Black Legend (Spain)

This redirect is about the black legend concerning Spain and its empire. For the general historiographical phenomenon, see Black legend. For the black legend concerning the Spanish inquisition, see Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition.

A 1598 engraving by Theodor de Bry of a Spaniard feeding slain women and children to his dogs. De Bry's works are characteristic of anti-Spanish propaganda which was a result of the Eighty Years' War.

Another illustration of alleged Spanish atrocities in Hispaniola, from a 1664 edition of Las Casas A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies

The Black Legend, or the Spanish Black Legend, is a black legend consisting of anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda which started in the 16th century, originally as a political and psychological weapon by Spain's rivals in the attempt of demonizing the Spanish Empire, its people and culture, and countering its influence and power in world affairs.

The assimilation of primarily English and German propaganda into mainstream history created an anti-Hispanic bias in subsequent historians and a distorted view of the history of Spain, Latin America, and other parts of the world. This allowed for other countries to gain native American support due to the propaganda against the Spanish on their treatment of natives and those that do not follow catholic beliefs.

Although the 16th- and 17th-century Spanish black legend has general historical consensus, aspects of the legend are still debated. Charles Gibson described it as "The accumulated tradition of propaganda and Hispanophobia according to which the Spanish Empire is regarded as cruel, bigoted, exploitative and self-righteous in excess of reality". Like other black legends, the Spanish black legend combined fabrications, de-contextualization, exaggeration, cherry picking and double standards with facts.

The Anti-Spanish political propaganda from the 16th century or earlier, whether about Spain, Portugal, the Spanish Empire, the Portuguese Empire or Hispanic America, was sometimes "absorbed and converted into broadly held stereotypes" that assumed that Spain and Portugal were "uniquely evil".

Definition

The term "black legend" was first used by Arthur Lévy about biographies of Napoleon in the context of the opposition between a "golden legend" and a "black legend": two extreme, simplistic, one-dimensional approaches to a character which portrayed him as a god or a demon. "Golden" and "black legends" had been used by Spanish historians and intellectuals with the same meaning in reference to aspects of Spanish history; Antonio Soler used both terms about the portrayal of Castilian and Aragonese monarchs. At an 18 April 1899 Paris conference, Emilia Pardo Bazán used it for the first time to refer to a general view of modern Spanish history:

Abroad, our miseries are known and often exaggerated without balance; take as an example the book by M. Yves Guyot, which we can consider as the perfect model of a black legend, the opposite of a golden legend. The Spanish black legend is a strawman for those who seek convenient examples to support certain political theses (...) The black legend replaces our contemporary history with a novel in the Ponson du Terrail style, with mines and countermines, which doesn't even deserve the honor of analysis.

The conference had a great impact in Spain, particularly on Julián Juderías. Juderías, who worked at the Spanish Embassy in Russia, had noticed (and denounced) the spread of anti-Russian propaganda in Germany, France and England and was interested in its possible long-term consequences. Juderías was the first historian to describe the "black legend" phenomenon, and identified its Spanish counterpart. His 1914 book, La Leyenda Negra y la Verdad Histórica (The Black Legend and Historical Truth), deconstructs aspects of Spain's image (including those in Foxe's Book of Martyrs). According to Juderías, this biased historiography has presented Spanish history in a negative light and purposely ignored achievements and advances. In La Leyenda Negra, he defines the Spanish black legend as:

... the environment created by the fantastic stories about our homeland that have seen the light of publicity in all countries, the grotesque descriptions that have always been made of the character of Spaniards as individuals and collectively, the denial or at least the systematic ignorance of all that is favorable and beautiful in the various manifestations of culture and art, the accusations that in every era have been flung against Spain."

Later writers supported and developed Juderías's critique. In Tree of Hate, historian Philip Wayne Powell wrote various examples of how it was still active in modern history:

Spaniards who came to the New World seeking opportunities beyond the prospects of their European environment are contemptuously called cruel and greedy "goldseekers," or other opprobrious epithets virtually synonymous with Devils; but Englishmen who sought New World opportunities are more respectfully called "colonists," or "homebuilders," or "seekers after liberty." (...) When Spaniards expelled or punished religious dissidents that was called "bigotry," "intolerance," "fanaticism" ... When Englishmen, Dutchmen, or Frenchmen did the same thing, it is known as "unifying the nation,"...

Powell defined Spain's black legend as:

An image of Spain circulated through late sixteenth-century Europe, borne by means of political and religious propaganda that blackened the characters of Spaniards and their ruler to such an extent that Spain became the symbol of all forces of repression, brutality, religious and political intolerance, and intellectual and artistic backwardness for the next four centuries. Spaniards ... have termed this process and the image that resulted from it as "The Black Legend", la leyenda negra.

