A Journal for Western Man-- Issue VIII
G. Stolyarov II
Granted, Spanish rule was not a utopia and particular vigilante settlers did commit intolerable crimes in the New World. Nevertheless, much of the misinformation we are exposed to in the histories of today concerning the �atrocities of Spanish colonization� had been repackaged, misconstrued, and stained by Spain�s political enemies. William of Orange, a Dutch Protestant seeking to instigate a schism with the Hapsburg empire and carve himself a piece of it under religious motives alluded to Spanish �barbarism and cruelties� as far back as 1580, politicizing history to ignite a revolution which would not have possessed the fuel to linger prior to his rantings. Theodore DeBry, a Dutch printer who had never set foot in the New World, depicted horrifying scenes of mass butchery and execution of Native Americans by the Spanish, all out of his own imagination! DeBry is used even today as a source for such modern historians as James Loewen, seeking to pollute the image of the colonization of the Americas to bring about a multiculturalist, racial appeasement interpretation of history. The English government, led by first a Protestant monarch, Henry VIII, who yearned to justify war with the Hapsburgs on the irrational grounds of religious disagreement, then by a totalitarian usurper, Lord-Protector Oliver Cromwell, eagerly embraced any defamations which would assist them in blackening the image of �the enemy�. And their motives were not any humanitarian yearning nor a principle of Just War (the Augustinian doctrine to which the Spanish had adhered in the New World). Cromwell�s own words reveal the truth of the matter. He called Spain the �enemy abroad, who is head of� that anti-Christian interest, that is so described in Scripture� and upon this account you have a quarrel with the Spaniard. And truly he hath an interest in your bowels.� Such accusations of irreconcilable antagonism were leveled at the Spanish for what reason? Why, none other that they in their majority followed a divergent scheme of religious worship than the Protestants! And today, in an era of religious freedom and toleration, the majority of us nevertheless succumb to la leyenda negra, the pre-Enlightenment propaganda employed by the sixteenth and seventeenth-century counterparts of militant jihad.
Western culture itself during the sixteenth century had not possessed a majority of the splendid technological and philosophical discoveries that have distinguished it from stagnating societies throughout history. Nevertheless, colonization, a moral reformation for the Natives, and the expansion of global commerce and progress, was pivotal in contributing to such a dramatic surge in prosperity, innovation, resource management, and ethical understanding which resulted in the Enlightenment and the Gilded Age, two eras during which the advance of mankind had outpaced all the other time periods combined. The Spanish, as the forerunners or such a transition, should be admired and praised, not vilified, for their pioneering accomplishments.
Sources:
Ahmad, Brodsky, et al. World Cultures: A Global Mosaic. Prentice Hall. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1996. pp. 443-459.
Cerio, Gregory. Newsweek Magazine. �Were the Spaniards That Cruel?�
Loewen, James. The Truth about Columbus. New York: The New Press, 1992. �1493: The True Importance of Christopher Columbus.�
Meyer, Alfred. Science. November 1980. �Temple of the Aztecs.�
Modern History Sourcebook. �The New Laws of the Indies, 1542.� Available October 27, 2002: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1542newlawsindies.html.
Our Lady of the Rosary Library. �Our Lady of Guadalupe.� Available October 27, 2002: http://olrl.org/prophecy/ladyofg.html.
Peart, Karen N. �Empire of the Sun.�
Sepulveda, Juan Gines de. �Democrates II, or Concerning the Just Causes of the War Against the Indians.�
Williams, Scott. 2002. �The Columbian Exchange.�
G. Stolyarov II is a science fiction novelist, independent philosophical essayist, poet, contributor to Enter Stage Right Internet Magazine, and Editor-in-Chief of The Rational Argumentator. He is also a writer for Objective Medicine, a philosophical forum for advocating the right of physicians to freely practice their trade, at http://www.objectivemedicine.org. Mr. Stolyarov can be contacted at [email protected].