Leyes de Burgos

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Leyes de Burgos - Facsimile in the Casa de Colón (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)

The Leyes de Burgos (Laws of Burgos) with the original name Ordenanzas Reales para el buen regimiento yertramiento de los Yndios (Royal Instructions for Good Government and Treatment of the Indians ) are 35 laws of a collection of laws that were passed on December 27, 1512 by King Ferdinand im Names of his daughter Joan of Castile were announced. The declaración e moderación de las dichas hordenanças (explanation and amendment of these orders), issued in Valladolid on July 28, 1513 , is generally regarded as part of the Leyes de Burgos . The laws regulate the social and labor relations between the indigenous population and the settlers in the Spanish colonies . In this sense, the Leyes of Burgos can be viewed as America's first written labor code. They are also a program for the cultural submission of the indigenous peoples to the ideas of the Christian conquerors.

prehistory

On the 4th Sunday of Advent in 1511, the Dominican brother Antonio de Montesinos (1475-1540) held a sermon in consultation with other monks of his order in the main church of Santo Domingo . In the presence of the dignitaries of the island of Hispaniola , including the Viceroy Diego Columbus , he raised allegations against those present because of their treatment of the Indians. He questioned the ethical justification of the conquest and the system of the encomienda . This system was installed in 1503 by Queen Isabella I on Hispaniola: The indigenous population was “entrusted” to the Europeans as encomendados and had to work for them. They called them Encomenderos , they were “entrusted” with the Encomendados so that they could guide them to become good Christians. The audience reacted angrily to the sermon and turned to King Ferdinand. He found that it was a great mistake to question the legality of the encomienda and ordered Diego Columbus to send the Dominican monks in charge to Spain immediately.

Nevertheless, Ferdinand set up a committee in response to the incidents and to clarify the legal and theological questions that might arise in connection with the actions of the Castilians in America. This was the first time the Crown had brought together theologians and lawyers to deliberate on issues related to the conquest and settlement of America. The committee should deal with three problem areas and propose legal regulations:

  • The question of the legitimacy of the rule of the crown over the indigenous population and the land as well as the associated right or duty to settle Christian settlers
  • The question of the admissibility of the wars that were waged to subjugate the indigenous population and to proselytize them
  • The question of the treatment of the Indians, especially the encomienda system

In Burgos the members of the Royal Council met with the royal preachers twenty times to deliberate on the basis of a treatise de Montesino entitled Información juridica en defensa de los indios (Legal information for the defense of the Indians).

Content

The Leyes de Burgos deal primarily with the relationship between encomendados and encomenderos in the mining sector . This can be explained by the fact that the complaints and protests of the defenders of the Indians concentrated on the work in the mines. Mining was the colony's most important industry at the time.

Relocation

A central point in the encomienda system was the resettlement of the indigenous population. This is justified in the preamble of the Leyes de Burgos, among other things, with the fact that this would facilitate evangelism. It is therefore ordered that the encomenderos had to build four bohíos (straw huts) for every 50 workers near the houses of the Europeans . They should have gardens in which the livelihoods of the indigenous people should be made. After the resettlement, the previous accommodations were destroyed to make it clear that there was no return to the old conditions and relationships.

Cultural Adaptation Program

The Leyes de Burgos prescribed the construction of prayer rooms and churches in which the encomenderos should pray daily with their workers and teach them to recite the prayers. Sunday should always be off work and highlighted by better catering.

For every 50 Indians in an encomienda, one boy was to be trained by the Franciscan Brothers . The caciques had to hand over their sons to the Franciscans for over 13 years , who subjected them to a process of ideological preparation (literacy and evangelization) for four years. A fundamental cultural rift should be achieved between adults and youth to facilitate the transition to Christianity and the culture of the new ruling class.

However, various aspects of indigenous culture were accepted in the Leyes de Burgos : The position of the caciques was recognized. They were not required to work, had a number of servants, and their sons received an education. Whether the Indians were allowed to dance their traditional dances is controversial.

Labor law regulations

The encomenderos were obliged to employ at least a third of the Indians assigned to them in the mines for gold mining. The Leyes de Burgos stipulated that after five months of work in the mine, 40 days of "recovery" had to be taken. During this time the workers tilled the fields allotted to them and they and their families lived on the produce. In the time of the encomendado's absence, the fields formed the livelihood of his family. During working hours, the encomendero had to feed the workers. They were also entitled to one gold peso per year for clothing. This service was usually paid for in kind.

Women were no longer allowed to work in mines from the fourth month of their pregnancy. They then mostly worked in agriculture, as domestic servants for the Encomenderos or weaving hammocks that the Encomendero had to make available to the Indios. Children under the age of 14 were not allowed to be engaged in adult work. They should be used for farm work in their parents' fields.

Verification of compliance with the law

The supervision of the laws, especially with regard to the food supply, treatment and religious instruction of the Indians, was assigned to Visitadores (inspectors). These persons should be chosen by the viceroy or the officials representing him from the oldest inhabitants of the places. Their work was compensated by the allocation of encomiendas. So a person who was to be monitored himself was designated for monitoring. Visitadores are not aware of any reports in which they report their visits to the competent authorities.