— Tree of Hate (1985 edition)

In his book Inquisition, Edward Peters wrote:

The inquisition was regarded outside of Spain as a necessary cleansing (among the Spaniards), since all Spaniards were accused of having Moorish and Jewish ancestry (...) First condemned by the impurity of their beliefs, the Spanish then came under fire for excess of zeal in defending Catholicism. Influenced by the political and religious policies of Spain, a common type of ethnic invective became an eloquent form of description by character assassination. So, when Bartolomé de las Casas wrote his criticism of certain governmental policies in the New World, his limited, persuasive, specific purpose was ignored.

In his 2002 book Spain in America: The Origins of Hispanism in the United States, American historian Richard Kagan defined the Spanish black legend:

Compounding that perspective of Spain as an inferior "other" was the black legend, the centuries-old set of beliefs that the United States inherited from the British and, to a certain extent, from the Dutch ... Such reading of Spanish history was overly simplistic, but promoters of American exceptionalism found it useful."

Aspects

According to historian Elvira Roca Barea, the formation of a black legend and its assimilation by a nation is a phenomenon observed in all multicultural empires (not just the Spanish Empire. A black legend about an empire would be the result of propaganda attacks and efforts by most smaller contemporary powers and defeated rivals; propaganda created by rival factions in the empire; self-criticism by the intellectual elite, and a need by new powers consolidated during (or after) the empire's existence.

According to this view, the Spanish black legend was not exceptional but its persistence is. The causes of its durability are:

1. Overlap of the Spanish Empire with the introduction of the printing press in England and Germany, which enabled the printing of hundreds of pamphlets daily
2. Religious factors and identification
3. Substitution of the Spanish intellectual class by another favorable to its former rival (France) after the War of the Spanish Succession, which established a French narrative in Spain
4. The unique characteristics of the early modern era's colonial wars and the need for new colonial powers to legitimize claims in now-independent Spanish colonies and the unique, new characteristics of the succeeding empire: the British Empire.

There are no other core elements to the accusations of the Black Legend than those of being "the immoral other", whatever that might mean at the time the accusations are made. The accusations of mixed blood and loose religiosity of the 15th century were turned into accusations of religious fanaticism and Judaism in the 16th century, and of antisemitism in the 20th century. The only stable element is an element of "otherness" marked by interaction with the Eastern and African worlds, of "complete others", cruelty and lack of moral character, in which the same narratives are re-imagined and reshaped, as Margaret R. Greer and Walter D. Mignolo indicate in their work Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires.

Origins

European lands ruled by the Spanish Crown

Anti-Spanish sentiment appeared in many parts of Europe as the Spanish Empire grew. In the Habsburg realm, Spain was the dominant power in a union encompassing present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, Burgundy and parts of Italy.

During the Eighty Years' War, English and Dutch propaganda depicted Spaniards as bloodthirsty barbarians. During the following centuries, anti-Spanish stereotypes circulated widely (especially in English-, Dutch- and German-speaking parts of Europe). The propaganda depicted exaggerated versions of the evils of Spanish colonial practices and the Spanish Inquisition.

William S. Maltby, regarding Spain in the Netherlands:

As part of an Elizabethan campaign against Spain and the Catholic Church ...Literally hundreds of anti-Spanish publications appeared in English, Dutch, French, and German in the sixteenth century. New editions, and new works restating old accusations, would appear in the Thirty Years War and in other occasions when it seemed useful to excite anti-Spanish sentiment. Given the pervasiveness of such material, it is not surprising that the authors of scholarly histories absorbed anti-hispanism and transmitted it to later generations.

— William S. Maltby, The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire

Italy

Sverker Arnoldsson of the University of Gothenburg supports Juderías' hypothesis of a Spanish black legend in European historiography and identifies its origins in medieval Italy, unlike previous authors (who date it to the 16th century). In his book The Black Legend: A Study of its Origins, Arnoldsson cites studies by Benedetto Croce and Arturo Farinelli to assert that Italy was hostile to Spain during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries and texts produced and distributed there were later used as a base by Protestant nations.

Arnoldsson's theory on the origins of Spain's black legend has been criticized as conflating the process of black-legend generation with a negative view (or critique) of a foreign power. The following objections have been raised:

1. The Italian origin of the earliest writings against Spain is an insufficient reason to identify Italy as the origin of the black legend; it is a normal reaction in any society dominated by a foreign power.
2. The phrase "black legend" suggests a tradition (non-existent in Italian writings) based on a reaction to the recent presence of Spanish troops (which quickly faded).
3. In 15th- and 16th-century Italy, critics and Italian intellectual admirers of Spain (particularly Ferdinand II of Aragon) coexisted.

Edward Peters states in his work "Inquisition":

In Italian anti-Spanish invective, the very Christian self-consciousness that had inspired much of the drive to purify the Spanish kingdoms, including the distinctive institution of the Spanish Inquisition, was regarded outside of Spain as a necessary cleansing, since all Spaniards were accused of having Moorish and Jewish ancestry. (...) First condemned for the impurity of their Christian faith, the Spaniards then came under fire for excess of zeal in defending Catholicism. Influenced by the political and religious policies of Spain, a common kind of ethnic invective became an eloquent and vicious form of description by character assassination. Thus when Bartolomé de las Casas wrote his criticism of certain governmental policies in the New World, his limited, specific purpose was ignored.

