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ABSTRACT Traditional scholarship has been marked by a sharp division between historians working on two apparently discrete maritime systems in the early modern era—the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. In recent years, though, scholars have begun to recognize the extent to which these spheres were in fact imbricated, in the movement of peoples and commodities as well as in the intangibles of ideology and legal doctrines, some of which had very concrete effects on the lives and status of millions of individuals. This article examines several legal questions pertaining to the status of recently conquered peoples by bringing together sources that address the legal status of new subjects of the Spanish monarchy, including the Laws of Burgos (1512), the Amendments of Valladolid (1513), along with several treatises by jurist Juan López de Palacios Rubios, theologian Matías de Paz, and Bartolomé de las Casas. This microhistorical analysis of the questions examined at the Junta of Burgos sheds light on the ways in which our understanding of the legal doctrines of empire is immensely enriched and clarified when we integrate the Mediterranean and Atlantic angles of early modern Spanish commitments.
Andrew W. Devereux (2024) studied this question.