Black Legend

The Black Legend (Spanish:La Leyenda Negra) is a style of nonobjective historical writing or propaganda that demonizes the Spanish Empire, its people and its culture in an intentional attempt to damage its reputation. The Black Legend propaganda originated in the 16th century, a time of strong rivalry between European colonial powers. The first to describe and denounce this phenomenon was Julián Juderías in his book The Black Legend and the Historical Truth (Spanish: La Leyenda Negra y la Verdad Histórica), a critique published in 1914 that explains how this type of biased historiography has presented Spanish history in a deeply negative light, purposely ignoring positive achievements or advances. For this anti-Spanish literature, Juderías coined the term black legend. Later writers have supported and developed Juderías' critique. In 1958, Charles Gibson explained that Spain and the Spanish Empire were historically presented as "cruel, bigoted, exploitative and self-righteous in excess of reality."