9/25/14
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 Understand the hardships that the Indians faced
under Spanish rule and the role that Bartolome de
Las Casas had in helping them.
 Today
 De Las Casas PowerPoint
 De Las Casas Primary Source
*Be sure to bring your video worksheet back to class
tomorrow*
Fort San Lorenzo
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San Lorenzo
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 In 1502, during his
fourth and final
voyage, Christopher
Columbus discovered
the Chagres River.
 By 1560, Pirates were
raiding the area and the
Spanish built Fort San
Lorenzo between the
years of 1587-1599.
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 In 1670, Henry Morgan ordered an attack that left
Fort San Lorenzo in ruins. He invaded Panama City
the next year and used San Lorenzo as his base.
 Killed all 300 hundred men of the garrison, and kept
only 23 men of higher standing alive.
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The Encomienda System
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 Spain's conquest of the New World was largely
driven by prospect of wealth, especially in gold and
silver. Along the way, the Spaniards sought to
Christianize the native peoples, or Amerindians,
they encountered as they spread out across the
continent.
 Spain sponsored many exploratory expeditions,
which were led by military commanders called
conquistadors.

 As rewards for their service and successful missions,
the king granted encomiendas to these
conquistadors, as well as to other officials, soldiers,
and colonists. These grants entitled their holders,
who were called encomenderos, to tribute from the
Amerindians of a particular region.

 The natives were required to provide produce and
gold, but especially labor for the encomenderos'
mining operations and other projects. In return, the
encomenderos promised to protect the Amerindians
and convert them to Christianity.

 Not surprisingly, many Amerindians resisted the
encomienda system, which resulted in violence as
the Spanish enslaved, tortured, and massacred the
rebellious natives.
 Most Spaniards paid little attention to the brutality.
In their eyes, the Indians weren't really human
anyway, so they were beneath their care. One man,
however, disagreed. His name was Bartolome de las
Casas.
Bartolome the
Encomendero

 Bartolome was born in Spain in 1484. His father
traveled with Columbus on the explorer's second
voyage, and he brought back treasures and stories
that sparked his son's curiosity.
 In 1502, Bartolome headed for the New World for the
first time. The young man impressed the governor so
much by his hard work and leadership that he
earned his own encomienda.
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 Pretty soon, though, Bartolome began to be appalled
by the Spaniards' treatment of the Amerindians. He
despised the atrocities he witnessed, and he hated to
see the natives forced to accept Christianity against
their will.
 Bartolome returned to Spain to study for the
priesthood, received his ordination in 1507, and went
back to the New World as a catechist to the
Amerindians.
 In 1514, he renounced his encomienda and started
preaching against his former way of life.
A New Venture

 Bartolome often spoke and wrote about a better way
to convert the Amerindians to the Christian faith. He
wanted to convince them through love rather than
by force and slavery.
 He figured that maybe if Spaniards and
Amerindians could live peacefully side by side, the
natives would be more willing to embrace the
Spanish religion and way of life.
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 In the early 1520s, Bartolome decided to put his ideas
into action. He founded a colony in Cumaná
(modern Venezuela) that consisted of several villages
where Spaniards and Amerindians lived and worked
together freely.
 The experiment might have worked, but
neighboring encomenderos did not appreciate
Bartolome's new way of treating the native peoples.
 They incited their own Amerindians to attack, and
that was the end of Bartolome's little colony.
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 Discouraged, Bartolome joined the Dominican order in
1523. He decided that he would concentrate on telling the
Amerindians' story through writing and preaching and
trying to gain legal protection for them.
 His thunderous sermons echoed through the Spanish
Empire, earning him enemies and sometimes an order of
silence from the government. Bartolome didn't give up.
 When he didn't preach, he wrote, advocating the peaceful
spread of Christianity, describing the abuses suffered by
the Amerindians, calling for humane treatment of the
natives, and recounting the history of the New World.
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 In 1537, Pope Paul III issued a document declaring
that the Amerindians were human beings who were
not to be deprived of their freedom or property.
 Bartolome worked hard to spread the pope's
document and enforce its decrees. In 1540, he
returned to Spain to petition King Charles V on
behalf of the Amerindians.
 The king actually listened. In the New Laws of 1542,
he abolished slavery and ended the encomienda
system.