Black Legend
Encyclopedia
The Black Legend refers to a style of historical writing that demonizes
Spain
and in particular the Spanish Empire
in a politically motivated attempt to morally disqualify Spain and its people, and to incite animosity against Spanish rule. The Black Legend particularly exaggerates the treatment of the indigenous subjects in the territories of the Spanish Empire and non-Catholic
s such as Protestants and Jews in its European territories. The term was coined by Julián Juderías
in his 1914 book La leyenda negra y la verdad histórica ("The Black Legend and Historical Truth"). This is said to have sparked a tradition of more objective history writing, sometimes openly pro-Spanish, especially within Spain, but also in the Americas. The pro-Spanish tradition which describes the Spanish Empire in a more benevolent manner including the just treatment of its subjects, has sometimes been referred to as the "White legend".
The writings of Bartolomé de las Casas
, particularly his "Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias
" from 1552, has often been described as the first work to contribute to the Black Legend. This work was later reproduced by groups and nations who opposed the Spanish Empire such as the Protestant Walloons
, the French Huguenots, groups in Venice
, and specially the upcoming powers of England
and the Netherlands
. For this reason the Black Legend is often described as being politically motivated in the attempt to counter the power of the Spanish Empire. Other examples of the Black Legend are said to be the negative portrayals of the Spanish Inquisition
in historiographical and artistic depictions.
The Black Legend and the nature of Spanish colonization
of the Americas, including contributions to civilization
in Spain's colonies have also been discussed by Spanish writers, from Góngora
's Soledades until the Generation of '98
. Inside Spain, the Black Legend has also been used by regionalists of non-Castilian
regions of Spain as a political weapon against the central government or Spanish nationalism
. Some historians have alleged that the White Legend describes Spain's history in a very positive way, and is sometimes associated with nationalistic politics and with Francisco Franco
's dictator
ial regime. Deriving from the Spanish example, the term "black legend" is sometimes used in a general way to describe any form of unjustified demonization of a historical person, people or sequence of events.
By the end of the twentieth century history writing turned to a more neutral depiction of the Spanish Empire which acknowledges the negative aspects of colonization without portraying the Spanish Empire as either more or less evil than other colonial empires. This modern tradition acknowledges that the Spanish Empire was also the first empire to discuss and work towards the ethical treatment of its subjects, even though the ideals were not always put into practice.
, described it in 1914 in his book La Leyenda Negra as
The second classic work on the topic is Historia de la Leyenda Negra hispanoamericana (1943; History of the Hispanoamerican Black Legend), by Rómulo D. Carbia. While Juderías dealt more with the beginnings of the legend in Europe, the Argentine Carbia concentrated on America. Thus, Carbia gave a broader definition of the concept:
After Juderías and Carbia, many other authors have defined and employed the concept.
Philip Wayne Powell, in his book Tree of Hate, also defines the Black Legend:
One recent author, Fernández Álvarez, has defined a Black Legend more broadly:
has been one of the main elements of the Black Legend since its origin. Protestant authors such as English historian John Foxe
, published the Book of Martyrs
in 1554, and the Spanish convert Reginaldo González de Montes, author of Exposición de algunas mañas de la Santa Inquisición Española (Exposition of some methods of the Holy Spanish Inquisition) (1567).
Modern studies of the actual documents of the Spanish Inquisition
show that it was no more cruel and bloodthirsty than other legal systems of the time. The popular image of moats, chains, and cries from rooms of torture are imagined exaggerations told by Protestant propagandists who had no first hand information, or relied on a few individuals from Spain who had personal religious or political interests to serve by such stories. Torture was used, but no worse than in other jurisdictions of the time.
Legally, the inquisition only had jurisdiction over Catholics. Thus, from the Inquistion's point of view a person who had been baptized into the Catholic faith but was found to be secretly practicing Jewish or Muslim customs was considered to be a Catholic culpable of heresy
- and punishable under the law. Like similar European policies before and after the fifteenth century, the Alhambra Decree
ordered Jews to convert or leave Spain in 1492. In 1502 Muslims were also required to convert or leave. A decree in 1615 expelled the Moriscos. However, things were seen differently from the Jewish and Muslim point of view, where the Inquisition's victims were regarded as martyrs persecuted for the sake of their true faith. For example, modern school textbooks in Israel
present in such a light the Inquistion's persecution of Marranos (Crypto-Jews).
and used African slaves
for their plantations in the New world
. The Spanish conquered vast areas of North, Central and South America, and like other European powers, were involved in the Atlantic slave trade. However, certain differences in the objectives and motivations of the Spanish Crown in America, as opposed to other European monarchies, are often omitted in historical texts. Such omissions are said to be part of the Black Legend which demonized Spanish colonial activity in the New World.
