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 Spain’s colonial management, 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, the 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.
No country demonized Americans for this genocide as many did with Spain, and the few people who denounced the situation couldn’t do much.
The US also used Hollywood to justify the Indian genocide by showing the natives as stereotypical dangerous savages in western movies.
As we can notice “reality” is something changeable, each one has its own point of view of an occurrence, and if you know how to promote yours, it will become an accepted true regardless of whether it is true or false.
Information and the ability to manipulate it, has always been the most powerful weapon; the Black legend is just an example of the media wars, but things have got more complicated, back then propaganda were spread by books and pamphlets, nowadays propaganda is spread constantly on a world-wide scale through plenty of different means.
All countries does it, North Korea demonizes The US and Japan, and The US demonizes the Islamic world; we as a public can take two different postures: we can led governments decide our believes, or we can take part in the exiting and even dangerous activity of being critical.
This critical attitude implies studying in depth history from different points of view and never accept anything as an absolute truth
November 2015
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