Bartolomé de las Casas and the Conquest of the Americas

by Lawrence A. Clayton (Editor)

Overview

This is a short history of the age of exploration and the conquest of the Americas told through the experience of Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar who fervently defended the American Indians, and the single most important figure of the period after Columbus.

• Explores the period known as the Encounter, which was characterized by intensive conflict between Europeans and the people of the Americas following Columbus’s voyages
• Argues that Las Casas, ‘protector of Indians,' was primarily motivated by Scripture in his crusade for justice and equality for American Indians
• Draws on the 14 volume Complete Works of Las Casas as a window into his mind and actions
• Encourages students to understand history through the viewpoint of individuals living it

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444392739
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	11/23/2010
Series:	Viewpoints / Puntos de Vista
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Lawrence A. Clayton is Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of History at the University of Alabama. His books include A History of Modern Latin America, second edition  (2004), Peru and the United States: The Condor and the Eagle (1999), and The De Soto Chronicles (editor, 1993). He is currently writing the first major biography of Las Casas in more than a generation.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Series Editor’s Preface

Acknowledgments

Timeline

Introduction

1. The Era of Columbus and the “Discoverers”

Modern interpretations

Conquest of La Española

2. Justice for All

Discovering his calling

Father Montesinos’ sermon

Las Casas goes to Cuba

To Spain

Meeting Ferdinand

3. Social Experiments: The Hieronymite Mission and the Universal Protector of All the Indians

4. The Era of the Conquests of Mexico and Peru, 1520s–1540s

Seville, autumn, 1520

The conquest of Mexico

5. The New Laws of 1542 and Bishop of Chiapa

Laying the groundwork

Bishop of Chiapa

6. “All Mankind is One”: On the Nature of Humans, Servitude, and Slavery

Bartolomé de las Casas and the African slave trade

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliographic Essay

Index