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Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
Average Customer Review : 4.5/5 based on 15 reviews
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Editorial Reviews
Bartolome de las Casas was born in Sevilla in 1474. At the age of 18 he left Spain for the new world, where he managed his father's ranch and subsequently became a priest. After many years of witnessing the ravages and atrocities of Spanish colonial policy and experiencing the failure of his own attempts at the peaceful colonization of Cumana, he wrote a brief account of the destruction of the Indies in 1542. This work was investigated at the instigation of Charles V by a committee of lawyers and theologians, and the findings rejected. Colonial apologists also rejected las Casas' view that the Indian was by nature virtuous and peacable, but corrupted by an alien civilization. This book examines this work.
Spotlight Reviews
Good read (2008-04-10)
Customer Review : 5
This first person account of the aftermath of Columbus and the Spanish is an important read from the time period. When so much has been misleading about the time period, at least form a public school textbook view, I found this book a necessary view of reality. Granted, the author completely agreed that the "natives" needed God, but he finally learned that the violence that accompanied the Spanish did not bring the Americans closer to God.
Essential Reading (2008-01-02)
Customer Review : 5
"A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies" is a powerful written protest against the Spanish treatment of the American Indians. Bartolome de las Casas, a Dominican friar, witnessed first-hand the colonization of the Americas by the Spaniards, and felt it his duty to document the atrocities. He dedicated "short account" to King Philip II, in the hope that once he was aware of the atrocities, he would put a stop to them, as any good kings would. Casas documents the "destruction of the indies" in what is today Haiti and the Domican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru. Among other things, Casas reports that the Spaniards, upon coming to the Indian villages, either tortured and killed them for the gold that they might be hiding, or forced them into slavery in gold mines. The "blackguards," as he calls them, would even kill pregnant women, the elderly, and children by either burning them alive, running them through with lances, or setting vicious dogs on them. Supposedly, the Indians welcomed the Spaniards and offered to serve them, and were rewarded with torture, murder, and slavery. Casas' account has a sense of urgency that things matters might still be reversed. Further, "Short Account" is arguably the first human rights report.
That's not to say that Casas was perfect, at least by modern standards. In his view, one of the worst aspects of the wholesale slaughter of the Indians was that they would go straight to Hell, since they never heard the gospel or received the sacraments. Moreover, he never questioned the right of the Spanish to be there, or of Pope Alexander VI to grant sovereignty of the Americas to Spain and Portugal. So the fact that the book became central to the "black legend" was in spite of Casas' beliefs, not because of them. In fact, at one point he refers to Protestant German merchants who go to the Americas as heretics, so he certainly never would have countenanced Protestant Anglo-Dutch propaganda against Spain. Nor is it his intent to portray Spaniards as uniquely cruel, as black legend propaganda did; Casas simply saw the Conquistadors who killed and enslaved the Indians, rather than converting them, as sinners. Finally, as other reviewers have noted, Casas advocated replacing Indian slaves with black slaves. He eventually realized his mistake, but it was too late. In addition, Casas definitely takes the "noble savage" angle in portraying the Indians, which is now discredited.
Of course, not everything in it can be taken as literally true. For instance, Casas claims that in Mexico City, the conquistadors herded the natives into a temple and burned it. That would have been difficult, since the temple was made of stone and so could not have been set on fire. In addition, the number of dead he gives- 15 million- is impossible to verify. We don't know the pre-conquest population of the Americas with certainty, nor the number dead as a result of Spanish atrocities. But in that the Spaniards killed and plundered is not disputable, so Casas' account is more right than it is wrong.
Whatever Casas' flaws were, however, he was the only one in Catholic Spain to raise a loud protest against the treatment of the Indians. He stood above the men of his time, and contributed, willingly or not, to modern ideas such as liberation theology and human rights theory. Interestingly, he was one of the first to explicitly say that political power comes from the consent of the governed, and that those who are oppressed by some foreign monarch claiming jurisdiction over them have every right to rebel. So in conclusion, this is a must read for those wishing to learn about renaissance, early American, ecclesiastical, and political history. It should be required reading in schools.
an important and terrifying work (2007-12-31)
Customer Review : 5
There's certainly no denying the importance of de Las Casas' written account of the atrocities committed by the Spanish against the native inhabitants of Central and South America. Not only is the author's account moving and heart-breaking, but it's impact on the course of world events and public opinion have been quite profound (whether or not most people realize it). If you're an anthropology, history or social science student, you should definitely read this book.
For the lay reader though, here is a word of caution: this isn't a personnal narrative about Las Casas' life in "the new world" or an ethnography. Focusing on the various kingdoms and territories destroyed by the Spanish, Las Casas uses a very standard format: the Spanish arrive, are treated with kindness by the native people, and then kill/rob/enslave anyone they can get their hands on. The accounts Las Casas provides are terrifying and tragic, yet they can become quite repetative. It's important to bear in mind that this book is the work of a humanitarian who wanted desperately to halt the brutality he saw happening around him; this is not a work of fiction meant to entertain. If you can look at this book for what it is, I think you can appreciate it.
Sweepingly urgent (2007-07-11)
Customer Review : 5
Thanks in no small part to historians such as Howard Zinn, the words and images recorded by Bartolome de Las Casas are becoming more and more well-known to the general public.
This short book is the ideal synopsis of Las Casas' work and attitudes. He writes with an almost palpable trembling while recording atrocity after atrocity visited upon the natives in America by the Spanish conquistadores. The translation is excellent and flows easily, making Las Casas' words all the more insistent and urgent.
Most importantly, this book offers the reader a different understanding of the role Columbus and his successors played in the "New World." Even if readers do not agree with the conclusions drawn by Las Casas and succeeding social historians, the "Short Account" nonetheless provides a much needed perspective on the interaction between the Spanish and the natives--an interaction that has been insipidly named the "Columbian exchange" but in reality was only the prelude to massive genocidal fury.
The "Short Account," written in the white heat of passion and anger, can devolve occassionally into pejoratives and ad hominems, but as the American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison once said to critics: "I am aware that some object to the severity of my language, but is there not cause for severity?"
Anyone with interest in American, European colonial, or native history should familiarize themselves with Las Casas; the "Short Account" is the best introduction available.
A dark episode in the History of Spain and America (2006-04-21)
Customer Review : 5
I wanted to read this book in order to know some of the history in the conquest of america in the early years. Despite that perhaps some of the atrocities where not commited with that violence and some never happened, I think most of them are true. All this violence in the name of gold and the Inquisition.
Now, for the people who came to America, it was not an easy task. Far away from home, most of the people uneducated and indians that you cannot trust completely, the death of people was something inevitable but resulted in massacre.
A dark episode in the History of Spain and America. Finally, you realized that other colonizations were not that violent and more prosperous, it was just the "fortune" of America to receive these spaniards.
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