One of Spain's primary endeavours of colonial expansion was to convert people to Christianity
. Kings such as Philip II
dedicated large resources to sending missionaries and building churches in America and the Philippines
. The Black Legend is said to ignore Spain's missionary efforts, or else to depict the conversion of native peoples under Spanish rule in a brutal and violent manner. Such exaggerations are contrasted by Spanish directives aimed at recognising the rights of natives. One of these early directives was Queen Isabella I
's Last Will that solemnly ordered the colonial authorities treat American natives with respect and dignity. Although such policies were sometimes not enforced, the recognition of native rights put Spain at the historical vanguard of modern natural and international law. The legitimacy of imperialism
was also questioned in the works of Spanish scholars themselves, such as the School of Salamanca
and the accounts of Dominican
friar Bartolomé de las Casas
. Las Casas' recapitulation of the conquistador
s' excesses was widely distributed, but was criticized by those who thought the author had grossly exaggerated. Las Casas could have started what eventually became the "Black Legend", creating a stereotypical image of both Spaniards and Indians. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the Native Americans because of their lack of immunity
to new diseases brought from Europe. In this regard, Spain sent to its American domains, as early as 1803, the Balmis expedition
, a humanitarian expedition to distribute the smallpox vaccine
.
Historian Philip Wayne Powell
in his book Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World, argued that Spain's official concern and educational efforts toward the American Indians were not equaled by any other European colonizing power:
dominated Naples
and Sicily
, laying the foundations for a widespread resentment of Aragon
ese dominance. The reputation of the Aragonese
pope, Alexander VI
Borgia
, assumed an almost mythical villain
y.
In his book Tree of Hate, Philip Wayne Powell
describes how the Black Legend developed in different European countries, such as Germany, France, Holland and England. This development is put down to the reaction against Spanish supremacy in Europe and the New World, which was influenced by the emergence of Protestantism - and even by the rise of Nordicism - in an effort to counter the power of the Spanish-dominated southern part of the continent.
Powell further argued that the Black Legend sprang originally from Spanish Jews, which later joined with a German version "crystallized during the Schmalkaldic War
"; after that point, "Jewish words and actions against Spain became a feature of the later Dutch-English-American Black Legend." Powell went on to argue that "Jewish emotion, when aroused by the historical memory of Spanish Inquisition and expulsion, exaggerates and distorts, and certainly gives little shrift to the Spanish side of the story.". According to Powell, given the position of Jews and conversos as "tax collectors; notable ostentation by wealthy Jews; blasphemy and ridicule of Christian practices . . . " and a list of other purported provocations by Jews, "[t]he Inquisition that Isabella established in Castile in 1480, for all the criticism - including papal strictures - against it, was an obvious necessity and solution, though reluctantly undertaken." "The near success of Jewish conspiracy and rebellion against Inquisition establishment, both in Castile and Aragon, bears eloquent testimony to the need for such a step."
in Spain were, in the sixteenth century (a time of great Protestant-Catholic strife
) and still today, principal sources for the anti-Spanish Black Legend. The Inquisition had existed in many European countries before it came to Spain. The first Inquisition was established in France during the twelfth century. It had existed in the Kingdom of Aragon for some two centuries but not in Castile until the year 1480 when the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile
and Ferdinand II of Aragon
, requested its establishment throughout Spain with the converso
and Dominican friar, Tomás de Torquemada
, as its first Inquisitor General. Inquisitions were institutions of religious supervision which most European countries had at some time in history. It was standard for European monarchies of the time to impose a state religion through such institutions. Modern concepts such as freedom of religion did not exist until the nineteenth century. The omission of these facts including the historical context of inquisitions, is considered to be part of the Black Legend propaganda.
Some of the strongest and earliest support for the Legend came from two Protestants: the Englishman
John Foxe
, author of the Book of Martyrs
(1554), and the Spaniard Reginaldo González de Montes
, author of the Exposición de algunas mañas de la Santa Inquisición Española (Exposition of some vices of the Spanish Inquisition, 1567). Another early source from which the Black Legend drew support was Girolamo Benzoni
's Historia nuovo (New History), first published in Venice
in 1565.
The origin of the Black Legend can also be traced to published self-criticism from within Spain itself. As early as 1511, some Spaniards criticized the legitimacy of the Spanish colonization of the Americas
. In 1552, the Dominican
friar Bartolomé de las Casas
published his famous Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
), an account of the abuses that accompanied the colonization of New Spain, and especially the island of Hispaniola
(now home to the Dominican Republic
and Haiti
). In the section regarding Hispaniola, Las Casas compares the indigenous Arawaks to tame ewes and writes that when he arrived in 1508, "there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it." The work of Las Casas was first cited in English with the 1583 publication The Spanish Colonie, or Brief Chronicle of the Actes and Gestes of the Spaniards in the West Indies, at a time when England and Spain were preparing for war in the Netherlands. Despite arguments about the actual population size, Las Casas's accounts of widespread slaughter are not widely disputed.
The Duke of Alba's actions in the United Provinces contributed to the Black Legend. Sent in August 1567 to stamp out heresy and political unrest in a part of Europe where printing presses were a constant source of heterodox opinion, one of Alba's first acts was to gain control of the book industry. In a single year, several printers were banished and at least one was executed. Book sellers and printers were raided in the search for banned
books, many more of which were added to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
.
