The moral values of humans’ life are far more important than any war or a country’s agenda to gain resources. In both the show Game of thrones and Bartalome De Las Casas writing “The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies”, both displays a scene of human torture and slavery. To which neither the show and Bartolome supports the human cruelty that is being portrayed. The show and the writing of Bartolome provides the audience and the reader a way to understand the unhuman behavior that had happened. In Game of Throne the show talks about one of the character named Khaleesi trying to make the owners of the slave to stop force labor and end harsh punishment. While in Bartolome writing he wants the Spaniard soldiers to stop the killing and punishing that is being forced upon the natives of Hispaniola. Both Khaleesi and Bartolome follow their own agenda to make sure the cruel punishment towards the innocent people are stopped. The two approaches the issue in hand in two different ways. Khaleesi being more aggressive with the way she handled the situation by freeing the slaves and turning them into an army. While De Las Casas tackles the matter of the natives in a calmer manner by simply writing about it and taking the matter to the pope and the king. The possibility of Bartolome agreeing with Khaleesis method of approaching the matter is very much high. Due to Khaleeis’s way being a more powerful way to fix the situation in hand and with a much more successful result compared to Bartolome.
The author Bartolome de las Casas was born in August of 1474 and lived on until July 17, 1566. He was raised in Spain by his father who was a small merchant. Bartolome’s father saw Columbus parade in Seville. Which excited him enough to join Columbus on his journey to America. Meanwhile Bartolome studied in school, eventually leading him to become a priest. After Bartolome’s father returned from America with new fortune. His father then sent Bartolome to the best college in Spain to study canon law [1].
Bartolome left for Hispaniola in 1502. He stayed there for the next five years, observing the horrible way the Spanish soldiers treated the natives. He saw multiple massacre of the natives and their leaders, as well children’s and women. Watching these events take place made him horrified [1]. He could no longer bare watching these torture take place, he knew he had to go back to Spain and find a solution for this event to be stopped. Bartolome then returned to Spain in the year 1506 and continued to finish his studies to become a priest.
Bartolome is known as the protector of the Indians. Which happened after he returned to Spain and visited the pope to inform him about the events that took place in the new world and also he wanted to convert the natives. But he still wasn’t satisfied, so he decided to go back to the island of Hispaniola in 1510 [1]. He renounced all his ownership against the wrong doing against the natives of the land. After which he returned back to Spain around 1515 and informed King Ferdinand of the horrible situations. It helped come up with the Laws of Burgos, which redressed the abuses of the conquest. This lead to Bartolome getting his name the protector of the Indians.
This event made Bartolome write “The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies” which he wrote in 1552. This Writing of his was to demonstrate to the readers about the cruelty the Spaniards had poured upon the natives of Hispaniola. Bartolome mentions seeing elders and pregnant women stabbed and dismembered [2]. He saw the children’s being slaughtered into pieces. Also the leaders of the native people had to watch their wife being raped by the soldiers and they stood in front of them. The soldiers would lay bets to see whose sword could cut the native people in half. They treated the natives as animals rather than humans. When the Indians tried rebelling or escaping they would face even harsher punishment. For every one Spanish soldiers the natives killed, they would slaughter 100 natives [2]. This was just what Bartolome wrote in on part of the paper.
The second part consists of Bartolome talking about what he in the Cost of Pearls, Paria and the island of Trinidad. Millions of natives were taken captive and put on force labor, while suffering from hunger and sickness. At night the natives are chained, incase they try to escape and runaway. The Spaniards greed for gold, pearl and other resources made them blind, to forget the fact that these man are human and not tools. Bartolome mentions “See by such remarks in what esteem the Spaniards hold the Indians and judge if they are accomplishing the divine concepts of love for our fellow man, as laid down by the prophets.” [2]. In which he wants the readers to understand that are these Spanish soldiers really human if they can go through such horror and cruelty towards other human.
The show Game of Throne is a fantasy drama HBO show that got it’s start in 2011. It is currently in its 6th season and is one of the biggest TV show around the world. The show was created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and written by George RR Martin and based on the series of book he wrote called “A song of ice and fire” [3]. The series consist of 7 different books to inspire the story of the show. The show takes place in a fictional place, but still has a sort of medieval realism. There are a lot of sorcery and magic involved in the show. The main plot of the show is trying to gain access to the iron world, and whoever controls the iron throne rules the seven kingdom.
