[4] In 1516, Las Casas was granted the title of Protector of the Indians by Cardinal Cisneros after he submitted a report on their population decline due to harsh labor and mistreatment by colonial officials.

[5] During the time when Las Casas served as the Protector of the Indians, several clerics from the Order of Saint Jerome attempted to reform systems which used the native populace as laborers.

On Cuba, "By the ferocity of one Spanish Tyrant (whom I knew) above Two Hundred Indians hang'd themselves of their own accord; and a multitude of People perished by this kind of Death" and "Six Thousand Children and upward were murder'd, because they had lost their Parents who labour'd in the Mines.

"[4] A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies marks a significant moment in the way 21st century colonial Latin American historians would address world history.

[9] Political scientist Diego von Vacano argued De Las Casas' A Short Account, revealed the ways 16th century scholars used rhetoric to lobby for changes during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

[9] In A Short Account, De Las Casas racialized the indigenous people and created a new understanding for them in the context and hierarchy of European ideas of race.

[citation needed] The images described by Las Casas were later depicted by Theodor de Bry in copper plate engravings that contributed to the Spanish Black Legend.

De Las Casas juxtaposes the inhumane mistreatment of the Spanish conquistadors with the inherent goodness of the indigenous people in an exaggerated manner in his strategy of persuasion.