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Defending the Conquest
Bernardo de Vargas Machuca's Defense and Discourse of the Western Conquests
160 pages | 2 maps | 5.5 x 8.5 | 2010
Cloth edition is not available
ISBN 978-0-271-02937-5 | paper: $26.95
“While all the world has heard of Bartolomé de las Casas, the ‘Apostle of the Indians,’ few have heard of the crusty and garrulous Spanish captain Bernardo de Vargas Machuca, who, in a state of high indignation, set out to refute the Dominican's depiction of the Spanish conquest of America as an unremitting chronicle of atrocities. But if we are to get a fair picture of the extraordinary events surrounding the conquest, it is important that the voices of those who took issue with Las Casas be heard. The editor and translator of Defending the Conquest have therefore performed a great service in making available to a modern readership this most politically incorrect of conquest histories. Like the gripping stories of Las Casas, those of Vargas Machuca may also have something of value to tell us.” —Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor Emeritus of Modern History, University of Oxford
Of great benefit for scholars and teachers, this is the first English translation and critical edition of a rare refutation of Bartolomé de las Casass famous 1552 Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, one of the most influential texts of the sixteenth century. Written by a fellow Spaniard, the soldier Bernardo de Vargas Machuca, about 1603, the Defense of the Western Conquests remains a valuable document for providing insights into the other side of the debate over the morality of the Spanish conquest.
Kris Lane is Professor of History at the College of William & Mary.
Timothy F. Johnson is a graduate student and teaching assistant in the Spanish Department at the University of California, Davis.