P
1498Christopher Columbus grants the first
encomiendas in North America.
On Hispaniola, Christopher Columbus faces a revolt
within his ranks. Columbus tries to put down the
rebellion by force; but when he is unsuccessful, he
agrees to negotiate with the insurgents’ leader Fran-
cisco Roldán. Columbus offers Roldán and some of
his followers encomiendas—grants of land that include
the right to extract tribute and labor from Indian
residents. The encomienda system has been used in
Spain to reward nobles who had driven the Muslims
from the country, but Columbus’s action represents
its first implementation in North America.
1502Bartolomé de Las Casas arrives
in Hispaniola.
The son of a Seville merchant who traveled on
Columbus’s second voyage to North America, Bar-
tolomé de Las Casas travels to Hispaniola intent on
converting the Indians there. His success earns him
in 1513 a land grant from the Spanish government
under the encomienda system (see entry for 1498),
which entitles him to enslave Indians to work as
laborers.
The hideous treatment of Indians at the hands
of his fellow encomienda owners comes to horrify
Las Casas. Freeing his own slaves, he pledges the
remainder of his life to exposing the Spaniards’
behavior and to pleading that his people respect
the humanity of Indians. In two highly influential
books—A Short Account of the Destruction of the In-
dies (1522) and The Only Method of Attracting Men
to the True Faith (1530)—Las Casas writes about
the Spanish atrocities so that if the Spanish are de-
stroyed by God for their offenses, the rest of the
world will understand why. He also develops the re-
ducción theory, which promotes the idea of missions
where Indians can live and learn about Christianity
in settings that isolate them from their native cul-
tures. (See also entries for 1542 and for 1550.)
“[The Spanish] came with
their Horsemen well armed
with Sword and Launce, mak-
ing most cruel havocks and
slaughters among them. Over-
running Cities and Villages,
where they spared no sex
nor age; neither would their
cruelty pity Women and child,
whose bellies they would rip
up, taking out the infant to hew
it in pieces. They would often
lay wagers who should with
most dexterity either cleave
or cut a man in the middle, or
who could at one blow soon-
est cut off his head.”
—Bartolomé de Las Casas
on the Spanish massacre of
the ArawakJamaica Indians aid a shipwrecked
Christopher Columbus.
On his final voyage to North America, Christopher
Columbus and a crew of 115 are shipwrecked on
the coast of the island of Jamaica. The Europeans
demand food from the local Indians. When after
several months the Indians begin to resist, Colum-
bus, knowing of an upcoming lunar eclipse, tells
them that his God will make the moon disappear
unless they give his crew what they need. The ploy
works: the Indians, frightened by the eclipse, con-
tinue to help the foreigners until they are rescued
in 1503.Montezuma Xocoyotzin ascends to the
Aztec throne.
Montezuma Xocoyotzin becomes the ruler of the
Aztec Indians (see entry for ca. 1430 TO 1521)