— Edward Peters, Inquisition

According to William S. Maltby, Italian writings lack a "conducting theme": a common narrative which would form the Spanish black legend in the Netherlands and England. Roca Barea agrees; although she does not deny that Italian writings may have been used by German rivals, the original Italian writings "lack the viciousness and blind deformation of black-legend writings" and are merely reactions to occupation.

Germany

Arnoldsson offered an alternative to the Italian-origin theory in its polar opposite: the German Renaissance. German humanism, deeply nationalistic, wanted to create a German identity in opposition to that of the Roman invaders. Ulrich of Hutten and Martin Luther, the main authors of the movement, used "Roman" in the broader concept "Latin". The Latin world, which included Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy, was perceived as "foreign, immoral, chaotic and fake, in opposition to the moral, ordered and German."

In addition to the identification of Spaniards with Jews, heretics, and "Africans", there was an increase in anti-Spanish propaganda by detractors of Emperor Charles V. The propaganda against Charles was nationalistic, identifying him with Spain and Rome (although he was Flemish-born and raised, with origins in a German dynasty, spoke little Spanish and no Italian at the time, and was often at odds with the pope).

To further the appeal of their cause, rulers opposed to Charles focused on identifying him with the pope (a view Charles had encouraged to force Spanish troops to accept involvement in his German wars, which they had resisted). The fact that troops and supporters of Charles included German and Protestant princes and soldiers was an extra reason to reject the Spanish elements attached to them. It was necessary to instill fear of Spanish rule, and a certain image had to be created. Among published points most often highlighted were the identification of Spaniards with Moors and Jews (due to the frequency of intermarriage), the number of conversos (Jews or Muslims who converted to Christianity) in their society, and the "natural cruelty of those two."

Anti-Islamism and antisemitism

The Inquisition was regarded outside of Spain as a necessary cleansing to be done in Spain, since all Spaniards were accused of having Moorish and Jewish ancestry (...) First condemned by the impurity of their beliefs, the Spanish then came under fire for excess of zeal in defending Catholicism. Influenced by the political and religious policies of Spain, a common type of ethnic inventive become an eloquent form of description by character assassination. So, when Bartolomé de las Casas wrote his criticism of certain governmental policies in the New World, his limited, persuasive, specific purpose was ignored.

— Edward Peters, Inquisition (1985)

This origin combines elements of the German origin with the proofs of the anti-Hispanic narrative existing prior to the 16th century, and with the large number of parallelisms between anti-Spanish and anti-Semitic narratives in modern Europe, and it is among the ones that are gathering most support. According to this view, the Spanish Black Legend was created by transferring the already created "character" of the "cruel, gold lusty Jew" onto the Spanish nations. Since the narrative was familiar, the stereotype accepted, and the identification of Spaniards and Jews was already mainstream in Europe due to the long history of coexistence between both in Iberia, at a time in which the Jews had been expelled from most of Europe, the Black Legend was promptly believed and asimilated in central Europe.

According to Elvira Roca Barea, the Spanish black legend is a variant of the antisemitic narratives which have been circulated in England, most of central Europe and Italy since the 13th century. The image of a fanatical, overly-Catholic Spain has little to do with medieval Spain, where cohabitation, relative tolerance, and frequent intermarriage was the norm. Muslims in Christian territory were, for the most part, allowed to keep their religion; Jews held high public office. Scholarly cooperation with Arabic and Jewish scholars was common since the 11th century, and Jewish professors reportedly taught at the University of Salamanca. In 1555, after the expulsion of the Spanish Jews, Pope Paul IV described Spaniards as "heretics, schismatics, accursed of God, the offspring of Jews and Moors, the very scum of the earth". This climate would facilitate the transfer of antisemitic and anti-Muslim stereotypes to Spaniards as a new stereotype. This case has three main sources of proof, the texts of German Renaiscence Intellectuals, the existence of black legend narrative in Europe prior to the conquest of America, and the similarity of the stereotypes associated to judaism by anti-semitic Europe and those that the Black Legend attributed to the Spaniards.

Texts identifying Spaniards with "heretics" and "Jews" can be found in Germany from the 14th century, and various pieces of 15th- and 16th-century anti-Spanish propaganda are almost line by line copies of prior anti-semitic works. For example, the famous account of the mistreated Native Americans killing their oppressors by pouring melted gold on their heads is an exact copy of the same scene in the anti-semitic poem the Siege of Jerusalem. It also suggests that the deep anti-semitism in Luther´s works may have served a double function, nationalistic and anti Spanish as well as religious, if that identification between both was already in circulation.

