He also differed from many of his contemporaries and predecessors because in his conception of human rights, he drew no distinction between us and them, between insiders and outsiders.

For him, the native Americans “undoubtedly had true dominion in both public and private matters, just like Christians, and that neither their princes nor private persons could be despoiled of their property on the ground of their not being true owners.” (De Indis Recenter Inventis “On the Recently Discovered Indians”)

He emphatically rejected the notion that the Spanish crown could rightfully appropriate the lands and treasures of the indigenous peoples of America. He took this stand even though it brought him into direct conflict with the Pope of his day who had given these lands to the Catholic monarchs of Spain through the 1493 Papal Bulls of Donation.

Vitoria also debunked Aristotle’s influential theory of natural slavery, which stated that there were peoples who – due to their lack of civilisation or other shortcomings – were born to be slaves. He showed that the Greek philosopher’s stand was internally inconsistent and instead stressed the contrary view: “homines non nascuntur servi, sed liberi” (humans are not born enslaved, but free).¹

Vitoria’s legacy

While modern scholars have shown the debate over ius hominum (human rights) began in Europe before Vitoria, they nevertheless acknowledge the Spaniard’s ideas as original since he was the first to apply the notion of rights uncompromisingly to the “strangers” encountered by the Europeans in the Americas.