These people have little knowledge of fighting, as Your Majesties will see from the seven I have had captured to take away with us so as to teach them our language and return them, unless Your Majesties' orders are that they all be taken to Spain or held captive on the island itself, for with fifty men one could keep the whole population in subjection and make them do whatever one wanted.
They neither care nor know anything of arms, for I showed them swords, and they took them by the blade and cut themselves through ignorance.
They should be good servants and intelligent, for I observed that they quickly took in what was said to them, and I believe that they would easily be made Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no religion. (From the Journal's of Christopher Columbus)
[Incomplete]
The Spanish colonization of the America's began as a 'conquest by arms' by the Conquistadors, and was followed, a generation later, by the condemnation of the former miss-treatment of the Indians (native Americans), and an impassioned call for their liberation by the clergy. What is noteworthy is that although the Spanish came to see in the tortured bodies of the Indians so many signs of their former brutality, and sought to redeem themselves by condemning their former miss-treatment and pledging to free them from bondage, the form which this liberation took was not the restoration of the Indians back to their former condition- this possibility doesnt seem to have even been discussed- but their evangelization through the Christian religion.
In the Spanish conquest of the Americas we find a pattern which would repeat itself throughout the period of European colonization: the transition from a 'conquest by arms', and enslavement of a native population, to their liberation through evangelization, and thus a colonization in-depth. Whereas the former only touches their bodies, we can see that by attributing immortal 'souls' to the Indians, as the Papel Bull Sublimus Dei did, the Spanish condemned them to the process of working out their salvation.
Note: see Foucault on the 'two ages' of psychiatry which mirror these 'two ages' of colonialism, from the 'mass repression' of the 'ancient regime' to 'moral treatment.'
Note: see Foucault on the 'two ages' of psychiatry which mirror these 'two ages' of colonialism, from the 'mass repression' of the 'ancient regime' to 'moral treatment.'
The Spanish conquest of the America's was carried out
under the legal auspices of the papal bull 'Dum Diversus', which was
issued by Pope Nicholas V one year before the fall of Constantinople and
authorized the enslavement of non-christians. It is credited by some
historians with "ushering in the West African slave trade."
Dum Diversus:
We grant you [Kings of Spain and Portugal] by these present documents, with our Apostolic Authority, full and free permission to invade, search out, capture, and subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be, as well as their kingdoms, duchies, counties, principalities, and other property [...] and to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery.
Upon their encounter with Indians, the conquistadors were required, by law, to read out aloud a pronouncement which basically told them that they were the lost people of an ancient race which begun with Adam and that they were their to receive them back into the fold and warned them that if they did not submit to their governance they would be enslaved and have only themselves to blame. The 'requimentio' was read out in Spanish.
On the part of the King, Don Fernando, and of Doña Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castile and León, subduers of the barbarous nations, we their servants notify and make known to you, as best we can, that the Lord our God, living and eternal, created the heaven and the earth, and one man and one woman, of whom you and we, and all the men of the world, were and are all descendants, and all those who come after us.
Of all these nations God our Lord gave charge to one man, called St. Peter, that he should be lord and superior of all the men in the world, that all should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole human race, wherever men should live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction.
One of these pontiffs, who succeeded St. Peter as lord of the world in the dignity and seat which I have before mentioned, made donation of these isles and Terra-firma to the aforesaid King and Queen and to their successors, our lords, with all that there are in these territories,
Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world,
But if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him: and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us ."
Las Casas was styled "the conscience of Spain". There are many statues throughout south America built to commemorate his 'act of liberation'.
