Dum Diversas

Common card · No. 339420

Dum Diversas (English: While different) is a papal bull issued on 18 June 1452 by Pope Nicholas V. It authorized King Afonso V of Portugal to fight, subjugate, and conquer "those rising against the Catholic faith and struggling to extinguish Christian Religion"—namely, the "Saracens (Muslims) and pagans" in a militarily disputed African territory. The document consigned warring enemies that lost to "perpetual servitude". This and the subsequent bull (Romanus Pontifex), issued by Nicholas in 1455, gave the Portuguese what they saw as moral justification to freely acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The edicts are thus seen as having facilitated the Portuguese slave trade from West Africa and as having legitimized the European colonization of the African continent. In the secular interpretation of religious doctrines present in Dum Diversas (concerning just wars and prisoner labor from those wars), the statement was used as a supposed moral recognition of both (a.) Portugal...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Peter Paul Rubens, Public domain