The "Justification" of the Spanish Intrusion in Taiwan in 1626

Abstract

The Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula were fighting the Muslim kingdoms in that region for eight centuries during the period known as the Reconquista (711-1492). This created a society accustomed to fighting, whose energies were then directed to the conquest of America. Once the first atrocities of the conquistadores and colonizers against the Indians were reported by some missionaries, the Spanish Crown started to consider if this historical process could be continued or not, and if there were any legal bases that might justify it. Very soon the scholars of that time realized that the reason for the Reconquista (the recovery of their land from the Moors) was different from that of the Conquest of America. Muslims were considered as antichristian and intruders. On the contrary, the Amerindians could only be considered as pagans and the real rulers of their kingdoms. A complex debate arose in Spanish universities such as Salamanca on this question in the 16^(th) century. The main fruit of all this discussion was the elaboration of a modern doctrine for international relations, different from that of Roman Law. The scholar whose theories were most influential was the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria. For him the conquest and conversion of the Amerindians could only be legitimate if the natives freely accepted the sovereignty of Spain and adhered to the Christian faith. The present paper seeks to analyze, through the case study of Taiwan, to what extent the Spaniards in the Philippines were bound by the theories of that time when they were planning the conquest of a new territory. First we will review the projects of conquest of Isla Hermosa at the end of the 16^(th) century, and later we will focus our study on some of the reasons used to justify the actual occupation, that took place in 1626. Some claimed to be based on the theories of Master Vitoria, but, in our opinion, a combination of both Vitoria theories and practical military approaches were behind the whole rationale.