The Conquest of America by Spain was overall positive

Pro stated in the title that the conquest of the Americas by Spain was 'overall positive', and in his opening stated it was 'extraordinarily benign'. But it seems his argument hinges entirely on the actions of one man, Bartolome de las Casas, regardless of how much support he received from the colonizers themselves.I would argue that in every war there are conscientious objectors, people who try to 'right the ship' as it were. The difference in this case was Bartolome was a man of influence, a bishop. He managed to convince the royal family of Spain of the inherent rights of the native peoples of the land his country was conquering, quite a feat considering the times and the prejudices! But how does this reflect on the totality of the operation(s)? When King Charles V "New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians", they were utterly ignored by the colonizers. The unfortunate duty of enforcing the new laws fell upon Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela, who was not only overthrown, but killed by a large group of protestors led by Gonzalo Pizarro, the brother of the man who actually conquered the Incan empire. When the king sent someone to replace Nunez Vela, the Spanish colonizers declared Perus independence from Spain. [1] So much for 'overall positive', or 'extraordinarily benign'. The laws you tout and the man your argument hinges on were dispensed with rather quickly.Let's take a look at some of the leading figures of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas.Juan Ponce de Leon - Promptly enslaved the natives he came across for the purposes of mining gold, and killed and tortured many at the massacre of Higuey in 1505 (which Bartolome de las Cases participated in) [2]Hernan Cortes - On May 21, 1520, Hernan Cortes mercilessly murdered well over a thousand unarmed nobles of the Aztec empire. This was not even a battle in a war. This was just premeditated slaughter of an unarmed populace celebrating a religious rite. [3] Hernan was also one of the first to import slaves to the new world from Africa, which started a centuries long practice of unimaginable horror, death, and misery for the enslaved, and prosperity and power for the slavers. [4]Francisco Vásquez de Coronado - The Spanish also have the distinction of starting the first war in the Americas between Europeans and natives, the Tiguex War, fought in what is now New Mexico while Coronado stumbled around the continent in search of his beloved gold. [5] This was just one event in this journey, and certainly not the only one where blood was shed for little reason and where the Spanish were the clear aggressors.Nuño de Guzmán - The strong arm of the Emperor sent in to balance the growing power of Cortes was considered one of the most brutal towards the native people. He was known to brand slaves in the face and brutally torture them. All in the pursuitof, again, gold. [6]I am leaving out much here, as honestly I think this will suffice for refuting your argument and offering support of my own. I could go into the biographies of any number of other conquistadors, the horrific slave trade, the almost complete destruction of an entire body of literature and history in the Aztec and Mayan cultures which went on into the 17th century, the spread of new diseases, the death of a culture. But I don't think I even need to.Pro has merely shown that, instead of 'overall positive', the conquest was mostly negative, with a few outliers. Were there people among the Conquistadors and the royal family back in Spain who lamented the treatment of the natives? Of course. Were they expressing the view of even a healthy minority of the actual soldiers on the ground? Not by any means. Bartolome de las Cases is to be commended for his unquestioned bravery to stand up to what he saw going on, but he was still one man fighting against an entire army. Sources [1] http://en.wikipedia.org...;[2] http://www.indiana.edu...[3] http://en.wikipedia.org...;[4] http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org...;[5] http://en.wikipedia.org...; [6] http://en.wikipedia.org...;