Spanish Empire's Brutal Conquest Notice

The Document That Justified Massacre Before It Happened

In 1513, a Spanish jurist named Juan López de Palacios Rubios wrote a document. It was called the Requerimiento—the Requirement. It was a legal notice. It was meant to be read to the indigenous peoples of the Americas before the Spanish attacked them. It informed them that the Pope had given the Spanish crown dominion over their lands. It informed them that they were required to submit to Spanish rule and accept Christianity. It informed them that if they did not, the Spanish would make war on them, enslave them, and take their property. It informed them that their deaths would be their own fault.

The Requerimiento was read in Spanish. The indigenous people did not speak Spanish. It was often read from a distance, at night, or after the attack had already begun. Sometimes it was read to an empty beach, or to a village that had been abandoned, or to people who had been killed before the reading began. The reading was a formality. It was also a justification. The Spanish could say that they had given the natives a chance. The natives had refused. The war was their fault.

What Everyone Knows

The Spanish conquest of the Americas is remembered as a story of daring explorers, of gold and glory, of the clash of civilizations. The conquistadors are heroes in the history of Spain, adventurers who brought European civilization to the New World. The narrative emphasizes the bravery of men like Cortés and Pizarro, the size of the armies they defeated, the empires they overthrew.

What is less often emphasized is that the conquest was also a legal process. The Spanish crown was obsessed with the legality of its actions. It wanted to be able to say that it had conquered the Americas justly. The Requerimiento was the document that was supposed to make the conquest just. It was a fiction. It was also a record of the cynicism that lay behind the fiction.

What History Actually Shows

The Requerimiento was written in response to the sermons of the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos, who had denounced the treatment of the indigenous people by the Spanish colonists. Montesinos had asked whether the Indians were not men, whether the Spanish did not have an obligation to treat them as such. The crown, which was concerned about its own conscience and its own reputation, ordered the jurists to find a legal justification for the conquest. The Requerimiento was their answer.

The document was based on the theory of papal sovereignty. The Pope, who had authority over all Christians, had granted the Spanish crown dominion over the Americas. The indigenous people, who were not Christians, were subject to that authority. They were required to submit. If they did not, they could be punished. The punishment was war.

The Requerimiento was read thousands of times. It was read to the Taíno of Hispaniola, to the Maya of Yucatán, to the Aztec of Mexico. It was read to people who had no idea what was being said, who had never heard of the Pope, who had never seen a European. It was read to villages that had already been attacked, to people who were already dead, to the air. The reading was a ritual. The ritual was a lie.

The Part That Got Buried

The Requerimiento was criticized even in its own time. The Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, who had witnessed the conquest, denounced it as a mockery of justice. He wrote that the reading of the Requerimiento was absurd, that it was impossible to explain the doctrine of the Pope to people who did not speak Spanish, who did not understand the concept of a pope, who had never heard of Christianity. He wrote that the Requerimiento was not a justification for the conquest. It was a pretext. It was used to make the Spanish feel better about what they were doing.

The crown was not persuaded. The Requerimiento continued to be used. It was read to the people of the Americas for the next three centuries. It was read in Spanish. It was read to people who did not understand. It was read to people who understood perfectly well that the Spanish were coming to take their land, to enslave them, to kill them. The reading did not change what was happening. It was not meant to change it. It was meant to justify it.

The Ripple Effect

The Requerimiento is now a historical curiosity. It is studied by historians of colonialism, by legal scholars, by anyone interested in the ways that power justifies itself. The document is a reminder that the conquest of the Americas was not just a military campaign. It was also a legal fiction. The Spanish wanted to believe that they were acting justly. They wrote a document that allowed them to believe it.

The indigenous people of the Americas did not believe it. They did not understand the document. They did not care about the Pope. They knew that the Spanish were coming to take their land. They fought. They lost. The Requerimiento was not read to them in a language they could understand. It was not read to them in a way that gave them a choice. It was read to them as a formality, as a ritual, as a lie.

The Line That Says It All

The Spanish Requerimiento was a legal document that was read to the indigenous people of the Americas before the Spanish attacked them, informing them that the Pope had given their land to Spain, that they were required to submit, that if they did not, they would be killed—and it was read in Spanish, to people who did not speak Spanish, from a distance, or after the attack had already begun, or to a village that had already been burned, because the purpose of the document was not to inform the people who were about to be conquered; it was to inform the people who were about to conquer them that what they were doing was legal.