The Obliteration Of the Indies

Bartolomé de las Casas’s The Obliteration of the Indies (also known as A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies) is one of the earliest and most haunting testimonies of colonial conquest, cruelty, and moral reckoning ever written.

A Dominican friar and eyewitness to the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Las Casas recounts in harrowing detail the violence, enslavement, and annihilation inflicted upon Indigenous peoples across the Caribbean and the mainland. His passionate denunciation of imperial atrocities stands as both an act of conscience and a call to justice, written at a time when few dared challenge the powers of empire.

Part eyewitness account, part moral treatise, The Obliteration of the Indies remains a foundational text in the history of human rights, colonial studies, and theology, exposing the contradictions between faith and conquest that marked the birth of the modern world.

Complete and unabridged edition of Bartolomé de las Casas’s 1552 classic

Authentic firsthand testimony of Spanish colonization and Indigenous suffering

A key document in the origins of humanitarian thought and anti-imperial critique

Essential reading for students of colonial history, ethics, and early modern theology