Martin Luther correlated "the Jew" (detested in Germany at the time) with "the Spanish", who had increasing power in the region. According to Sverker Arnoldsson, Luther:

• Identified Italy and Spain with the papacy, although Rome and Spain were enemies at the time
• Ignored the coexistence (including intermarriage) of Christians and Jews in Spain
• Conflated Spain and Turkey out of fear of an invasion by either.

In 1566 Luther's conversations are published. Among many other similar affirmations, he is quoted as saying:

[...] Spaniern [...], die essen gern weiss Brot vnd küssen gern weisse Meidlein, vnd sind sie stiffelbraun vnd Pechschwartz wie König Balthasar mit seinem Affen. (The Spanish eat white bread and kiss blonde women with all pleasure, but they are as brown and black as King Balthasar and his monkey".)

— Johann Fischart, Geschichtklitterung (1575).

Ideo prophetatum est Hispanos velle subigere Germaniam aut per se aut per alios, scilicet Turcam [...] Et ita Germania vexabitur et viribus ac bonis suis exhausta Hispanico regno subiugabitur. Eo tendit Sathan, quod Germaniam liberam perturbare tentat (Thus, it is prophesied that the Spaniards want to subjugate Germany, by itself or through others, such as the Turks. And so Germany will be humiliated and stripped of its men and property, will be submitted to the kingdom of Spain. Satan tries this because he tries to prevent a free Germany)

— Luther

References to Spanish as "bad Christians", "Jews", "Moors" or racialized references associating said ancestry with lack of moral or general inferiority can be found uninterruptedly in black legend sources and political propaganda since the Middle Ages until well into the contemporary period.

England

England played a crucial role in the spread and use of the Spanish Black Legend during colonial times, but it is also agreed that, no matter how much the English might have added to it, the origin of the narrative was not in England and actually reached the islands quite late in the game.

Sephardic Jews

According to Philip Wayne Powell, criticism spread by the Jews who were expelled by Spain's Catholic monarchs were an important factor in the spread of anti-Spanish sentiment (particularly religious stereotypes).

Distribution

The Spanish Black Legend is said to affect most of Europe, especially Protestant and Anglican Europe, and France, as well as the Americas. There is, however, no significant trace of it in the Muslim world or Turkey despite the almost seven centuries of sustained warfare in which Spain and the Islamic world were engaged.In the 18th century, despite the fact that he never visited Spain, philosopher Immanuel Kant stated that "The Spaniard's bad side is that he does not learn from foreigners; that he does not travel in order to get acquainted with other nations; that he is centuries behind in the sciences. He resists any reform; he is proud of not having to work; he is of a romantic quality of spirit, as the bullfight shows; he is cruel, as the former auto-da-fé shows; and he displays in his taste an origin that is partly non-European." Historian Walter Mignolo has argued that the Black Legend was closely tied to ideologies of race, both in the way that it used the Moorish history of Spain to depict Spaniards as racially tainted, and in the way that the treatment of Africans and Native Americans during Spanish colonial projects came to symbolize their moral character.

Development

Eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote, "The Spaniard's bad side is that he does not learn from foreigners; that he does not travel in order to get acquainted with other nations; that he is centuries behind in the sciences. He resists any reform; he is proud of not having to work; he is of a romantic quality of spirit, as the bullfight shows; he is cruel, as the former auto-da-fé shows; and he displays in his taste an origin that is partly non-European." According to semiotician Walter Mignolo, the Spanish black legend was closely tied to race in using Spain's Moorish history to portray Spaniards as racially tainted and its treatment of Africans and Native Americans during Spanish colonization to symbolize the country's moral character.

Conquest of the Americas

During the three-century European colonization of the Americas, excesses were committed by all European nations according to both contemporary opinion and modern moral standards. Spain's colonization also involved some excesses, especially in the early years, following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. However, Spain was the only colonial power and the first in recorded history to pass laws for the protection of indigenous peoples. As early as 1512, the Laws of Burgos regulated the behavior of Europeans in the New World forbidding the ill-treatment of indigenous people and limiting the power of encomenderos—landowners who received royal grants to recruit remunerated labor. The laws established a regulated regime of work, pay, provisioning, living quarters, hygiene, and care for the natives in a reasonably humanitarian spirit. The regulation prohibited the use of any form of punishment by the landowners and required that the huts and cabins of the Indians be built together with those of the Spanish. The laws also ordered that the natives be taught the Christian religion and outlawed bigamy.

In July 1513, four more laws were added in what is known as Leyes Complementarias de Valladolid 1513, three related to Indian women and Indian children and another more related to Indian males. In 1542 the New Laws expanded, amended and corrected the previous body of laws in order to improve their application. This body of legislation represents one of the earliest examples of humanitarian laws of modern history.

