history essay

“The worst thing that colonialism did was to cloud our view of our past.” Barack Obama.

During the Spanish invasion of the indies, there was a social reformer and historian with Spanish descent known as Bartolome who was writing at this time around the 16th century. A Short Account of The Destruction of The Indies paints the picture vividly. In addition to a commentary that was sarcastic on the brutally exercised on the Hispaniola natives by the colonizers from Spain, he also gives us the readers the reason behind the motivation of the Spain colonizers behavior. The account by Bartolome acts as a reflection of the Spanish empires imperial policies and also as an observation for the colonizer's practices. This was clearly depicted by Bartolome as it brought out the clear picture maybe because he was a Spanish historian that made most out of the writing skills he had or just maybe he was after social reform. Across the writing of The Destruction of The Indies, Bartolome brings the attention crown of the Spanish to the suffering caused and the carnages the empire citizens committed to the natives. Focusing on that Casa is able to utilize a sense of rhetoric that is aimed to bring out sympathy of the persons reading, that is aimed to the natives in addition to the sense of the horror of how the natives were treated by the Spaniards. Casa is able to paint a picture right from the beginning about the nature of the natives that is in the preface; the natives are harmless and simple according to Casa. He further depicts them as, “the simplest people in the world… without guilt or malice… never quarrelsome or belligerent and they harbor no grudges…indeed notions of revenge and hatred are quite foreign to them”.

On the opposite Casa describes Spaniards as "ravening wolves" who pounced on the natives like savage lions or tigers who had not eaten meat for several days. This depicts a clear comparison between the savagery of the Spanish empire and the natives who were helpless, where this comparison is vivid throughout the document. Comparison examples are given frequently before and after the population of the native’s levels once the Spaniards have occupied the area. In the document he states that when the Spanish set their foot on the land of the natives, the population was 3 million. Currently only 200 survived in Hispaniola or even worse not even a single person survives on the Bahamas Islands. Casa employs the use of concrete numbers to depict the population decline which directly implies the number of deaths that occurred. Casa uses this to give the document a sense of authority whereby the numbers give it a stressed official nature. These numbers also give a clear picture of the Spanish savagery and cruelty to the natives, Casa elaborates the different ways in which the locals were being cleared whit a rough idea of the colonial practices in the indies in general. This is best described by words such as "forcible expatriation", "tyrannical war" that was unjust, and death caused to the natives by overworking. Where there was an instance of a man whom natives worked under him so hard that in a month out of three hundred, only thirty were left.

Casas brings out the motive that was behind the savagery and cruelty as simply being greed that was materialistic. Casas goes on to explain that the natives had gold that made the Spaniards have a force that was giving them the cruel nature, to the extent of allowing the natives to die so as to have all they can. In the document, there was this was an instance that clearly reflected the greed of the Spaniards, where the local lord of Castilians offers nine thousand of them to the Spaniards and the leader is captured and torture for more gold. Casas describes the ordeal whereby he was tied in sitting position whereby he a bit raised from the ground, and a fire was lit under the feet of the local lord. The motive of this was to torture him to produce more gold by the time, he was not able to provide them with no more gold, the torture and the burning continues until the sole of his feet were no more. The most significant note at this point is the description of the Spaniards as Christians and at the same time talking about the greed, he states that pure and simple greed is the reason the Christians have murdered a lot of people and killed everyone and anyone who stood in their way. He used the word, Christian, to be ironic and bring attention to the behavior of the Spanish that was rather un-Christian like. This can be traced from the natives referring Gold too as "The God of The Christians."

The document depicted Casas as a bishop of the Chiapas, in other words, he was a clerical man which made one of the most important concerns he had was the brutality that was happening in the colonies. Casas later states that the Spaniards have no concern for the souls and the bodies of the natives acknowledging the death of millions, whereby this happened before them knowing God. At this point, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies becomes an indication of the concerns and priorities of him living under the Spanish empire at this time, rather than a document that is fighting for the equal rights that the natives should have. The natives are seen by Casas as potential Christians instead of equal people as the Spaniards. Casas describes the natives as pure in mind and innocent with an intelligence that was lively which makes them perfect in understanding and learning the true teachings of the Catholic Faith. This was as opposed to the first priority of the Spaniards which was to convert and save souls which made Casas enraged. This was a technique that was used by countries that colonized others around the world especially Africa where religion was used to extort the resources. Back in the text, there is a point that Casas state, the natives had to adopt Christianity and subject to the crown of Castile or face military action.

Casas goes on to describe how the Spanish colonizers would stage a robbery with violence on the land of natives and still sanctify their actions with the legal rights which was forced on the natives, remember either adopt Christianity or face military action. A Short Account of The Destruction of The Indies, is a perfect example of a policy which is imperial generally, which was aimed at the expansion of the Spanish empire. It can be paraphrased to invasion, colonization, and occupation which directly mirrors the modern-day imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism of various organizations in the world, especially the governments. The Spaniards used a tool which was a religion whose main mandate was to further the objectives of the Spanish Inquisition, better known as the holy office which basically implied operating of all Spanish colonies in Spain, which was a mask to cover all the greed and brutality of the conquistadores. This was established by monarchs of the Catholic church, Ferdinand, and Isabella back in 1478 as a method of enhancing authority politically through religion. Which specifically customized to suppress tension that may arise from cultural and social differences between the natives and the Spaniards. As pointed out by Casas in the account the activities of the colonizers were not the same as of those of the inquisition, but all in all the colonies of the Spanish were using religion to further their political objectives.

Hence, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies provides insights that are important based on the Spanish Empire practices in their colonies. Additionally, it also presents a perspective that is interesting from a man who was within and was part of the Spanish Empire, who is Casas and had first class awareness and recognized the wrongdoing and malpractices of the Crown, where he is struggling to at least do something so that the activities can come to a stop. He was enraged about the change of the mission which was to convert the natives, but they ended up killing them, which makes him make a proper distinction between Christianity and "the Christianity", that the Spaniards practiced that of using religion to further expand their empire. This was done through writing and literature which shows the significance of written word trying to bring change, which we have seen modern artists do so too. Through the sentiments of Casas throughout the account may have not been taken keen interest at that time but it does bring a risen awareness on the blindness of morality displayed in the activities conducted by the empires and colonies. This can be traced to the other readings about other readings we have had in class.

References

de las Casas, Bartolome, and Bartolome Las Casas. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Penguin UK, 2004.

de Las Casas, B. (1992). The devastation of the Indies: A brief account. JHU Press.

Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: the Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press, 1992.