

The Spanish black legend is a strawman for those who seek convenient examples to support certain political theses (.) The black legend replaces our contemporary history with a novel in the Ponson du Terrail style, with mines and countermines, which doesn't even deserve the honor of analysis. Yves Guyot, which we can consider as the perfect model of a black legend, the opposite of a golden legend. Origins of the concept of a Spanish Black Legend Īt an 18 April 1899 Paris conference, Emilia Pardo Bazán used the term "Black Legend" for the first time to refer to a general view of modern Spanish history:Ībroad, our miseries are known and often exaggerated without balance take as an example the book by M. Throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, scholars have offered divergent interpretations of the Black Legend and debated its usefulness as a historical concept. The use of the term leyenda negra to refer specifically to a biased, anti-Spanish depiction of history gained currency in the first two decades of the 20th century, and is most associated with Julián Juderías. "Golden" and "black legends" had been used by Spanish historians and intellectuals with the same meaning in reference to aspects of Spanish history Antonio Soler used both terms about the portrayal of Castilian and Aragonese monarchs.

The term "black legend" was first used by Arthur Lévy in reference to biographies of Napoleon, and he primarily used it in the context of two opposing legends, a "golden legend" and a "black legend": two extreme, simplistic, one-dimensional approaches to a character which portrayed him as a god or a demon. Historiography and definitions of the Spanish Black Legend

Its proponents claim that its roots date back to the 16th century, when it was originally a political and psychological weapon that was used by Spain's European rivals in order to demonize the Spanish Empire, its people and culture, minimize Spanish discoveries and achievements, and counter its influence and power in world affairs. The Black Legend ( Spanish: Leyenda negra) or Spanish Black Legend (Spanish: Leyenda negra española) is a theorised historiographical tendency consisting of anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda.
