“Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus

follow the instruction and also remember to write a question.
Please review the General Instructions/Rubric for all Discussion Boards before proceeding.

At the following Link, view "Conquest," the 2nd part of the National Geographic Documentary titled “Guns, Germs & Steel.”

Guns Germs and Steel – Conquest 2/3 HD (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Guns Germs and Steel – Conquest 2/3 HD
“Guns, Germs & Steel.”

“Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus : 1492”

“A Short Account, Written 1542”

A transcript of the segment is available at the following link:

http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/show/transcript2.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

You are also required to read the following primary documents with links provided:

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/15th_century/colum.asp (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. “Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus : 1492”

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text7/casas_destruction.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. -Bartolomeo De Las Casas, “A Short Account, Written 1542” from a Dominican Friar in the New World to King Philip II of Spain.pgs.

Answer the following study questions in a 600-word-minimum essay, quoting the film, YOUR TEXTBOOK, and each of your primary document sources from above in the essay to help support your conclusions. (4 quoted and cited passages minimum required). Make sure you provide properly formatted parenthetical citations of your sources after all quoted materials. Do not answer in bullet points or in a numbered list, but write at least 3 full paragraphs in answering these questions posed. At the end of your essay PLEASE provide a Works Cited and YOU MUST post a study question of your own for your fellow students to consider and answer in their response posts. Post your initial response to all parts of my prompt BEFORE THURSDAY 11/29 at 11:59 pm and make responses to 2 different fellow student posts BEFORE SATURDAY 12/1 before 11:59 pm.

PROMPT QUESTIONS:

1. Give FULL identification of the documentary film, your textbook, and the two literary documents: When were they created? What kind of a primary source are they? Who created them? where? why? Who were the intended audience? In other words, VET your sources.

2. Explain Jared Diamond’s premise as to WHY and HOW the Europeans conquered the New World.

3. What comparisons of similarities and/or differences can you make between the histories and theories portrayed in the film, discussed in your textbook, and the content of the writings of Bartolomeo De Las Casas?

4. How does the document of the King and Queen of Spain in granting royal privileges to Columbus support and/or challenge content discussed in the film and in your text?

5. In a Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda scenario, had the European Empires tried to settle the New World without warfare and bloodshed, would the ultimate outcome of physical and cultural annihilation been any different for the Native American tribes? Explain your answer.

Privileges and Prerogatives Granted by Their Catholic Majesties to Christopher Columbus : 1492

FERDINAND and ELIZABETH, by the Grace of God, King and Queen of Castile, of Leon, of Arragon, of Sicily, of Granada, of Toledo, of Valencia, of Galicia, of Majorca, of Minorca, of Sevil, of Sardinia, of Jaen, of Algarve, of Algezira, of Gibraltar, of the Canary Islands, Count and Countess of Barcelona, Lord and Lady of Biscay and Molina, Duke and Duchess of Athens and Neopatria. Count and Countess of Rousillion and Cerdaigne, Marquess and Marchioness of Oristan and Gociano, &c.
For as much of you, Christopher Columbus, are going by our command, with some of our vessels and men, to discover and subdue some Islands and Continent in the ocean, and it is hoped that by God’s assistance, some of the said Islands and Continent in the ocean will be discovered and conquered by your means and conduct, therefore it is but just and reasonable, that since you expose yourself to such danger to serve us, you should be rewarded for it. And we being willing to honour and favour You for the reasons aforesaid: Our will is, That you, Christopher Columbus, after discovering and conquering the said Islands and Continent in the said ocean, or any of them, shall be our Admiral of the said Islands and Continent you shall so discover and conquer; and that you be our Admiral, Vice-Roy, and Governour in them, and that for the future, you may call and stile yourself, D. Christopher Columbus, and that your sons and successors in the said employment, may call themselves Dons, Admirals, Vice-Roys, and Governours of them; and that you may exercise the office of Admiral, with the charge of Vice-Roy and Governour of the said Islands and Continent, which you and your Lieutenants shall conquer, and freely decide all causes, civil and criminal, appertaining to the said employment of Admiral, Vice-Roy, and Governour, as you shall think fit in justice, and as the Admirals of our kingdoms use to do; and that you have power to punish offenders; and you and your Lieutenants exercise the employments of Admiral, Vice-Roy, and Governour, in all things belonging to the said offices, or any of them; and that you enjoy the perquisites and salaries belonging to the said employments, and to each of them, in the same manner as the High Admiral of our kingdoms does. And by this our letter, or a copy of it signed by a Public Notary: We command Prince John, our most dearly beloved Son, the Infants, Dukes, Prelates, Marquesses, Great Masters and Military Orders, Priors. Commendaries, our Counsellors, Judges, and other Officers of Justice whatsoever, belonging Courts, and Chancery, and Constables of Castles, Strong Houses, and others; and all Corporations, Bayliffs, Governours, Judges, Commanders, Sea Officers; and the Aldermen, Common Council, Officers, and Good People of all Cities, Lands, and Places in our Kingdoms and Dominions, and in those you shall conquer and subdue, and the captains masters, mates, and other officers and sailors, our natural subjects now being, or that shall be for the time to come, and any of them that when you shall have discovered the said Islands and Continent in the ocean; and you, or any that shall have your commission, shall have taken the usual oath in such cases, that they for the future, look upon you as long as you live, and after you, your son and heir, and so from one heir to another forever, as our Admiral on our said Ocean, and as Vice-Roy and Governour of the said Islands and Continent, by you, Christopher Columbus, discovered and conquered; and that they treat you and your Lieutenants, by you appointed, for executing the employments of Admiral, Vice-Roy, and Governour, as such in all respects, and give you all the perquisites and other things belonging and appertaining to the said offices; and allow, and cause to be allowed you, all the honours, graces, concessions, prehaminences, prerogatives, immunities, and other things, or any of them which are due to you, by virtue of your commands of Admiral, Vice-Roy, and Governour, and to be observed completely, so that nothing be diminished; and that they make no objection to this, or any part of it, nor suffer it to be made; forasmuch as we from this time forward, by this our letter, bestow on you the employments of Admiral, Vice-Roy, and perpetual Governour forever; and we put you into possession of the said offices, and of every of them, and full power to use and exercise them, and to receive the perquisites and salaries belonging to them, or any of them, as was said above. Concerning all which things, if it be requisite, and you shall desire it, We command our Chancellour, Notaries, and other Officers, to pass, seal, and deliver to you, our Letter of Privilege, in such form and legal manner, as you shall require or stand in need of. And that none of them presume to do any thing to the contrary, upon pain of our displeasure, and forfeiture of 30 ducats for each offence. And we command him, who shall show them this our Letter, that he summon them to appear before us at our Court, where we shall then be, within fifteen days after such summons, under the said penalty. Under which same, we also command any Public Notary whatsoever, that he give to him that shows it him, a certificate under his seal, that we may know how our command is obeyed.
GIVEN at Granada, on the 30th of April, in the year of our Lord, 1492.-
I, THE KING, I, THE QUEEN.
By their Majesties Command,
John Coloma
Secretary to the King and Queen.
Entered according to order.
RODERICK. Doctor.
SEBASTIAN DOLONA,
FRANCIS DE MADRID,
Councellors.
Registered
Source:
The Federal and State Constitutions Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America
Compiled and Edited Under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906 by Francis Newton Thorpe
Washington, DC : Government Printing Office, 1909.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES

