Requerimento , 1510

1. Requerimento, 1510 • We are all children of God, under authority of Pope • Pope has granted these lands to King & Queen of Spain • Some occupants of these lands have become Christians & loyal subjects of king • Take time to think about this for yourself, & to acknowledge Pope and Spanish Crown

2. One Spanish historian’s concerns re requerimento “I would have preferred to make sure that they [natives] understood what was being said, but for one reason or another that was impossible…I asked Dr. Palacios Rubios, the author of the Requerimento [a jurist] whether the reading sufficed to clear the consciences of the Spaniards; he replied that it did, if carried out in the proper form.”

3. Requerimento conclusion “We protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us. And that we have said this to you and made this Requisition, we request the Notary here present to give us his testimony in writing….”

4. Las Casas responds to requerimento “How could he think that Indians would believe a mere statement unsubstantiated by proof, read by men held to be infamous and cruel evildoers, purporting that God in Heaven had given the government of the world to a man called the Pope who in turn had given all the kingdoms of the Indies to the Castilian kings, and that should they fail within two months to swear obedience to the Castilian King, it was lawful to declare war upon them?”

5. New Laws, 1540s To improve conditions for Indians • prohibited enslavement of Indians • returned encomiendas to Crown after death of encomenderos Following encomendero resistance, King Philip of Spain weakened friars’ position in 1550s • re-established inheritance of encomienda • Crown needed colonial revenue for Euro wars

7. Religious syncretism fusion of differing systems of belief, especially when success is partial or the result is heterogeneous.

8. Our Lady of Guadalupe, 1531

9. Goals of colonial administration • Maintain Crown interests with minimal expense • Balance interests of different parties • Crown, encomenderos, missionaries Inefficient system checks & balances to preserve Crown authority

10. Spanish colonial administration • Council of the Indies, 1524 made recommendations to king • Viceroys held executive powers 1535 New Spain, HQ’d in Mexico City 1540 Peru, HQ’d in Lima • Audiencias, overseen by judge-presidents made recommendations to viceroy reported to Council of Indies

12. Local colonial administrators • corregidor or alcade mayor represented viceroy in towns • town council (cabildo) comprised of creoles offices sold by king & heritable aided entrenchment of oligarchs • landowners with de facto power judges, generals & feudal lords

13. Crown/landowner conflict Esp. regarding indigenous labor Crown not in good position to oppose elites Laws to protect natives rarely enforced Laws requiring tribute from natives or limiting their land ownership well enforced

14. Church & state interests, 16th c. Crown concerns Preserve native population from extinction Prevent indigenous revolts Limit power of landholding class as feudal lords yet obtain administrative assistance from them Fulfill moral obligations of patronato real Church concerns Maintain indigenous populations Justify royal actions in relation to natural & divine law

17. Conquest sources: Indigenous Written post-Conquest, so Spanish influence • Franciscan Sahagun’s interviews with Nahuatl speakers: Florentine Codex, 1547 Conquest chapter based on interviews with Tlatelocans

18. To consider while reading • Whose perspective do accounts present? Whose perspectives are left out? • How do accounts of same events differ? • How might memory of events recorded later have changed over time, and why?