Although these laws were not always followed, they reflect the conscience of the 16th century Spanish monarchy about native rights and well-being, and its will to protect the inhabitants of Spain's territories. These laws came about in the early period of colonization, following some abuses reported by Spaniards themselves traveling with Columbus. Such reports led to an institutional debate in Spain about the colonization process and the rights and protection of indigenous peoples of the Americas. Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas published Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies), a 1552 account of the supposed atrocities committed by landowners and some officials during the early period of colonization of New Spain (particularly on Hispaniola). De las Casas, son of the merchant Pedro de las Casas (who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage), described Columbus's treatment of the natives in his History of the Indies. His description of Spanish actions was used as a basis for attacks on Spain, including in Flanders during the Eighty Years' War. The accuracy of de las Casas's descriptions of Spanish colonization is still debated by some scholars due to supposed exaggerations. Although historian Lewis Hanke thought that de las Casas exaggerated atrocities in his accounts, Benjamin Keen found them more or less accurate. Charles Gibson's 1964 monograph The Aztecs under Spanish Rule (the first comprehensive study of sources about relations between Indians and Spaniards in New Spain), concludes that the demonization of Spain "builds upon the record of deliberate sadism. It flourishes in an atmosphere of indignation which removes the issue from the category of objective understanding. It is insufficient in its understanding of institutions of colonial history."

The ill-treatment of Amerindians, which also occurred in other European colonies in the Americas, was used in works of competing European powers to create animosity against the Spanish Empire. De las Casas' work was first cited in English in the 1583 The Spanish Colonie, or Brief Chronicle of the Actes and Gestes of the Spaniards in the West Indies, at a time when England was preparing for war against Spain in the Netherlands.

All European powers which colonized the Americas, including England, Portugal and the Netherlands, ill-treated indigenous peoples. Colonial powers have been also accused of genocide in Canada, the United States, and Australia. These issues have received greater scholarly attention and the historiographical evaluation of colonialism's effects is evolving. According to William B. Maltby, "At least three generations of scholarship have produced a more balanced appreciation of Spanish conduct in both the Old World and the New, while the dismal records of other imperial powers have received a more objective appraisal."

War with the Netherlands

Spain's war with the United Provinces and, in particular, the victories and atrocities of the Duke of Alba contributed to anti-Spanish propaganda. Sent in August 1567 to counter political unrest in a part of Europe where printing presses encouraged a variety of opinions (especially against the Catholic Church), Alba seized control of the publishing industry; several printers were banished, and at least one was executed. Booksellers and printers were prosecuted and arrested for publishing banned books, many of which were part of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

After years of unrest in the Low Countries, the summer of 1567 saw renewed violence in which Dutch Calvinists defaced statues and decorations in Catholic monasteries and churches. The March 1567 Battle of Oosterweel was the first Spanish military response to the unrest, and the beginning of the Eighty Years' War. In 1568 Alba had prominent Dutch nobles executed in Brussels' central square, sparking anti-Spanish sentiment. In October 1572, after Orange forces captured the city of Mechelen, its lieutenant attempted to surrender when he heard that a larger Spanish army was approaching. Despite efforts to placate the troops, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo (son of the governor of the Netherlands and commander of the duke's troops) allowed his men three days to pillage the city; Alba reported to King Philip II that "not a nail was left in the wall". A year later, magistrates were still attempting to retrieve church artifacts which Spanish soldiers had sold elsewhere.

This sack of Mechelen was the first Spanish Fury; several others occurred over the next several years. In November and December 1572, with the duke's permission, Fadrique had residents of Zutphen and Naarden locked in churches and burnt to death.

Contemporary, anonymous painting of the 4 November 1576 Spanish Fury in Antwerp

In July 1573, after a six-month siege, the city of Haarlem surrendered. The garrison's men (except for the German soldiers) were drowned or had their throats cut by the duke's troops, and eminent citizens were executed. In 1576, Spanish troops attacked and pillaged Antwerp. Soldiers rampaged through the city, killing, looting, extorting money from residents and burning the homes of those who did not pay. Christophe Plantin's printing establishment was threatened with destruction three times, but was spared each time with payment of a ransom. Antwerp was economically devastated by the attack; a thousand buildings were torched, and as many as 18,000 men, women and children were killed. Maastricht was besieged, sacked and destroyed twice by the Spanish (in 1576 and 1579), and the 1579 siege ended with a Spanish Fury which killed men, women and children. Spanish soldiers drowned hundreds of civilians by throwing them off the bridge over the river Maas in an episode similar to earlier events in Zutphen.

After numerous complaints to the Spanish court, Philip II decided to change policy and relieve the Duke of Alba. The monarch sent Luis de Requesens to replace Alba. De Requesens tried to appease the situation by giving concessions to the rebels.

The propaganda created by the Dutch Revolt during the struggle against the Spanish Crown can also be seen as part of the Black Legend. The depredations against the Indians that De las Casas had described, were compared to the depredations of Alba and his successors in the Netherlands. The Brevissima relacion was reprinted no less than 33 times between 1578 and 1648 in the Netherlands (more than in all other European countries combined).

