10 The Requerimiento (1513)
Angela Weiler
Introduction
Full text: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text7/requirement.pdf
When Columbus landed in the New World in 1492, he found many “naked people”, and remarked in his journal that “they should be good and intelligent servants” and “would become Christians very easily”. He was mistaken, and the Spanish struggled for hundreds of years to subjugate and convert the indigenous people of the Americas. When they did not cooperate, they were often either slaughtered and maimed, or enslaved to work for the Spanish colonists. King Ferdinand, receiving firsthand accounts of the barbaric ways these people were treated, sought to legitimize Spain’s actions in the eyes of the church and the Pope. The Requerimiento was one of these attempts.
The Requerimiento was a document written in 1510 (according to most sources) by Juan López de Palacios Rubios, acting in his capacity as a member of the Royal Council of Castile. Rubios was a doctor, a judge, and the King’s chief jurist. He was also very involved in Spanish politics. The Requerimiento was written with the expectation that it would be read by conquistadors to indigenous people they encountered in their conquest of new lands.
Juan López de Palacios Rubios was born Juan Lopez de Vivero. (He was later referred to as Palacios Rubios instead of ViVero because he was born in the province of Salamanca, Spain, known at the time as “Palaciosrubios”.) Rubios was a well-known and respected jurist who was advisor to the king and wrote several works upholding the legality of the Spanish actions in the New World. His treatise “Of the Ocean Isles” (circa 1512) used the writings of Hostiensis, a 13th century bishop, to justify Spain’s subjugation of “pagans” in defense of Christianity.
Pope Alexander VI had already granted Spain and Portugal power over newly discovered lands. Spain had claimed lands in Central and South America and the Caribbean in 1493 following Columbus’ return. In exchange for this power, the Pope expected the Spanish colonists to convert the indigenous people of these lands to Christianity, a duty that the clergy took very seriously. The colonists, however, were often more concerned with their businesses, and the free labor of the Native Americans increased their profits. The workers were forced into labor, and were often mistreated and abused. Many missionaries accompanied the Spanish settlers, and they were the first to speak up about the atrocities they witnessed against the indigenous inhabitants (see Bartolomeo de las Casas).
King Ferdinand II of Spain struggled with how to further the cause of Christianity in a way that did not go against the tenets of the church. There were already a number of political rationales for Spanish conquest of new lands, the strongest being that Christians could acquire lands and obtain power over the “pagan” inhabitants for the purpose of disseminating Chritianity. The King eventually turned t