The Valladolid Debate Podcast

     The discussion had on this podcast was eye opening and helped further my thinking on the topics we have been reading about. What was interesting about this as opposed to the first hand written accounts from the actual time period of things happening, was these historians having the hindsight and knowing everything that ended up happening in all these different regions. With this, they are able to talk about the issues with more knowledge of the situations than the people 'on the ground' while these things were going on. This podcast looks into laws and a more legal/ethical side of the story that the other pieces we have looked at did not dive into as much. It was interesting to me that they started off the podcast with Aristotle's idea that some of the native and indigenous people were 'natural slaves' and talked about how some of the Spanish Conquistadors believed this notion. When you read pieces from people like Columbus, you would not think this because of the way their writing is framed, but it was certainly happening. 

    Religion and the evangelizing of these conquests was also a highly talked about portion of this podcast, which raised a few opposing points. As the podcast said, these people were, "bringing people to the love of Christ by violence." This idea of showing 'love' by bringing 'violence' seems contradictory, to say the least. What is important to remember is that these people truly thought they were doing good by these people, forcing them into these religious ideals and practices. Same thing goes for slavery - they thought they were doing what was right. Obviously, it was not, but the 'Crowns' and Spanish royalty were pushing these Conquistadors and voyagers to do these things. This is where things get interesting and as the podcast talks about, there was a sense of "Crown vs. The Pope in regards to laws and how these indigenous people should be treated." Here we have people wanting to do what is morally and religiously right, but also leaders who want to conquer and takeover this land. While these Conquistadors and people coming to these lands are claiming Christianity, what is more important - their religion or gaining these lands? It became obvious that the priority was about conquering and not Christianity. It is certainly interesting to compare and question, while it may not be on as large of a scale, do people today still put money and power ahead of human lives?

-cs


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