The Valladolid debate
Spain formally argues over whether the people it is conquering are fully human.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 365 days
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
In 1550 and 1551 Charles V convenes a debate between Bartolomé de las Casas, who argued indigenous Americans were rational beings entitled to liberty, and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who argued from Aristotle that they were natural slaves. No clear verdict was issued and the practical effect was limited. It is nonetheless among the first occasions on which a European power publicly debated the legitimacy of its own conquests.