On 2 October 1572, despite the city of Mechelen
's surrender and welcoming him by the singing of psalms, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo
, son of the Governor of the Netherlands, and commander of the Duke's troops, allowed his men a three days long massacre, rape and pillage of the archbishopric city, sparing neither Protestants nor Catholics. Alba reported to his King
that "not a nail was left in the wall". A year later, magistrates still attempted to retrieve precious church belongings that Spanish soldiers had sold in other cities.
This sack of Mechelen was the first of the Spanish Furies
;
several events remembered by that name occurred in the four or five years to come.
In November and December of the same year, with permission by the Duke, Fadrique had the entire populations killed of Zutphen, bloodily, and of Naarden, locked and burnt in their church.
In July 1573, after half a year of siege
, the city of Haarlem
surrendered. Then the garrison's men (except for the German soldiers) were drowned or got their throat cut by the duke's troops, and eminent citizens were executed.
During the three days long infamous "Spanish Fury
" of 1576, Spanish troops attacked and pillaged Antwerp. The soldiers rampaged through the city, killing and looting; they demanded money from citizens and burned the homes of those who refused to (or could not) pay. Christophe Plantin
's printing establishment was threatened with destruction three times but was saved each time when a ransom was paid. Antwerp was economically devastated by the attack, and Plantin's business
suffered. Such facts similar to German rampages in the sack of Rome (1527)
were enlarged upon to enhance the Black Legend.
The rebels in the Dutch Revolt
contributed intentionally to the Black Legend in their propaganda efforts against the Spanish Crown. The depredations against the Indians that De las Casas had described, were compared to the depredations of Alba and his successors in the Netherlands. They reprinted translated editions of the Brevissima relacion no less than 33 times between 1578 and 1648, more than all other European countries combined. However, these reprints were only grist for an indigenous propaganda mill that was already going full blast. For instance, 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
.
The Dutch pamphleteers could have constructed their portrait of the Tyrannies et cruautez des Espagnols without recourse to the Indies. However, they connected their projection of their own predicament (potential enslavement by Spain) with their perception of the predicament of the Indians.
Other critics of Spain included Antonio Pérez
, the fallen secretary of King Philip
. Pérez fled to England, where he published attacks upon the Spanish monarchy under the title Relaciones (1594). Philip, at the time also king of Portugal, was accused of cruelty for his hanging on yardarms of supporters of the rival contender for the throne of Portugal, on the Azores
islands, following the Battle of Ponta Delgada
.
These books were extensively used by the Dutch during their fight for independence from Spain, and taken up by the English to justify their piracy and wars against the Spanish. Foxe's book was among Sir Francis Drake
's favourites; Drake himself is regarded by the Spaniards as a cruel and bloodthirsty pirate. The two northern nations were not only emerging as Spain's rivals for worldwide colonialism, but were also strongholds of Protestantism
while Spain was the most powerful Roman Catholic country of the period. All of this contributed to the evolution of the Black Legend. Nevertheless, Inquisition laws were in Puerto Rico until the late nineteenth century. The prohibition of building synagogues or mosque
was part of the Catholic struggle for power and control of the Islands that compose today Puerto Rico, being the main island Boriken
. Some of these laws are still in the codes but are not enforced at all.
, Prosper Mérimée
, George Sand
, and Théophile Gautier
, invented a mythical Andalusia
. In their writings, Spain is converted into the Orient of the Western World (Africa begins in the Pyrenees
), an exotic country full of brigands, economic underdevelopment, Gypsies, ignorance
, machismo
, matador
es, Moors
, passion
, political chaos, poverty and fanatical religiosity.
In classical music, Georges Bizet
with Carmen
(1875) and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
with Capriccio espagnol
(1887) contributed to this theme.
In 1842 George Borrow
's Bible in Spain
was published in England and sold well. It was part-travelogue and partly the story of his attempt to translate and teach the New Testament
in Spanish. At the time the Bible used in Spain was in Latin
and he found that most Spaniards knew little about its contents.
of 1936-1939, published with great prominence in the world media, had the effect of causing a revival and reinforcing of "The Black Legend". While many foreign observers tended to take sides and emphasize the atrocities committed by one Spanish faction while glossing over or offering apologies for those of the other, there were also those who tended to lump together all the atrocities reportedly committed in Spain and attribute them all to the inherent cruelty of "Spanish character" or "Spanish culture" - regardless of the political affiliation of the Spaniards involved in each specific case.
Historian Tom Buchanan notes that in parts of the British public at the time, "Cruelty and violence were thought to be 'old Spanish customs' — due in equal parts to the legacy of the Inquisition and the bull-ring. Consul-General King of Barcelona believed that the "atrocities" in Spain were proof that 'the Spaniards are - for the most part - still a race of blood-thirsty savages, with a thin veneer in times of peace'."
.
Demonization
Demonization is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as evil, lying demons by other religions, generally monotheistic and henotheistic ones...
Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and in particular the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
in a politically motivated attempt to morally disqualify Spain and its people, and to incite animosity against Spanish rule. The Black Legend particularly exaggerates the treatment of the indigenous subjects in the territories of the Spanish Empire and non-Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
s such as Protestants and Jews in its European territories. The term was coined by Julián Juderías
Julián Juderías
Julián Juderías y Loyot was a Spanish historian, sociologist, literary critic, journalist, translator and interpreter.- Biography :...
in his 1914 book La leyenda negra y la verdad histórica ("The Black Legend and Historical Truth"). This is said to have sparked a tradition of more objective history writing, sometimes openly pro-Spanish, especially within Spain, but also in the Americas. The pro-Spanish tradition which describes the Spanish Empire in a more benevolent manner including the just treatment of its subjects, has sometimes been referred to as the "White legend".
The writings of Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
, particularly his "Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 about the mistreatment of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then Prince Philip II of Spain.One of the stated purposes for writing...
" from 1552, has often been described as the first work to contribute to the Black Legend. This work was later reproduced by groups and nations who opposed the Spanish Empire such as the Protestant Walloons
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
, the French Huguenots, groups in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and specially the upcoming powers of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. For this reason the Black Legend is often described as being politically motivated in the attempt to counter the power of the Spanish Empire. Other examples of the Black Legend are said to be the negative portrayals of the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
in historiographical and artistic depictions.
The Black Legend and the nature of Spanish colonization
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
of the Americas, including contributions to civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
in Spain's colonies have also been discussed by Spanish writers, from Góngora
Luis de Góngora
Luis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...
's Soledades until the Generation of '98
Generation of '98
The Generation of '98 was a group of novelists, poets, essayists, and philosophers active in Spain at the time of the Spanish-American War ....
. Inside Spain, the Black Legend has also been used by regionalists of non-Castilian
Castile (historical region)
A former kingdom, Castile gradually merged with its neighbours to become the Crown of Castile and later the Kingdom of Spain when united with the Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre...
regions of Spain as a political weapon against the central government or Spanish nationalism
Spanish nationalism
Spanish nationalism is the social, political and ideological movement which has shaped Spain's national identity since the 19th century.Spanish nationalism is not an irredentist nationalism per se, the only territorial revindication identified as actually being "national" as such having been...
. Some historians have alleged that the White Legend describes Spain's history in a very positive way, and is sometimes associated with nationalistic politics and with Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's dictator
Dictator
A dictator is a ruler who assumes sole and absolute power but without hereditary ascension such as an absolute monarch. When other states call the head of state of a particular state a dictator, that state is called a dictatorship...
ial regime. Deriving from the Spanish example, the term "black legend" is sometimes used in a general way to describe any form of unjustified demonization of a historical person, people or sequence of events.
By the end of the twentieth century history writing turned to a more neutral depiction of the Spanish Empire which acknowledges the negative aspects of colonization without portraying the Spanish Empire as either more or less evil than other colonial empires. This modern tradition acknowledges that the Spanish Empire was also the first empire to discuss and work towards the ethical treatment of its subjects, even though the ideals were not always put into practice.
Definitions
The creator of the term, Julián JuderíasJulián Juderías
Julián Juderías y Loyot was a Spanish historian, sociologist, literary critic, journalist, translator and interpreter.- Biography :...
, described it in 1914 in his book La Leyenda Negra as
The second classic work on the topic is Historia de la Leyenda Negra hispanoamericana (1943; History of the Hispanoamerican Black Legend), by Rómulo D. Carbia. While Juderías dealt more with the beginnings of the legend in Europe, the Argentine Carbia concentrated on America. Thus, Carbia gave a broader definition of the concept:
After Juderías and Carbia, many other authors have defined and employed the concept.
Philip Wayne Powell, in his book Tree of Hate, also defines the Black Legend:
One recent author, Fernández Álvarez, has defined a Black Legend more broadly:
Spanish Inquisition
The gross disregard for human lives allegedly characteristic of the Spanish InquisitionSpanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
has been one of the main elements of the Black Legend since its origin. Protestant authors such as English historian John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
, published the Book of Martyrs
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, more accurately Acts and Monuments, is an account from a Protestant point of view of Christian church history and martyrology...
in 1554, and the Spanish convert Reginaldo González de Montes, author of Exposición de algunas mañas de la Santa Inquisición Española (Exposition of some methods of the Holy Spanish Inquisition) (1567).
Modern studies of the actual documents of the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
show that it was no more cruel and bloodthirsty than other legal systems of the time. The popular image of moats, chains, and cries from rooms of torture are imagined exaggerations told by Protestant propagandists who had no first hand information, or relied on a few individuals from Spain who had personal religious or political interests to serve by such stories. Torture was used, but no worse than in other jurisdictions of the time.
Legally, the inquisition only had jurisdiction over Catholics. Thus, from the Inquistion's point of view a person who had been baptized into the Catholic faith but was found to be secretly practicing Jewish or Muslim customs was considered to be a Catholic culpable of heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
- and punishable under the law. Like similar European policies before and after the fifteenth century, the Alhambra Decree
Alhambra decree
The Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.The edict was formally revoked on 16 December 1968, following the Second...
ordered Jews to convert or leave Spain in 1492. In 1502 Muslims were also required to convert or leave. A decree in 1615 expelled the Moriscos. However, things were seen differently from the Jewish and Muslim point of view, where the Inquisition's victims were regarded as martyrs persecuted for the sake of their true faith. For example, modern school textbooks in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
present in such a light the Inquistion's persecution of Marranos (Crypto-Jews).