The depredations against the Indians described by de las Casas were compared to those of Alba and his successors in the Netherlands, and A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies was reprinted 33 times between 1578 and 1648 in the Netherlands (more than in the rest of Europe). The Articles and Resolutions of the Spanish Inquisition to Invade and Impede the Netherlands accused the Holy Office of a conspiracy to starve the Dutch population and exterminate its leading nobles, "as the Spanish had done in the Indies."

The Articles and Resolutions of the Spanish Inquisition to Invade and Impede the Netherlands imputed a conspiracy to the Holy Office to starve the Dutch population and exterminate its leading nobles, "as the Spanish had done in the Indies." Marnix of Sint-Aldegonde, a prominent propagandist for the cause of the rebels, regularly used references to alleged intentions on the part of Spain to "colonize" the Netherlands, for instance in his 1578 address to the German Diet.

United States

Richard Kagan, regarding the Black Legend in the United States:

Compounding this perception of Spain as an inferior ´other´ was the Black Legend, the centuries-old cluster of Protestant beliefs that the United States inherited from the British and, to a certain extent, from the Dutch. The Black Legend equated Spain with the Inquisition, religious bigotry, and the bloody persecution of Protestants and Jews. It also conjured up images of despotic monarchs who denied their subjects access to any semblance of economic and political freedom and who had consequently set Spain onto the road of economic weakness and political decline. Such a reading of Spanish history was overly simplistic but promoters of American exceptionalism found it useful to see Spain as an example of what would happen to a country whose fundamental values were antithetical to those of the United States.

— Richard Kagan, Spain in America: The Origins of Hispanism in the United States

Portugal

King Philip, at the time also king of Portugal, was accused of cruelty for his hanging of supporters of António, Prior of Crato, the rival contender for the throne of Portugal, on yardarms on the Azores islands following the Battle of Ponta Delgada.

Reception in England

Other critics of Spain included Antonio Pérez, the fallen secretary of King Philip, who fled to France and England, where he published attacks on the Spanish monarchy under the title Relaciones (1594). The English referred to these books to justify privateering and wars against the Spanish.

Controversy

The existence of a Spanish black legend is generally, but not universally, accepted by academics. Ricardo Garcia Carcel denied its existence in his 1991 book, The Black Legend: "It is neither a legend, insofar as the negative opinions of Spain have genuine historical foundations, nor is it black, as the tone was never consistent nor uniform. Gray abounds, but the color of these opinions was always viewed in contrast [to what] we have called the white legend." Proponents of the theory include musicologist Judith Etzion and writer William Styron.

Among the historians that actively support or have found proof in their work for the Spanish Black Legend we can name: Philip Wayne Powell, Edward Peters, William S.Maltby, Richard Kagan, Margaret R. Greer, Helen Rawlings, Ronnie Hsia, Lu Ann Homza, Stanley G. Payne, Andrea Donofrio, Irene Silverblatt, Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, Charles Gibson (historian), María Elvira Roca Barea, Ronald Hilton, Joseph Pérez, Bartolomé Bennasar and Sverker Arnoldsson, who specialized himself in the study of the subject.

Comparison with other countries' past

Public perception of old imperial past varies greatly from one country to another.

United Kingdom

According to some polls, British people are proud of colonial past. People tend to focus more on the positive aspects of British colonial past such as the abolition of slavery and the anti slavery actions taken by the Royal Navy, or the spreading of concepts such as democracy and human rights. Atrocities committed by the United Kingdom during the Anti-Irish sentiment, Mau Mau Uprising, the Second Boer War or the World wars are often seen as exceptions to the overall humanitarian nature of the British Empire

Modern examples

The continuance, or not, of the Black Legend is a debated issue. In recent years a group of historians including Alfredo Alvar and Lourdes Mateo Bretos have argued that the Black Legend does not currently exist, it being merely the Spanish perception of how the world views Spain's legacy.

According to Carmen Iglesias, the black legend consists of negative traits which the Spanish people see in themselves and is shaped by political propaganda. References to black-legend constructs are used in Argentina to argue in favor of protectionism against Spanish companies.

Henry Kamen argues that the Black Legend existed during the 16th century but is now a thing of the past in England. Other authors, however, like Roca Barea and Philip Wayne Powell, argue that it still affects the way in which Spain is perceived and that it is brought up strategically during diplomatic conflicts of interest as well as in popular culture to hide the negative actions of other nations. Among those who consider that The Black Legend is still around, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, Benjamin Keen, Patricia Shaw, David J. Weber, and Eric Griffin have devoted work specifically to study the cause of its persistence.

The view that the Spanish black legend affects current US immigration policy has gained support. Past Spanish ownership of about half of the United States is unknown by most Americans. Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell said that he saw a re-emergence of the black legend in European coverage of the Catalan independence movement, particularly by the English-speaking press (which unquestioningly accepted unverified injury figures).

