Few authors of colonial Spanish American history are as well known as Bartolomé de Las Casas. Among his many works, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias stands out as the most widely read and discussed, from its publication in the mid-sixteenth century up until our own times. David Thomas Orique joins the long list of commentators on this controversial treatise with a detailed study in which he proposes a legal reading. Indeed, Orique's central thesis is that the Brevísima relación is a text written for legal purposes and situated within an important tradition of legal literature in the Iberian world. Consequently, Orique takes a critical distance from certain interpretations of the Brevísima relación that see the work either as a historical and reliable denunciation of colonial violence or as a false and malicious criticism of the Spanish empire that would lay the groundwork for the creation of the...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