Spanish colonization of the Americas
The European colonization of the Americas disrupted the civilization of indigenous peoples of the AmericasIndigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
and used African slaves
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
for their plantations in the New world
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. The Spanish conquered vast areas of North, Central and South America, and like other European powers, were involved in the Atlantic slave trade. However, certain differences in the objectives and motivations of the Spanish Crown in America, as opposed to other European monarchies, are often omitted in historical texts. Such omissions are said to be part of the Black Legend which demonized Spanish colonial activity in the New World.
One of Spain's primary endeavours of colonial expansion was to convert people to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Kings such as Philip II
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
dedicated large resources to sending missionaries and building churches in America and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. The Black Legend is said to ignore Spain's missionary efforts, or else to depict the conversion of native peoples under Spanish rule in a brutal and violent manner. Such exaggerations are contrasted by Spanish directives aimed at recognising the rights of natives. One of these early directives was Queen Isabella I
Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to both kingdoms that became the basis for the unification of Spain. Later the two laid the foundations for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor...
's Last Will that solemnly ordered the colonial authorities treat American natives with respect and dignity. Although such policies were sometimes not enforced, the recognition of native rights put Spain at the historical vanguard of modern natural and international law. The legitimacy of imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
was also questioned in the works of Spanish scholars themselves, such as the School of Salamanca
School of Salamanca
The School of Salamanca is the renaissance of thought in diverse intellectual areas by Spanish and Portuguese theologians, rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria...
and the accounts of Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friar Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
. Las Casas' recapitulation of the conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
s' excesses was widely distributed, but was criticized by those who thought the author had grossly exaggerated. Las Casas could have started what eventually became the "Black Legend", creating a stereotypical image of both Spaniards and Indians. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the Native Americans because of their lack of immunity
Immunity (medical)
Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide...
to new diseases brought from Europe. In this regard, Spain sent to its American domains, as early as 1803, the Balmis expedition
Balmis Expedition
The Balmis Expedition was a three year mission to the Americas led by Dr Francisco Javier de Balmis with the aim of giving thousands the smallpox vaccine. He set off from La Coruña on 30 November 1803...
, a humanitarian expedition to distribute the smallpox vaccine
Smallpox vaccine
The smallpox vaccine was the first successful vaccine to be developed. The process of vaccination was discovered by Edward Jenner in 1796, who acted upon his observation that milkmaids who caught the cowpox virus did not catch smallpox...
.
Historian Philip Wayne Powell
Philip Wayne Powell
Philip Wayne Powell was an American historian specializing in the Spanish colonial history of the American Southwest. He was born in Chino, California, attended Occidental College and transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his B.A. in 1936. He then undertook graduate...
in his book Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World, argued that Spain's official concern and educational efforts toward the American Indians were not equaled by any other European colonizing power:
Origin
Sverker Arnoldsson argues that anti-Spanish sentiment originated in Italy as a result of the personal, economic, political and cultural relations between the Italian and Spanish peoples. From the thirteenth century, the Crown of AragonCrown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
dominated Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, laying the foundations for a widespread resentment of Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
ese dominance. The reputation of the Aragonese
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
pope, Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
Borgia
Borgia
The Borgias, also known as the Borjas, Borjia, were a European Papal family of Italian and Spanish origin with the name stemming from the familial fief seat of Borja belonging to their Aragonese Lords; they became prominent during the Renaissance. The Borgias were patrons of the arts, and their...
, assumed an almost mythical villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
y.
In his book Tree of Hate, Philip Wayne Powell
Philip Wayne Powell
Philip Wayne Powell was an American historian specializing in the Spanish colonial history of the American Southwest. He was born in Chino, California, attended Occidental College and transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his B.A. in 1936. He then undertook graduate...
describes how the Black Legend developed in different European countries, such as Germany, France, Holland and England. This development is put down to the reaction against Spanish supremacy in Europe and the New World, which was influenced by the emergence of Protestantism - and even by the rise of Nordicism - in an effort to counter the power of the Spanish-dominated southern part of the continent.
Powell further argued that the Black Legend sprang originally from Spanish Jews, which later joined with a German version "crystallized during the Schmalkaldic War
Schmalkaldic War
The Schmalkaldic War refers to the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire, commanded by Don Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League within the domains of the Holy Roman...
"; after that point, "Jewish words and actions against Spain became a feature of the later Dutch-English-American Black Legend." Powell went on to argue that "Jewish emotion, when aroused by the historical memory of Spanish Inquisition and expulsion, exaggerates and distorts, and certainly gives little shrift to the Spanish side of the story.". According to Powell, given the position of Jews and conversos as "tax collectors; notable ostentation by wealthy Jews; blasphemy and ridicule of Christian practices . . . " and a list of other purported provocations by Jews, "[t]he Inquisition that Isabella established in Castile in 1480, for all the criticism - including papal strictures - against it, was an obvious necessity and solution, though reluctantly undertaken." "The near success of Jewish conspiracy and rebellion against Inquisition establishment, both in Castile and Aragon, bears eloquent testimony to the need for such a step."
