This is a very informative article you have posted but it is certainly not objective. While it may adequately and accurately portray the sentiments of the Spanish court, that has little to do with the actual practices in the New World and Spain’s colonies. They were not called “conquistadors” for nothing and some were extremely cruel and brutal. I have a great deal of admiration for Isabella, but lets not forget the Inquisition lasted another 300 years after Columbus.
While the English were certainly no better in their regard for the Indians, they were radically different in their regard for the colonists. The monarchical and clerical absolutism that ruled the Spanish and Portuguese colonies was strongly resisted by the English colonies. With the exception of Chile and Costa Rica, not much of South or Central America can claim they have broken the bonds of that absolutist mentality.
In South and Central America, the Catholic Church remains largely sympathetic to socialism and communism and rejects the political and economic liberty that made the US and Canada prosperous. If there is a crime in prosperity it is that America’s dependent class has no idea how much better they live than most of the world. In the long run, everyone within the borders of the North American giants benefited and there is absolutely no doubt they enjoyed a higher standard of living than those south of the border. This is all threatened by the embrace of the socialist and elitist ideology the rules South America and most of Europe.
For all the good the article you posted cites, it fails to explain the dismal condition of the South American continent, especially in view of the knowledge that has been gained from the North American experience. If Spain was such a great and beneficent ruler, why are the majority of her former colonies economic basket cases and borderline banana republics?
The facts are the facts, and those related to the article are based on unbiased studies from sources that include very prestigious scholars. When you compare the success of the United States with the failures of the Ibero American republics, there is no doubt that the United States’ Founding Fathers are the main reason for the difference in the end results. Departing from a meager colonial heritage, the uniqueness of the American Revolution gave birth to American exceptionalism, an experiment so successful that it has no parallel in human history. On the other hand, the new Ibero American republics fall in the hands of corrupt politicians that dilapidated their rich colonial heritage. The irony is that the most advanced economic theories that brought unparallel prosperity to the world, and was spearheaded in the XX century by the Austrian School of Economics, and later by the Chicago School of Economy, have their base on the economic theories pursued by the Spanish Scholastics of the University of Salamanca in the XVI century.