The Black Legend and White Legend: Relationship Between the Spanish and Indians in the New World

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The Black Legend and White Legend: Relationship Between the Spanish and Indians in the New World

The Spanish-Indian relationship can be defined in many

ways. One definition used is through the Black Legend and the

White Legend. The interpretation of the Black Legend can

depend on whom you are talking to. The Black Legend speaks of

the Spaniards abusing the Indians and being guilty of much

more misconduct than history has ever recorded. The White

Legend speaks of how the Spaniards benefitted the Indian

society by building communities, hospitals and spreading the

Word of God. There are two reasons why the Spaniards were so

intent on spreading the Gospel. The first is because Spain

wanted to ensure political and military means of safety and

independence of their own religious community and even more so

their predominance over others. The second was a deeper

desire to convert, which included appealing to the minds and

hearts of individual unbelievers by preaching, reasoning and

if needed by force (Plumb 152).

The conquest of the new world began with a small band of

Spanish soldiers. The soldiers proceeded to march against and

subdue the huge population of the mainland (Black 24). The

Black Legend speaks of all that the Spanish had done to the

Indians and the horrible things done to them and the land.

This Black Legend exists only in areas where the people are

"anti-Hispanic" especially where English is spoken, and in

modern Spanish America (24).

The White Legend is true only in reverse. The people who

claim to believe in this Legend hold to the belief that the

Spanish were a credit to society and help the Indians in their

everyday lives by providing livestock and new medici...

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... they had never intended to live. They were forced

to lose their families in the name of the Spanish crown and

the Spanish crown had only a vague knowledge of what was

really happening in the new world. Which one, whether Black

or White Legend, a person believes will have to depend on

their own personal view of the truth.

Bibliography

Gibson, Charles. The Black Legend: Anti-Spanish Attitudes

in the Old World and the new. New York: Knopf 1971.

--------- Spain in America. New York: Harper 1966.

--------- Spanish Tradition in America. Ny: Harper 1968.

Haring, C.H. The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Oxford

1947.

Ludenfeld, Marvin. 1492 Discovery Invasion Encounter. Massachussets: 1991.

Plumb, J.H. The Spanish Seaborne Empire. New York: Knopf 1966.

Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Conquest of Paradise. New York: Plume

1990.

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