The son of a Seville merchant who traveled on Columbus’s second voyage to North America, Bartolome de Las Casas travels to Hispaniola intent on converting the Indians there. His success earns him in 1513 a land grant from the Spanish government under the encomienda system (see entry for 1498), which entitles him to enslave Indians to work as laborers.
The hideous treatment of Indians at the hands of his fellow encomienda owners comes to horrify Las Casas. Freeing his own slaves, he pledges the remainder of his life to exposing the Spaniards’ behavior and to pleading that his people respect the humanity of Indians. In two highly influential books—A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1522) and The Only Method of Attracting Men to the True Faith (1530)—Las Casas writes about the Spanish atrocities so that if the Spanish are destroyed by God for their offenses, the rest of the world will understand why. He also develops the re-duccion theory, which promotes the idea of missions where Indians can live and learn about Christianity in settings that isolate them from their native cultures. (See also entries for 1542 and for 1550.)
“[The Spanish] came with their Horsemen well armed with Sword and Launce, making most cruel havocks and slaughters among them. Overrunning Cities and Villages, where they spared no sex nor age; neither would their cruelty pity Women and child, whose bellies they would rip up, taking out the infant to hew it in pieces. They would often lay wagers who should with most dexterity either cleave or cut a man in the middle, or who could at one blow soonest cut off his head.”
—Bartolome de Las Casas on the Spanish massacre of the Arawak
Jamaica Indians aid a shipwrecked Christopher Columbus.
On his final voyage to North America, Christopher Columbus and a crew of 115 are shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Jamaica. The Europeans demand food from the local Indians. When after several months the Indians begin to resist, Columbus, knowing of an upcoming lunar eclipse, tells them that his God will make the moon disappear unless they give his crew what they need. The ploy works: the Indians, frightened by the eclipse, continue to help the foreigners until they are rescued In 1503.
Montezuma Xocoyotzin ascends to the Aztec throne.
Montezuma Xocoyotzin becomes the ruler of the Aztec Indians (see entry for ca. 1430 TO 1521) upon the death of his uncle Ahitzotl. Generous and benevolent, Ahitzotl is well loved by his subjects but weak in battle. His successor will chose to be a far more stern and militaristic leader. Before the arrival of the Spanish in his realm (see entries for 1519 and for 1521), he will add some 40 communities to the powerful Aztec Empire, inciting the wrath of those conquered and fending off several rivals’ attempts to subvert his authority.
World History
