The Spanish Conquest In The 1600's

The ‘Black Legend’ of the Spanish conquest in the America’s stems from the backlash against the Spanish in the late 1500’s early 1600’s. Following the disaster of the Spanish Armada crushing Spain as a maritime power and the alliance of Portugal with England, it was convenient to use the reputation of cruelty and ruthlessness to motivate people to fight against them and to justify colonization methods. While the vilification of Spain as an entity in Europe has existed for centuries, with the Spanish Inquisition as a particular case, the vilification of Spain with the ‘Black Legend’ is one of the most enduring caricatures of the American conquest. While the English and French interactions with the native peoples of America in many ways had a more enduring and far reaching effect than the Spanish, because the initial contact in the America’s were made by
When reading accounts of the Spanish and English interactions with native peoples one of the most noticeable things is the portrayal of the natives as either simple people deserving of compassion, education and later, exploitation or cunning savages who hh. Bartolome de las Casas, Thomas Harriot and William Bradford in many ways exemplify the former portrayal. Casas and Bradford in particular seem to approach discussing the natives in a way that pities their death from disease. While Casas mentions the deaths in passing stating that ‘they very easily die of whatsoever infirmity’ , Bradford details the mass death of tribes where there are not enough left to bury the dead. Casas also states that ‘our Spaniards…with their cruelty…depopulated and made desolate’ noting that many island populations had been