The Cultural Otherness of the Indians as a Just Cause of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas

Abstract

The Spanish conquest of the Americas has been interpreted – and at the same time legitimized – in a number of ways. One of them was passing it off as a just war. There were two basic views on what should be considered a just cause of the conquest. For some, this cause was the cultural, especially religious, otherness of the Indians and its main manifestation – the extreme sinfulness of the Indians. Others, however, denied that the cultural/religious otherness or the extreme sinfulness of the Indians was a just cause for waging war against them. Both views are briefly explored in the study. The article also shows that their contradiction was only partial. Supporters of the first and second views differed on the question of the methods of carrying out the Spanish conquest of the Americas or the establishment of Spanish rule over America, but not in the belief that the Spanish conquest and rule could have positive effects for the Indians – the ‘imperfect’ Indian societies would become an integral part of the ‘perfect’ European Christian civilization, represented by the Spanish monarchy. The goal of the conquest was so important that even Francisco de Vitoria, who otherwise rejected the cultural/religious otherness of the Indians as a just cause for the war against them, allowed it to be conducted by the Spaniards for certain elements of the Indian way of life or forms of behaviour that resulted from the cultural/religious otherness of the Indians.