10.1.13 to 10.1.15

At the suggestion of Francisco de Toledo, the viceroy of Peru, the king ordered all the works, both published and unpublished, of Las Casas to be collected. Although his influence with Spain and the Indies declined sharply, his name became well known in other parts of Europe, thanks to the translations of the Destrucci�n that soon appeared in various countries. In the early 19th century the Latin American revolutionary Simón Bol�var himself was inspired by some of the letters of Las Casas in his struggle against Spain, as were some of the heroes of Mexican independence. His name came into prominence again in the latter half of the 20th century, in connection with the so-called Indigenistas movements in Peru and Mexico. The modern significance of Las Casas lies in the fact that he was the first European to perceive the economic, political, and cultural injustice of the colonial or neocolonial system maintained by the North Atlantic powers since the 16th century for the control of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The most complete edition of Las Casas's works is Juan Antonio Llorente (ed.) ,Colección de las obras del venerable obispo de Chiapas don Bartolomé de Las Casas (1822, reprinted 1981). (Encyclopaedia Britannica Article) Enrique Dussel