Laws of Burgos

The Laws of Burgos or Royal ordinances given for the good Regiment and Treatment of the Indians were the first laws that the Hispanic Monarchy dictated for application in the Indies, the New World or America, in which he abolished indigenous slavery and organized its conquest. They were signed by the Catholic King Fernando II on December 27, 1512, in the city of Burgos, for the government of the naturals, indios or indigenous people, resulting in the first meeting of theologians and jurists, where it was discussed and concluded - continuing the medieval tradition that prioritized the evangelization of the Indian and that this higher good justified other possible evils - that the King of Castile had just titles of dominion of the American continent and that the Indian had the legal nature of a free man with all the rights of property, who could not be exploited but as a subject he had to work in favor of the crown - through the Spaniards settled there - for which Two Indian institutions were created: the requirement and the encomienda. Authors and historians consider them and have been considered precursors of the declaration of Human Rights and International Law.

The Board of Burgos

The Laws of Burgos included in ordinances the conclusions adopted by a meeting of theologians and jurists, known as Junta de Burgos, which had been convened by King Ferdinand the Catholic in response to the famous sermon delivered by the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos, who in 1511 denounced the social conditions and abuses to which the indigenous people of the New World were subjected by numerous encomenderos of Hispaniola. These laws established a series of principles that were the basis of Indian law:

• The Indians are free men and legitimate owners of their homes and their haciendas.
• The Catholic Kings are lords of the Indians for their evangelizing commitment.
• The Indians could be forced to work so that the work was tolerable and the fair wage, although payment was permitted in kind, instead of in money.
• The XVIII Ordinance prohibits work, starting in the fourth month of gravity, in mines and tears, and, in response to the subsequent upbringing, extends the period until the birth has reached three years. Pregnant and later breastfeeding women would only deal with homework.
• It also exempts minors under the age of fourteen, both sexes, from work, taking care only of tasks appropriate to their age.
• Married Indians could only work in the mine by their own will or order of their husbands, although they usually dealt with the domestic work of the farms they lived in.
• They dedicate several of their precepts to the Caciques Indians and their descendants, since their social situation was respected, so the XXII Ordinance authorizes them to have a number of server Indians proportionally to the tribe they ruled, so the cacique should remain in the collectivity where the largest number was.
• The war of conquest is justified if the Indians refused to be Christianized or evangelized for what the institution of the requirement was created.

The Catholic King commissioned the two most prominent representatives of the junta to establish their position in separate treaties:

• Juan López de Palacios Rubios, court consultant for Indian themes, in his Libellus de insulis occeanis quas Indias vulgus apellat, was the most solid defender of the theocratic argument that justified the papal concession through the Alexandrina Bulls
• Matías de Paz, professor of theology at the University of Salamanca, in his work Domain regum Hispaniae super indosAlthough not less theocratic, he insisted on the need to inform the Indians of the rights of the king of Castile with a requirement before his peaceful submission or through the war.

The Junta of 1512 was characterized, therefore, by two competing legal-theological approaches:

• One established the supremacy of supernatural or spiritual law to invalidate natural law: the pagans could therefore be subjected to force because original sin caused man to lose his rights.

• The other, Tomist, determined an independence from the supernatural of the natural: man could not be taken away from his natural attributes, of political law, of property and of cultural determination, which always accompany him because the original sin did not invalidate the rights of man.

There was speculation about various solutions, even supporters of this second approach defended that there were reasons for a just war against the Indians, in order to impose Spanish rule - devising the requirement for this - maintaining, in short, that waging war To the Indians it was fair because it was about improving their situation, at least the spiritual one.

This initial controversy was resolved with a commitment included in the Laws of Burgos that legalized forced labor of Indians, although limiting and humanizing it.

Summary

In total there were 35 laws promulgated by the Burgos document of 1512, which are summarized below:

1: The Indians will be transferred to "encomiendas." For every fifty Indians, four cabins (thirty by fifteen feet) will be built. This land cannot be taken away from them as they were taken from their original land. The Indians will be in charge of planting all the food. During appropriate seasons, the encomenderos (men who watch over the Indians) will have the Indians plant corn and raise chickens.

