Introduction

Abstract

This introduction narrates the story of the four texts that are translated in this volume. It is a complex story that takes some telling, not least in order to understand how and why Sepúlveda modified his arguments in defence of Spain’s invasion of the Americas across the four texts. He made these modifications in response to the criticisms and machinations of Bartolomé de las Casas and certain Dominican theologians who worked to ensure that Sepúlveda was not granted a licence to print the first text, Democrates secundus (composed around 1544). After introducing Sepúlveda and telling the story of both Democrates secundus and Sepúlveda’s Apologia (1550), which defended that text, the introduction recounts the famous debate held between Sepúlveda and Las Casas, held at Valladolid in 1550–51 and two texts that proceeded from that debate: the composite record of the debate that Las Casas published (1552); and Sepúlveda’s enraged riposte (around 1553–54). The introduction concludes by reflecting on some of the disturbing reverberations of Sepúlveda’s ideas that continue to be felt today in the theories and practices of war.