Bartolomé de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542

Bartolomé de Las Casas, a Spanish Dominican priest, wrote to the King of Spain urging new laws to prevent the brutal exploitation of Native Americans.
The Destruction of the Indies (1542) circulated in Europe and was used as humanitarian justification for other European nations to challenge Spain’s colonial empire.

Natives are portrayed as innocently simple, devoid of craft, deceit, and malice, yet obedient to their own sovereigns and generally peaceful toward Spaniards.
They are capable of morality and goodness and are amenable to Civilization and Catholic faith; they are not opposed to civility and good manners.
Spaniards themselves acknowledge that the natives have the potential for eternal grace if they understood the Deity.

The narrative highlights a contrast between native innocence and Spanish brutality, describing early assaults as excessively cruel.
Demographic catastrophe is central: dramatic depopulation across the Americas due to massacre, violence, and enslavement.

Hispaniola population originally about $3{,}000{,}000$ ; today the remnant is around $300$ .
Lucayan Islands (the north side near Hispaniola) consist of about $60$ islands; many others were deserted or destroyed.
Isles of St. John and Jamaica are described as unpeopled and desolate; thirty islands in the region are largely depopulated across a vast area roughly over $1{,}000$ miles in extent.
The land area depopulated across greater regions is described as more extensive than any single country, with land left lifeless and unused.

The ultimate end and scope of the Spaniards’ actions is claimed to be Gold; wealth drives the conquest and suppression of indigenous populations.
Over the Forty years of tyranny, more than $12{,}000{,}000$ men, women, and children perished; the total death toll over time is suggested as high as $50{,}000{,}000$ .
Ten kingdoms are depopulated, and vast tracts of land are described as ruined and desolate.
Two principal methods were used to extirpate the people: (1) unjust, bloody, cruel war; (2) killing those who sought liberty or posed a challenge to captivity, including those captured in war and deprived of the country’s air and life.

The first course: unjust, bloody, cruel war intended to destroy the native populations.
The second course: slaughter or forced death of those who sought freedom or resisted captivity; many were killed or enslaved rather than allowed to live in liberty.

Las Casas argues from a Christian humanitarian perspective: natives are innocent and capable of salvation; Europeans should treat them with justice and protect their humanity.
The work functions as evidence intended to persuade European audiences and policymakers to restrain Spain’s empire and to inspire other nations to pursue reform or rival expansion.
The text emphasizes moral judgment of European conduct and uses dramatic demographic data to underline the catastrophic consequences of colonial violence.

Destruction of the Indies (Bartolomé de Las Casas) is cited from Project Gutenberg (2007) and reflects early modern debates over colonization, race, and humanity.
The account is frequently referenced as a foundational humanitarian critique of indigenous exploitation in the Atlantic world.