You’re absolutely right but they were more likely to say “ok here’s the rulebook we wrote for you” (however unreasonable) “oh, you broke a rule? You deserve what’s about to happen to you” (which is also probably unreasonable). This applies especially to the British. The Spanish and Portugese would just go straight to massacre.

This isn’t in any way meant to white wash their actions, just to bring light to the efforts they made to legitimize their cruelty, which was largely effective at the time. Many nations are still working hard to rid themselves of the colonial narratives and perceptions built off the outcomes of this bureaucracy of exploitation.

It’s much easier to say the Goan inquisition is bad/immoral but there are still people that argue today that British engineered famines were not Britain’s fault because points to the rulebook/bureaucracy. It’s an incredibly powerful tool for shifting accountability and victim blaming.