Las Casas's Life And Thought

In the late 15th to early 16th century, colonial expansions of European countries had carried out large numbers of colonists into the New World to colonial rule. They enslaved the Indians, plundered wealth and destructed local culture and ethnic America. Some conscience friars accused and attacked the brutality of colonists, among which the most famous was priest Bartoloméde Las Casas. He was a Spanish Dominican friest, known as the"protector of the Indians."His humanitarian spirit had great influence on future generations. But up to now, domestic scholars had little research on this character. This paper hopes to study the issues more fully to restore the historical character of Las Casas.This article is divided into four parts: Part I is an introduction, a brief review of relevant researches, innovation and research methods. Part II is about the history, social and cultural of Spain to better understand the life and ideological environment of Las Cases. Part III describes Las Casas life, from which we can see the changes of his thought and views on the Indians, which is the focal point of the article. Las Casas believed Indians are all good-hearted, talented, not the so-called "barbarians"; they are the natural owner of the Americas, is a free people. No matter the King or the Pope have the rights to punish the Indians who didn't change their faith as their will, and for the mission they can only by peaceful means but not violent means, which is contrary to the colonial expansion theory in that time. Part IV is the speculation of the reasons for the mind changes of Las Cases, that's might be changed for the Thomism and Salamanca School. Besides, I also mentioned the relations between the Spain crown and American colonists, the attitude of church to colonial expansion and the relationship between magisterium and Royalty. At last, from the objective consideration about the historian's judges of Las Casas, we dialectical found the highly valued humanitarian spirit and historical limitation of Las Casas.