Legal force

The Leyes de Burgos were issued primarily because of what happened to the Taínos in Hispaniola. As the conquest spread to the rest of the Greater Antilles , legal texts were also sent to Puerto Rico and Jamaica . They were valid in all Spanish colonies where encomiendas were assigned at the time.

meaning

The reason for the enactment of the Leyes de Burgos was the criticism of the treatment of the indigenous population, especially the system of the encomienda. Whether the laws really protected the Indians and recognized them as free people and holders of basic human rights such as freedom and property was assessed differently in the past. Although there was a prohibition in the law to use bad names for the Indians, there are negative evaluations of the indigenous population in many places. In the preamble, in particular, they are described as inherently vicious and inclined to idleness, as well as having other bad properties. The initial thesis of the assembly that created the laws was that the Indians, because of their moral depravity and origin, would reject the civilized life and Christianity that the Spaniards were offering them, so they had to be forced to work and they should be forced to work through the example and the upbringing of the encomenderos can be made Christian subjects. The encomienda system is not called into question in the Leyes de Burgos .

After various defenders of the rights of the indigenous peoples of America, especially Bartolomé de Las Casas , informed King Charles I of Castile about the consequences of the previous indigenous policy in 1540, he convened a special commission, in which he himself temporarily chaired. The result of these deliberations were the Leyes Nuevas (new laws) of November 20, 1542, which replaced the Leyes de Burgos . They should protect the Indians from exploitation by the settlers and end the encomienda by forbidding a reallocation of Indians. After considerable resistance from the settlers, which in Peru under Gonzalo Pizarro rose to a veritable uprising, this had to be withdrawn in 1545: The encomenderos were indispensable as a military leadership for the colonial empire. The encomienda continued to exist, partly in a modified form of the repartimiento, until the end of the 18th century.

literature

  • Mariano Delgado (Ed.): Bartolomé de Las Casas . Selection of works. Volume 2: Historical and Ethnographic Writings. Schöningh, Paderborn 1995, ISBN 3-506-75122-0 , pp. 233-240.
  • Richard Konetzke : Colección de documentos para la historia de la formación social de Hispanoamerica, 1493-1810. Vol. 1: 1493-1592. CSIC, Madrid 1953, pp. 38-57.
  • Richard Konetzke: The Indian cultures of ancient America and the Spanish-Portuguese colonial rule . Weltbild, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-989-5 , p. 173 ff .
  • Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 31-78 (Spanish, [17] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  • Rafael Sánchez Domingo: Las leyes de Burgos de 1512 y la doctrina jurídica de la conquista . In: Revista jurídica de Castilla y León . No. 28 , 2012, ISSN  1696-6759 , p. 1-55 (Spanish, [18] [accessed February 10, 2018]).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ All royal orders that were issued in the course of the 16th century and thereafter were mostly referred to as laws (Leyes), even if, in the narrow sense, laws could only be passed by the Cortes and were valid as legal decrees ( pragmáticas ) in the entire territory.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rafael Sánchez Domingo: Las leyes de Burgos de 1512 y la doctrina jurídica de la conquista . In: Revista jurídica de Castilla y León . No. 28 , 2012, ISSN  1696-6759 , p. 1 (Spanish, [1] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  2. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 41 (Spanish, [2] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  3. ↑ Nikolaus Klein: Aren't you human? Antonio de Montesino - a sermon with far-reaching consequences (1511) . In: Voices of the Time . 2012 ( [3] [accessed February 13, 2018]).
  4. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 39 (Spanish, [4] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  5. ^ Rafael Sánchez Domingo: Las leyes de Burgos de 1512 y la doctrina jurídica de la conquista . In: Revista jurídica de Castilla y León . No. 28 , 2012, ISSN  1696-6759 , p. 13 (Spanish, [5] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  6. ^ Rafael Sánchez Domingo: Las leyes de Burgos de 1512 y la doctrina jurídica de la conquista . In: Revista jurídica de Castilla y León . No. 28 , 2012, ISSN  1696-6759 , p. 32 (Spanish, [6] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  7. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 44 (Spanish, [7] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  8. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 42 (Spanish, [8] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  9. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 52 (Spanish, [9] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  10. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 71 (Spanish, [10] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  11. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 47 (Spanish, [11] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  12. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 45 (Spanish, [12] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  13. ^ Rafael Sánchez Domingo: Las leyes de Burgos de 1512 y la doctrina jurídica de la conquista . In: Revista jurídica de Castilla y León . No. 28 , 2012, ISSN  1696-6759 , p. 35 (Spanish, [13] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  14. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 54 (Spanish, [14] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  15. ^ Richard Konetzke : The Indian cultures of ancient America and the Spanish-Portuguese colonial rule . Weltbild, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-989-5 , p. 177 .
  16. ^ Richard Konetzke: The Indian cultures of ancient America and the Spanish-Portuguese colonial rule . Weltbild, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-989-5 , p. 177 .
  17. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 61 (Spanish, [15] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  18. ^ Antonio Pizarro Zelaya: Leyes de Burgos: 500 Años . In: Diálogos: Revista electrónica de historia . tape 14 , no. 1 , 2013, ISSN  1409-469X , p. 40 (Spanish, [16] [accessed February 10, 2018]).
  19. ^ Richard Konetzke: The Indian cultures of ancient America and the Spanish-Portuguese colonial rule . Weltbild, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89350-989-5 , p. 189 ff .
  20. ^ Richard Konetzke: South and Central America I: The Indian cultures of ancient America and the Spanish-Portuguese colonial rule (= Fischer Weltgeschichte , Vol. 22). Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, pp. 190 and 195.