ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces one of the seminal figures in the historical development of the just war tradition: Francisco de Vitoria. Vitoria's interest in war was a by-product of his concern about the legitimacy of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Vitoria's lecture On the American Indians investigated the Spanish claims to the Americas, first addressing the unfounded claims and then the plausible ones. On the basis of the evidence of actual Spanish behavior in the Americas Vitoria argued that this theoretical right could not in fact be exercised because the Spaniards had not fulfilled their obligations. With regards to just war, his reflections marked a significant contribution to the Crown's moral and philosophical deliberations about whether the conquest of the New World was just. Vitoria remains one of the towering figures of the just war tradition and his ideas remain relevant to contemporary debates about the ethics of war.