The black legend is cited in films such as Victoria & Abdul. In his essay "Why Spaniards Make Good Bad Guys", Samuel Amago analyzes the persistence of the legend in contemporary European cinema. The American Council of Education reported anti-Hispanism in textbooks in 1944, identifying basic errors and biased portrayals and concluding, "The abolition of the black legend and its effects in our interpretation of Latin American life is one of our main problems in the educational and intellectual aspect, as well as in the political sphere". According to Philip Wayne Powell in 1971, however, the core textbook errors still remained. The black legend can be said to contribute to white supremacy, erasing the ethical and intellectual contributions of southern Europeans and reducing the power and competence of Native American empires before and during the Spanish conquest.

Those who contend that the Black Legend still affects Spain and the Latin American world point out events like:

Linguistic

• Creation and use of special categories: The use in English of the word "conquistador" instead of "conqueror" (the literal translation of conquistador), as well as of "conquista" instead of "conquest" (also, the literal translation of conquista) in order to create a new, unique category of connotation that separates both Spaniards from other Europeans, and the actions of the Spanish in the New World from the conquerors in Europe, even though the Spanish Empire was the only one to take an early abolitionist stance among European powers.

Economic

• Direct references to constructs from the times of the Black Legend were made in British and Canadian press during the Turbot War of 1992 between Spain and Canada.
• References to Black Legend constructs are currently used in Argentina to argue in favor of protectionist policies against Spanish companies.

Political

• Latin America–United States relations: Powell considered it the root of current diplomatic problems and anti-Latino sentiment in the United States, and he shows so in his 1971 work The Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting Relations with the Hispanic World. The view of the Black Legend affecting the present-day United States' immigration policy has gained supporters in the current political climate. The narrative of the "degenerated race" is argued to be at the root of the racist discrimination suffered by Latinos in America.
• Spain's past ownership of about half of the United States' land is unknown by most Americans, affecting the way in which the Latin American population and culture are treated, as well as the linguistic debate there.
• Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell explained that he sees a re-emergence of the Black Legend across Europe in the way the Catalonian issue has been covered, especially by English-speaking press, regarding the unquestioning acceptance of unchecked numbers of injured that turned out to be false.

Education and popular culture

• Spanish proponents of the prevalence of the Black Legend point out that the Black Legend view of Spain and Spanish history, as well as its anti-Catholic elements, are common in popular culture, such as in films like Elizabeth, whereas popular culture references to similar deeds by other colonial powers are scarce or idealized in movies such as Victoria & Abdul. In his essay Why Spaniards Make Good Bad Guys?, Samuel Amago analyzes the persistence of the Black Legend in contemporary European cinema through a long list of titles, actors and directors.
• In 2012, the British TV show Lonely Planet broadcast an episode about the Age of Discovery, in which Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, and Turkish explorers were depicted. Only in the case of the Spaniards was any violent or negative action shown, devoting most of the time of the segment to how they killed and looted, while no mention was made of any such things by the English or Dutch, nor was the Portuguese slave trade shown. Additionally, none of the main exploration or scientific trips by Spain were shown. There was also no mention of the percentage of Native Population in each of the former colonies that could balance the lack of violence shown regarding central European nations.
• In 1944, the American Council of Education released a report on anti-Hispanism in school textbooks, identifying a large number of basic errors, inexactitudes and biased portrayals. It concluded that "The abolition of the Black Legend and its effects in our interpretation of Latin American life is one of our main problems in the educational and intellectual aspect, as well as in the political sphere", and urged for textbooks' biases and errors to be fixed. However, according to Powell, in 1971 all the core errors were still in the majority of school materials.

Race

• The Black Legend and its counterpart, the British golden legend, are allegedly main contributors to the construct of white supremacy, since they erase the ethical and intellectual contributions of Southern Europeans and reduce the power and competence achieved by indigenous empires prior to and during the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

White legend

The label "White Legend" is used by some historians to describe a historiographic approach which they believe goes too far in trying to counter the Black Legend, and which consequently ends up painting an uncritical or idealized image of Spanish colonial practices. Such an approach has been described as characteristic of Nationalist Spanish historiography during the regime of Francisco Franco, which associated itself with the imperial past couched in positive terms. Some, such as Benjamin Keen, have criticized the works of John Fiske and Lewis Hanke as going too far towards idealizing Spanish history.

The "White Legend" may also refer to the propaganda spread within Spain by Philip II and his descendants, to present his actions to preserve his own patrimony in the Netherlands and America as religiously motivated. This propaganda would create the view of a prudent and pious monarch within Spain, helping to control the unrest that his aggressive policies and wars in the Netherlands were generating.

