Format Requirements: The document should be five (5) full pages; typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman 12 point font and MLA style research paper format, MLA style citations, and a Works Cited page. Use an online MLA reference source to ensure your paper is written in the proper essay format.
Essay Question Prompt: Explain the significance of De Las Casas’s autobiography during the colonial period? What were its lessons for humanity? What lessons did he hope his contemporary readers would learn about the Spanish colonial experience from his written account of his observations?
Key Essay Content Considerations: Below are five (5) primary considerations the body of your essay should address as a part of your evaluation:
Be sure to demonstrate a firm grasp of De Las Casas writings by considering the following questions for your essay content:
What does Las Casas suggest must have been God’s intention in populating the islands of the Indies with so many people?
How does Las Casas characterize the peoples of the Indies? Which qualities in particular made them especially vulnerable to the predations of the invading Spaniards?
How does Las Casas describe the receptivity of the peoples of the Indies to Christianity? How does his description here serve to impress upon the reader the magnitude of the crimes perpetrated against them?
Which specific islands does Las Casas indicate have been totally depopulated? How does this state of affairs contrast with the conditions that would yield mestizo populations in other portions of the Spanish and Portuguese empires?
How high is Las Casas’ estimate of the total number of people killed in the course of the Spanish conquest of the Indies? Under what two circumstances did the Spaniards perpetrate the slaughter, according to Las Casas?
On the island of Hispaniola, with what sort of “weaponry” did the native peoples attempt to defend themselves? How is Las Casas’ description here consistent with his earlier characterization of the native peoples’ character? How is it especially evident in this passage that they seemed closer to God, in a sense, than did the marauding Spaniards?
