User:Luky410/sandbox

A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias) is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 (published in 1552) about the mistreatment of and atrocities committed against the indigenous peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then Prince Philip II of Spain.

Background
Bartolomé de las Casas explains in the prologue of the account that his fifty years of experience in Spanish colonies in Indies had granted him both moral legitimacy and accountability for writing this account. In 1516, Las Casas was granted the title of Protector of the Indians by Cardinal Cisneros to serve as an advisor to colonial authorities on Indian issues, after he submitted report on how severe the demographic decline of the indigenous people had been due to harsh labor and mistreatment by colonial officials. During the time when Las Casas served as the Protector of the Indians, several clerics from The Order of Saint Jerome attempted reform certain labor systems which incorporated native populace as labor forces. Their attempts, however, were deemed not effective enough to protect the welfare of the Indians by Las Casas, thus motivating him to return to Spain to appeal to the Spanish monarch in 1517.

From 1517 to 1540, Las Casas repeatedly traveled back and forth between Spain and Spanish colonies in Latin America for numerous times, struggling to find a common ground between Spanish authorities and his own humanitarian pursuit regarding the improvement of the conditions of Indian subjects in Spanish dominions. One of many purposes of his travels was to continue to protest Spanish colonial mistreatment of Indians.

In 1542, after Las Casas first composed the account for which would be later known as A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, he presented the account as a proof of atrocities committed upon Indians by colonial authorities before the members of the Council of the Indies during the hearings on resolving issues of forceful conversion and colonial exploitation of Indians held under the order sanctioned by Charles I of Spain.

Contents
It was written for Charles I of Spain. De Las Casas appeals to the King's pathos throughout his account by describing Charles I as a lover, culitvator and as a man of justice. One of the stated purposes for writing the account is his fear of Spain coming under divine punishment and his concern for the souls of the Native peoples. The account is one of the first attempts by a Spanish writer of the colonial era to depict examples of unfair treatment that indigenous people endured in the early stages of the Spanish conquest of the Greater Antilles, particularly the island of Hispaniola. Las Casas's point of view can be described as being heavily against some of the Spanish methods of colonization, which, as he describes, inflicted a great loss on the indigenous occupants of the islands. He described extensive use of torture, murder, and mutilation against the Natives by the Spaniards.

His account was largely responsible for the passage of the new Spanish colonial laws known as the New Laws of 1542, which abolished native slavery for the first time in European colonial history and led to the Valladolid debate.

The images described by Las Casas were later depicted by Theodor de Bry in copper plate engravings that helped expand the Black Legend against Spain.

It was republished in 1620, by Jan Evertszoon Cloppenburch, alongside the book Origin and progress of the disturbances in the Netherlands by Dutch historian Johannes Gysius. The book was frequently reprinted, alone or in combination with other works, in the Netherlands and in other countries struggling against the power of Spain in Europe and the Americas.