The discovery of the Americas by Columbus was very profitable for the Spanish Empire, but devastating for the Native Americans who had already lived there for thousands of years. This is expressed in “A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies” by Bartolomé de Las Casas. The main objective of Las Casas was to inform the King of Spain of the atrocities committed by the conquistadors against the Indian people and their lands. From the beginning, the rules were that the Spanish had to convert the Indians to Christianity and help them reach paradise. On the other hand, the conquistadors did not follow the rules and instead murdered millions of natives for their riches. Unfortunately for the Indians, the arrival of the Spanish brought them total destruction. The Europeans took advantage of the subjugation of the Indians and resorted to massacre (of men, women, children and the elderly), rape and torture to get what they wanted, and those who did survived were transformed into slaves working in very harsh conditions. The Spaniards took advantage of the hospitality and docility of the Native Americans and took the opportunity to enter their cities, only to destroy them. The Spanish encountered little or no opposition from the Indians. The Native Americans welcomed the Europeans with open arms as if they were divine: "One day it happened that the citizens of a famous town, ten miles distant from the place where we then resided, came to meet us with splendid next, to make their visit more honorable, by bringing with them delicious meats and all kinds of delicacies, with as much fish as they could procure, and distributing them among us; but suddenly, a wicked devil possessing the spirit of the Spaniards, agitated them with great fury, that I b...... middle of paper...... giving him only a small sum, He made his goal to pursue the soldiers responsible, but it never occurred to him to help the natives. No Native American was spared from the massacres committed by the Spanish. Even the Indian nobles of Hispaniola, incredibly loyal to the Spanish crown, were not left alive. They were burned alive or hanged, while others were drowned, cut into pieces or fed to wild dogs. Millions of Indians perished because the Spanish wanted their wealth and used any means to acquire it, including mass murder, rape, and torture. Those who were lucky (or unlucky depending on who you ask) to survive were used as slaves to work hard and eventually starved to death. Native Americans were exploited due to their passive cultivation by the Spanish who murdered them and destroyed their lands..