Black Legend

The black legend was the name given to the concept of cruelty and brutality spread by the Spanish during the 14th and 15th century. It can be said to be an anti-Spanish movement, which was started due to political and religious torment done by the Spanish on the people. It was the dominance and control of the Spanish over Europe that lead to the black legend of the Spanish. It was through this particular propaganda that the people were able to understand how various European countries had fallen prey to Spanish cruelty and misconduct. They were being religiously and politically divided just because of the supreme power that the Spanish held at the time. They wanted to stand tall as a nation and wanted to develop and advance together. They were not willing to lose their heritage, cultural values and spiritual beliefs to the hands of the Spanish cruelty and nastiness.

The Spanish wanted to by any means spread Christianity all through out. No Muslim or Jew was allowed to practice his or her religion. Even men and women ware to forcefully be baptized and convert into a Catholic. “Moors and Jews were forced to convert or immigrate. In fact, in the very year of the surrender of Granada, Isabel expelled tens of thousands of people from Spain because they refused to renounce the Jewish faith. And Moors and Jews who did convert remained subject to discrimination as “New Christians” (Chasteen 33)” The black legend represents a time of horror for the English, when the Jews and Muslim were tortured by the Spanish. It reflects on the political, emotional and religious unfairness that Europe had to go through.

The Spanish did not pass on any opportunity of terrorizing and petrifying the Jews and Muslims living in Europe at the time. If any one was to be caught practicing their own religion after being baptized, then that person was highly beleaguered and tormented before being murdered in the Dominican Friars dungeons. There was racial inequality and religious discrimination all over Europe.

Soon after taking over Europe, they also managed to invade the Northern, Southern and Central parts of America where the Spanish promoted slavery. They enforced Christianity on every one and by taking over the parts of America they were able to spread their wings even more and force them into a staunch Catholic. Who so ever denied giving into their cruel ways was instantly put away and in 1492 all Jews and Muslims who refused to abide by the Spanish supremacy were driven out of Europe. This clearly shows the bigoted and prejudiced nature of the Spanish.

The black legend clearly explains the facts and the concepts behind the conquest of Americas. The Spanish colonization had a deep impact on the people of Americas and it is through the black legend that people now know of the cruelty and torture that the Spanish continuously did on the people and how they unrightfully gave way to slavery. As Bartolome de Las Casas said, in Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies, “And Spaniards have behaved in no other way during tla! Past forty years, down to the present time, for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of beforeвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ They wanted all other religions to banish from the face of earth and only Christianity to be properly followed by people.

The black legend points to all the black days that the Americans and European nations had to suffer because of the vicious influence of the Spanish and Spaniards. It can be said that the black legend gives a clear picture of the conquest of Americas. It is because