Sublimus Dei:
Pope Paul III (Topic: the enslavement and evangelization of Indians)To all faithful Christians to whom this writing may come, health in Christ our Lord and the apostolic benediction.The sublime God so loved the human race that He created man in such wise that he might participate, not only in the good that other creatures enjoy, but endowed him with capacity to attain to the inaccessible and invisible Supreme Good and behold it face to face; and since man, according to the testimony of the sacred scriptures, has been created to enjoy eternal life and happiness, which none may obtain save through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it is necessary that he should possess the nature and faculties enabling him to receive that faith; and that whoever is thus endowed should be capable of receiving that same faith. Nor is it credible that any one should possess so little understanding as to desire the faith and yet be destitute of the most necessary faculty to enable him to receive it. Hence Christ, who is the Truth itself, that has never failed and can never fail, said to the preachers of the faith whom He chose for that office 'Go ye and teach all nations.' He said all, without exception, for all are capable of receiving the doctrines of the faith.The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God's word of Salvation to the people: he inspired his satellites who, to please him, have not hesitated to publish abroad that the Indians of the West and the South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge should be treated as dumb brutes created for our service, pretending that they are incapable of receiving the Catholic Faith.We, who, though unworthy, exercise on earth the power of our Lord and seek with all our might to bring those sheep of His flock who are outside into the fold committed to our charge, consider, however, that the Indians are truly men and that they are not only capable of understanding the Catholic Faith but, according to our information, they desire exceedingly to receive it. Desiring to provide ample remedy for these evils, We define and declare by these Our letters, or by any translation thereof signed by any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, to which the same credit shall be given as to the originals, that, notwithstanding whatever may have been or may be said to the contrary, the said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect.By virtue of Our apostolic authority We define and declare by these present letters, or by any translation thereof signed by any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, which shall thus command the same obedience as the originals, that the said Indians and other peoples should be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ by preaching the word of God and by the example of good and holy living.
The principal passage reads:
The enemy of the human race, who opposes all good deeds in order to bring men to destruction, beholding and envying this, invented a means never before heard of, by which he might hinder the preaching of God's word of Salvation to the people: he inspired his satellites who, to please him, have not hesitated to publish abroad that the Indians of the West and the South, and other people of whom We have recent knowledge should be treated as dumb brutes created for our service, pretending that they are incapable of receiving the Catholic Faith. We, who, though unworthy, exercise on earth the power of our Lord and seek with all our might to bring those sheep of His flock who are outside into the fold committed to our charge, consider, however, that the Indians are truly men and that they are not only capable of understanding the Catholic Faith but, according to our information, they desire exceedingly to receive it. Desiring to provide ample remedy for these evils, We define and declare by these Our letters, or by any translation thereof signed by any notary public and sealed with the seal of any ecclesiastical dignitary, to which the same credit shall be given as to the originals, that, notwithstanding whatever may have been or may be said to the contrary, the said Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by Christians, are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; and that they may and should, freely and legitimately, enjoy their liberty and the possession of their property; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen, it shall be null and have no effect.
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"Indeed, the eighteenth-century European notion that 'civilization' was the monopoly of the West was in fact a 'secularized version of the primitive Western Christian proposition: 'Nemini salus... nisi in Ecclesia' [or "extra-Ecclesiam non est@]'. [12] That is, there could be no salvation outside of the Western Catholic Church. This was made clear right from the outset with the ritualistic Spanish reading of the 'Requirement' (Requirimiento), which was 'an ultimatum for Indians to acknowledge the superiority of Christianity or be warred upon'. [13] The key part of the text stated that:
On behalf of His Majesty... I ... his servant, messanger... beg and require you as best I can... [that] you recognize the church as lord and superior of the universal world... [If you do so His Majesty and I in his name will receive you... But if you do not do it... with the help of God, I will enter forcefully against you and I will make war everywhere... I will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church... I will take your wives and children, and I will make them slaves... and I will do to you all the evil and damages that a lord may do to vassals who do not obey or receive him. [14]
Despite the ideological victory of Las Casas over Sepulveda it would be entirely wrong to assume that the Church's conception of the inherent equality of all men precluded the unequal treatment of some of them. Indeed, the two views of the Indian Natives gave rise to an early version of the imperial discourse that would come to full fruition in Britain mainly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (see Ch. 10). The 'benign' view of Las Casas still very much gave rise to an imperial mission in which the Natives would be 'culturally converted'; their identity and cultural practies would be transformed along Western Christian lines. And crucially Las casas never challenged the right of the Spanish to rule over the Natives nor did he believe that they should be granted self-determination. Thus in Todorov's terms, at all times the debate presupposed the inferiority of the Natives, and was based on an ideology of enslavement versus colonialist/assimiliation ideology.[9] In this way these apparantly opposing ideological views of the Natives sat logically, albeit awkwardly, together