2: The Indians will voluntarily leave their land to come to the "encomiendas" so that they do not suffer from being forcibly evicted.

3: The citizen to whom the Indians are given must erect a structure to be used as a church. In the church there must be a painting of Our Lady and a bell with which to call the Indians to prayer time. The person who has them in the 'comienda' He must go with them to church every night and make sure they cross themselves and sing various hymns. If an Indian does not come to church, he is not allowed to rest the next day.

4: To make sure the Indians are learning Christianity correctly, they will be tested every two weeks and the Encomendero will teach them what they don't know. He will teach them the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins and the Creed. Any “encomendero” who does not do it correctly will be fined six pesos of gold.

5: A church will be built equidistant from all the farms. On Sundays, mass will be celebrated and a banquet will be eaten. If the encomendero does not bring his Indians, he will be charged ten pesos oro.

6: If the church is too far away, another one will be built.

7: Priests who collect tithes from estates must continually have priests in the estate churches.

8: Churches will be built in the mines so that the indigenous people who work in the mines can hear mass on Sundays.

9: Whoever has fifty Indians must choose a child that the encomendero believes capable, so that they can teach him to read and write, and also the importance of Catholicism. This child will then teach the other Indians because the Indians would more easily accept what the child says than what the Spanish say. If the encomendero has one hundred Indians, two boys will be chosen. Faith must be rooted in their heads so that the souls of the Indians are saved.

10: If an Indian falls ill near where there is a priest, the priest must go to him and recite the Creed and other useful things of the Catholic faith. The Indian will confess without being charged a fee. If the Indian is to die, he will be buried with a cross near the church. If they do not bury it, the encomendero owes a fine of four pesos oro.

11: Indians should not be used as transporters to transport things to Indians in the mines.

12: All Spanish inhabitants who have Indians in an "encomienda" must baptize the babies within a week of their birth.

13: After the Indians have been taken to the properties, the gold will be searched in the following way: the Indians on an encomienda must search for gold for five months a year and at the end of The five months are allowed to rest for forty days. During the forty days, the Indians were not to be employed, unless they were slaves and agreed to plant the crops. During the forty days, the Indians will receive more instruction in the faith, since they have more time to learn.

14: Indians should be allowed to perform their sacred dances.

15: All citizens who have Indians are obliged to feed them with bread, yams, peppers and on Sundays they must give them dishes of cooked meat. For each violation a fine of two gold pesos will be paid.

16: According to Catholicism, Indians are not allowed to have more than one wife at a time and are not allowed to abandon their wives.

17: The children of the chiefs of the islands under thirteen years of age will be given to the friars to be taught to read, write and other things about Catholicism. When the children reach the age of nineteen, they must return to the encomienda and teach others.

18: Pregnant women should not be sent to mines or forced to plant crops. They will be kept on the farm and made to do domestic tasks such as cooking and weeding. Once the child is born, she can breastfeed him until she is three years old. After this time, she can return to the mines and other tasks.

19: Indians should not sleep on the ground. Each encomendero must provide hammocks to their Indians

20: The Indians will be given one peso of gold each year to pay for clothing.

21: Indians cannot change masters. An "encomendero" cannot employ or harbor an Indian belonging to another "encomendero."

22: Indian chiefs are allowed two Indians to perform personal duties for every forty of their subjects. Furthermore, visitors to the farms must treat the Indians well and teach them what they know about Catholicism.

23: Official inspectors must keep records of the activities and also the treatment of indigenous people in the "encomiendas." They must keep track of the population and the amount of gold being mined.

24: Indians should not be physically or verbally abused for any reason.

25: Indians should not be used in private trade or for any other economic interest.

26: The "encomenderos" who have their Indians working in distant mines will combine efforts with other properties to help provide food for the Indians.

27: The Indians of other lands must also be taught the things of the Catholic faith. They must be treated kindly, unless they are slaves.

28: If an encomendero dies, his successor takes control of the Indians.

29: Two inspectors must be appointed for each state.

30: The inspectors will be chosen by the admiral, the judges and the officers. These people should be compensated with encomienda Indians.

31: Villages must be inspected twice a year, once at the beginning of the year and once in summer.

