A Study of Indigenous Legislation in European Colonization of the Americas: Focusing on the Case of Spain

Abstract

In the 15th century, the Spanish Empire had settled in America and dominated the indigenous peoples of Latin America. The some of the region showed that these native were even expropriated after the domination. The Spanish Empire recognized this situation and started to think of how to manage these people who were rulled. At that time, the empire tried to establish law and discipline for recognition of the indigenous people the legislaition was on purpose to protect the human right for them. In spite of the effort to legistlate the laws in the mainland, however, the adaptation of the laws was another problem. This law can not function as not only protection but the ladder for escaping the life of socially underprivileged. According to this, the present study will introduce the discussion of the indigenous people and legislated spainsh laws from 16th century when the Spanish Empire had been in the business of colonization. Furthermore, we thought the turning point of thoguthful recognition on the native is the ‘Valladolid debate’. Through this debate, this study found out the relationship between the Spain and Latin America and treatment of them at that time. The thing is to analyze the 『Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias』 which was merged in 1680 and to reflect on how that law was applid to them. This study would provide the direction to understand what endeavors the Spanish empire did to recognize the race during the period of colonization.