Sixteenth century
Exaggerated and lurid accounts of the Roman Catholic InquisitionInquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
in Spain were, in the sixteenth century (a time of great Protestant-Catholic strife
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
) and still today, principal sources for the anti-Spanish Black Legend. The Inquisition had existed in many European countries before it came to Spain. The first Inquisition was established in France during the twelfth century. It had existed in the Kingdom of Aragon for some two centuries but not in Castile until the year 1480 when the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to both kingdoms that became the basis for the unification of Spain. Later the two laid the foundations for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor...
and Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
, requested its establishment throughout Spain with the converso
Converso
A converso and its feminine form conversa was a Jew or Muslim—or a descendant of Jews or Muslims—who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. Mass conversions once took place under significant government pressure...
and Dominican friar, Tomás de Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada, O.P. was a fifteenth century Spanish Dominican friar, first Inquisitor General of Spain, and confessor to Isabella I of Castile. He was described by the Spanish chronicler Sebastián de Olmedo as "The hammer of heretics, the light of Spain, the saviour of his country, the...
, as its first Inquisitor General. Inquisitions were institutions of religious supervision which most European countries had at some time in history. It was standard for European monarchies of the time to impose a state religion through such institutions. Modern concepts such as freedom of religion did not exist until the nineteenth century. The omission of these facts including the historical context of inquisitions, is considered to be part of the Black Legend propaganda.
Some of the strongest and earliest support for the Legend came from two Protestants: the Englishman
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
, author of the Book of Martyrs
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe, more accurately Acts and Monuments, is an account from a Protestant point of view of Christian church history and martyrology...
(1554), and the Spaniard Reginaldo González de Montes
Antonio del Corro
Antonio del Corro was a Spanish monk who became a Protestant convert. A noted Calvinist preacher and theologian, he taught at the University of Oxford and wrote the first Spanish grammar in English....
, author of the Exposición de algunas mañas de la Santa Inquisición Española (Exposition of some vices of the Spanish Inquisition, 1567). Another early source from which the Black Legend drew support was Girolamo Benzoni
Girolamo Benzoni
-Life:In 1541, at the age of twenty-two, Girolamo Benzoni set out from his birthplace, Milan , to seek adventure and fortune in the New World. He was to spend fifteen years in the territories conquered and being exploited by the Spaniards, travelling widely through the West Indies, Central America...
's Historia nuovo (New History), first published in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in 1565.
The origin of the Black Legend can also be traced to published self-criticism from within Spain itself. As early as 1511, some Spaniards criticized the legitimacy of the Spanish colonization of the Americas
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
. In 1552, the Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friar Bartolomé de las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de las Casas O.P. was a 16th-century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar. He became the first resident Bishop of Chiapas, and the first officially appointed "Protector of the Indians"...
published his famous Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies is an account written by the Spanish Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 about the mistreatment of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in colonial times and sent to then Prince Philip II of Spain.One of the stated purposes for writing...
), an account of the abuses that accompanied the colonization of New Spain, and especially the island of Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
(now home to the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
and Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
). In the section regarding Hispaniola, Las Casas compares the indigenous Arawaks to tame ewes and writes that when he arrived in 1508, "there were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it." The work of Las Casas was first cited in English with the 1583 publication The Spanish Colonie, or Brief Chronicle of the Actes and Gestes of the Spaniards in the West Indies, at a time when England and Spain were preparing for war in the Netherlands. Despite arguments about the actual population size, Las Casas's accounts of widespread slaughter are not widely disputed.
The Duke of Alba's actions in the United Provinces contributed to the Black Legend. Sent in August 1567 to stamp out heresy and political unrest in a part of Europe where printing presses were a constant source of heterodox opinion, one of Alba's first acts was to gain control of the book industry. In a single year, several printers were banished and at least one was executed. Book sellers and printers were raided in the search for banned
Ban (law)
A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something.Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some see this as a negative act and others see it as maintaining the "status quo"...
books, many more of which were added to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
.
On 2 October 1572, despite the city of Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
's surrender and welcoming him by the singing of psalms, Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba
Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Guzmán, 4th Duke of Alba, Grandee of Spain, , , was a commander in the Spanish army during the Eighty Years' War....
, son of the Governor of the Netherlands, and commander of the Duke's troops, allowed his men a three days long massacre, rape and pillage of the archbishopric city, sparing neither Protestants nor Catholics. Alba reported to his King
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
that "not a nail was left in the wall". A year later, magistrates still attempted to retrieve precious church belongings that Spanish soldiers had sold in other cities.
This sack of Mechelen was the first of the Spanish Furies
Spanish Fury
A Spanish Fury was a vindictive or rampant bloody pillage of a city in the Low Countries by Spanish regular or mutinous troops that occurred in the years 1572–1579 during the Dutch Revolt....
;
several events remembered by that name occurred in the four or five years to come.
