Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda

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Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1494 - 1573) was a Spanish philosopher and theologian. He was the adversary of Bartolomé de las Casas in the Valladolid Controversy in 1550 concerning the justification of the Spanish Conquest of the Indies. Sepúlveda was the defender of the Spanish Empire's right of conquest, of colonization and of evangelization in the so-called New World. He opposed himself to the natural law philosophy of Francisco de Vitoria, a member of the School of Salamanca.

The Valladolid Controversy was organized by king Charles V (grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella) to give an answer to the question whether the Native Americans were capable of self-governance. Sepúlveda defended the position of the colonists, claiming that the Amerindians were "natural slaves" as defined by Aristotle in Book I of "The Politics." "Those whose condition is such that their function is the use of their bodies and nothing better can be expected of them, those, I say, are slaves of nature. It is better for them to be ruled thus." He said the natives are "as children to parents, as women are to men, as cruel people are from mild people". He wrote this in Demócrates alter de justis belli causis apud Indios (Democritus Junior on the justice of the causes of the war with the Indians). Although Aristotle was a primary source for Sepulveda's argument, he also pulled from various other Christian and classical sources, including, of course, the Bible. Las Casas utilized the same sources in his counterargument. According to Las Casas Jesus had power over all people in the world, especially those who never heard of Christianity. Las Casas thought they should be governed just like any other people in Spain, while Sepúlveda thought they should become slaves. Nowadays Sepúlveda's opinions would be considered extremely racist, though in the 16th century they weren't extraordinary. At the end of the debate, Charles V adopted Sepulveda's opinion, but the encomienda system was later repealed by Phillip II.