Laws of Burgos — First European Colonial Law Code
The Laws of Burgos, promulgated on 27 December 1512, were the first code issued by any European power to govern its treatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. They were provoked by a sermon. On the Sunday before Christmas 1511 the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos preached at Santo Domingo to the assembled colonists, asking by what right they held these people in cruel servitude, whether they were not men with rational souls, and whether the colonists were more certain of their own salvation than of anything they were doing. The colonists complained to the king. Ferdinand summoned a junta of theologians and jurists at Burgos, which heard both sides. The thirty-five ordinances that resulted accepted the encomienda system and attempted to regulate it. They required that the Indians be instructed in the faith and baptised; limited work to nine months a year with a set rest period; required decent housing, hammocks, food including meat, and clothing; prohibited beating and abusive language; exempted pregnant women from heavy labour; and limited the number of people any one holder could be assigned. They also declared the indigenous people free subjects of the crown while requiring them to work. Enforcement was left to the colonists, and there was essentially none. The Taíno population of Hispaniola was in near-total collapse before the ink dried, from disease and from the labour the laws had just legitimised. Las Casas, who had been an encomendero himself, renounced his holdings in 1514 and spent fifty years arguing the case they had failed to settle.
- Year: 1511 CE
- Category: Political