In November and December of the same year, with permission by the Duke, Fadrique had the entire populations killed of Zutphen, bloodily, and of Naarden, locked and burnt in their church.
In July 1573, after half a year of siege
Siege of Haarlem
The siege of Haarlem was an episode of the Eighty Years' War. From December 11, 1572 to July 13, 1573 an army of Philip II of Spain laid bloody siege to the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, whose loyalties had begun wavering during the previous summer...
, the city of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...
surrendered. Then the garrison's men (except for the German soldiers) were drowned or got their throat cut by the duke's troops, and eminent citizens were executed.
During the three days long infamous "Spanish Fury
Sack of Antwerp
The sack of Antwerp or the Spanish Fury at Antwerp was an episode of the Eighty Years' War.On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios began the sack of Antwerp, leading to three days of horror among the population of the city, which was the cultural, economic and financial center of the Netherlands. The...
" of 1576, Spanish troops attacked and pillaged Antwerp. The soldiers rampaged through the city, killing and looting; they demanded money from citizens and burned the homes of those who refused to (or could not) pay. Christophe Plantin
Christophe Plantin
Christophe Plantin was an influential Renaissance humanist and book printer and publisher.-Life:...
's printing establishment was threatened with destruction three times but was saved each time when a ransom was paid. Antwerp was economically devastated by the attack, and Plantin's business
Plantin Press
The Plantin Press at Antwerp was one of the focal centers of the fine printed book in the 16th century.Christophe Plantin of Touraine, trained as a bookbinder, fled from Paris, where at least one printer had recently been burned at the stake for heresy, for Antwerp, where he bound books, became a...
suffered. Such facts similar to German rampages in the sack of Rome (1527)
Sack of Rome (1527)
The Sack of Rome on 6 May 1527 was a military event carried out by the mutinous troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Rome, then part of the Papal States...
were enlarged upon to enhance the Black Legend.
The rebels in the Dutch Revolt
Dutch Revolt
The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...
contributed intentionally to the Black Legend in their propaganda efforts against the Spanish Crown. The depredations against the Indians that De las Casas had described, were compared to the depredations of Alba and his successors in the Netherlands. They reprinted translated editions of the Brevissima relacion no less than 33 times between 1578 and 1648, more than all other European countries combined. However, these reprints were only grist for an indigenous propaganda mill that was already going full blast. For instance, 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
Diet (assembly)
In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...
.
The Dutch pamphleteers could have constructed their portrait of the Tyrannies et cruautez des Espagnols without recourse to the Indies. However, they connected their projection of their own predicament (potential enslavement by Spain) with their perception of the predicament of the Indians.
Other critics of Spain included Antonio Pérez
Antonio Pérez
]Antonio Pérez was a Spanish statesman, secretary of king Philip II of Spain.- Early years :Antonio Perez was born in Madrid in 1540. In 1542 he was legalized as son of Gonzalo Pérez, Secretary of the Council of State of king Charles I of Spain . Most probably Antonio was indeed the son of...
, the fallen secretary of King Philip
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
. Pérez fled to England, where he published attacks upon the Spanish monarchy under the title Relaciones (1594). Philip, at the time also king of Portugal, was accused of cruelty for his hanging on yardarms of supporters of the rival contender for the throne of Portugal, on the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
islands, following the Battle of Ponta Delgada
Battle of Ponta Delgada
The naval Battle of Ponta Delgada, Battle of São Miguel or Battle of Terceira took place on July 26, 1582, in the sea near the Azores, off São Miguel Island, as part of the War of the Portuguese Succession...
.
These books were extensively used by the Dutch during their fight for independence from Spain, and taken up by the English to justify their piracy and wars against the Spanish. Foxe's book was among Sir Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
's favourites; Drake himself is regarded by the Spaniards as a cruel and bloodthirsty pirate. The two northern nations were not only emerging as Spain's rivals for worldwide colonialism, but were also strongholds of Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
while Spain was the most powerful Roman Catholic country of the period. All of this contributed to the evolution of the Black Legend. Nevertheless, Inquisition laws were in Puerto Rico until the late nineteenth century. The prohibition of building synagogues or mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
was part of the Catholic struggle for power and control of the Islands that compose today Puerto Rico, being the main island Boriken
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. Some of these laws are still in the codes but are not enforced at all.
Romantic travelers
In the nineteenth century, many writers, such as Washington IrvingWashington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
, Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
, George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
, and Théophile Gautier
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
, invented a mythical Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
. In their writings, Spain is converted into the Orient of the Western World (Africa begins in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
), an exotic country full of brigands, economic underdevelopment, Gypsies, ignorance
Ignorance
Ignorance is a state of being uninformed . The word ignorant is an adjective describing a person in the state of being unaware and is often used as an insult...
, machismo
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
, matador
Matador
A torero or toureiro is a bullfighter and the main performer in bullfighting, practised in Spain, Colombia, Portugal, Mexico, France and various other countries influenced by Spanish culture. In Spanish, the word torero describes any of the performers who actively participate in the bullfight...
es, Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
, passion
Passion (emotion)
Passion is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something....
