112 Law and Morality Abroad (to ca. ad 1550)doings and especially all their wars.” To appreciate the context in which
the various debates took place, it should be noted that the Spanish conquest
of the New World took place gradually, in stages. Individual expeditions of
conquest required prior approval, or licensing, by the Spanish crown. Th e
immediate concern of the government, therefore, was over the criteria that
governed the issuing of these licenses. On this question and others con-
nected with New World aff airs, the advice of scholarly experts was assidu-
ously sought. Th is was done by way of consultations known as juntas (mean-
ing “council” or “committee”), the fi rst of which took place in 1503.
In the course of time, a number of diff erent theories were canvassed over
Spain’s entitlement to acquire sovereignty over its New World possessions.
A brief survey of each of them will provide a highly instructive light on in-
ternational legal mentalities of the period, as applied directly to issues of the
highest importance. It will also reveal the strengths, weaknesses, and logical
consequences of the various competing legal doctrines.
Papal Grants
A fi rst possible basis of Spanish legal title was the various papal grants dis-
cussed previously. Th e thesis was that the pope, as the ultimate sovereign of the
entire world, could allocate absolute own ership of territories, in the manner of
a landowner distributing his land to other persons. On this theory, Spain
would be regarded as the full sovereign of the areas allocated to it. More
specifi cally, it meant that the Spanish were already the lawful rulers of the
allocated territories even before the material conquests were eff ectuated.
Th e conquests on the ground must therefore be regarded merely as the acts
by which possession of the territories was eff ectively secured. Th e attraction
of such a thesis to the Spanish crown is easily seen.
Th e papal- grant theory received strong support at a junta held at the Do-
minican monastery of San Pablo in Valladolid in 1513. Th e occasion was the
dispatching of an expedition to Panama, under the command of Pedro
Arias de Ávila (oft en known as Pedrarias Dávila), to relieve Balboa of his
command. King Ferdinand of Spain ordered its departure to be delayed,
pending a consideration of the question of just wars against the natives by a
committee of theologians. Two of the more noteworthy participants at this
session were Matías de Paz and Juan López de Palacios Rubios. Paz was a