VIEWS OF CONQUEST AND LEGITIMACY OF WAR: MACHIAVELLI AND FRANCISCO DE VITORIA

Abstract

The paper presents a reflection on the legitimacy of wars of conquest from the thoughts of two sixteenth centuries’ classical political and legal thinkers: Francisco de Vitoria, from Spanish Scholastic, and Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian of Renaissance Humanism. Based on the dialectic method, this work questions the different views of wars of conquest. In order to achieve its goal, at first, it presents their life and works. Then, the article studies the international relations in the Middle Ages and the formation of the Modern State. Subsequently, it relates Renaissance Humanism and Spanish Scholastic. At the end, it recapitulates the authors to conclude that the man of the sixteenth century is the man who tries to legitimize the wars of conquest, whether based on natural order or reassembling the divine order.

Keywords

• conquista
• escolástica
• humanismo renascentista
• estado moderno.