Opravy

Many people have gone against the Black Legend in defense of Spain, sometimes with interesting statement, but commonly they claim weak arguments.

The most spread of these weak arguments is that the new diseases were the main cause of indigenes’ depopulation; certainly many people died of ailments, but it cannot be compared with the gigantic numbers of dies produced by amputations, forced labor or suicides.

Others affirm that the miscegenation proof that Spaniards considered Indians as human beings, which is untrue; the real cause of this was the lack of Spanish women in the colonies and violations.

There are even people who try to make Spanish conquers look better declaring that, in many cases, the Spanish troops were mainly formed by indigene allies, who killed their own neighbors.

Even though it is true that this happened, it does not exonerate Spanish conquers of guilty, considering that they were who leaded the army.

The Spanish colonies in America were the model to follow of the next countries in arrive and settle in the American continent; it is interesting to highlight what happened in the colonies of one of the most fervent critics of the colonial management of Spain, The British Empire.

These British settlers did not do it better than the Spaniards: They considered the natives inferior creatures and killed them in a systematic way; unlike Spanish settlers which were more interested in abuse and take advantage of them, British wanted to exterminate them; with this mentality, they made their way through the west until they took over all the land that nowadays is named The US.

In a world where the Native Americans are still suffering of discrimination in the US, how is it possible that there is not a “Black legend of the US”? the answer is quite easy, they won the media war.