32: If there is a fugitive Indian, the inspectors cannot apprehend him. They must be delivered to a man of good conscience who finds the encomendero of the Indians.

33: All inspectors must have a copy of the Laws of Burgos, signed by the Governor.

34: Inspectors must have residences.

35: A person cannot have more than one hundred and fifty Indians and no less than forty Indians in encomienda at the same time.

Modifications were added to the Laws of Burgos on July 28, 1513:

1: Indian women married to Indian men should not be forced to serve with their husbands in the mines or anywhere else unless it is of their own free will or their husbands wish to take them.

2: Indian children do not have to do the work of adults until they are fourteen years old. They are then forced to do children's chores, such as weeding or working on their parents' farms.

3: Single Indian women who are under the authority of their fathers have to work with them on their lands. Those who are not under the authority of their parents must be kept separate so that they do not become vagrants.

4: After two years of service, the Indians can leave. By then they will be civilized and proper Christians, capable of governing themselves.

Analysis

These laws have been considered one of the most important legal enactments in the History of law and humanity, not only for their contributions to developing Indian Law with “authentic humanism”, but also as a precedent for Human Rights (since it sought to ensure access to rest, remuneration, food, clothing, education, etc. of fundamental rights), a contribution to International Law and to be “the first document in which a power colonizer regulates the work of its subjects”, becoming the first glimpse in Latin America of a legislative body of Labor Law (in addition to influencing the law of Latin American countries) and distinguishing itself from other colonial Empires. Highlighting the following way:

“there is no other social law in the world similar to that which was issued in defense of the Indian as a worker, which starts from the Burgos Laws and extends mainly during the sixteenth century”