See also

• Society of the Spanish-Americans in the Spanish Colonial Americas
• Albigensian Crusade
• Anti-Catholicism
• Aragonese Crusade
• Atrocity propaganda
• Black armband view of history, a similar concept in Australia
• Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition
• Blood libel
• Colonial mentality
• Cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain
• Encomienda
• Hispanophobia
• Historical revisionism
• Historiography of Colonial Spanish America
• History of the west coast of North America
• Information warfare
• Laws of Burgos
• Mozarabic Rite
• New Laws
• Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas
• Spanish colonization of the Americas
• Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
• Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
• Spanish conquest of Yucatán
• Spanish Empire
• Toledo School of Translators
• Valladolid debate

Further reading

• José Presas y Marull (1828). Juicio imparcial sobre las principales causas de la revolución de la América Española y acerca de las poderosas razones que tiene la metrópoli para reconocer su absoluta independencia. (original document) [Fair judgment about the main causes of the revolution of Spanish America and about the powerful reasons that the metropolis has for recognizing its absolute independence]. Burdeaux: Imprenta de D. Pedro Beaume.
• Ardolino, Frank. Apocalypse and Armada in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (Kirksville, Missouri: Sixteenth Century Studies, 1995).
• Arnoldsson, Sverker. "La Leyenda Negra: Estudios Sobre Sus Orígines," Göteborgs Universitets Årsskrift, 66:3, 1960
• Díaz, María Elena (2004). "Beyond Tannenbaum". Law and History Review. 22 (2): 371–376. doi:10.2307/4141650.
• Edelmayer, Friedrich (2011). "The "Leyenda Negra" and the Circulation of Anti-Catholic and Anti-Spanish Prejudices". European History Online.
• Español Bouché, Luis, "Leyendas Negras: Vida y Obra de Julian Juderías", Junta de Castilla y Leon, 2007.
• Gibson, Charles. The Black Legend: Anti-Spanish Attitudes in the Old World and the New. 1971.
• Gledhill, John (1996). "Review: From "Others" to Actors: New Perspectives on Popular Political Cultures and National State Formation in Latin America". American Anthropologist. New Series. 98 (3): 630–633. doi:10.1525/aa.1996.98.3.02a00210.
• Griffin, Eric. "Ethos to Ethnos: Hispanizing 'the Spaniard' in the Old World and the New," The New Centennial Review, 2:1, 2002.
• Hadfield, Andrew. "Late Elizabethan Protestantism, Colonialism and the Fear of the Apocalypse," Reformation, 3, 1998.
• Hanke Lewis. The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America. 1949.
• Hanke, Lewis. Bartolomé de Las Casas: Bookman, Scholar and Propagandist. 1952.
• Hauben, Paul J. (1977). "White Legend against Black: Nationalism and Enlightenment in a Spanish Context". The Americas. 34 (1): 1–19. doi:10.2307/980809.
• Hillgarth, J. N. (1985). "Spanish Historiography and Iberian Reality". History and Theory. 24 (1): 23–43. doi:10.2307/2504941.
• Kamen, Henry, Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492-1763. New York: HarperCollins. 2003. ISBN 0-06-093264-3
• Keen, Benjamin, "The Black Legend Revisited: Assumptions and Realities", Hispanic American Historical Review 49, no. 4 (November 1969): 703–19.
• Keen, Benjamin, "The White Legend Revisited: A Reply to Professor Hanke's 'Modest Proposal,'" Hispanic American Historical Review 51, no. 2 (May 1971): 336–55.
• LaRosa, Michael (1992–1993). "Religion in a Changing Latin America: A Review". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. 34 (4): 245–255. doi:10.2307/165811.
• Lock, Julian. "'How Many Tercios Has the Pope?' The Spanish War and the Sublimation of Elizabethan Anti-Popery," History, 81, 1996.
• Maltby, William S., The Black Legend in England. Duke University Press, Durham, 1971, ISBN 0-8223-0250-0.
• Maura, Juan Francisco. "La hispanofobia a través de algunos textos de la conquista de América: de la propaganda política a la frivolidad académica". Bulletin of Spanish Studies 83. 2 (2006): 213–240.
• Maura, Juan Francisco. "Cobardía, crueldad y oportunismo español: algunas consideraciones sobre la 'verdadera' historia de la conquista de la Nueva España". Lemir (Revista de literatura medieval y del Renacimiento) 7 (2003): 1–29. [1]
• Mignolo, W. D. (2007). "What does the Black Legend Have to do with Race?" Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires, 312-24.
• Powell, Philip Wayne, Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World. Basic Books, New York, 1971, ISBN 0-465-08750-7.
• Rabasa, José (1993). "Aesthetics of Colonial Violence: The Massacre of Acoma in Gaspar de Villagrá's "Historia de la Nueva México"". College Literature. 20 (3): 96–114.
• Sanchez, M.G., Anti-Spanish Sentiment in English Literary and Political Writing, 1553–1603 (Phd Diss; University of Leeds, 2004)
• Schmidt, Benjamin, Innocence Abroad. The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570–1670, Cambridge U.P. 2001, ISBN 978-0-521-02455-6
• Vigil, Ralph H. (1994). "Review: Inequality and Ideology in Borderlands Historiography". Latin American Research Review. 29 (1): 155–171.