[Hermann the Cherusker]

Out of curiosity, what was the Spanish black legend? Don't remember anyone talking about that.

What you are spouting is the Spanish black legend - wicked evil Spain destroys the whole world, kills all the Jews with her Inquisition, tries to take over England but is punished by God, etc.

[redgolum]

Uh... I never said Spain was wicked. In fact, in Old Mexico and other areas that were more stable the Spanish colonial rule was fairly enlightened, especially compared to other European powers at the time. Most of the abuses happened in what is now New Mexico, Texas, California, and Arizona. At that time, these were frontier areas. The people attracted to those areas generally fell into one of two categories. The first were the wandering missionaries of the Franciscan order that came to convert the native populations. The second was the adventurer type that were only looking for gold, slaves, and glory. How does this compare to the US conquest of the plains? Well, it took the US more troops and a longer time.

One thing I did notice is that while most of the Indians I ran into in the South West had no use for the Spanish (Hispanics) they were very thankful for the priest that came to them. In fact, shortly after the Revolt of 1680, many tribes secretly asked for priest to come back to them.

Does this make the Spanish empire evil? No more than any other empire. It only states that the governors of areas such as the Kingdom of New Mexico were corrupt. The Spanish crown often tried to rectify the situation, but did not have the troops or time to do that.