What did the Valladolid debate lead to?
The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) was the first moral debate in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of an indigenous people by conquerors. The affair is considered one of the earliest examples of moral debates about colonialism, human rights of colonized peoples, and international relations.
What was the main arguments between Bartolome de las Casas and Sepulveda?
Sepulveda argued against Las Casas on behalf of the colonists’ property rights. Sepulveda rationalized Spanish treatment of American Indians by arguing that Indians were “natural slaves” and that Spanish presence in the New World would benefit them.
What was the controversy of Valladolid?
“The Controversy of Valladolid” is the art that life is currently imitating. Today, young children are being held at the border, voiceless, as others decide their fate. In 1550, indigenous Americans were held in limbo as colonizers debated whether they were actually people.
What were the two sides of the Valladolid debate?
First, their natural condition deemed them unable to rule themselves, and it was the responsibility of the Spaniards to act as masters. Second, Spaniards were entitled to prevent cannibalism as a crime against nature. Third, the same went for human sacrifice. Fourth, it was important to convert Indians to Christianity.
Who disagreed with Sepulveda?
On the one side was one Juan Ginés de Sepülveda, a prominent humanist and Greek scholar who justified conquest and evangelization by war. His opponent, fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, in contrast, was a staunch advocate of peaceful and persuasive conversion.
What did Sepulveda think about the Aztecs?
He claimed that the Indians had no ruler, and no laws, so any civilized man could legitimately appropriate them. In other words, Sepúlveda considered the Indians to be pre-social men with no rights or property.
What was Las Casas argument?
While the Pope had granted Spain sovereignty over the New World, de Las Casas argued that the property rights and rights to their own labor still belonged to the native peoples. Natives were subjects of the Spanish crown, and to treat them as less than human violated the laws of God, nature, and Spain.
When was the Valladolid debate?
1550
Valladolid debate/Start dates
The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) had as its main protagonists the Dominican Bartolomé de las Casas, bishop of Chiapas, and the humanist Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, royal chronicler to the emperor Charles V.
What ideas did the two debaters share?
What ideas did the two debaters share? The two debaters share the idea that Western civilization and culture is superior to Native culture. They also both agree Native Americans are sinners because they are not Christians.
What did Bartolomé de las Casas do?
Bartolomé de Las Casas, (born 1474 or 1484, Sevilla?, Spain—died July 1566, Madrid), early Spanish historian and Dominican missionary who was the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there.
What is the Aztec impression of the Spaniards?
The Aztecs were fascinated by the Spaniards’ light skin and the sight of men on horseback, which they described as beasts with two heads and six legs. The Spanish fired shots, which stunned the natives and further intimidated them.