1500–1594

Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the Americas and the defence of Indian rights

Spain and Portugal conquered Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Florida and other lands of the New World. As they did, missionaries – mostly Dominicans, Franciscans and later Jesuits – baptized Indians en masse. At the same time they witnessed the Indians' brutal exploitation under the encomienda system.

In 1511 at Santo Domingo the Dominican Antonio de Montesinos was the first to publicly condemn the oppression of the Indians. Bartolomé de Las Casas heard him and became their foremost defender until his death in 1566. Francisco de Vitoria's Salamanca lectures on the "rights of peoples" laid the foundations of international law. They inspired Charles V's 1542 "New Laws", though the colonies largely ignored them in practice.

Alongside this, distinctive forms of mission also arose. These were the Jesuit "reductions" of the Guaraní in Paraguay (from 1537) and Pedro Claver's ministry to slaves in Cartagena.