The irony, of course, is that voluntary submission was not even a real option, because this was a document read in Spanish to non-Spanish-speaking peoples. Even if they could have accessed a limited translation, they probably would not have understood the legal and theological concepts by which they were suddenly and forcefully dispossessed of their property, or even understood "property" in the same way as did the invaders. The quick annexation of resources was justified by means of these abstract rationalizations that needed to make some sort of sense only to the colonizer.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 303