written 1542, published 1552* [EXCERPTS]
_________________________________________
PRESENTATION by Bishop don Fray Bartolomé
de las Casas or Casaus, to the most high and potent
lord Prince of all the Spains don Felipe, our
lord_________
Most high and potent lord:
Because divine providence has ordered in this world
that for the direction and common utility of the human
lineage the world be constituted by Kingdoms and
peoples, with their kings like fathers and shepherds (as
Homer has called them) and therefore the most noble
and generous members of the republics, for that reason
no doubt of the rectitude of the royal spirits of those
kings may be held, or with right reason might be held.
And if any wrongs, failings, defects, or evils should be
suffered in those kingdoms, the only reason for that is
that the kings have no notice of them. For these wrongs
&c, if they be present and reported, it is the duty of the
king, with greatest study and vigilant industry, to root
them out. . . .
Considering, then, most potent lord, the evils
and harm, the perditions and ruin the equals or likes
of which, never were men imagined capable of doing
considering, as I say, those evils which as a man of
fifty years’ and more experience, being in those lands
present, I have seen committed upon those so many
and such great kingdoms, or better said, that entire vast
and new world of the Indies lands conceded and given in trust by God and His Church to the king and
queen of Castile, to rule and govern them, convert them to belief in Christ and the Holy Catholic Church,
and give them to prosper temporally and spiritually , this subject was not able to contain himself from
supplicating with Your Majesty, most importunely, that Your Majesty not concede such licence nor allow
those terrible things that the tyrants did invent, pursue, and have committed against those peaceable,
humble, and meek Indian peoples, who offend no person. . . .
*
Excerpted by the National Humanities Center, 2006: www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/pds.htm. From Bartolomé de las Casas, An Account, Much Abbreviated,
of the Destruction of the Indies, with Related Texts, ed. Franklin W. Knight, & tr. Andrew Hurley (Hackett Publ. Co., 2003), pp. 2-3, 6-8. Permission
pending. De Bry engravings in de Bry’s 1598 edition of Destruction; digital images reproduced by permission of the John Carter Brown Library, Brown
University.
J. Carter Brown Library, Brown University
Title page, 1598 edition [Frankfurt] published by
Theodore de Bry with his engravings
And thus pregnant and nursing women and children
and old persons and any others they might take, they
would throw them into the holes until the pits were
filled, the Indians being pierced through by the stakes,
which was a sore thing to see, especially the women
with their children.National Humanities Center 2
[INTRODUCTION]
. . . Into and among these gentle sheep,
endowed by their Maker and Creator with all
the qualities aforesaid, did creep the Spaniards,
who no sooner had knowledge of these people
than they became like fierce wolves and tigers
and lions who have gone many days without
food or nourishment. And no other thing have
they done for forty years until this day,1 and
still today see fit to do, but dismember, slay,
perturb, afflict, torment, and destroy the
Indians by all manner of cruelty new and
divers and most singular manners such as
never before seen or read of heard of some
few of which shall be recounted below, and
they do this to such a degree that on the Island
of Hispaniola, of the above three millions souls
that we once saw, today there be no more than
two hundred of those native people remaining.
The island of Cuba is almost as long as from
Valladolid to Rome; today it is almost devoid
of population. The island of San Juan [Puerto
Rico] and that of Jamaica, large and wellfavoured and lovely islands both, have been
laid waste. On the Isles of the Lucayos
[Bahamas] . . . where there were once above
five hundred thousand souls, today there is not
a living creature. All were killed while being
brought, and because of being brought, to the
Island of Hispaniola where the Spaniards saw
that their stock of the natives of that latter
island had come to an end. . . .
Two principal and general customs have
been employed by those, calling themselves Christians, who have passed this way, in extirpating and
striking from the face of the earth those suffering nations. The first being unjust, cruel, bloody, and
tyrannical warfare. The other after having slain all those who might yearn toward or suspire after or
