Abstract

In this article I contextualise Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Shipwrecks within the framework of the moral and political debates that were prevalent in Spain in the late 1530s, when the explorer redacted his chronicle. Cabeza de Vaca’s ideas are not just a product of his extraordinary American experience. Shipwrecks also reflects official ethical policies of the Spanish Empire with which he was familiar. These were being shaped by authors such as Francisco de Vitoria, whose Relectio prior de Indis recenter inventis planted the early seeds of international law.