Colonial Cruelty: The Expression and Perpetuation of Violence in Theodor de Bry’s America

What is it about?

The images accompanying the Girolamo Benzoni account of Spanish colonization in the New World are characterized as some of the most violent of Theodor de Bry’s collection, America. Revisiting these depictions with an explicit focus on violence reveals the different ways in which violent acts are either justified or condemned in colonial discourse and power structures. A juxtaposition of expressions of both indigenous and Spanish violence from parts four through six of De Bry’s America highlights how European acts of aggression are seen as justified actions of colonial control, while indigenous aggression is considered unbridled brutality.

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