LAS CASAS, BARTOLOMÉ de. - Dominican, apostle and defender of the Indians of America, b. in Seville in 1474, d. in Madrid on 31 July 1566.
From the time he was pursuing legal studies at the University of Salamanca he began to take an interest in the new lands that the discovery of America had given to the Europeans. It should be noted that his father had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage (1493). Therefore at the age of 28 (1502) he himself set sail for Hispaniola, to take possession of the rich paternal "fazenda" and to make his fortune. At first, then, he was an exploiter of the Indians, like all the other conquerors; he himself will recall this with regret in the Historia de las Indias. But in the course of some ten years, thanks to contact with certain Dominicans, he not only abandoned the "fazenda," but became a tenacious protector of the oppressed natives, consecrating to their cause the other 50 years of his great activity and to that end crossing the Ocean no fewer than a dozen times.
He fought first of all against the "encomienda," that is, against the inhuman exploitation of the Indians under the specious pretext of evangelizing them; he naturally encountered lively opposition on the part of the conquerors, who saw their colonizing system overturned. His fundamental vision, in truth somewhat one-sided, as will be explained even better in his writings, can be briefly summarized. Providence had reserved for Spain the discovery of the new lands for the evangelization of those peoples, of an angelic simplicity and goodness, who lacked only the light of the Gospel. Instead the Spaniards, against every human and divine law, postponing evangelization, had given themselves first of all to rapine and oppression, heedless of the shedding of native blood. In 1516 Las Casas was named protector general of all the Indians and obtained the reform of the laws concerning them. But, having returned to America, he could not put these measures into effect, so that he himself devised a new system of colonization, consisting in entrusting the exploitation of a part of the territory to peaceful Spanish colonists (1520). The experiment had a very poor outcome, wherefore he decided to devote himself from then on totally and exclusively to evangelization through preaching. To this end he relied on the Dominican Order, which had directed him along that path and always supported him, becoming a friar (1523); since 1510 he had been a secular priest.
In 1539 he wrote the Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias, which was published only in 1552 in Seville, and later translated into various languages. His warm and impassioned defense of the Indians met with a new success in 1542, when he obtained from Charles V new laws in favor of his protégés; moreover, so that Las Casas might enjoy greater prestige, the Emperor proposed him for the episcopal see of Chiapa(s), today in Mexico. The Pope consented (19 Dec. 1543): the consecration took place in Seville on 30 March 1544. But not even these new provisions sufficed to overcome the hostility of his adversaries, who indeed accused him of treason and heresy, forcing him to return to his homeland to clear himself (1547). It was then that he found himself facing the great adversary J. Ginés de Sepúlveda, who maintained the natural slavery of the conquered, and defeated him in a famous juridical-theological disputation held on the subject. In 1551 Las Casas let slip the opportunity to be able to return among his Indians, and - nearly eighty years old - he decided henceforth to remain in his homeland, continuing nonetheless their defense with his pen.
Besides the aforementioned Brevísima relación, Las Casas left numerous writings, in part still unpublished. Worthy of particular mention is the Historia de las Indias, incomplete (ed. in the Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, vols. 62-66, Madrid 1875), which, even with its defects, remains a rich and precious source on the beginning of Spanish colonization, as also on the life of Christopher Columbus, whom Las Casas knew personally. To complete this history one may cite the Apologética historia sumaria... (ed. in Nueva biblioteca de Autores españoles, XIII, Madrid 1909), on the geography, customs and characteristics of the population. Las Casas's zeal for the undoubtedly good cause, his irascibility, and his oratorical vehemence in the face of the obstinacy and the means used by the colonizers, lead him to exaggerate; as a historian he is debatable; but as an apostle he is a figure of the first rank.
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