Bartolome de Las Casas Essay Example

Bartolome de Las Casas Essay Atfirst glance, this vivid portrayal of the Columbian Encounter as seen through the eyes of Bartolome de Las Casas, is a ruthless realization to the brutality and callous behaviors exhibited by the Spanish conquerors in the New World.After further reading and continued analysis, it can be found that the audience is the populous that are unbiased to the cruel devastations Las Casas has personally witnessed.The officer of the King and later a Dominican friar, he uses written word to condemn and denounce his fellow Spanish Christians for their exploitation of the Native Americans.Although he as well does not regard the natives as equals, he considers them as human beings and believes they should not be the subject of these mistreatments.Therefore, he writes these essays to sway the public in Spain, even if he had to over exaggerate the circumstances in Hispaniola and other islands, so that his message is fully received and contemplated by the masses. When explaining a situation as ghas tly and horrifying as the maltreatment of the natives, one must understand the view.As a Dominican friar, Las Casas viewed the natives as children in the eyes of God, ripe for converting to Christianity.He views them as simplistic people, incredibly humble and peaceful.He says they are without malice or hatred, and that the natives are weak, feeble, and they easily die at the very sight of sickness.This is all more then likely a ploy by Las Casas to show the natives as completely innocent victims of the Spaniards ignorance and incompetence.The audience of these writings plays a huge roll as to how he writes those words.Las Casas understands that no one in mother Spain can even comprehend the atrocities occurring in Hispaniola.He uses that to his advantage.He calls the natives very poor and have neither pride, nor ambitious, nor avaricious (p.17).Las Casas seems to describe them as children