Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires
Margaret R. Greer, Walter D. Mignolo, and Maureen Quilligan
Abstract
The phrase “The Black Legend” was coined in 1912 by a Spanish journalist in protest of the characterization of Spain by other Europeans as a backward country defined by ignorance, superstition, and religious fanaticism, whose history could never recover from the black mark of its violent conquest of the Americas. Challenging this stereotype, this book contextualizes Spain's uniquely tarnished reputation by exposing the colonial efforts of other nations whose interests were served by propagating the “Black Legend.” A group of contributors here examine early modern imperialisms including the Ott ... More
The phrase “The Black Legend” was coined in 1912 by a Spanish journalist in protest of the characterization of Spain by other Europeans as a backward country defined by ignorance, superstition, and religious fanaticism, whose history could never recover from the black mark of its violent conquest of the Americas. Challenging this stereotype, this book contextualizes Spain's uniquely tarnished reputation by exposing the colonial efforts of other nations whose interests were served by propagating the “Black Legend.” A group of contributors here examine early modern imperialisms including the Ottomans in Eastern Europe, the Portuguese in East India, and the cases of Mughal India and China, to historicize the charge of unique Spanish brutality in encounters with indigenous peoples during the Age of Exploration.
Keywords:
Black Legend,
ignorance,
superstition,
religious fanaticism,
early modern imperialisms,
Ottomans,
Mughal India,
Age of Exploration,
backward country,
conquest
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2008 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226307213 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: March 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226307244.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Margaret R. Greer, editor
Walter D. Mignolo, editor
Maureen Quilligan, editor
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