Vicente D. Sierra

• It was 1^♪ legislative body, enacted in the form of a compendium of laws, in order to regulate life in the Indias (America and binding Asia). By making numerous real papers, provisions and instructions, which in the past decreed the Catholic Kings to deal with specific cases (directed to particular authorities of a specific place), they could have a wider and universal extension, with the aim of protecting the natural rights of the Indians (including their labour rights and guarantees for good food and education) and regulating the system of encomiendas contra casos decorruption.
• Regular relations between Spaniards and Indians in all spheres, whether labor or affective, avoiding damages to the Republic of Indians for the greed of some conquerors and establishing rules on the behavior of the Spaniards with the indigenous. By binding, on the legality of the colonial Covenant, a paternalistic treatment of the Nobles to their vassals (known as free) to recognize their privileges as just and legitimate. Making it not only a matter of regulating relations with the Indians, but in general the legal situation of all the inhabitants of the Indias (including the Spanish settlers). To this end, situations related to the succession or sale of the encomiendas, the salary of the clergy members, the cooperation between the encommendations, and other issues related to the feudal lords who were the Encomenderos were legislated.
• When the Spaniards found that the Indians did not put on clothes, slept on the ground, they did not know the wheel, they were not interested in working, they did not know how to handle weapons, among other beliefs considered of barbarians, the Crown sought that the Indians could assimilate the Christian customs and European knowledge in order to achieve a cultural exchange that was beneficial to them for their intellectual and material progress and to integrate themselves into the economic, religious and social realm. For such assimilation, the Sedentarization of the Indians was promoted by transferring them to the entrusted (obligation of the Indian commissioned) and establishing housing standards (obligation of the encomendero) to adapt to the norms of medieval urbanity. Thus, the encomendero had to build 4 Bohíos for every 50 Indians, as well as to install beds, or at least hammocks, for each Indian (who would be forbidden to sleep on the ground), being facilitated by the House of the Hiring of the Indies. With regard to the transfer of the Indians, it was requested that it be done according to the will of the Indians (but having a duty to encourage them) and that it be done without punishment or damage to them, with “very careful and faithfulness and diligence”having to be outstanding for their good care and conservation.
• At the same time, customs considered to be uncivilized as Polygamy were prohibited, they were to be instilled in Monogamy as a natural thing and it was established that they had full freedom to choose with those who wanted to marry the Indians, in accordance with the Catholic law and tradition. They were also to be given an annual weight of gold to buy clothes
• Being essential to Fernando El Católico the guarantees of “good deal” to the Indians, it was ordered that the encommendants should provide the Indian food diet, there are 2 different modalities according to the amount of effort spent by the Indian: Thus, the Indians working in the mines (and similar heavy labors) had to eat a pound of fish meat, while the others should receive a ration of “pan, ajes and axí”, also that for Sundays and holidays should be fed with peeled meat.
• In addition, the encomenders should guarantee the economic subsistence of the Indian by guaranteeing them very basic property rights, such as distributing farmlands to harvest them, as well as breeding cattle (preferably birds) as means of production that achieve their self-sufficiency. The granting of property was also regarded as a compensation for the lands that the Indians would have abandoned to move to the encomienda. It was also specified that those goods legally belonged to the Indians, so they could not be alienated by the Spaniards in any way or an offence of theft would be considered.
• As for the labour regime for the Indian women, the following provisions were made: For single women living with their parents, they should assist them in family work with their land. For emancipated single women, it was ordered that they should live together to be able to work on their lands, but in the event that they did not possess them, they could work on others voluntarily and agree on a Salary recognized by law as an obligation of their employers. They were sought to be protected because of the lack of a husband, preventing them from falling into immoralities or becoming homeless. For married women, they could not be forced to work within the mines, and they could only do the work they deem appropriate with their husbands (even if they could not work the woman if they agreed), but they could be encouraged to work, always with a salary. In turn, pregnant women were granted the right to a rest, starting at 4 months of pregnancy, and that the baby should last up to 3 years of birth, giving them a right in which they could have sufficient time to raise their children, as well as not have to suffer a risk for their pregnancy, only by doing minor work during this period (such as cooking and other domestic work).
• With regard to the Indians working in the mines, it was stated that their working period would be five months, as the time had passed, they had to receive a compulsory rest time lasting 40 days. This period of rest would indeed be enjoyed by all Indians at the same time (although, for Indians who had less heavy labor in the encomiendas, it would be an annual and not five-monthly rest). The Spaniards had an obligation to respect those holidays, without having to do any work, while the King established that “they cannot be sent or commanded during the 40 days to do anything”. In turn, a “time to lay down”, which was a recognition of a daily right to rest at home.
• As for child labour, it was ordered that children under the age of 14 could not work, although it was tolerable to do work according to their age to help their parents. It is determined that as long as they were not married, they would be under guardian of the parents until the age of 14. In turn, orphans were given strengthened protection until they were handed over to people of "good conscience", saying that the work that is worth doing is evaluated by the judges of residence, who would have a duty to ensure that they have good food, obtain due instruction to the Catholic faith and earn a hired job for their work; they were seeking to avoid falling into situations of abuse in the absence of protection from parents.
• It was ordered that the Indians were free to choose the office they wished, and those who were already apprentices of a trade in a Gremio were granted an exemption to do other tasks.
• The limit of Indians that could be distributed to the encomenders was established, with a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 150. In addition, the Caciques (indigenous nobility) could also possess plebeyo Indians at their service, in a proportional amount to the members of their tribe.
• These caciques should also have better food and better clothing than the rest of the common Indians (financed with a gold weight of each Indian's salary), and were forbidden to go to heavy jobs. Their children under the age of 14 should also learn to read and write obligatoryly, and if they had more than one child, if they did not live with the friars, they should be handed over to a commissioner with the work of " catechist assistant".
• Any form of physical or verbal abuse was prohibited to the Indian, the King determined that the encommends could not “Give a stick or açote or call a dog or another name to any junk”. It would thus seek to protect not only his physical integration, but also his human Dignity, as well as to force Spanish to address the Indian by his name and not by derogatory nicknames. This was inspired by the will of Isabel the Catholic, who had established that the Indians were also subjects of the Hispanic Monarchy, being under their legal protection as any Spanish. In turn, it was forbidden to use the Indians as if they were cargo animals for the transport of the Spanish and their properties.
• It also ordered respect for its culture and tradition of the Indians, such as the practice of the sandy (ceremonias to remember important facts of a tribe through songs and dances) among the natives of the Antilles, allowing them to make such expressions Folklorics on work and holidays, as well as to send the Spaniards to respect their local parties and customs.
• At the same time, a church should be built at least for every commission, for which every 2 times a week (day and night), the Indians should go to learn to read and write, so that they could be instructed in the Catholic doctrine. The king ordered that he be educated “the most skilled boy” (the encomendero had a mandate to teach 1 or 2 Indians for 4 years with the religious), so that after returning with his family, he would educate the other Indians to be lit up. If he was not fulfilling his catechist tasks, the visitor should do so. The construction of churches in the mines was also ordered to go to mass while they were working.
• Forced marriages between Indians and Spaniards were prohibited, but in turn mixed unions were encouraged. It was beneficial since the Spaniards would learn from the geography and culture of the lands discovered, and the Indians would be facilitated by integration into the European way of life. Thus, it was established that neither a court could make any prohibition to a marriage union between Indians and Spanish.
• After 2 years of work, the Indian would be considered to be fit to live outside the command of having managed to adapt to the most basic Christian customs, being that which was checked by the analysis of a Spanish judge and to show that he had “the human and political capacity to live and freely govern” institutions “They would consider them capable of living and working alone again.”. In the eyes of the Spanish kings, I commend it would not only have an economic purpose, but above all educational and evangelization.
• The Visitor figure was installed to inspect the safety and protection of the Indian life. At least two were to be elected by the governors, together with the judges and officers, having to travel twice a year to record the actual situation of the mines and to ensure compliance with this legislation. A visitor was forbidden to visit one place again, as he had to go to inspect the places where another visitor would have been and be checking each other both visitors to check the situation described by the other. This avoided the mechanisms of corruption and bribery of the perpetrators.

