turned out to be very hard to change Native Indians into diligent slaves. So, the new colonies urgently needed free or contracted workers from Europe, Asia or Africa. There was very little demand for more explorers and fortune seekers from the lesser nobility. But that was what they got. Young adventurers like Hernán Cortés de Monroy, who wanted fame, gold and power. Though, looking back on their life, they often mentioned serving God and “giving light to those in darkness” as their most important motive.[40] The father of Hernán Cortés was an infantry captain. He stemmed from a distinguished family. In 1499, young Hernán, aged 14, was sent to Salamanca to study law. There, he picked up some basic knowledge of royal laws. This proved to be usable later. His character was more in tune with military actions, but physically he was quite weak. In 1502, aged 16 and feeling stronger, he planned to join the fleet of Nicolás Ovando, destined for the “Indies.” But the fleet left without him, because young Hernán had broken his leg, falling from a roof after hastily leaving the bedroom of a lady, whose husband suddenly returned home.[41]
A few years later, Hernán Cortés made the crossing and arrived in Santo Domingo, Hispaniola. In 1506, he participated in the brutal conquest of the rest of Hispaniola and Cuba. He was given a large encomienda where the natives had to work for him. His first successes as a military set the tone for a speedy career that would make him the most famous conquistador of Spain. He became secretary of Diego Velázquez, governor of Cuba, but their relation got strained. In 1518, Governor Velázquez sent him on an expedition to colonize large parts of Mexico. Hernán was a smooth negotiator. Within a month, he succeeded in hiring 300 soldiers and six ships. At the last moment, Velazquez cancelled the whole project. Cortés ignored this and sailed to Trinidad. There, he hired more ships, more soldiers and horses. Then he headed for Mexico. He landed on the coast of Yucatan. To prevent that his crew and soldiers might want to sail back against his will, he scuttled all his ships bar the smallest one.[42] He subdued the region, marched further inland and conquered the city of Cholula. After he heard a rumour that the locals planned to kill all invaders in their sleep, Cortés ordered to burn the city to the ground. In his letters to King Ferdinand II, he wrote that his troops had killed more than 3000 denizens of Cholula. Some historians estimate that the number was even higher.
After Hernán Cortés learned that Aztecs ritually sacrificed young maids, he ordered to destroy all their idols and to replace them with crucifixes and figures of Saint Mary.[43] From this we should not conclude that he was a devout and strict Catholic. He sired several children by several indigenous women and got into an amorous relationship with Malintzin (Malinche). She was a smart Inca woman who spoke several Aztec and Mayan languages. She learned to speak Castilian and became his interpreter. Following Malintzin’s advice and helped by indigenous tribes that had good reasons to hate the Aztecs, Cortés was able to defeat Montezuma, the great Aztec leader. In 1521, after capturing another great leader and ruining the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, Cortés claimed Mexico for Spain. King Charles I, appointed him as governor, captain general and chief justice. Cortés built Spanish style cities on the ruins of Aztec cities. He granted encomiendas to his most valiant officers. Not surprisingly, he reserved a few big encomiendas for himself. In his view, these rewards were justified.[44] Rather surprisingly he also granted encomiendas to two daughters of Montezuma.[45]
Hernán Cortés sent King Charles I five long letters full details about his travels and military campaigns – always emphasizing his successes more than his defeats. He reported his political and legal decisions, and boasted about his civic works in Central and South America. These reports, bundled in a book, helped to make him famous.[46]
Conquistadores Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro – second cousins once removed – were busy expanding the Spanish empire overseas, when King, Charles I, became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. King and Emperor Charles was born in 1500 as the second child of Joanna I and Philip the Handsome. He was raised in a French speaking environment in Flanders. His father died when he was six. Charles had succeeded his paternal granddad Emperor Maximilian. As Emperor Charles V, he was plagued by several military conflicts. The French threatened Italy, the Ottomans kept attacking the Mediterranean coast and Protestants rebelled against Catholicism in Germany and the Low Countries.[47] All these international conflicts drained the Spanish coffers. Bloodstained gold and silver from the New World might offer some solace.
Far away, on the other side of Atlantic, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro had opened a new front and defeated whole tribes of indigenous people. Then they presented an impressive document, The Requerimiento, to the overwhelmed and speechless natives.[48] Loud and clear, and in Spanish, they told them that, from now on, they were subjects of the Spanish King or Queen. Of course, they did not understand a word, but within a few hours, days and weeks they would undergo the negative implications of these words.
