Bartolome de Las Casas

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These are (d) questions. Comparison: (similarities and difference). Look for similarities and differences or just similarities or differences as the question indicates. Candidates must refer to both group/issues/themes and whatever the question demands. A conclusion must be made. 2006: How similar were the attempts of Bartolome’ de las Casas and Antonio de Montesinos to improve Answer: Bartolome’ and Antonio were two men that fought for the Arawaks. They were not pleased with the way that they were being treated by the Europeans, so they sought out ways to improve the conditions for the Arawaks. Antonio de Montesinos was a Spanish Dominican Friar, one of the first in the New World. He is best remembered for scathing sermon delivered on December 4, 1511, in which he delivered a blistering attack on the colonists, who had enslaved the people of the Caribbean. For his efforts, he was run out of Hispaniola, but he and his fellow Dominicans were eventually able to convince the King of the moral correctness of their point of view, thus paving the way for later laws which protected native rights in Spanish lands. In August, 1510, he was one of the first six Dominican friars to arrive in the New World. More would follow the following year, and there were about 20 Dominican Friars in Santo Domingo by 1511. By the time the Dominicans arrived on the Island of Hispaniola, the native population had been decimated and was in serious decline. All of the native leaders had been killed, and the remaining indigenous people were given away as slaves to colonists. Governor Diego Columbus authorized slaving raids on neighboring islands, and African slaves had been brought in to work the mines. The slaves, living in misery and struggling with new diseases, languages culture, and died by the score. On December 4, 1511, Montesinos announced that the topic of his sermon would be
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