On distortions of history and the quasi 'black legend'

Abstract

The accounts of the history of the colonization of pre-Hispanic America divide historians. The expression 'black legend' emerges as a position taken by those who question the accounts that characterize the colonization process as a violent one. Thus, they argue that such accounts have configured a black legend discrediting the Spaniards, and affirm, in their defense, that the process was civilizing, of progress and development in the renowned America. The purpose of this paper is to contrast the position defending the whitewashing of the history of colonization, within the framework of two sets of arguments, that is, those who defend the colonizing process as one with civilizing purposes, and those who consider the occurrence of a systematically violent process, even more so when in recent years, the European defense of the invasion and colonization process seems to have intensified. It concludes by affirming that the arguments of the motion in defense of the colonizing process are not sufficient to consider the existence of a black legend, warning that there is an attempt to distort history.