The Black Legend consisted in the demonization of the Spanish Empire during the Spanish golden age by propaganda of European countries as a reaction against Spain’s power and his Catholicism.
They spread the idea that Spaniards were ignorant barbarians characterized for their extreme cruelty, omitting any possible positive aspect of the Spanish Nation.
This propaganda was in many occasions, developed and spread in order to being used as a political weapon against Spain with many different purposes.
There are several examples of this: when the Low Countries where under Spanish control, propaganda encouraged people to bring together against King Phillip, leading to the independence of The Netherlands; another example of this could be how The British Empire justified his American settlements on the premise of protecting the indigenes from the Spaniards.
An enormous part of The Black Legend is true, the Spanish did committed horrible atrocities in the Indies, and the Inquisition was ruthlessly cruel; what is not true is that because of theses occurrences, a whole country is evil and worthy of such a vast hate.
The black Legend in America started when Europe received the Bartolome de las Casas’ “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies” denouncing the mistreatment of the indigenes at the hands of the Spanish settlers.
This little book was rapidly spread through many European countries and translated into their correspondent languages; later on it will be illustrated with terrifying depictions of Bartolome’s descriptions by Theodor de Bry which made utterly easy for everyone to understand the book and the horrors within it.
The Columbus’ brutal command consisted on an obsessive search of gold and power which ended up in slavery, torture, violation and massacre.
In Spain the royal family were indignant about these atrocities and they asked for an equal treatment towards the natives, command that was ignored.
About the natives’ depopulation Bartolome de las Casas said:
October 2015
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