LA CRÍTICA DEL COLONIALISMO EN LOS ORÍGENES DEL COLONIALISMO. BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS

Bartolomé de Las Casas has been defined by Robert Young as the founding father of anti-Colonialism, while other interpreters have grasped limits and ambivalence in his battle in favour of Native Americans, to the point of considering him in solidarity with “ecclesiastical imperialism” and co-responsible for the “founding violence” of modernity. Las Casas’ position has changed over time, from the proposals for reform of colonisation and rationalisation of exploitation, to the denunciation of “diabolical wars” and slavery, to very radical theses on the illegitimacy of Spanish conquest and domination in the Indies. In the course of this itinerary he elaborated theoretical theses of great importance for the beginning of the anti-colonial discourse: the questioning of the theory of just war, the deconstruction of the arguments in favour of slave labour at the time of its revival, the affirmation of the mature civilisation, rights and legitimate self-government of the Indians, the recognition of the value of their forms of life in a first attempt at intercultural comparison.