stormtriada.blogg.se - Spanish black legend

Spain's war with the United Provinces and in particular the victories of the Duke of Alba contributed to the anti-Spanish propaganda. 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. 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. 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 wrongdoings that accompanied the colonization of New Spain, and especially the island of Hispaniola (now home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti). As early as 1511, some Spaniards criticized the legitimacy of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The origin of the Black Legend can also be traced to self-critical texts from within Spain itself. Main article: Spanish colonization of the Americas

Maltby further argues that there is no connection between the Italian criticisms of Spain and the later form of the black legend in the Netherlands and England Elements 16th century The Conquest of the Americas

In the 15th and 16th centuries, many Italians deeply admired Spain.

The phrase "black legend" suggests a certain "tradition," which did not exist in Italian writings based primarily on a reaction to the recent presence of Spanish troops.

It is a normal reaction in any society dominated by a foreign power.

Just because the earliest writings against Spaniards were written in Italy, that is not sufficient reason to describe Italy as the origin of the black legend.

In general, they raise the following objections: Arnoldsson cites studies by Benedetto Croce and Arturo Farinelli to affirm that Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries was extremely hostile to Spain.Īrnoldsson's theories have been disputed by numerous historians. A Study of its Origins, locates the origins of the black legend in medieval Italy, unlike previous authors who locate it in the 16th Century. The historian Sverker Arnoldsson from the University of Gothenburg, in his book The Black Legend. Alfredo Alvar, La Leyenda Negra (1997:5) Origins In turn, some critics have branded this revisionist narrative as a White Legend, grossly distorted so as to erase all blemishes from Spain's historical legacy. According to one historian, this propaganda unfairly depicts Spain or the Spanish Empire as "cruel, bigoted, exploitative and self-righteous in excess of reality." The term was coined by Julián Juderías in his 1914 book La leyenda negra y la verdad histórica ("The Black Legend and Historical Truth").Īdvocates of the term belong to a pro-Spanish historiographical school that has emerged in Spain and to some extent in the Americas. ) is a phrase used to describe the anti-Spanish historical propaganda created by mostly Protestant or Italian writers starting in the 16th century, thought to counter Spain's increasing influence and power on the world stage.

The Black Legend (Spanish language: La leyenda negra De Bry's works are characteristic of the anti-Spanish propaganda that originated as a result of the Eighty Years' War. For other uses, see Black Legend (disambiguation).Ī 1598 engraving by Theodor de Bry depicting a Spaniard feeding Indian children to his dogs.