Encomienda and slavery

Encomienda and slavery With the arrival of Christian Europeans to America, originated an intense theological and legal debate about the nature of its inhabitants for incorporation, removal or destruction by the war in the territories that would be dominated by the Spanish Empire . This controversy was settled with the Crown's opposition to slavery and the incorporation of Native Americans as subjects of the Crown. Thus, from the early sixteenth century, theologians and philosophers such as Juan L pez de Palacios Rubios or Mat as de la Paz from the University of Salamanca and Mart n Fern ndez de Enciso and Bartolom de las Casas from American territories themselves, face the problem of the nature of the new settlers from different perspectives. Finally, in 1537 promulgated the bull Sublimis Deus of Pope Paul III, declaring Indians as men in all their capacities.From the moment the laws of the Spanish Crown established that American Indians (Native Americans) would not be subjected to slavery, but to a bonded called "encomienda", in which were given to "mandated" Spanish. The encomienda system established that the Indians had to work mandatory for encomendero, while this is forced against the Crown for the care and "evangelization" of the Indians. Beyond the intentions and the historical circumstances, the encomienda was a forced labor system, very challenged by the failure of American law, with the result of inhuman treatment that was reported even in those days. Among the most vocal critics of the encomienda system were highlighted Fray Bartolome de las Casas, the Jesuits who organized the Guarani Missions in the area of Paraguay, Tupac Amaru, etc.But it remains possible that the population of Native Americans descended on the first 130 years, and being different nature of each enterprise of conquest, this might explain a lack of Indian labor that it was replaced with sub-Saharan African people kidnapped and subjected to a system of slavery by other European powers that traded in slaves in America. The number of enslaved people from Africa varies, according to various estimates, between 10 and 28 million people, although it should be borne in mind that they were kidnapped at least 60 million, most of them dying in the transfer .