It has been suggested that
Black Legend (Spain) be
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Discuss) Proposed since March 2024. |
A black legend is a historiographical phenomenon in which a sustained trend in historical writing of biased reporting and introduction of fabricated, exaggerated and/or decontextualized facts is directed against particular persons, nations or institutions with the intention of creating a distorted and uniquely inhuman image of them while hiding their positive contributions to history. The term was first used by French writer Arthur Lévy in his 1893 work Napoléon Intime, in contrast to the expression " Golden Legend" that had been in circulation around Europe since the publication of a book of that name during the Middle Ages.[ citation needed]
Black legends have been perpetrated against many nations and cultures, usually as a result of propaganda and xenophobia. For example, the " Spanish Black Legend" (Spanish: La leyenda negra española) is the theory that anti-Spanish political propaganda, whether about Spain, the Spanish Empire or Hispanic America, was sometimes "absorbed and converted into broadly held stereotypes" that assumed that Spain was "uniquely evil". [1]
The term was first used by Arthur Lévy in 1893:
However, if we study the life of the emperor properly, we will soon get rid of the legends, both the golden legend, and the legend that we may call the Napoleonic black legend. This is the truth: Napoleon was not a God, nor was he a monster
— Arthur Lévy, Napoleon Intime
Historian Manuel Fernández Álvarez defined a black legend as:
... cuidadosa distorsión de la historia de un pueblo, realizada por sus enemigos, para mejor combatirle. Y una distorsión lo más monstruosa posible, a fin de lograr el objetivo marcado: la descalificación moral de ese pueblo, cuya supremacía hay que combatir por todos los medios sine die.
... the careful distortion of the history of a nation, perpetrated by its enemies, in order to better fight it. And a distortion as monstrous as possible, with the goal of achieving a specific aim: the moral disqualification of the nation, whose supremacy must be fought in every way possible.
— as cited in Alfredo Alvar's book, La Leyenda Negra (1997:5)
According to historian Elvira Roca Barea, the formation of a black legend and its assimilation by the nation that suffers it is a phenomenon observed in all multicultural empires, not just in the Spanish Empire. The black legend of empires would be the result of the following combined factors: [2]
The said black legend tends to fade once the next great power is established or once enough time has gone by.
The defining feature of a black legend is that it has been fabricated and propagated intentionally. Black legends also tend to portray their subjects with the following elements: [2]
Narrations of black legends tend to include strong pathos, combined with a narrative that is easy to follow and emotionally loaded, created by:
Factors that would set the Spanish Black Legend apart from others might include its abnormal permeation and outreach across nations, its racialized component, and its abnormal persistence through time. The causes of this have been suggested as:
The hypothesis of a Spanish Black Legend assimilating anti-Hispanic propaganda from the 16th and 17th centuries has a high level of acceptance among specialists, but the extent of its reach and the data it affected, and what may have actually occurred instead, is still debated, especially regarding the Spanish colonization of the Americas, where few written sources have been proven reliable. Historians are now exploring genetic as well as new scientific and statistical investigative techniques. [5] [6]
There is also debate regarding whether the Spanish Black Legend is still in effect today. While some authors like Powell believe that the Black Legend continues to influence modern-day policies and international relationships,[ citation needed] other authors, like Henry Kamen, believe it has been left behind.[ citation needed] Some have attributed many of the problems between the Episcopal Church and the Latin community to the Black Legend. [7]
It has been suggested that
Black Legend (Spain) be
merged into this article. (
Discuss) Proposed since March 2024. |
A black legend is a historiographical phenomenon in which a sustained trend in historical writing of biased reporting and introduction of fabricated, exaggerated and/or decontextualized facts is directed against particular persons, nations or institutions with the intention of creating a distorted and uniquely inhuman image of them while hiding their positive contributions to history. The term was first used by French writer Arthur Lévy in his 1893 work Napoléon Intime, in contrast to the expression " Golden Legend" that had been in circulation around Europe since the publication of a book of that name during the Middle Ages.[ citation needed]
Black legends have been perpetrated against many nations and cultures, usually as a result of propaganda and xenophobia. For example, the " Spanish Black Legend" (Spanish: La leyenda negra española) is the theory that anti-Spanish political propaganda, whether about Spain, the Spanish Empire or Hispanic America, was sometimes "absorbed and converted into broadly held stereotypes" that assumed that Spain was "uniquely evil". [1]
The term was first used by Arthur Lévy in 1893:
However, if we study the life of the emperor properly, we will soon get rid of the legends, both the golden legend, and the legend that we may call the Napoleonic black legend. This is the truth: Napoleon was not a God, nor was he a monster
— Arthur Lévy, Napoleon Intime
Historian Manuel Fernández Álvarez defined a black legend as:
... cuidadosa distorsión de la historia de un pueblo, realizada por sus enemigos, para mejor combatirle. Y una distorsión lo más monstruosa posible, a fin de lograr el objetivo marcado: la descalificación moral de ese pueblo, cuya supremacía hay que combatir por todos los medios sine die.
... the careful distortion of the history of a nation, perpetrated by its enemies, in order to better fight it. And a distortion as monstrous as possible, with the goal of achieving a specific aim: the moral disqualification of the nation, whose supremacy must be fought in every way possible.
— as cited in Alfredo Alvar's book, La Leyenda Negra (1997:5)
According to historian Elvira Roca Barea, the formation of a black legend and its assimilation by the nation that suffers it is a phenomenon observed in all multicultural empires, not just in the Spanish Empire. The black legend of empires would be the result of the following combined factors: [2]
The said black legend tends to fade once the next great power is established or once enough time has gone by.
The defining feature of a black legend is that it has been fabricated and propagated intentionally. Black legends also tend to portray their subjects with the following elements: [2]
Narrations of black legends tend to include strong pathos, combined with a narrative that is easy to follow and emotionally loaded, created by:
Factors that would set the Spanish Black Legend apart from others might include its abnormal permeation and outreach across nations, its racialized component, and its abnormal persistence through time. The causes of this have been suggested as:
The hypothesis of a Spanish Black Legend assimilating anti-Hispanic propaganda from the 16th and 17th centuries has a high level of acceptance among specialists, but the extent of its reach and the data it affected, and what may have actually occurred instead, is still debated, especially regarding the Spanish colonization of the Americas, where few written sources have been proven reliable. Historians are now exploring genetic as well as new scientific and statistical investigative techniques. [5] [6]
There is also debate regarding whether the Spanish Black Legend is still in effect today. While some authors like Powell believe that the Black Legend continues to influence modern-day policies and international relationships,[ citation needed] other authors, like Henry Kamen, believe it has been left behind.[ citation needed] Some have attributed many of the problems between the Episcopal Church and the Latin community to the Black Legend. [7]