What was the European rationalization behind the enslavement of Africans and Indians?
What will be an ideal response?
Answers will vary. Europeans used several methods to rationalize the enslavement of others, but Africans specifically. Upon arrival to the Americas, the Spanish enslaved "Indians" for labor, but began to debate the use of the native population, because Spain in particular had employed a justification of spreading Catholicism. If the indigenous population were Catholic, they were unable to justify it because they would be enslaving Christians, which was not permitted. Bartolomé de las Casas began to publicize the plight of the indigenous people who were characterized as "bad Indians" to justify enslavement, according to Aristotle's theory of "natural slaves." As long as a given population could be demonized as "other," slavery could be justified. De las Casas was perturbed enough that he persuaded Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to issue the New Laws for the Indies to stop the abuse of the indigenous populations in the Americas, but it was difficult to enforce from afar. Portugal gained dominion over the Eastern "half" of the world via the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 which included Africa. Inter-tribal wars within Africa yielded an internal slave trade, but the Portuguese furthered this by utilizing a plantation economy in the sugar trade, and utilized African slaves who were used to agricultural work. The Portuguese and Spanish both employed the stereotypes previously carried by Muslim traders in sub-Saharan Africa that demonized Africans as non-European, and therefore subject to enslavement as non-Christians and non-White.
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