Humanist Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546)
What right did Spanish Monarchs have to submit, exploit and maltreat Indians in America? This tricky question haunted priest and professor Francisco de Vitoria since the day he had learned that colonists enslaved and maltreated natives in the most gruesome ways. In Salamanca, in his De Indis lectures,[49] he argued that all humans possess reason. In his enlightened view, all humans share equal dignity. Humans should care for each other, not dominate them. And for sure, humans should not treat other humans badly, including others that do look strange, others that are not dressed like Europeans and do not speak Spanish and, for that reason, are presumed to be brainless.[50] At the time, all Vitoria’s contemporaries believed that Native Americans were savages, uncivilized worshippers of fake gods. They could not see these natives as their equals.
Francisco de Vitoria forced a spectacular breakthrough in medieval thought. He was the first scholar to make a clear distinction between secular and spiritual power, each having its own domain. Hence he argued that Papal authority was limited to the spiritual dimension of the (Christian) world. As a Dominican priest, he truly believed that all popes have a divine mission to spread the gospel. But that mission does not give them the right to order or to allow European sovereigns to claim the rest of the world and to convert all “pagans” by the force of the sword.[51] His unorthodox view shocked Spain’s leaders, Church leaders in particular. They never doubted their own superiority or their right to conquer the world and their Godly assignment to convert all non-Christians. Maybe, even Vitoria himself got scared by the radicalism of his reasoning. Why else would he make such a U-turn to ethnocentric views? He kept maintaining that Amerindians are humans, but now he sketched them as beings whose potential had not been fully realized. To realize their potential that they must adopt Spanish jurisdiction, which, he argues, is embedded in universal natural law. And, since natural law allows all people to travel, trade, and settle wherever they wanted, colonizers simply make use of their natural rights.
However, problems emerge when natives refuse to change their ways and stick to cultural practices that don’t rhyme with Spanish laws and customs. Therefore, Vitoria presented Christian norms as the one and only basis for the universal law of nations. Notwithstanding his strong humanistic inclinations, he couldn’t think otherwise than that his God is the one and only true God. Hence, Divine Law and Natural Law must be one. So, Christians, and only Christians, have the right and obligation to convert all non-Christians, whereas the latter are obliged to give missionaries a fair hearing. They should never injure, kill or expel these ambassadors of Christ.[52] So, threatened missionaries and their converts have the right to ask for military protection. That kind of war is justified. According to universal law we must protect the innocent:
“Once the Spaniards have demonstrated … that they have every intention of letting the pagans carry on in peaceful enjoyment of their property, and the latter nevertheless persist in their wickedness and strive to destroy the Spaniards, they may then treat them as treacherous foes against whom all rights of war can be exercised.”[53]
To Vitoria, a just war is a war ordered by The Crown and started for a right cause, such as man’s natural obligation to help the innocent. Modern notions of humanitarian intervention trace back to this obligation. In Victoria’s view, non-Christians are innocent people. They must be helped to become true believers in Jesus Christ. Castilian slavers appropriated his approach. For generations they had bought victims of local wars between African tribes. Now they could frame these tribal conflicts as “guerras justas.” And, if it is right to enslave defeated fighters in a “righteous war”, then it must be right to buy and sell these poor souls and to prolong their enslavement.
The great influence of Francisco de Vitoria became visible in the “New Laws for the Good Treatment and the Preservation of the Indians,” promulgated by King Charles I, on 20 November 1542. In the view of Charles I and his consultants, the ongoing maltreatment of suppressed Indians had to be stopped. Many parts of the contents of these new laws were framed by Bartolomé de las Casas. This man of the church had witnessed many misdeeds against the natives with his own eyes. He could not ignore, condone or accept what he saw. He really wanted ways to protect the “Indios”. First and foremost, new legislation was needed. Besides, he had read Intra Arcana, the new papal letter of Pope Clement VII. Herein he confirmed Spain’s right to govern conquered territories in the Americas … “in order that Indian souls might be saved.”[54] We might chuckle about this addition and see this as a meagre excuse for power expansion and supremacist thinking, but, in the light of the spirit of the times, it is better to see it as a sincere and deeply felt Christian obligation to guide infidels away from their road to hell.
Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela (ca 1490-1546)
The implementation of The New Laws of 1542 should improve the social situation of the Amerindians. But the colonists refused to hand over their encomienda to the king. They did not want to loose their power over their “feudalized” natives. De jure, the new rulings boiled down to the abolition of colonial slavery; and de facto? In 1543, King Charles appointed Blasco Núñez Vela as the first viceroy of Peru and Chile. Núñez Vela, born in Avila, was an honest and courageous man. He stemmed from a family that always had been loyal to the Kings of Castile. Charles I provided him with the powers of a king and the authority of Captain General and Chief Judge of the Court of Appeal. He also instructed him to punish all infractions against the New Laws with severity. In Peru and Chile, Núñez was met with hostility and resistance. He may even have set eyes on the following text, painted on a wall: Whoever comes to take my hacienda, his life will be taken.” This opposition fueled his distrust in local officials, colonists and clergy. So, he raised the level of sanctions.
Viceroy Núñez Vela could be very hot headed. On 13 September 1544, during a late night meeting, he lost his temper, called his opponent a traitor and killed him with a dagger. The Court of Appeal removed him from office. Núñez Vela was incarcerated and sent to the island of San Lorenzo. There, Judge Juán Alvarez declared him guilty. Núñez Vela left San Lorenzo for Panama on September 24 under custody of judge Álvarez. At open sea, Álvarez told him that he was free, and advised him to take over command of the ship, which he did. He ordered the crew to sail to Lima. The first thing he did in Peru was gathering a small army to fight the rebelling conquistadors and regain his position as viceroy. The rebelling colonists got help from Gonzalez Pizarro, a half-brother of Francisco Pizarro. (Both were illegal sons of infantry colonel Gonzalo Pizarro.) October 28, conquistador Gonzalez arrived with an army of 1200 well-trained soldiers. Both sides claimed to be defenders of King Charles. Pizarro’s army got the upper hand and on January 18, 1546, Núñez Vela got killed at the battle of Añaquito, near present day Quito. His severed head was put on a pike and marched around to show who was in charge now. Fearing that Peru and Chile might go for independency, King Charles I watered down the New Laws and restored the traditional encomienda system.[55]Once more, this small chain of political and historical events shows that it is far from easy to change an undesired social situation, just by issuing a new law. In this case even a relatively small group of insurgent colonists, far away on a different continent, succeeded in breaking the will of the most powerful man of their day and age: King Charles I of Spain, also being Emperor Charles V, the political leader of the Holy Roman Empire or the Habsburg Realm of Europe.
In 1550, King Charles I organized a conference at Valladolid to evaluate the plight of Native Americans. First keynote speaker was philosopher Juan Gines de Sepúlveda. As personal chronicler of the king he was quite well informed about the enforced employment of indigenous people. Sepúlveda had studied philosophy in Italy, in particular the works of Aristotle. Like Aristotle he argued that certain categories of indigenous people were born as slaves, whereas others, e.g. Spaniards, were born as masters. After receiving an avalanche of critique, he responded with a bilious reaction, claiming that his theories did not refer to races, but to differences in intellectual ability and prudence. Only those will be masters who have been born with an excellent mind and a strong inclination to act in a considerate and careful manner, whereas becoming a serf was the natural destiny of slow learners. Sepúlveda defended colonization and asserted that enslaved Native Indians did profit from the new situation too.[56] These non-Christians had to be saved and protected.[57] Colonization by civilized nations and talented leaders offers them an escape from barbarism, irrationalism and immorality and, better still, potentially a road to heaven.[58]
Bishop Bartolemé de las Casas (1484-1566)
This view was fiercely opposed by Bishop Bartolemé de las Casas, another man of the Church that turned to humanist thinking and a protester against the enslavement or the mistreatment of the enslavement of Native Americans. Long ago, Las Casas had travelled to Hispaniola, eager to make a fortune. He had taken part in military actions against indigenous tribes. Ten years later, he owned land and enslaved servants in Cuba. After meeting a zealous Dominican friar and witnessing “cruelty on a scale no living being has ever seen,” he renounced his land grant, released his indigenous labourers and headed for Rome to become a priest.[59] In 1518, he returned to Hispaniola, to become the first Bishop of Chiapas and the official “Protector of the Indians”. He never stopped to criticize the exploitation of indigenous people.[60] More than once he asked planters to replace Native Americans with Africans, believing that the latter were better suited for hard labour in a tropical climate, physically and mentally. He was not the first to suggest the importation of recently enslaved Africans.[61] They were called Bozalos, a derogatory term derived from the Spanish word for muzzle or noseband. When Las Casas learned that these Africans were treated just as badly as Native Americans. Then he regretted his advice. From then on, he argued that all slavery is wrong.[62]
Las Casas returned to Spain to pursue Vitoria’s efforts to attain a peaceful conversion of Indians, to underwrite his plea for conversion by words, not swords. He arrived at the Valladolid conference with a rich experience in debating colonist, strong supporters of slavery. He rejected the Aristotelian idea of a natural divide between slaves and masters. In the eyes of God all humans are equal. He denounced that Indians were born with a murderous mindset and also that wars against infidels were justified. Any war is unjust the moment it becomes an instrument of oppression. He managed to convince many theologians, politicians and lawyers, but Spanish colonists went on enslaving Amerindians and Africans. It would take two centuries before his arguments re-emerged in abolition debates. Las Casas retreated to his convent and produced a treatise that led to the conclusion that the conquest of Indians is unjust. They should be freed, not oppressed. However, The Crown did not support him. In stead, Sepúlveda became more influential. The mentor of Prince Philip who would always show more interest in colonial profits than the plight of natives.[63]
[1] Chapter 13 of my book project From Ancient Slavery to Abolition. (12-4-26 7313 words)
It is a revised version of a chapter of my Dutch book: Afschaffing van de Slavernij.”