, political chaos, poverty and fanatical religiosity.
In classical music, Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
with Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
(1875) and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
with Capriccio espagnol
Capriccio espagnol
Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34, is the common Western title for an orchestral work based on Spanish folk melodies and written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1887. Rimsky-Korsakov originally intended to write the work for a solo violin with orchestra, but later decided that a purely orchestral work...
(1887) contributed to this theme.
In 1842 George Borrow
George Borrow
George Henry Borrow was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. Over the course of his wanderings, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe. They figure prominently in his work...
's Bible in Spain
The Bible in Spain
The Bible in Spain, subtitled "or the Journey, Adventures, and Imprisonment of an Englishman in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula" published in London in 1843 is the most famous work of George Borrow...
was published in England and sold well. It was part-travelogue and partly the story of his attempt to translate and teach the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
in Spanish. At the time the Bible used in Spain was in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and he found that most Spaniards knew little about its contents.
The Spanish Civil War
The many reports of atrocities in the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
of 1936-1939, published with great prominence in the world media, had the effect of causing a revival and reinforcing of "The Black Legend". While many foreign observers tended to take sides and emphasize the atrocities committed by one Spanish faction while glossing over or offering apologies for those of the other, there were also those who tended to lump together all the atrocities reportedly committed in Spain and attribute them all to the inherent cruelty of "Spanish character" or "Spanish culture" - regardless of the political affiliation of the Spaniards involved in each specific case.
Historian Tom Buchanan notes that in parts of the British public at the time, "Cruelty and violence were thought to be 'old Spanish customs' — due in equal parts to the legacy of the Inquisition and the bull-ring. Consul-General King of Barcelona believed that the "atrocities" in Spain were proof that 'the Spaniards are - for the most part - still a race of blood-thirsty savages, with a thin veneer in times of peace'."
White Legend
The term "White Legend" refers to the attempts to debunk many of the distorted or exaggerated versions of Spanish history and describe Spain's history in a more positive light, occasionally in response to the propaganda of the Black Legend. In spite of being actively promoted by members from every side of the political spectrum, these efforts are often seen outside Spain as being associated with nationalist politics or with dictatorial regimes, such as that of Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
.
See also
- Historical revisionismHistorical revisionismIn historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
- Alhambra DecreeAlhambra decreeThe Alhambra Decree was an edict issued on 31 March 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdom of Spain and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.The edict was formally revoked on 16 December 1968, following the Second...
- Anti-CatholicismAnti-CatholicismAnti-Catholicism is a generic term for discrimination, hostility or prejudice directed against Catholicism, and especially against the Catholic Church, its clergy or its adherents...
- Colonial mentalityColonial mentalityColonial mentality is an area of study and a conceptual theory in Cultural anthropology that refers to institutionalized or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or people who have been subjected to colonialism, relative to the values of the foreign powers which had previously...
- EncomiendaEncomiendaThe encomienda was a system that was employed mainly by the Spanish crown during the colonization of the Americas to regulate Native American labor....
- Hispanic culture in the PhilippinesHispanic culture in the PhilippinesHispanic influence on Filipino culture are customs and traditions of the Philippines which originated from three centuries of Spanish colonization. Filipinos today speak a variety of different languages; the most common being Ilocano, Tagalog, Cebuano, English and Spanish...
- History of the west coast of North AmericaHistory of the west coast of North AmericaThe human history of the west coast of North America is believed to stretch back to the arrival of the earliest people over the Bering Strait, or alternately along a now-submerged coastal plain, through the development of significant pre-Columbian cultures and population densities, to the arrival...
- New LawsNew LawsThe New Laws, in Spanish Leyes Nuevas, issued November 20, 1542 by King Charles V of Spain regarding the Spanish colonization of the Americas, are also known as the "New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians", and were created to prevent the exploitation of the...
- Population history of American indigenous peoplesPopulation history of American indigenous peoplesThe population figures for Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus have proven difficult to establish and rely on archaeological data and written records from European settlers...
- Propaganda of the Spanish–American WarPropaganda of the Spanish–American WarThe Spanish-American War is considered to be both a turning point in the history of propaganda and the beginning of the practice of yellow journalism....
- Spanish colonization of the AmericasSpanish colonization of the AmericasColonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...
- Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire
- Spanish conquest of the Inca EmpireSpanish conquest of the Inca EmpireThe Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. This historic process of military conquest was made by Spanish conquistadores and their native allies....
- Spanish conquest of YucatánSpanish conquest of YucatánThe Spanish conquest of Yucatán was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish conquistadores against the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities, particularly in the northern and central Yucatán Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region...
- Spanish-American relationsSpanish-American relationsSpain – United States relations refers to interstate relations between the Kingdom of Spain and the United States. Its groundwork was laid by the colonization of parts of the Americas by Spain. The first settlement in Florida was Spanish, followed by others in New Mexico, California, Arizona,...
- Valladolid debateValladolid debateThe Valladolid debate concerned the treatment of natives of the New World. Held in the Colegio de San Gregorio, in the Spanish city of Valladolid, it opposed two main attitudes towards the conquests of the Americas...