Background
Spain's colonization and conquest of the Americas inspired an intellectual controversy especially regarding the forced Christianization of the Indians. Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican friar from the School of Salamanca and member of the growing Christian Humanist movement, worked for years to oppose forced conversions and to expose the treatment of natives in the encomiendas. His efforts influenced the passage of the Laws of Burgos of 1512 (which ordered encomenderos to preach Christianity to their Indian workers) and the papal bull Sublimus Dei of 1537 (which established the status of the Indians as rational beings). More significantly, las Casas was instrumental in the passage of the New Laws (the Laws of the Indies) of 1542, which were designed to end the encomienda system.
Moved by Las Casas and others, in 1550 the King of Spain Charles V ordered further military expansion to cease until the issue was investigated. The King assembled a Junta (Jury) of eminent doctors and theologians to hear both sides and to issue a ruling on the controversy. Las Casas represented one side of the debate. His position found some support from the monarchy, which wanted to control the power of the encomenderos, and within the Catholic Church. Representing the other side was Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, whose arguments supported the interests of the colonists and landowners who benefited from the system.
Read more about this topic: Valladolid Debate
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