The Valladolid debate (1550–1551) concerned the treatment of natives of the New World. Held in the Colegio de San Gregorio, in the Spanish city of Valladolid, it pitted against each other two main attitudes towards the conquests of the Americas. Dominican friar and Bishop of Chiapas Bartolomé de las Casas argued that the Amerindians were free men in the natural order and deserved the same treatment as others, according to Catholic theology. Opposing him was fellow Dominican Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who insisted that "in order to uproot crimes that offend nature" the Indians should be punished and therefore reducing them to slavery or serfdom was in accordance with Catholic theology and natural law.
Although both Las Casas and Sepúlveda later claimed to have won the debate, no clear record supporting either claim exists. The affair served to establish las Casas as the primary defender of the Indians and saw the New Laws of 1542 upheld, providing some momentum to weaken the encomienda system further. Nevertheless, it failed to alter the treatment of the Indians substantially.
Read more about Valladolid Debate: Background, Debate, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the word debate:
“What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)