Review of De Las Casas' The Devastation of the Indies Essay

The Devastation of the Indies opened the veil of the Spanish activities at the American continent, and in this way the main thesis of the book is that the character of Spanish behavior here was cruel and violent and deserves nothing but condemnation and censure.
The Spanish invasion is shown as a demographic and cultural catastrophe, while thousands of the Native Indians were slaughtered and enslaved for the financial benefit of the invaders. All the activities of the Spanish since the arrival of Columbus and even the very presence of the Spanish in America were unjust. All their wealth was extracted by severe exploitation of the Indians. The Europeans saw a miracle in what they have discovered and the new lands with all their unbelievable flora and fauna were a picture of Eden, and for them it was a new page. But being driven by their own commercial and other material interests, they were blind to see they interfered with the development of the whole civilization. For them the Indians were at a lower stage of development, and thus they decided they had the right to decide their destiny and to take away their good things of life, no matter the price. A life of an Indian man was an empty word for the Spanish, and the more blood was split, the more predatory the invaders were becoming in their war for welfare. As Bill M. Donovan states, this is a “story of greed, hypocrisy, and cruelties so grotesque as to rival the worst of our own century” (Las Casas, p. 144) To be more specific, Las Casas describes the massacre of men, women and children and how human flesh was sold as a food for dogs; provides examples how the Natives were constantly cheated and betrayed by the conquerors, and the whole families committed the suicides together in despair due to the actions of the Spanish. Peoples were annihilated and killed outright, the lands were devastated and wealth of nations was plundered. “Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits.” (Las Casas, p. 31).
The Native Americans themselves were vulnerable and not warlike before the invasion of the Europeans. They did not hide the beauty of their bodies under clothes, they had hardly any weapon (except maybe for hunting) and were known acquainted with duplicity and wickedness. By nature they were obedient and faithfully served to their masters when the Spanish Christians enslaved them. They were even not able to quarrel or argue, as Las Casas describes, for these were patient and humble people not knowing embroilments and desire for vengeance. But instead of compassion and respect for all these dignities, the Indians received mockery and extermination from the Spanish who used these dignities as their weaknesses added to unbearable physical labor put on their shoulders. The Natives were also described as poor nation, as they did not have the desire for wealth and they did not need much. At the same time they were rather intelligent and open-minded, they easily accepted new information and did not resists to new religion, while they are told to be patient and eager to learn more.
Religious speculations are actually believed to significantly influence the change of views of Las Casas. For him, religion was something to proclaim peace and life, but the church did almost nothing to protect the persecuted nations. Instead, Christianity became the issue of new conflicts and factions. In Las Casas’s view, the Native Americans were to be peacefully converted to Christianity to expiate their sins from paganism, but instead it became a part of military effort. The military conquest was justified as the most effective and efficacious method to convert the Natives. The assumption of innate superiority over the Indians diligently cultivated by the Spanish was the main thesis Las Casas intended to challenge. What is more, the way the Spanish behaved in new lands and the way they chose to convert the Indians to their religion was discrediting Christianity as it created an illusion that all those violent actions were justified by God or even stimulated by the postulates of the Holy Bible.
As for the reliability of the work under consideration, Las Casas deserves much credit die to several reasons. First of all, he lived himself in the circumstances he described. He communicated much with the celebrated leaders of the conquest and even cooperated with some of them; he knew several native languages and thus had access to different sources of information to rely on. What is more, for his service Las Casas himself became an owner of land and Indians, but being a preacher, already in 1514 he began to proclaim the condemnation of the way the Spanish were treating the native people. Being disenchanted with the very essence of the relations between the Spanish and the Indians, Las Casas gradually was conversing against the conquest and the regime and to begin he released his own slaves. In other words, this is a truthful account of the first modern genocide given by the eyewitness of all those events. In addition, Las Casas’s accuracy is credited for his reputation of a gifted historian and social critic.
When the book only appeared in Seville in 1552, it created an immediate sensation and till now it is still regarded as a great book. “Bartolome de Las Casas’s expose of Spanish mistreatment of Amerindians produced public outrage that was directed at both the conquistadors who were committing the atrocities and at the writer who has made them public” (Las Casas, p. 2). Moreover, the book was soon translated into almost all central European languages, thus becoming the significant historical heritage of different nations and providing ideological basis for French, English, and Dutch intentions to do away with the Iberian monopoly for the American lands. The Spanish moral claim to the Americas was seriously undermined. What is more, The Devastation of the Indies also was used as a significant foundation for the so-called Black Legend, which was to show the truth of the Spanish involvement in the American continent. This Black Legend is still heavily influencing both Northern European and North American views of Latin American heritage, history and culture. In fact, the book of Las Casas changed the overall approach to understanding the historical contact, relations and bounds of the European colonists with the non-European nations. Consequently, this subject resulted in passionate controversy around the author. But the main long-term effect was that it significantly contributed to the adoption of the New Laws of 1542, for the first time in European colonial history abolishing native slavery.
Meanwhile, Las Casas himself gradually became more and more convinced that the way the Indians were treated by the invaders was out of order, inhumane and outrageous. Regarded as the “most articulate defender of Indian rights” (Las Casas, p. 2), he explained that the American Indians were also humans, rational beings with their thoughts, souls and feelings, needs and desires, rights and freedoms which were to be protected, not abolished and infringed, as it unfortunately was in reality. The proponents of the conquest appealed to the theory of just war. The Indians were said to have committed unforgivable sins by their idolatry and sins against nature. The Aristotelian notion of natural slaves was also used as an argument.
On the whole, the book of Las Casas presents timeless and universal system of protection of human rights. When you read it, you may not even notice that it was written half a millennium ago, as it really sound up-to-date and extremely to the point. Now we all know the sad consequences of those days, but you really get impressed by how far a man of that time was able to go in his thoughts and ideas. It was really a courageous deed, to come out against the system, to become a denouncer of entire generation of conquerors and even the entire nation of Spain. He turned out to be a Christian against Christianity at that time in that place, but he found the forces within him to struggle for justice and to defend the sufferers, as he saw them himself and could make sound conclusions on what was really going on. On the other hand, it may be claimed that some of the descriptions may be exaggerated by the author, as we are actually not able to check the validity of some data and, moreover, facts could be misinterpreted by him for achieving the goal. But still, so many historians have worked for the same theme and devoted lives to learn the truth, and hardly any contradicting facts were found. Even if in some details Las Casas was too strict or too hyperbolizing, it doesn’t change the main statement of the cruelty and rage the Spanish brought to the defenseless and peaceful Indians.