Imperialists Imperializing In the Indies

            Bartoleme De Las Casas' An Account, Much Abbreviated, Of The Destruction Of The Indies has several very interesting thematic discussions on faith and psychology. In particular, I’d like to focus this blog on the psychology of imperialism, historically and as it relates to the colonization of the Indies. Oftentimes we read accounts of American slavery, the Jewish holocaust, the Belgian Congo, or any number of atrocities in our history and we feel unable to understand how humans could be at the root of this degree of violence. However, this book seems to confirm a argument that several key psychological factors consistently allow this kind of oppression. The actions of the Spaniards and seemingly of all violent imperialism can be traced to the existence of a dominant group’s goal, warring superiority, and justification.

            To even begin on a conquest of imperialism, a nation needs some kind of incentive. In the case of the colonization of the Indies, the Spaniards were incentivized by the opportunity to convert the Indians and the potential to take their gold. De Las Casas explores the notion of whether these atrocities could really be done in the name of God. History points to the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and countless other examples in which religion was an incentive to brutalize others. Yet, De Las Casas, an advent Catholic himself, implicitly suggests that religion is not the motivation for these atrocities in the Indies, but rather used as a justification for these atrocities—we will discuss this possibility in a moment. This leaves the notion that the incentive to colonize these Indians is to rob them of their treasures. This is the justification explicitly and extensively explored by the text. In almost every chapter, De Las Casas speaks to the process of murdering Indians and then taking their gold. In other instances, the Spanish commanders employ a variety of torturous techniques on Indian leaders to learn where stashes of gold are hidden. In one section, he mentions that there are Spanish boats loaded full of gold and treasure robbed from the Indians. In essence, these dealings make it clear that the Spaniards brutalize the Indians in pursuit of personal and national wealth; this is their goal.

            When one country invades another, the people of the nation under attack are compelled to fight back and if there is any consistency in fighting power between the two nations, the invaders will be repelled. However, in every instance found within the text, the Spanish swiftly dispatch of any Indian resistance. In one battle, the Spanish charge the Indians with their metal pikes and armor and with relative ease, they are able to defeat the Indians. In some instances, Spanish commanders are far outnumbered by their hundreds of slaves, yet the Indians don’t have the means to pose a legitimate threat to the Spanish reign. In essence, the Spanish have vastly superior weaponry, armor, and war tactics, so they have power over the Indians. With this established, the Spanish have both a reason and a way to colonize the Indians, yet there is still an ethical dilemma. How are they to enslave, torture, and slaughter the Indians without being driven mad by a guilty conscious, much less a horrified Spanish constituency?

            The third and absolutely necessary part of asymmetrical brutalization—the circumstances of all colonization—is an ideological justification. The Spanish need a way to explain away the Indians as categorically inferior. In the Holocaust, the Jews were responsible for the economic depression of Germany after World War One. For another example, in American slavery, blacks were, at best, three-fifths of a person and at worst, racist ideology robbed them of any humanity. In the colonization of the Indies, the Spaniards use xenophobia as a justification for their oppression. The attitudes of the Spanish are uncurious and impatient with the Indians and they casually torture them as if of a different species. Even the writing of De Las Casas reflect a sense of ethnocentrism; despite his general sympathy to their oppression, as he writes on the practices and shortcomings of the Indians, he barely managers to hide his own smug sense of ethnic superiority. This brings us back to the question of where religion plays a factor. The Spaniards have the word of the good lord on their side and these ignorant, hell-bound heathens are of no use, the imperialists might say. Throughout the text, De Las Casas ironically refers to these crusaders as Christians to remind the audience that they are everything but that; they use the practice of converting these Indians as a guise to mask their true intentions. To the Spanish public, the violence is justified as an unfortunate byproduct of their important missionary work. To the Spanish crusaders who understand this to be a fallacy, they are still able to justify their moral errs as unimportant, because the Indians are subhuman and need to be dominated.

            History is ripe with instances of brutal imperialism. We often find ourselves unequipped to understand how other humans could commit such atrocities. Bartoleme De Las Casas piece is his own account of a case study in humanity’s inhumanity—the colonization and genocide of the Indies. The Spanish brutalize the Indians for their national and personal desire for the Indian’s treasure. They are able to do this because of their unparalleled advances in warfare. And they are publicly and individually justified on the basis of religious and ethnic superiority. In all instances of imperialist violence and certainly in colonization of the Indies, three factors appear resoundingly clear: incentive, asymmetrical power, and a vindicating ideology.