think of freedom, or consider escaping from the torments that they are made to suffer, by which I mean all
the native-born lords and adult males, for it is the Spaniards’ custom in their wars to allow only young
boys and females to live being to oppress them with the hardest, harshest, and most heinous bondage
to which men or beasts might ever be bound into. . . .
The cause for which the Christians have slain and destroyed so many and such infinite numbers of
souls, has been simply to get, as their ultimate end, the Indians’ gold of them, and to stuff themselves with
riches in a very few days, and to raise themselves to high estates without proportion to their birth or
breeding, it should be noted owing to the insatiable greed and ambition that they have had, which has
been greater than any the world has ever seen before. . . [A]ll the Indians of all the Indies never once did
1 I.e., since 1502, the year las Casas first went out to the Indies with the expedition led by Nicolás de Ovando. Las Casas is, then, implying that his
Brevísima Relación will be based on personal experience and observation. It should be noted that las Casas did not adopt the views expressed in this
account until 1514, twelve full years after he came to the Indies. He was, in fact, an encomendero at first, one of those who exploited the Indians, and it
was not until he was exposed to the ideas of Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican who preached that the Indians were “men,” with souls, that las
Casas’ eyes were opened to the brutality of the Conquest. [Knight & Hurley, p. 6]
Univ. of Alabama Library
Ortelius, Americæ sive novi orbis, nova descriptio, Antwerp, 1570
(details)National Humanities Center 3
aught hurt or wrong to Christians, but rather held them
to be descended from heaven, from the sky, until
many times they or their neighbours received from the
Christians many acts of wrongful harm, theft, murder,
violence, and vexation. . . .
Las Casas proceeds to recount specific acts of cruelty
perpetrated on the people of Hispaniola, San Juan (Puerto
Rico), Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua, New Spain (Mexico), the
Yucatan, Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru, Granada and other
small Caribbean islands, and “Florida,” referring to Spanish
claims north of Mexico in North America.
TESTAMENT
I, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, or Casaus, friar of the
order of Saint Dominic, who by the mercy of God am
here today in this court of Spain, was persuaded by
the same notable persons resident in this Court . . . to
set down an accounting of the hell that is the Indies,
so that those infinite masses of souls redeemed by the
blood of Jesus Christ may not die for all eternity
without any help for it, but rather know their Creator
and be saved. And by the compassion that I have for
my native land, which is Castile, I pray that God not
destroy it for the great sins committed against its faith
and honour. . . .
I have great hope that the emperor and king of
Spain, our lord Don Carlos, the fifth of that name,
may come to understand (for until now the truth has
always been most industriously covered over) the acts
of malice and treachery which have been and still are
being done upon those nations and lands, against the
will of God and his own, and that he may bring an end
to so many evils and bring relief to that New World
which God has given him, as the lover and cultivator,
as he is of justice.
For political as well as religious reasons, including the
evidence from las Casas, King Charles issued the “New
Laws of the Indies” in 1542 to moderate the treatment of the
Indians. The New Laws were opposed and ignored by most
colonial officials in Spanish America.
John Carter Brown Library, Brown University
They would erect long gibbets . . . and bind thirteen of
the Indians at one time, in honour and reverence, they
said, of Our Redeemer and the twelve Apostles, and put
firewood around it and burn the Indians alive.
Another time, because the Indians did not give him a
coffer filled with gold, . . . they killed an infinite number
of souls, and cut off the hands and noses of countless
women and men, and others they threw to the savage
dogs, who ate them and tore them to pieces.
[T]he lord asked the holy father whether Christians went
to the sky. The priest replied that they did, but only
those who were good. And the cacique then said . . .
that he did not desire to go to the sky, but rather down
to hell, so that he would not be where they were and
would not see such cruel people.