The Spanish Main

And the Black Legend

Generally, based on the Spanish-led conquest of the New World: the totality of Spanish colonies, both island and mainland holdings

More specifically, and more commonly used: the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, enclosed by the mainland of the Americas (North, Central, South)

Point of departure for merchandise and silver shipped back to Spain

Spanish Main

Silver and mercury mining: do you remember Potosí and

Huancavelica?

Using the Inka tributary system, the Spanish Viceroy forced natives to deliver as a tribute a weekly quotas of men to the silver and mercury mines. At the start, it was roughly 4 000 a week each for Potosí and Huancavelica. Mineowners also imported several hundred African slaves each year. It is said that the mines killed 3-8 million people. Although an exaggeration, this gives an idea of the appalling conditions.

Official inspectors tried repeatedly to either close the mines or improve working conditions. Despite their urgings, the Crown turned a blind eye: the need for silver was too great.

Exploitation

Life in the mines

“Mercury poisoning was not the sole cause of death [at Huancavelica]. Equally lethal were pneumonia, tuberculosis, silicosis (lesions of the lungs caused by silica dust) and asphyxiation (breathing carbon dioxide in badly ventilated tunnels).

In 1640 a royal inspector saw three Indians fall into a pit so filled with carbon dioxide that candles couldn’t burn. Although the pit wasn’t deep, the workers did not get up. Their bodies were not retrieved; descending into the pit was too dangerous. “ (Mann 182)

PS. The first ventilation shafts were created 80 years after the first of numerous recommendations by inspectors

Chronicler of the first decades of colonization of the New World Focus on the atrocities against the indigenous people Author of:

A Short Account of the Destruction of the West Indies (Breve historia de la destrucción de las Indias)

History of the Indies (Historia de las Indias) An advocate for Indian rights, he proposed the use of African

slaves; may have become partly responsible for the transatlantic slave trade

His views evolved to a condemnations of slavery of any kind His accounts were passionate, and numbers have been

exaggerated or even invented; excessively abusive practices were a reality, however

Translation to English of his accounts (additionally embellished) were used as justification for anti-Spanish action, and subsequent colonizing enterprises

Fray Bartolomé de las Casas1484-1566

The term indicates an unfavorable image of the Spanish viewed as cruel,

violent and intolerant

This image was constructed primarily by Protestant historians criticizing 16th-century Spain and the anti-Protestant policies of Philip II

The term “black legend” was made popular in the early XX century by Spanish historian Julián Juderías in his book La Leyenda Negra. The concept and practices predate the term.

Translations of Bartolomé de las Casas contributed hugely to the arguments in favor of casting the Spanish in a negative role.

The Black Legend played an important role in US history: it was kept alive during the Mexican War of 1846, and resurfaced, reaching its peak, during the Spanish-American War of 1898 with a publication of a new edition of The Destruction of The West Indies

Black Legend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9WU9TGrec

ADDITIONALLY (and on a more serious tone): the Library of Congress virtual exhibit on the Cultures and History of the Americas: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/kislak/kislak-exhibit.html#

Columbus’ first voyage Drakes voyage in early maps Exquemelin’s first edition

Crash Course and More

The last Catholic king of England, James II, has

been overthrown The Glorious Revolution (William and Mary) has

taken place The Nine Year’s War (King William’s War, 1688-97)

against the French has started Jamaica is now English domain, set to become

prosperous based on sugar and slavery The Spanish Main becomes less Spanish

England by 1688

Legacies

Politics Protestant, anti-

Catholic, Parlamentarian

Trade The rising empire

and its triangle of wealth

In Case of Any

Doubt…