Question

What does las casas offer as evidence that the Indians were not as barbaric as their enemies proclaimed ?

Answer 1

Bartolomè de Las Casas (1484 – 1566) was a Spanish dominicanan friar from the 16th century, who travelled to South and Central America to take part in the Spanish colonization of the “New World”. Las Casas was known as the “protector of Indians”, due to his denunciation of the atrocities committed by the colonizers against the indigenous peoples. Las Casas claimed that although the Indians did not behave according to the Christian ways, they possessed laws and governments of their own, as well as good understanding and means to learn the catholic morals, therefore, they could not be punished as barbarians.