the Spaniard's justifications, continued.

WHAT were these Spaniards and other Europeans telling themselves to convince themselves that what they were doing was justifiable?

Well, they got a lot of their rhetoric from the Bible, it seems. And this got spun into some sort of “natural-law obligation.”

“Every animal loveth it’s kind” – Ecclesiastes. Therefore, one writer said, “it appears that friendship among men exists by natural law and it is against nature to shun society of harmless folk…” also, he said, in the book of Matthew, “I was a stranger and ye took me in’… hence as the reception of strangers seems to be by natural law, that judgment of Christ will be pronounced with universal application.”

In other words, they pulled some random quotes from the BIBLE and decided they meant the Indians HAD to welcome them or they were violating the natural order of things.

This, of course, was news to the Indians.

Another line that was trotted out? “Natural law opened the land of the Indians to Spanish economic exploits. The sovereign of the Indians is bound by the law of nature to love the Spaniards. Therefore the Indians may not causelessly prevent the Spaniards from making their profit where it can be done without any injury to themselves.”

I wonder how this would have worked if the Indians came to Spain and set up shop wherever they felt like it.

Then of course, it went further. “Brotherly correction is required by the law of nature, just as the law of brotherly love is. Since then, the Indians are not only all in sin, but outside the pale of salvation, therefore, it concerns the Christians to correct and direct them, nay, it seems they are bound to do so.”

Writings from many scholars and politicians went on to say, basically, that if the Indians tried to stop the Spaniards from taking over the land, it was justifiable to use whatever force was necessary against the Indians. And in addition, it was the DUTY of the Christians to force their religion on the Indians.

So, this was essentially the mindset that the Spaniards had. In the next post, we’ll hit on how this carried over to the English, and from there, to the Americans, giving us the first foundation for federal Indian law.