Black Legend

The Black Legend (Spanish: La leyenda negra) refers to a style of historical writing or propaganda that demonizes the Conquistadores and in particular the Spanish Empire in a politically motivated attempt to incite animosity against Spain. Anti-Spanish propaganda was started in the 16th century when Spain was at its height of political power, by propagandists from rival European powers, namely the Protestant countries of England and the Netherlands, as a means to morally disqualify the country and its people. The Black Legend particularly exaggerates the extent of the activities of the Inquisition, or the treatment of American indigenous subjects in the territories of the Spanish Empire, and non-Catholics 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"). A more pro-Spanish historiographical school emerged as a reaction, especially within Spain, but also in the Americas. The style which describes events of Spanish colonization in an exaggeratedly idealized manner has been referred to as the "White legend".

The early criticism of Spanish behaviour in the New World, contained in the writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, particularly his "Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias", was later eagerly reproduced by groups and nations who opposed the Spanish Empire such as the Protestant Walloons, the French Huguenots, and specially the rising 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 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 developing western stylecivilization 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 argued that the historians trying to correct for anti-Spanish bias in the description of Spanish colonialism went too far in the opposite direction andto the degree that they created a White Legend describing Spain's history in an exaggeratedly positive way. This "White legend" Hispanophile tradition of historiography has been associated with nationalistic politics of Spain and conservative historiography in Latin America, and with Francisco Franco's dictatorial 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 20th century, history writing turned to a more neutral depiction of the Spanish Empire, which acknowledges the positive and 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 the first empire to discuss and work towards the ethical treatment of its subjects and the rights of natives, though the objectives were not always put into practice.