The Destruction of the Indies

In our day and time one may think that Machiavelli’s methods of governing a kingdom were cruel and extremely harsh. But, Las Casas’ “The Devastation of the Indies,” shows that Machiavelli’s methods were kind compared to that of the Spaniards conquering the Indians. Even though both thought fear and military power were the primary weapons in conquering and maintaining a new kingdom, Machiavelli would have disapproved of the extent to which the Spanish took it. In “The Prince,” Machiavelli said that there are three policies one should follow after conquering a new kingdom which used to live under their own laws. Machiavelli’s first two policies was to lay the kingdom waste, and then have your people live there. The Spanish complied to both of these rules. The third policy was to allow the conquered people to continue living under their old laws. The Spanish violated this third policy by trying to force the Indians to live under Spanish law. When the Indians failed to convert to the Spanish laws, either voluntarily or because they just did not understand, the result was large scale massacres of the Indians.
    Machiavelli also stated that wicked actions and inhuman cruelty should not be the only attributes of a good leader. The Spaniards, at least through Las Casas’ eyes, showed only wicked actions, unimaginable acts of brutality, and no mercy towards the Indians in any way. For instance, one particularly cruel governor Las Casas described invented new methods of torture to get the Indians to give up more treasures. He sometimes had the Indians corralled like animals and torn to pieces, on other occasions the Indians were burned, torn to pieces by fierce dogs or mutilated by various other means of torture. Another act of the Spanish governor that contrasted with Machiavelli’s view was betraying one’s own friend. Las Casas pointed out instances where the Spanish leaders told him no harm would come to the Indians, and then the leaders turned and massacred almost every Indian that they could get their hands on, raped women, and took Indian children for slaves. Lying and betraying one’s own people only results in mutiny, as it did in Las Casas’ case. 
    In some ways the Spanish did share the same methods as Machiavelli. For example Machiavelli said it was better to be feared by the people you rule over than loved. The Spanish were, above all, feared by the Indians. The Spanish also followed Machiavelli’s policies by using armies consisting of their own people. With the size of the Spanish military there was no need for them to hire mercenaries, and it was especially unnecessary because the Indians had no means of fighting back. The Spanish shared the Same military tactics as Machiavelli in making sure that the conquered people could not retaliate by laying their kingdom waste. On many occasions the Spaniards burned kingdoms to the ground, and stole all the Indians possessions giving them no way to try and fight back. 
    For the most part Machiavelli’s policies were not nearly as brutal or violent as the Spaniards. Even though Machiavelli did see the need for force and violence to an extent, he also made it clear that a good leader should have other attributes such as, generosity, compassion, honesty, and mercy. Although there can be similarities seen between the Spaniards methods and Machiavelli’s policies, the two are difficult to compare due to the simple fact that Machiavelli wrote about conquering and controlling kingdoms next to or close by while the Spaniards were trying to do so thousands of miles away.