(This is the passage)

El Requierimento: Spanish Requirement of 1513
"On the part of the King, Don Fernando, and of Doña Juana, his daughter, Queen of Castille and
León, subduers of the barbarous nations, we their servants notify and make known to you, as best
we can, that the Lord our God, living and eternal, created the heaven and the earth, and one man
and one woman, of whom you and we, and all the men of the world, were and are all
descendants, and all those who come after us. Of all these nations God our Lord gave charge to
one man, called St. Peter, that he should be lord and superior of all the men in the world, that all
should obey him, and that he should be the head of the whole human race, wherever men should
live, and under whatever law, sect, or belief they should be; and he gave him the world for his
kingdom and jurisdiction. One of these pontiffs, who succeeded St. Peter as lord of the world in
the dignity and seat which I have before mentioned, made donation of these isles and Terra
Firma to the aforesaid King and Queen and to their successors, our lords, with all that there are in
these territories, Wherefore, as best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we
have said to you, and you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon
it, and that you acknowledge the Church as the ruler and superior of the whole world, But if you
do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, I certify to you that, with the help of God, we
shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners
that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their
highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them,
and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take
away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do
not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him: and we protest that the
deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or
ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us.”
Taken from:
U.S. National Library of Medicine. Native Voices Project.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/178.html

Origin: WHAT is it? WHO wrote it? WHEN? WHERE? TO WHOM (audience)?

Purpose: What was the author trying to accomplish by producing this source? (never “to explain”—go deeper!)

Value: What is the value of THIS SPECIFIC SOURCE to YOU, as a historian, trying to answer this question? (NOT CONTENT.)

Limitations: Why might I, as a historian, take this source with a grain of salt? (NOT what’s outside the scope!)