Friars and Spanish academics pressured King Ferdinand II of Aragon and his daughter, Queen regnant, Joanna of Castile, to pass the set of laws in order to protect the rights of the natives of the New World.
[5] Cardinal Archbishop Domingo de Mendoza of Seville heard reports of the abuse of the Americas' Indians and sent a group of Dominican missionaries to Hispaniola to stop the maltreatment.
They could not legally stop it, but missionaries made complaints and stirred up a debate that the settlers feared would make them lose their property interests; Fray Antonio de Montesinos preached to the colonists that they were sinning and did not have the right to force the Indians to serve them, claiming they should only be converted to Christianity.
[citation needed] The colonists disagreed and decided the best way to protect their interests was to come together as a group and choose a Franciscan Friar named Alonso de Espinal to present their case to King Ferdinand II of Aragon and his daughter Queen Joanna of Castile, the co-rulers of Spain, and refute Montesinos's accusations.
In Burgos, on 27 December 1512, thirty-five laws were put into effect to secure the freedom of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and to enforce Indian Reductions rules governing conversions.
Bartolomé de Las Casas believed that the New World was granted to Spain and Portugal solely for the conversion of the Native residents.
They had been under consideration since the creation of the Council of the Indies, March 1523, by king Charles I of Spain, the son of Queen Joanna I of Castile, whose first president was Dominican friar Juan García de Loaysa (1478–1546), Cardinal since 1530 and Archbishop of Seville, 1539 – 1546.