The Black Legend Analysis

747 Words2 Pages

War, conquest or conflict is not AYSO Soccer which every player, including the feeble, weak ones is ensured playing time and an overweight out of breath man resembling a zebra ensures fair play. Justice is relative and conquests have had collateral damage since time began and will continue forward. It is important to bring awareness to this subject and encourage informed opinions about The Black Legend. The discussion is inevitable about imperialism and whether countries should battle fairly and humanely. Rape, pillage and burn is what some perceive the motto of the Conquistadors to be, but others will contest that war is hell and certain parts of it are ugly. The Spanish conquered Latin America and there was collateral damage because of it, but such is war and The Black Legend is just that, a legend. The Black Legend has been well documented by Bartolome de las Casas, Voltaire, among others and …show more content…

There were isolated incidents of atrocities as in any conflict, but the Spanish brought technology and industrialization to the New World. Julian Juderias defines the Black Legend by “the atmosphere created by the fantastic tales about our country that have seen the light, in almost all countries” (Juderias, 2007, p. Introduction). Spain was not the only country to burn a witch as France was known to also practice this. Germans persecuted people in the name of religion and Paris burned books of Luther and Mariana. Spain was not any more intolerant and fanatical than the rest of Europe. Spain did not kill its own peoples in wars of religion. Enlightenment was happening faster in Latin America and only negative things were being documented. Fast forward a few hundred years and the United States of America unleashes two devastating atomic bombs on Japan killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people, but it was to “save

Open Document