The show does not necessarily have a main cast. Due to characters in the show getting killed left and right. A reason why fans don’t tend to get too attached to a character. Incase their favorite character gets written of the show. But certain characters have been around since the first season. Beside that the show consists of ice zombies, dragons, witches and other mystical characters as well [3]. This show also has certain characters coming back from dead, so they don’t necessarily have any real life consequences. The show takes a lot of its inspiration from previous history that had taken places around the world.
Game of throne mainly portrays a battle between the good vs the evil. One of the most loved character named Daenerys Targaryen, who’s also knows as Khaleesi and Mother of Dragons. She is on a journey to regain the throne after it being snatched away from her family. On her journey to become the leader of the world, Khaleesi runs into cities near Slaver’s Bay [4]. Where people are being tortured and put into forced labor as slaves. The slaves are being bought and sold to people like items. The slaves are also punished if they don’t obey their master’s commands. The women slaves are put in for prostitution, while the men are put into army.
Khaleesi becomes furious from watching all these horrors take place. She does not want the slaves to be treated as animals. Putting aside her goal of regaining the throne for the moment. Khaleesi focuses on freeing the slaves from the slave cities [4]. She comes out with a plan to buy off the slaves from the owner and make them free. But she asks the former slaves to either go live their lives as free man and women or stand by her side fight other cities that holds slaves. So they can end slavery once and for all.
Khaleesi and her army joins together to go through each of the cities that has slavery. Conquering one city after the other she finally becomes able to free all the slaves. Then she captures all the previous slave owners. At first she decides to kill all the previous slave owners. But she wants to set a good example for her people. So she lets the owners be free as well.
The show Game of Throne provides an alternate story of what could happen in Hispaniola and the other islands. If Bartolome had enough money to buy off all the slaves and natives in Hispaniola from the Spaniards. To use them as an army to free other natives who were forced into slavery. Which Khaleesi was able to do in Game of Throne. Since Khaleesi had a vast amount of resources and wealth to trade for the slaves.
Although Bartolome was a priest which meant he followed the path of god and only did what was a good deed. Also that he wouldn’t be doing anything that would be seemed cruel. It is believable that he could have taken the same approach as Khaleesi if he did have the option to do so. Which in reality Bartalome did not have. But Bartalome did try his best to get this horror to be stopped at any cause since he approaches the pope and as well as the king of Spain. Which did not really have a big result compared to Khaleesi from Game of throne and her approach toward slavery.
Now with that being said, it is possible that Bartalome would agree with the doing of Khaleesi after noticing all the terror he did in the islands. If he was in Khaleesi’s position, Bartolome probably would do everything she did. He watched all different aged natives get slaughtered like animals and forced into labor work. While the Soldiers just watched, laughed and bet on the people like it was some sort of games. These events would definitely make him change his mind and do whatever he thought was necessary to save those native people from torture.
Bartalome did the only thing he could to prevent the human torture of the natives and that was bringing the problem up to the king and pope’s hand to fix. Khaleesi did what she could to prevent slavery and it was buying the slaves and having them rebel. Neither of them are wrong and both are right in their own perspective. But Bartalome couldn’t exactly have done the things Khaleesi have done. Especially since the Spaniards are his people in the first place. If he rebelled against them, the entire country of Spain might have treated him as a traitor for turning his back on his own people.
So it is not just the question of if Bartalome would have agreed with Khaleesi or not, which he probably would have. Mainly since she showed mercy to the previous slave owners and let them also be free. This kindness that Khaleesi showed to the owners gives an example of the fact that not everyone in this world is a monster. Which Bartalome probably would have been very happy to see since he is a man of god. This provides that they both are on the good side against the evil and are willing to do anything to make sure that there are still morals in this world.
Although the show Game of Throne’s event of slave issue is something that never happened in reality compared to Bartolome’s situation of the natives and their event. It is still believable and highly plausible that Bartolome if the option was available to him, would agree with Khaleesi’s decision of approaching the matter in a more aggressive way rather than taking it in a calmer way. Since Bartolome’s way had way less of an impact than Khaleesis’s procedure toward the matter of stopping human cruelty and force labor.