A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies

Description

A Brief or Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies is a historical account about the exploitation of the poor people in America during the colonial times. It is forwarded to the then-Prince Philip II of Spain.

Among the reasons for writing the book was the writer despairs for Spain to undergo the sacred punishment and his worry for the souls of the indigenous people. The account was among the first trials by a writer in Spain of the colonial era to narrate the maltreatment that the native people went through in the early years of the Spanish conquest of the Greater Antilles, specifically the island of Hispaniola. In Las Casas’s account, it can be said that he described the colonization of the Spaniards to be very harsh and so wrong, and it incurred big losses on the native inhabitants of the islands. His work was the basis for the adoption of the New Laws of 1542, abolishing native slavery for the first time in European history of colonization and brought to the Valladolid argument.

Bartolomé de las Casas was a 16th century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican priest. He was the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first official appointee as the Protector of the Indians. His lengthy writings, the very popular, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies and Historia de Las Indias, narrates the first decades of conquest of the West Indies and centers mostly on the barbarity done by the conquerors against the native people.

He was one of the first Europeans settling in the Americas, at first, he joined in the enormities by the Spanish conquerors to the Native Americans but decided himself to retract. He renewed his views, bailed out his Indian slaves and encomienda, and followed the lead before King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in order to uphold the rights of the indigents.
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