The Black Legend: Spain in the New World (HIST 431)
In popular history, the Spanish colonization of the Americas proved exceptionally gruesome and barbaric. In this mindset, blame for the atrocities against Native Americans (and in a similar vein, the establishment of the Atlantic slave trade) fall squarely on the Spanish Empire. Comparatively, other European colonial efforts do not seem that horrible. Or at least, they are not to the same scale as the Spanish.
However, this look at history simplifies a broader analysis of European presence in the Americas. Similar to my discussion last week, historical generalizations create an incomplete narrative of history, as groups of people do not share the same motivations and identities.
I do not dispute the cruelty displayed under Spanish rule. Rather, Spanish colonial North America represented a broader, cruel system of European colonialism in the Early Modern Period. Spanish interactions with Native American groups therefore must be assessed both in context of colonial Spanish and European history. In understanding the relationships established between Spanish and Native American groups, historians are able to evaluate where Spanish colonial rule fits in the context of European brutality against Native Americans.
The historic roots of this “Black Legend” (La leyenda negra) emerged in the 1550s with Bartolomé de las Casas’ criticisms of Spanish practices towards Native Americans. Though heavily censored under Spanish rule, Las Casas’ works eventually circulated amongst French, English, and Dutch publishers, exasperating anti-Spanish sentiment.¹ To traditional historians, the Black Legend reinforced Spanish stereotypes and downplayed the negative impact of other European colonization. Since the twentieth century however, historians — such as Benjamin Keen — see traditional study into the Black Legend as “revisionist scholarship,” excusing Spanish treatment of Native Americans.²
Given the potential drawbacks of both theories, it becomes necessary to evaluate the Spanish colonial impact on Native Americans. Beginning with Columbus’ arrival in modern-day Haiti, early relationships between the Spanish and Native Americans reflected the needs of the fledgling Spanish colonists. Other than the eventually abandoned settlement at Isabela, most port cities in the Caribbean were founded near Native American settlements.³ The closeness of Spanish ports and Native Americans indicates a degree of trade and co-dependence, particularly as the Spanish faced an unknown and hazardous territory. Even within Spanish ports, the ethnic makeup reflected a “cosmopolitan mix of people and cultures,” comprised of African Americans, white Europeans, Native Americans, and other mixed-race people.⁴ Yet, the brutality of Spanish settlement — even among these Caribbean islands — cannot be underscored. The introduction of disease and brutal enslavement of Native Americans become hallmarks of a burgeoning Black Legend.
This relationship evolved as the Spanish pressed deeper into the mainland, particularly in modern-day Mexico and Peru. The narrative of colonial conquest in these areas typically embodies the spirit of the Black Legend: a technologically superior Spanish force brutally squashes a much larger force of Native Americans. Yet, this narrative fails to address other historical participants, namely the allied force of Native Americans that joined Cortés’ invasion of Mexico. While the Spanish did brutally impose their rule in what would become Mexico, its conquest was not the result of Spanish force alone. Again, I’ll admit that I walk a fine line between defending and rejecting the Black Legend.
Following conquest, the imposition of Spanish rule represented another foundation of the Black Legend, particularly as a war against Native culture. Spearheading this conflict, the administration of justice in the New World differentiated procedures based on a racial classification, with specific rules intended for Native Americans. Native Americans often fell into the realm of ecclesiastic law, with the monasteries handling affairs of justice. In appropriating Native American values of punishment, the Church punished the Nahua Indians of Central Mexico through public humiliation by means of head shaving.⁵ This method of punishment expresses Spanish efforts to subdue Native American resistance, in utilizing Native American culture against them.
Similarly, threats against Native culture — for example labeling traditional Mayan cartography as “threatening to [Catholic] evangelical program” — embodied a denial of Native legitimacy.⁶ The attack on Native values — specifically through Catholic zeal — becomes characteristic of the popular image of Spanish conquest. The association between Spain and fervent Catholicism reflects the Black Legend’s image of the colonial period. While French colonial efforts also had a conversion emphasis, the distinction finds itself in the structure of the missions. The labor relations between Spanish missionaries and Native Americans differentiate Spain from other European powers. In this sense, the extent of religious fervor in the New World — while not emblematic of all of Spanish endeavors — follows social understanding of colonialism.
On a personal level, my research into the Black Legend demonstrated the need to identify and qualify public historic understanding. I felt the need to examine the potential problems with both “revisionist” and modern interpretations of the Black Legend. In combining both narratives, I gained a greater understanding of how Spanish colonialism was unique, yet distinctly European.
- Kathryn Rummell, “Defoe and the Black Legend: The Spanish Stereotype in ‘A New Voyage round the World,’” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 52, №2 (1998): 16.
- Benjamin Keen, “The Black Legend Revisited: Assumptions and Realities,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 49, №4 (1969): 708. Keen in particular sees traditional study into the Black Legend as an excuse for Spanish brutality in the Americas, specifically calling out apologist historians who dismiss claims of Spanish cruelty as “exaggerated.”
- Ida Altman, “Key to the Indies: Port Towns in the Spanish Caribbean: 1493–1550,” The Americas 74, №1 (2017): 6.
- Altman, 15.
- Osvaldo F. Pardo, “How to Punish Indians: Law and Cultural Change in Early Colonial Mexico,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 48, №1 (2006): 86. While Pardo questions the effectiveness among the Nahua, the use of Nahua cultural values in Spanish punishment demonstrates the extent the Spanish delved into Native American culture to establish control. The punishment’s use in cases of idolatry represents the dominance held by European powers, i.e. Spain and the Catholic Church.
- Amara L. Solari, “Circles of Creation: The Invention of Maya Cartography in Early Colonial Yucatán,” The Art Bulletin 92, №3 (2010): 158.