What was the Valladolid debate about Spain's wars in the Americas?
The Valladolid debate
La controversia de Valladolid
August 1550–1551. In 1550 Charles V suspended new conquests and called theologians and jurists to the Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid to decide whether Spain's wars in the…
Where: Spain, The whole Spanish-speaking world, Castile
What happened
In 1550 Charles V suspended new conquests and called theologians and jurists to the Colegio de San Gregorio in Valladolid to decide whether Spain's wars in the Americas were just. The humanist Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, following Aristotle, argued that the Indians were 'natural slaves' whose barbarity justified conquest and the encomienda; the Dominican Bartolomé de las Casas, who had spent forty years in the Indies, answered that they were rational, free peoples who should be converted by peaceful preaching. The junta gave no formal verdict, but Sepúlveda's book was not licensed and Las Casas printed his account of the dispute and, in 1552, the Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias, which Spain's enemies would translate and use for centuries.
Say it
Las Casas defendió que los indios eran personas libres.
Las Casas argued that the Indians were free people.
Why it matters
It is the first great European debate on the rights of colonised peoples; Las Casas's Brevísima fed the 'Black Legend' and still shapes how the conquest is judged.
Read about it
Connected
- The Laws of Burgos (1512)
- The Laws of Burgos (1512)
- The New Laws of the Indies (20 November 1542)
- The New Laws of the Indies (20 November 1542)
- Bernal Díaz writes his True History (c. 1568)
- Before: The New Laws of the Indies
- After: Lazarillo de Tormes is printed
Sources
- Sepúlveda on the Spanish Invasion of the Americas: Defending Empire, Debating Las Casas — Australian National University, Coral Bell School
- Bartolomé de las Casas — World History Encyclopedia
- Cronología de Bartolomé de las Casas — Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
- Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España: Bernal Díaz del Castillo (ficha) — Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, UNAM / Biblioteca Nacional de México