Laws of Burgos - Results

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The Laws of Burgos did nothing to save the Native Indigenous peoples of Hispaniola. The Indians of the Americas were still heavily exploited, with significant population declines. This arose the conscience of Bartolomé de Las Casas, a former Encomendero who regretted his ways and spent the rest of his life working to bring freedom back to the Indians. He wrote, “What kind of Doctrine could be taught by unlettered and worldly laymen, commonly for the most part ignorant even of crossing themselves, to infidels of a language very different from Castilian who never learned but these few words: ‘Give me water; give me bread; go to the mines; go to work,’ and who had yet be taught the first principles of the Christian Faith?”

He believed that the New World was granted to Spain and Portugal solely for the conversion of the Native residents. The Indians, he believed, should not be used for other purposes, especially not for profit. The only solution was to remove the presence of the Spanish colonists from the Indians, except for practicing missionaries.

On 28 July 1513, 4 more laws were added in what is known today as Leyes Complementarias de Valladolid 1513, three related to Indian women and Indian children and another more related to Indian males. They were operational till 17 November 1526 whereby the so called Ordenanzas de Granada 1526 came effective. These new amended laws reflected the theological and political disputes within the Spanish theologians and the intervention of the Roman Catholic Popes advisers included .

They have been dealt with since the creation of the Council of the Indies, March 1523, by king Charles I of Spain, a.k.a. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the son of Queen Joanna I of Castile, "The Mad", whose 1st President was Dominican Friar and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church since 1530 under pope Clement VII Medici, (1478–1534), a former General of the Dominican Order, 1518–1524, Juan Garcia de Loaysa y Mendoza, (1478–1546), Archbishop of Sevilla, 1539 – 1546.

The later "Ordenanzas de Granada", 1526, were discussed, mainly, between king Charles I of Spain and "Licenciado" Rodrigo de Figueroa as a consequence of the extensive Institutional Battling promoted by famous Dominican Father Bartolomé de las Casas, an offspring of a merchant family from Seville, dealing in the past with black African slaves brought to the Caribbean islands, apparently, since no less than 1501, borrowing perhaps, in some cases, of the sociological views on "evangelization" of renowned Scottish Professor at University of Paris, circa 1510, John Mair, a.k.a. John Major, (1467–1550).