destruction of the indies

In recent discussions of the Spaniards landing in the Americas, a controversial issue has been whether or not what they did to the native peoples was right and justified or whether it was just inhuman. On the one hand, some argue that the Spaniards treatment of the people was morally wrong and just sick. From this perspective, they believe that the Native Americans did nothing wrong and did not deserve anything that happened to them. On the other hand however, some argue that the Spaniards had every right to handle it the way they did. In the words of one of this view’s main proponents, “so imbecile and unequal-balanced temper…altogether incapable of hard labor…” According to this view, the native peoples weren’t really human. The Spaniards didn’t think they were equal to them in any way, so it didn’t matter what did or didn’t happen to them. In sum, then, the issue is whether the Native Americans deserved what happened to them or whether the Spaniards mishandled the situation in every way possible.

My own view is that the Spaniards were so focused on their greed and struggle for power that they didn’t care what happened to anyone they came across. They were so power hungry, they killed millions of people to take what they thought was rightfully theirs. The Spaniards took their lives, their land, their homes, their people, and they’re dignity. Though I concede that the Spaniards thought that what they were doing was right and reasonable, I still maintain that what they did was wrong. For example, the native people greeted the Spaniards warmly and treated them like gods. The Spaniards took advantage of their hospitality to reach the “vast Wealth” they had heard about and slaughtered all of them to get it. Although some might object that the Spaniards were doing what they thought they had to do, I reply that the Spaniards knew what they were doing was wrong, but they didn’t care what they had to do to get what they wanted. This issue is important because it affected the lives of millions of people and changed history in some of the worst ways.