51 pages • 1 hour read
Bartolome de Las CasasA Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1552A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Synopsis-PrefaceChapter Summaries & Analyses
Synopsis Summary
Las Casas introduces the history of Spanish colonization of the Americas as a “marvellous discovery,” an event so extraordinary “that the whole story remains quite incredible to anyone who has not experienced it at first hand” (3). With this extraordinariness, however, comes the depth of atrocity and “horrific excesses” (3) committed by the Spanish against the indigenous peoples. After taking in these atrocities and joining the Dominican order, Brother Bartolomé de Las Casas returned to Spain to give “our Lord, the Emperor” an “eye-witness account of these enormities” (3). After setting his account to writing, new talks of continued colonial efforts within the court urged Las Casas to present his account to the prince, “to implore him to do everything in his power to persuade His Majesty [the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V] to frustrate the plans of these men” (4). Therefore he had the account set to print.
Prologue Summary
Addressing his text to the “most high and most mighty Prince of Spain, our Lord the Prince Philip” (5), Las Casas states that as divine providence organized the world into peoples governed by kings, “there is no doubt […] that these kings entertain nothing save that which is morally unimpeachable” (5). If there is an issue in the commonwealth, the ruler must be unaware of it, otherwise it would be fixed. This is the “natural virtue” of a ruler as a steward of his kingdom. Therefore, it would “constitute a criminal neglect” (6) of Las Casas’s duty as a servant to the king to not inform him of the atrocities “which go under the name of ‘conquests’ in the kingdoms of the New World of the Americas” that have been “entrusted by God and His Church to the Spanish Crown” (5). These atrocities are “against natural and divine law” (7). Las Casas wrote this account to bring them to the prince’s attention. His hope is that the prince, once aware of these atrocities, will implore the emperor to “refuse all those who seek royal license for such evil and detestable ventures” (7). This is “a matter on which action is both urgent and necessary if God is to continue to watch over the Crown of Castile” (7).
Preface Summary
Spanish conquest of the New World began in 1492, with the Spanish landing on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The natives of these islands were a simple, innocent people keen to learn the Christian faith. The Spanish fell upon “these gentle lambs […] like ravening wolves” (10). Las Casas writes that these people were “delicate” of constitution, “unable to withstand hard-work” (10), and liable to succumb to almost any sickness (10). Of the 3 million native people who originally inhabited Hispaniola, only 200 survived. Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Jamaica were all similarly devastated. As a whole, actions of Spanish colonizers on the continent “led to the unjust and totally unwarranted deaths of more than twelve million souls” (12).
These atrocities took two main forms. First, war was waged directly on the native populations. Second, those resisting or escaping the Spanish were murdered. This led to the annihilation of native leadership and of all adult males in the communities, who were subjected to slavery “worse than animals” (12). Las Casas asserts that it was “simply greed” (12) driving these atrocities, and he laments that these innocent people, killed “with no knowledge of God and without the benefit of the Sacraments” (13), will go to hell. He claims that there is one indisputable fact in this situation: “the indigenous peoples never did the Europeans any harm whatever” (13) to deserve such treatment.
Synopsis-Preface Analysis
Unlike our modern understanding of the word “synopsis,” this short introductory text does not summarize the narrative that follows. Instead, Las Casas uses this space to initiate multiple rhetorical techniques used throughout the rest of his account.
First, Las Casas acknowledges the discovery of the Americas was a marvelous event, honoring the achievement of the Crown and foregrounding the land’s value (implicitly, as a resource). He then contrasts the miraculous discovery with the depth of atrocity he has witnessed, establishing a dialectic between the land’s potential and its reality that will run through the text. Following this, Las Casas gathers credulity toward himself by highlighting that he is a Dominican friar and “eye-witness” to these events. He closes the account with a humble plea, accentuating both his moral status and the emperor’s incredible power and moral authority.
The Prologue is another example of Las Casas’s barely concealed rhetorical technique. Again Las Casas honors his primary reader, Prince Philip of Spain. He then ensures the prince that he believes most powerfully in the divine right of kings to rule. Likely aware there is a slim chance the monarchy has never before heard of the atrocities occurring the Americas, he still loudly assumes it to be so. If the monarchy was aware, surely it would have acted. This subtle shaming of the royal family, invoked through the judgment of God—the only power higher than the Holy Roman Emperor—is one of the few times Las Casas’s appeal to the king borders on accusation of immorality.
Las Casas notes that the Americas were entrusted to Spain by God. This is the first time this important but always implicit suggestion surfaces in the text: Just as divine providence granted the Americas to Spain (Pope Alexander granted sovereignty of the Americas to the Castilian Crown in 1493), divine providence may take it away. This subtle jab is aimed where it would hurt the royal family most: the economic potential of a so far unexploited landscape larger than all of Europe. It is after these veiled threats that Las Casas reminds the reader he only makes them in service and states the purpose of his text as a request to disrupt the flow of colonists committing atrocity in the New World.
The Synopsis states Las Casas’s reasons for creating the text. The Prologue specifically addresses his royal readership. Now the Preface details the atrocities that the text will explore. Many of the rhetorical techniques of the sections above are dispensed with in this Preface. Instead, Las Casas gives a harrowing overview of the massive death tolls of natives in the New World, hoping to incite his reader’s pity for these innocent people. The characterizations of the natives as innocent lambs, the Spanish as greedy and devilish wolves, and the New World as a bountiful region reduced to this terror runs strong throughout the text.
