The global significance of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 cannot be overstated. That event brought the world closer together than it had ever been. It marked the beginning of a modern and truly globalized world. Of course, the meaning of that significant event has shifted in recent decades. The idea that Columbus “discovered” America and brought “civilization” to the indigenous Americans who supposedly lacked it is false. What he and the Spanish conquistadoresand the subsequent European settler colonistsdid bring to the Western Hemisphere was disease, conquest, warfare, destruction, exploitation, theft, cultural erasure, enslavement, death, and genocide. Because they were not Christians and not Europeans, Columbus assumed that the indigenous peoples lacked intelligence. That sentiment is embodied in Columbus’ own descriptions of his encounter with the Indians: “I showed them swords which they grasped by the blades, and cut themselves through ignorance.” (Columbus’ Notebooks) After several voyages to the Americas, Columbus was returned to Spain in shackles.
Beginning with Hispaniola (the island where Columbus first landed) and extending to the rest of the Caribbean (also known as the West Indies), Mexico, Central America, and most of South America, over the course of the sixteenth century Spain established a massive hierarchical colonial system, known as encomienda which permitted Spanish soldiers and officials to enslave indigenous Americans. These were the first slaves in the Western Hemisphere. Spain was eager to find mineral wealth (gold, silver), but also convert non-Europeans to Roman Catholicism as part of the Roman Church’s Counter-Reformation. Yet, most indigenous peoples were never converted by the time they confronted death by disease or conquest.
The Spanish were deliberate in their efforts to destroy and erase what they could of the cultures and societies of the Americas, including the great empires of the Aztec and Inca. Consequently, because of this erasure, we today have few documents or primary sources from pre-Columbian America. And what we do know about these societies is largely from Spanish sources.
But we do know about the violence that Spain inflicted on the original Americans. One of the best sources that we have describing the atrocities committed by the Spanish is a Dominican missionary by the name of Bartolom de Las Casas. He arrived in the Caribbean in the early sixteenth century to convert the indigenous. He also owned slaves as part of the encomienda system. But after seeing how the Spanish treated the indigenous, his perspective changed. And he wrote extensively about the treatment of Indian slaves. His accounts were widely read in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe and were the basis for the “Black Legend”: the horrors of Spanish settler colonialism that the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English all overtly tried to distance themselves from, but failed.
So, for this fourth paper, you will analyze and interpret Las Casas’ account of the treatment of the indigenous Americans by the Spanish.
Here is the source:
De Las Casas, Bartolom. “Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542.” Sources of World Societies, Volume I: to 1715. Edited Walter D. Ward and Carol L. White. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 204-209. Download De Las Casas, Bartolom. “Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, 1542.” Sources of World Societies, Volume I: to 1715. Edited Walter D. Ward and Carol L. White. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 204-209.
Here are some questions to help narrow your focus for developing an arguable thesis statement:
- Spain was the most powerful European civilization of the sixteenth century. And as a Christian civilization the Spanish considered themselves to be the most advanced. How does Las Casas’ account of the treatment of the indigenous peoples challenge the standard definition of “civilization”? Is the kind of violence the Spanish inflicted endemic to civilization? Or is it an aberration?
- What was Las Casas’ motive for writing these accounts? Who is his audience? Does his Christian faith help shape his sympathies? Or do his sympathies run counter to the violence committed by a Christian empire?
- How did Las Casas challenge and criticize the European assumptions about non-Europeans? How did he challenge the assumptions the Europeans had about themselves?
- Las Casas certainly had sympathies for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. But he did not show similar sympathies for African slaves first brought to the Americas in 1526. Based on what he says about the indigenous Americans, why do you think he might not have felt the same for Africans? And what might this indicate about his own assumptions, his own self-awareness?
For the paper it is absolutely imperative that you cite your sources using one of the acceptable academic citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), and that the citations are correct. If you submit a paper without citations you will fail the assignment. You must cite your sources.
Your paper must be submitted to Turnitin. There is a link to upload your paper at the bottom of this page.
The paper must include the following:
- A descriptive title.
- A thesis statement and an argument. Do not simply summarize or describe the sources. Provide an analysis of the meaning and significance of the texts. In other words, form an interpretation of the texts.
- Provide evidence and examples from the text to illustrate and support your thesis statement. The evidence must come from the texts themselves.
- Use citations with a works cited page at the end of your paper.
- 750-1250 words (a minimum of 3 full pages, roughly, 3-5 pages, but your paper may be longer than 5 pages).
- 10 or 12-point readable font, double-spaced, with 1 margins
- Submit your paper on Canvas using the Turnitin link. You will only be able to submit your paper once. You must submit the file in a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file format.
Other tips:
- Start your paper early. Dont wait until the night before the paper is due to begin writing.
- Always write more than one rough draft. The more drafts you write, the better your paper will be.
- Always proofread your paper one final time after you have run a spell check in your word processor.
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