[2] “Ransoming Captives, Chapter One”. libro.uca.edu. Quoted in Wikipedia: Slavery in Medieval Europe. Retrieved: 10 June 2023; Yacu al Mansur: Wikipedia. Retrieved: 20 June 2023; Abu-Yusuf-Yacub-al-Mansur. Www.brittanica.com: Retrieved: 20 June 2023.
[3] Mirko Suzarte Škarica: Slaves and Captives between Castile, Granada, and the Canary Islands: Frontier and Judicial Dynamics in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Rechtsgeschichte – Legal History Rg 31 (2023) http://dx.doi.org/10.12946/rg31/118-130
[4] His name got corrupted into Bobadilla. At the time this name was also given to a Spanish town. Thus it also became a Spanish family name, or the name of nightclubs, restaurants.
[5] Treaty of Granada: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 8 February 2025
[6] Mercedes Garcia-Arenal and Gerard Wiegers: The Expulsion of the Moriscos, 20 March 2024; alandalusylahistoria.com. Marisa Ollero: February 12, 1502: The Muslim Conversion or Expulsion. This Week in History: vcoins.com. Retrieved: 9 February 2005
[7] Ferdinand II of Aragon: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 8 February 2025.
[8] Isabella I of Castile: Wikipedia: Retrieved: 10 February 2025
[9] Isabella I of Castile: Wikipedia: Retrieved: 17 June 2023
[10] Henry IV of Castile; Wikipedia: Retrieved: 5 February 2025. Wikipedia refers to a publication of the University of Valladolid by Ohara, Shima (2004).
[11] Henry IV of Castile: Wikipedia. Retrieved: 5 July 2023
[12] Idem
[13] Daughter Joanna lost her status as princess and became known as Joanna la Beltranega.
[14] Alfonso V: www.newworldencyclopedia.org. Retrieved: 18 June 2023
[15] Modern Jewish History: Auto de fé. jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved: 23-10-2023
[16] Tomás de Torquemada: Spanish inquisitor. Encyclopedia Britannica: Brittanica.com. Retrieved: 24 July 2023; Spanish Inquisition: en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 23 July 2023; Spanish Inquisition: Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved: 20 June 2023
[17] Christopher Columbus: Encyclopedia Britannica; Retrieved: 19 June 2023. Christopher Columbus: Wikipedia; Retrieved: 6 July 2023.
[18] Due to magnetic variation, a phenomenon not yet discovered, studied or understood.
[19] Morrison, Samuel Eliot (1991): Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A life of Christopher Columbus. Boston, MA, Little Brown; pp 214-216. (Quoted by Wikipedia: Voyages of Christopher Columbus)
[20] Christopher Columbus. Wikipedia: Retrieved 10 March 2018
[21] The Spanish island
[22] Radio Interview with Andrés Reséndez, author of The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America.
[23] Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 6 February 2025
[24] Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 1 February 2025
[25] Kenneth Pletcher: The Britannica Guide to Explorers and Explorations That Changed the Modern World. The Rosen Publishing Group Inc, New York: 2010. pp 64-65
[26] Hubert H. S. Aimes: A History of Slavery in Cuba – 1511-1868. G.P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, London, 1907. p 1
[27] New Laws: en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved; 9 July 2023.
[28] The encomienda system would stop in 1542, but enforced labour would stay.
[29] African Laborers for a New Empire: Iberia, Slavery, and the Atlantic World: o. c.
