The 1516 Project for the Colonization of the Indies: The Simulacrum of a Utopia

Abstract

This chapter proposes that the essence of Las Casas’s utopia was a network of imaginary expectationsillusions, versatility, and simulations of what an entirely accomplished utopia would entail. Because Lascasian interventions were foundational during the conquest, this chapter further considers that these aspects of simulation were frequent in Spanish-American utopias that today are denominated “empirical utopias,” as did Fernando Aínsa callsed them. Also, arguably, these elements of simulation or apparent utopias in the process of American colonization— were present even in Latin American utopian thought— and were contrasted with sixteenth-century European humanist-utopian ideas.