Aim for FiveUS History

Short answer: primary source

Las Casas on Spanish conquest in the Caribbean

  • Unit 1
  • 3 points
  • About 13 minutes

You read a source written at the time and answer three short parts about its ideas, its historical situation and the developments around it. On the exam: Short-answer question 2 of 3, required; the three short-answer questions share a 40-minute section worth 20% of the score.

The question and its sources

Bartolomé de las Casas was a Spanish priest who had held an encomienda (a grant of Native labor) before turning against the system. He wrote this account in 1542 for Spain's royal court, and it was printed in Spain in 1552. The excerpt comes from an English translation published in London in 1689 under the title Popery Truly Display'd in its Bloody Colours. The translator's spelling is kept. Read the source, then answer parts a, b and c.

Source

“The Spaniards first assaulted the innocent Sheep, so qualified by the Almighty, as is premention'd, like most cruel Tygers, Wolves and Lions hunger-starv'd, studying nothing, for the space of Forty Years, after their first landing, but the Massacre of these Wretches, whom they have so inhumanely and barbarously butcher'd and harass'd with several kinds of Torments, never before known, or heard . . . that of Three Millions of Persons, which lived in Hispaniola itself, there is at present but the inconsiderable remnant of scarce Three Hundred. . . .

“Those that arriv'd at these Islands from the remotest parts of Spain, and who pride themselves in the Name of Christians, steer'd Two courses principally, in order to the Extirpation, and Exterminating of this People from the face of the Earth. The first whereof was raising an unjust, sanguinolent, cruel War. The other, by putting them to death, who hitherto, thirsted after their Liberty . . . to recover their pristin Freedom, and shake off the Shackles of so injurious a Captivity.”

[Sanguinolent: bloody. Pristin: original.]

Source: Bartolomé de las Casas, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (written 1542, published 1552), English translation, London, 1689

Suggested time: 13 minutes

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Part (a)

1 point

Briefly describe Las Casas's point of view about the Spanish conquest of the Caribbean, as expressed in the excerpt.

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Part (b)

1 point

Briefly explain ONE historical development, other than the warfare and killings described in the excerpt, that contributed to the decline of the Native population of the Caribbean in the period 1492 to 1600.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (c)

1 point

The 1689 English edition was titled Popery Truly Display'd in its Bloody Colours. Briefly explain ONE way the purpose of this English edition likely differed from Las Casas's own purpose in writing.

0 / 2,500 characters

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