[30] Historians dispute the accuracy of all these accusations. Robert Carle: Remembering Columbus: Blinded by Politics. www.nas.org; Francisco de Bobadilla: encyclopediadominicana.org/ Retrieved: 24 December 2021
[31] Bartolomé de las Casa: Wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 4 February 2025. His book on the maltreatment of Indians was titled: A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.
[32] Anacaona: en.wikipedia.org.
[33] Luis Arranz Márquez: Nicolás de Ovando: dbe.rah.es/biografias/7630/nicolas-de-ovando. Nicolas de Ovando: Famousamericans.net. Retrieved: 24 December 2021.
[34] Nicolás de Ovando: en.wikipedia.org. Nicolás de Ovando (1451-1511): prabook.com; Bozales Spanish; en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 17 January 2025
[35] Idem
[36] Ted Byfield: A Century of Giants A.D. 1500 to 1600. Tankebon Hardcover, 2010; p. 230
[37] 1512-1513 Burgos laws: faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/burgoslaws.html
[38] To suggest that people who had been free and self-supporting for thousands of years, need two years of enforced contact with and education in “European Christendom and Civilization” to be free and independent, shows an extreme level of white supremacy and paternalism.
[39] Hubert H. S. Aimes: A History of Slavery in Cuba – 1511-1868. G.P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, London, 1907. pp 2-4
[40] Prescott, William Hickling (1873). History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a Preliminary View of Ancient Mexican Civilization, and the Life of the Conqueror, Hernando Cortes (3rd ed.). Electronic Text Center: University of Virginia Library.
[41] Bartolomé Bennassar: Hernán Cortes. dbe.rah.es/biografias/5138/hernan-cortes. Retrieved: 23 December 2021
[42] Hernán Cortés: wikipedia.org. Retrieved: 17 January 2021
[43] Hernán Cortés, Conqueror of the Aztecs: www.livescience.com/39238-hernan-cortes-conqueror-of-the-aztecs.html
[44] Hernán Cortés: en.wikipedia. o.c.
[45] Jessie Szalay – Live Science Contributor. September 29, 2017
[46] Maria del Carmen Martínez: Las Cartes de la Relación de Hernán Cortés. www.noticonquista.unam.mx/amoxtli/1321/1318
[47] Charles I of Spain: www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/charles-i-spain-1500-1558. Retrieved: 16-12-2020
[48] Requirir means to require, to demand
[49] Also known as Francisco de Vitoria. ‘De Indis Recenter Inventis’ of 1538 and ‘De Indis sive de Iure Belli Hispanorum in Barbaros” of 1539. (Based on lecture notes)
[50] Classics of Strategy: Francisco de Vitoria, Relectiones (1538-1539); classicsofstrategy.com Retrieved: 24 January 2021
[51] Classics of Strategy: o. c.
[52] Classics of Strategy: o. c.
[53] International Relations in Political Thought: Texts from the Ancient Greek to the First World War (Eds. Chris Brown, Terry Nardin, Nicholas Renger) Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2002. p 237
[54] Inter Arcana: Wikipedia: Retrieved 18 March 2018; Hanke, Lewis (1937-04-01). “Pope Paul III and the American Indians”. The Harvard Theological Review. 30 (2): 76–78.
[55] Blasco Núñez Vela, Wikipedia, Retrieved 7-8-2021
[56] Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda 1490-1573; www.filosofia.org/ave/001/a293.htm
[57] In “Démocrates Alter” Sepúlveda showed that he was an advocate of the conquistadors. Bartholomé de las Casas: fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomé_de_las_Casas.
[58] Juan Belda Plans: Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Fundación Ignacio Larramendi. He refers to: Democrates secundus, I, 5; cit por Muñoz Machado, p. 419.
[59] Sullivan, Patrick Francis, ed. (1995) Indian Freedom: The Cause of Bartolome de las Casas. A Reader. Kansas City: Missouri Sheed and Ward, p. 146. (Quoted by Wikipedia.org)
[60] Bartolomé de Las Casas debates the subjugation of the Indians, 1550. ap.gilderlehrman.org/resource/bartolomé-de-las-casas-debates-subjugation-indians-1550. Retrieved: 5 January 2021.
[61] The first were members of the Order of Predicadores in 1511. Hubert H. S. Aimes: A History of Slavery in Cuba – 1511-1868 G.P. Putnam’s Sons. New York, London, 1907. p7.
[62] Dany Anthony: “July 2015: Bartolomé de las Casas and 500 Years of Racial Injustice | Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective”. origins.osu.edu. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
[63] Bartolomé de las Casas — Wikipédia (wikipedia.org) wiki/Bartolomé_de_las_Casas