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Spain and Portugal were leading the world in the search for a trade route to the East Columbus, Cortez, dividing line by Pope Econemida Beneficiaries greed and polotics Spanish approach to colonization/conquest Hypocrisy Dominican order

Bartolomé de las Casas was born in [|Seville] in 1484, probably on 16 November. For centuries, Las Casas's birthdate had been believed to be 1474; however, in the 1970s, scholars conducting archival work demonstrated this to be an error, after uncovering in the [|Archivo General de Indias] records of a contemporary lawsuit that demonstrated he was born a decade later than had been supposed. Subsequent biographers and authors have generally accepted and reflected this revision. His father, Pedro de las Casas, a merchant, descended from one of the families that had migrated from France to found the town of Seville; his family also spelled the name //Casaus//. According to one biographer, his family were of [|converso] heritage, although others refer to them as ancient Christians who migrated from France. Following the testimony of Las Casas's biographer Antonio de Remesal, tradition has it that Las Casas studied a //licentiate// at [|Salamanca], but this is never mentioned in Las Casas's own writings. As a teenager, in 1507, he journeyed to Rome where he observed the Festival of Flutes.

With his father, Las Casas emigrated to the island of [|Hispaniola] in 1502 on the expedition of [|Nicolás de Ovando]. Las Casas became a // [|hacendado] //and slave owner, receiving a piece of land in the province of [|Cibao]. He participated in slave raids and military expeditions against the native [|Taíno] population of Hispaniola.In 1510, he was ordained a priest, the first one to be ordained in the Americas.

In September 1510, a group of [|Dominican] friars arrived in Santo Domingo led by [|Pedro de Córdoba] ; appalled by the injustices they saw committed by the slaveowners against the Indians, they decided to deny slave owners the right to [|confession]. Las Casas was among those denied confession for this reason. In December 1511, a Dominican preacher Father Fray [|Antonio de Montesinos] preached a fiery sermon that implicated the colonists in the genocide of the native peoples. He is said to have preached, "Tell me by what right of justice do you hold these Indians in such a cruel and horrible servitude? On what authority have you waged such detestable wars against these people who dealt quietly and peacefully on their own lands? Wars in which you have destroyed such an infinite number of them by homicides and slaughters never heard of before. Why do you keep them so oppressed and exhausted, without giving them enough to eat or curing them of the sicknesses they incur from the excessive labor you give them, and they die, or rather you kill them, in order to extract and acquire gold every day." Las Casas himself argued against the Dominicans in favour of the justice of the [|encomienda], and the colonists, led by [|Diego Columbus] , dispatched a complaint against the Dominicans to the King, and the Dominicans were recalled from Hispaniola.