Outraged by the cruelties that some Europeans had witnessed in South America and jealous of the riches being acquired by the Spanish monarchy, the countries of Europe were joining forces against Spanish influence in the New World by the mid-sixteenth century.
Credit: Theodor de Bry, British Library
Many years ago I included information on “The Spanish Requirement” on private-person.com as part of the course “Hope For Justice: In Action“. I have repeatedly referred people to”The Spanish Requirement” enough times, as it is SO important to understand what and why the “official” seek your consent at every step to remove their liability, I’ve decided to post it here updated.
The Spanish Requirement, issued in the names of King Ferdinand and Queen Juana, his daughter, was a mixture of religious and legal justifications for the confiscation of New World territories and the subjugation of their inhabitants. At the time, it was believed that Native Americans resisted conquest and conversion for one of two reasons: malice or ignorance. The Requirement was putatively meant to eliminate ignorance. Think legal notice.
A member of the conquistador’s force would read El Requerimiento in Castilian before a group of Indians on the shore, who, with or without translation, remained uncomprehending. All the region’s inhabitants were thus considered to have been advised of Spain’s religious and legal rights to conquest and forewarned of the consequences of resisting. The true nature of the Spanish Requirement, however, was one of absolution; the symbolic act of reading the document relieved the crown and its agents from legal and moral responsibility for the conquest, enslavement and killing of Native Americans. Readings were often dispensed with prior to planned attacks.
Many police no longer play the game of consent they are in “comply or die” mode in the US and occasionally in Canada. Even so, consent is required from the victim of police abuses for the next steps in prosecution and implied consent by the victim’s act of NOT complaining and NOT laying a claim for harm done.
If you don’t say NO, you are deemed to have said YES.
If you don’t complain about abuses you are deemed to have agreed that the abuse was OK.
It is a sleazy way to avoid liability by officials, sometimes through threats to keep people quiet. How many more whistleblowers would there be if people had not heard of numerous whistleblowers facing abuse, job loss and worse for speaking out, DESPITE the laws created to protect whistleblowers?
The big question I get asked is “How do “they” justify their illegal acts?”. Largely, I believe, it is either they are sociopaths/psychopaths or they have played the consent game…”you had your chance to say no and you didn’t, so you must agree with what I’m doing”.
The courts and governments TODAY appear to work on the same principle as the “Spanish requirement” to absolve themselves of guilt and liability for the orchestrated removal of natural rights of millions of people.
This tactic has been used for hundreds of years by the state, agents of the state and the church. Famously, but forgotten, “the Spanish Requirement” was the absolution process for Spanish explorers killing indigenous people in North America. You can read about it at the links below and also included here are a few excerpts. It is ALWAYS helpful to understand the thinking of other people so you have a better idea of what you are up against and what to do about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Requirement_of_1513
A member of the conquistador’s force would read El Requerimiento in Castilian before a group of Indians on the shore, who, with or without translation, remained uncomprehending. All the region’s inhabitants were thus considered to have been advised of Spain’s religious and legal rights to conquest and forewarned of the consequences of resisting. The true nature of the Spanish Requirement, however, was one of absolution; the symbolic act of reading the document relieved the crown and its agents from legal and moral responsibility for the conquest, enslavement and killing of Native Americans. Readings were often dispensed with prior to planned attacks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requerimiento
While the conquistadors were encouraged to use an interpreter to read the Requerimiento, this was not absolutely necessary, and in many cases, it was read out to an uncomprehending populace. In some instances it was read: to barren beaches and empty villages long after the indigenous people and communities had left; to prisoners after they were captured; and even from the decks of ships once they had just spotted the coast. Nevertheless, for the conquistadors it provided a religious justification and rationalization for attacking and conquering the native population. Because of its potential to support the enrichment of the Spanish royal coffers
Here is the closing paragraph of El Requerimiento citing what will happen to those who do not submit and who the harm is done then becomes self inflicted:
But, if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their Highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us. And that we have said this to you and made this Requisition, we request the notary here present to give us his testimony in writing, and we ask the rest who are present that they should be witnesses of this Requisition.”
The Whole document is below:
Requerimiento, 1514
# Requerimiento [“Requirement], by Charles I of Spain [abridged]: Spanish conquistadors read this document, composed in 1514, to Indians of the new world. It briefly explains Spain’s assertion of its legal and moral right to rule over the inhabitants of Latin America. It also provides a rationale for a “just war.” Legalistic Spaniards devised this doctrine so that you could “legally” enslave Indians who refused to agree with all the statements of the requerimiento.
Notice the dire warning in the last paragraph to those who do not submit. Of course, not knowing the Spanish language, most Indians had no idea what transpired with the reading, but found themselves enslaved nonetheless. On behalf of the king and the queen, subjugators of barbarous peoples, we, their servants, notify and make known to you as best we are able, that God, Our Lord, living and eternal, created the heavens and the earth, and a man and a woman, of whom you and we and all other people of the world were, and are, the descendants. Because of the great numbers of people who have come from the union of these two in the five thousand year, which have run their course since the world was created, it became necessary that some should go in one direction and that others should go in another. Thus they became divided into many kingdoms and many provinces, since they could not all remain or sustain themselves in one place.
__________
# Of all these people God, Our Lord, chose one, who was called Saint Peter, to be the lord and the one who was to be superior to all the other people of the world, whom all should obey. He was to be the head of the entire human race, wherever men might exist. God gave him the world for his kingdom and jurisdiction. God also permitted him to be and establish himself in any other part of the world to judge and govern all peoples, whether Christian, Moors, Jew, Gentiles, or those of any other sects and beliefs that there might be. He was called the Pope. One of the past Popes who succeeded Saint Peter, as Lord of the Earth gave these islands and Mainland’s of the Ocean Sea [the Atlantic Ocean] to the said King and Queen and to their successors, with everything that there is in them, as is set forth in certain documents which were drawn up regarding this donation in the manner described, which you may see if you so desire.
# In consequence, Their Highnesses are Kings and Lords of these islands and mainland by virtue of said donation. Certain other isles and almost all [the native peoples] to whom this summons has been read have accepted Their Highnesses as such Kings and Lords, and have served, and serve, them as their subjects as they should, and must, do, with good will and without offering any resistance. You are constrained and obliged to do the same as they.
# Consequently, as we best may, we beseech and demand that you understand fully this that we have said to you and ponder it, so that you may understand and deliberate upon it for a just and fair period, and that you accept the Church and Superior Organization of the whole world and recognize the Supreme Pontiff, called the Pope, and that in his name, you acknowledge the King and Queen, as the lords and superior authorities of these islands and Mainlands by virtue of the said donation.
# If you do not do this, however, or resort maliciously to delay, we warn you that, with the aid of God, we will enter your land against you with force and will make war in every place and by every means we can and are able, and we will then subject you to the yoke and authority of the Church and Their Highnesses. We will take you and your wives and children and make them slaves, and as such we will sell them, and will dispose of you and them as Their Highnesses order. And we will take your property and will do to you all the harm and evil we can, as is done to vassals who will not obey their lord or who do not wish to accept him, or who resist and defy him. We avow that the deaths and harm which you will receive thereby will be your own blame, and not that of Their Highnesses, nor ours, nor of the gentlemen who come with us.
http://www.doctrineofdiscovery.org/requerimiento.htm
http://doctrineofdiscoveryforum.blogspot.ae/2013_02_01_archive.html
https://www.pbs.org/conquistadors/devaca/lascasas_02.html