Laws of Burgos and their application

The scope of implementation of the Laws of Burgos began with the island of Hispaniola, to later extend to the islands of Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Later they would be applied on the mainland (present-day Venezuela) at the initiative of Fray Pedro de Córdoba.

Although the ordinances authorized and legalized the practice of repartimientos of Indians entrusted to the Spanish colonizers at a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 150 individuals, they made an effort to establish a meticulous regulation of the work regime, daily, food, housing, and hygiene, and included certain protections for the natives. For example, the laws strictly prohibited the encomenderos from applying any punishment to the Indians, which was reserved for the visitors established in each town and in charge of meticulous compliance with the laws, and women who were more than four months pregnant were exempt. from work. At the end of the XX century, in Spanish historiography the interpretation arose that this set of protective laws that the crown of Spain dictated towards natives was an important advance and also a precedent for labor law that was consolidated globally in the XX century, but other authors consider that this interpretation does not correspond to the reality of the Laws and their implementation. In fact, the regulations had a high level of non-compliance by the Spanish when applied in America, registering a multitude of abuses, which originated - from the moment of its implementation - numerous complaints and protests.^{[citation required]}

The ordinances, imbued with the Catholicism prevailing in the Spanish court, promoted the evangelization of the Indians and ordered their catechism, condemned bigamy and forced them to build their huts or cabins next to the Spanish houses. The Indians had to work 9 months a year for the Spanish and the remaining 3 on their own lands. War on the Indians was also justified if they refused to be Christianized and for the same purpose an institution of El Requerimiento was created. The conquest was justified if the Indians refused to be evangelized. They respected, in a certain way, the authority of the chiefs, whom they exempted from ordinary work and gave them several Indians as servants.

Despite the ordinances, the indigenous population of the Antilles continued to decline, mainly due to diseases; However, some priests - such as Bartolomé de Las Casas - believed that this event was due to the working conditions to which the Indians were subjected, a theory that they used to obtain support for their protective theses. The situation further highlighted the controversy at the time, maintained especially by the components of the School of Salamanca, especially Brother Francisco de Vitoria, in his work De indis, who in 1532, expressed the Just Titles of the conquest and who later They were specified in the Valladolid Meeting.

Consequences

The Laws of Burgos were the first ordinances of the Castilian crown that regulated the legal status of the Indians, a debate that was continued in a next generation that delved into the same issue and was known as the native controversy. or just titles, which a meeting in Salamanca with Francisco de Vitoria materialized through the dictation of the New Laws, in 1542.