On this discussion board, as happens now and then in the English language, there are undocumented accusations directed at the history of Spain. So, here is an undocumented response:

Never; in the lands that were colonies of Spain has there been mass famine. Haiti is an exception to this, but Haiti was Spanish a long time ago and it has been under other influences since then.

For those that like documentation, there is the discussion of the Black Myth in the last chapter of the book by Stewart Udall, TO THE INLAND EMPIRE. Another interesting book on this subject is, CORTES AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE AZTEC EMPIRE, by John Manchip White.
Adios mis amigos.

Thank you for the book recommendation.

I agree, the "black myth" was born, mainly, as political propaganda. England was interested in causing the decline of spanish empire. For that reason, the english empire favoured the independence rebellions in America's spanish domains, and the "black myth" propaganda was a strong weapon, that, even today, is teached in most latin-american schools.

Unfortunately, a lot of the "propoganda" was fuelled by a Spaniard.

"The Atrocities committed by the Spanish conquistadors were popularized by many writers but the most popular was Bartholome de Las Casas. His writings are the intellectual foundation of the body of Spanish sentiments and prejudices known as the Black Legend, La leyenda Negra.

He depicted the cruelties of the Spanish but the legend it self is the child of the general context of anti-Spanish sentiments which prevailed in Europe in the 16th century A.D.
Bartholomé de Las Casas worked for 50 years to improve the condition of the Indians. In 1552 he wrote a book called " A brief account of the destruction of the Indies". The Book contained some very graphic description of the cruelties of the Spanish against the Indians. He talk about the hanging of Indians in groups of 13 to honor Christ and the 12 apostles. He talked about the Spaniards taking babies by their feet and slamming their head against rocks to kill them. The European enemies of Spain took advantage of Las Casas publication. During the next hundred years 42 editions of the Las Casas Book appeared in Holland, England, France and Germany."

Atrocities are still atrocities...leyenda negra or not...Spanish, English, or French.

"Atrocities are still atrocities...leyenda negra or not...Spanish, English, or French."

Indeed they are! But I had not heard the Spanish or French mentioned earlier, just the English were getting the blame for it all. All three were guilty, including the Spanish, who seemed to have been overlooked in previous posts.

I agree with the above...a lot of people on here like to have a go at the UK....concerning the so called Leyenda Negra...just how did the English go about propogating this myth...via ye Olde Worlde BBC??

The following quotations are from TO THE INLAND EMPIRE by Stewart L. Udall.

"For readers of English, it was a single , remarkable man, the Reverend Richard Hakluyt, who launched a propaganda campaign that distorted Spain's great age of discovery and denigrated the character of her people." pg.195

"...once Hakluyt perceived that Europe was at a turning point he made an all-out campaign
for English adventurism: he beat the drums for planting colonies in Virginia, for expanding the British Navy, and for rolling back Spanish power.
A visionary who saw the potential of the New World, as Europe's most successful political propagandist, Hakluyt conceived a program of action that became the agenda of the English crown." pg. 196.

"It was undeniable, for example, that by 1580 Spain and Portugal had already completed great
epochs of exploration and dominated the world's seaborne commerce. And it was equally undeniable that England had been inactive during the glory days of the first half of the sixteenth century.
But a resourceful propagandist is not deterred by disagreeable facts.With anti-Spanish sentiment at a fever pitch in Queen Elizabeth's court, Hakluyt realized he was free to manipulate facts - and tilt history - as he pleased." "...Hakluyt had a deft touch. He altered the outlines of sixteenth-century history by muddling events, dates, and the deeds of individual nations." pg. 197.

to be continued.

More quotations from TO THE INLAND EMPIRE by
Stewart L. Udall.

"For example most English writers have depicted Francis Drake as a contemporary of the Spanish mariners Magellan and Cabrillo, who were dead before he was born." pg. 197.

"Only once since the invention of the printing press has a successful campaign of defamation lasting centuries been waged against an entire people. That nation is Spain , and that campaign of calumny - known to modern historians as the "hispanophobic Black Legend" - made Spaniards pariahs and demeaned the character of the Spanish people." "...Rooted in accusations that Spaniards were uniquely cruel and stained with depravity, the prejudices spawned by this legend permeated Anglo-Saxon literature, politics, and the writing of history for four centuries." pg. 204.

"Anglo-Dutch pamphleteering demeaned Spanish culture and aroused hatred that encouraged patriotism and raised morale in these two nations. This innovative "paper war" developed a reach no one envisioned: the loathing it generated swept like a giant Gulf Stream across human consciousness for centuries and made Spain an outcast nation." pg. 205

"Today anyone who studies the writings of Las Casas that were used to demean Spain's character comes away in confusion, for the moral grandeur of his petition for Indian justice clashes with the obvious exaggerations he used to indict his countrymen for atrocities they did not commit.Yet it is clear that Las Casas engaged in demagogery in an effort to win what should have been a brotherly argument with his fellow bishops. And
it is also clear that foreigners later picked up words and threw them back at Spain with telling effect." pg, 207.

"It is ironic that, after his death, words written in anger by one of Spain's greatest bishops, Bartolome de Las Casas, were the main ammunition used by the propagandists to demonstrate that Spaniards were inherently inhumane. Yet this same bishop tolled a bell for humanity that still echoes in this hemisphere when he presented his arguments about Indian liberty to his king." pg. 206.

"In what region did Europeans make - and keep - agreements that defined the land rights of Indian tribes?".
"In which parts of this country were "Indian wars" organized to drive out-or exterminate-Indians?". pg. 209.

"And finally, which Europeans evolved a live-and-let-live policy that allowed Indian and Christian religions to exist side by side?". pg. 210.

Via con Dios, Grulla.

"agree with the above...a lot of people on here like to have a go at the UK....concerning the so called Leyenda Negra...just how did the English go about propogating this myth...via ye Olde Worlde BBC?? " Bricamb, people were capable of spreading propaganda through writing, communication etc. this existed back then as far as im concerned I really don't understand why Spaniards are proposed as being so harss on Indians not that they werent but werent some other European more harsh on them.

Grulla, if I wanted to I could go now and get a book of the shelf and quote verbatim from it, as you have done, which would say exactly the opposite to what you've put down but I won't because it wouldn't even begin to approach the real truth of the situation or acknowledge how complicated the process of the Spanish conquest was or its consequences. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries very few people regarded los indigenas as equal human beings so I would not be surprised that more voices were not raised against the treatment they received either in England or Spain or any other European country. People just didn't care and the English I'm sure could be equally uncaring uncaring about the fate of the natives of the lands they appropriated. And OK so England has slagged off Spain in the past but hey, I'm sure you can find many instances in Spain of people attacking the UK because of its expansionist policies which led to the British empire. We were great rivals after all and we all wanted to take as much as possible from the New World.