Abstract

The article discusses the Europeans’ attitude to the other in the 16th century. Together with the conquest of America comes into being the question what rights does the other have, whether the war conducted by Spaniards against Indians was just. The most famous debate over this subject took place in 1550 in Valladolid. The authors present arguments part forward during that meeting by both sides of the dispute: Las Casas and Sepulveda. The supremacy achieved at that time by the Indians’ protector can be recognized as a symbolical beginning of the ethics based on the respect for every human being which started to form in Europe.