Abstract

This paper analyze Alonso de la Veracruz critical philosophy. He was one of the most radical and rigorous critic of Spanish Conquest of America in the XVI Century. He was founding professor of Theology at the University of Mexico and in his first course of 1553 he addressed the problem of the legitimacy of the Spanish Conquest, from the humanist and republican perspective of The School of Salamanca. As a product of his first course he wrote Relectio dominio infidelium and iusto bello, concluding that the war and the domination of Spanish over Indians are unjust, because there is not any theological, legal or philosophical justification. Therefore, Spaniards should give back lands expropriated to Indians and let the Indian people free with their own laws and governments. Because of this and other criticisms to Spanish powers, Alonso de la Veracruz was sent to an inquisitorial process. In the analysis I distinguish three kinds of philosophical basis of Alonso de la Veracruz critique to the Spanish Conquest and domination: A nominalist epistemology, a “multiculturalist” humanism and a republican political theory. These three aspects constitutes a strong philosophical net to criticize any kind of ethnocentrism and authoritarianism, which is still standing in nowadays, after 500 years from the Spanish Conquest.