Valladolid debate

was the principal defender of the Indians in the Junta of Valladolid Spain's colonization and conquest of the Americas inspired an intellectual debate especially regarding the compulsory Christianization of the Indians. Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar from the School of Salamanca and member of the growing Christian Humanist movement, worked for years to oppose forced conversions and to expose the treatment of Indigenous people in the encomiendas. The king assembled a Junta (Jury) of eminent doctors and theologians to hear both sides and to issue a ruling on the controversy. ==Debate==

, supporter of the war "jousts" against the Indigenous people Though Las Casas tried to bolster his position by recounting his experiences with the encomienda system's mistreatment of the Indigenous people, the debate remained on largely theoretical grounds. Sepúlveda took a more secular approach than Las Casas, basing his arguments largely on Aristotle and the Humanist tradition to assert that some Indigenous people were subject to enslavement due to their inability to govern themselves, and could be subdued by war if necessary. to assert that what he saw as the barbaric traditions of certain Indigenous peoples justified waging war against them. Civilized peoples, according to Sepúlveda, were obliged to punish such vicious practices as idolatry, sodomy, and cannibalism. Wars had to be waged "in order to uproot crimes that offend nature". Sepúlveda issued four main justifications for just war against certain Indigenous peoples. First, that their natural condition deemed them unable to rule themselves, and it was the responsibility of the Spaniards to act as masters. Second, that Spaniards were entitled to prevent cannibalism as a crime against nature. Third, that the same went for human sacrifice. Fourth, that it was important to convert Indigenous people to Christianity. showing in the same drawing the kind of arguments used by both sides, advanced architecture versus brutal killings Las Casas was prepared for part of his opponent's discourse, since he, upon hearing about the existence of Sepúlveda's Democrates Alter, had written in the late 1540s his own Latin work, the Apologia, which aimed at debunking his opponent's theological arguments by arguing that Aristotle's definition of the "barbarian" and the natural slave did not apply to Indigenous people who were fully capable of reason and should be brought to Christianity without force. Las Casas pointed out that every individual was obliged by international law to prevent the innocent from being treated unjustly. He also cited Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom, both of whom had opposed the use of force to bring others to Christian faith. Human sacrifice was wrong, but it would be better to avoid war by any means possible. The arguments presented by Las Casas and Sepúlveda to the junta of Valladolid remained abstract, with both sides clinging to their opposite theories that relied on similar, if not the same, theoretical authorities, which were interpreted to suit their respective arguments. ==Aftermath==

At the conclusion of the debates, the judges argued amongst themselves and then scattered without any definite decision. For several years the Council of the Indies pressed the participants to issue an opinion. Apparently, most of the judges wrote their own statements, but these have never been recovered, with the exception of one by the Doctor Anaya, who approved of the conquests in order to spread Christianity and stop certain Indigenous activities viewed as sinful, but added the caveat that the conquests must be undertaken "for the good of the Indians and not for gold." The junta never issued a collective decision. In the end, while both parties declared that they had won the debate, neither received the outcome they desired. Las Casas did not see the end to Spanish wars of conquest in the New World, and Sepúlveda did not see the New Laws' restrictions on the power of the encomienda system overturned. The debate cemented Las Casas's position as the lead defender of the Indigenous peoples in the Spanish Empire, Sepúlveda's arguments contributed to the policy of "war by fire and blood" that the Third Mexican Provincial Council implemented in 1585 during the Chichimeca War. According to Lewis Hanke, while Sepúlveda became the hero of the conquistadors, his success was short-lived, and his works were never published in Spain again during his lifetime. Las Casas's ideas had a more lasting impact on the decisions of the king, Philip II, as well as on history and human rights. Las Casas's criticism of the encomienda system contributed to its replacement with reducciones. His testimonies on the peaceful nature of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas also encouraged nonviolent policies concerning the religious conversions of the Indigenous peoples in New Spain and Peru. It also helped convince more missionaries to come to the Americas to study the indigenous people, such as Bernardino de Sahagún, who learned the native languages to discover more about their cultures and civilizations. Ultimately, however, the impact of Las Casas's doctrine was also limited. In 1550, the king had ordered that the conquest should cease, because the Valladolid debate was to decide whether the war was just or not. But the government's orders were hardly respected: conquistadors such as Pedro de Valdivia went on to wage war in Chile during the first half of the 1550s. Expanding Spanish territory in the New World was allowed again in May 1556, and a decade later, Spain began its conquest of the Philippines. Las Casas's ethical arguments offer a reflection on the question of jurisdiction, asking whether law can be applied internationally, especially in so-called 'rogue states'. The debate also holds a place in contemporary just war theory, as scholars aim to expand within war studies. ==Reflection in art==

In 1938 the story of the German writer Reinhold Schneider Las Casas and Charles V ('''') was published. In 1992 the Valladolid debate became an inspiration source for Jean-Claude Carrière who published the novel La Controverse de Valladolid (Dispute in Valladolid). The novel was filmed in French for television under the same name. The director was Jean-Danielle Veren, with Jean-Pierre Marielle playing Las Casas and Jean-Louis Trintignant acting as Sepúlveda. Carrière's work was later was staged as a play in 1999 at the Theatre de l'Atelier in Paris. It was later translated into English, and performed at The Public Theater in New York City in 2005, and in Spokane, Washington in 2019. ==See also==