Dominican Scholar

Dominican Protests.

The atrocities committed by the Spanish during their conquest of the Americas provoked vehement protests from the Dominican order of Catholics. The most effective of these critics of Spanish policy was Bartolome de las Casas. Las Casas urged Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, to completely reform Spanish policies toward the Indians. He argued that Indians possessed the same natural rights as Europeans. Consequently, Las Casas said, the justifications of conquest devised by Spanish lawyers were illegitimate; the Spanish taking of Indian land, labor, and property was wrongful; and the conquistadores and encomenderos had a duty to restore Indians to their natural rights. Moreover the Spanish, as demonstrated by the Requerimiento, attempted to impose Christianity on the Indians by force. Potential converts to Christianity, according to Las Casas, had to have the liberty of conscience to...