The Truth About Spanish Colonialization in the Americas

Special Message to Spanish and American Readers

The Truth About Spanish Colonialization in the Americas

Every so often, someone throws out the lazy accusation: “Spanish colonization was brutal.” It’s repeated like gospel in classrooms, Netflix documentaries, and X (Twitter) threads. But is it true - or is it another modern myth born from selective outrage and anti-European bias?

This isn’t just about history. It’s about truth, about defending Catholic civilization, and about refusing to let lies shame the faith that built the modern world.

The Myth vs. The Reality

The modern narrative is simple: Evil Europeans sailed across the ocean, destroyed idyllic native societies, and bathed in blood for gold. Sounds dramatic.

The reality? The world the Spanish encountered was already steeped in conquest, blood, and domination - long before Columbus ever set sail.

• Aztec Empire: Industrial-scale human sacrifice - up to 20,000 people annually[^1]. At the 1487 dedication of the Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli, around 80,000 captives were slaughtered in four days[^2], their hearts ripped out and bodies flung down temple steps.

• Ritual cannibalism: Victims’ flesh was consumed in ceremonial feasts[^3].

• Native slavery and oppression: Powerful tribes enslaved and annihilated weaker ones long before Europeans arrived[^4].

This was no paradise of peace and harmony. It was a world crying out for redemption.

Meanwhile, Spanish colonization - rooted in Catholic moral principles - introduced laws to protect natives. The Laws of Burgos (1512) were the first comprehensive code regulating the treatment of indigenous peoples in the Americas - nearly three centuries before the Enlightenment declared universal rights[^5].

Why Columbus Actually Sailed

(For a deeper dive into Columbus’ motives and why he matters for the West, read my previous post: Why Islam Does Not Belong In The West)

Forget the TikTok narrative of “white supremacy” or “European greed.” Columbus’ mission was profoundly Christian:

1. Find a route to Asia to bypass Ottoman-controlled trade routes.

2. Use wealth to finance a new crusade to reclaim Jerusalem.

3. Spread the Gospel to lands that had never heard the name of Christ.

Columbus himself wrote in his journal:

“Our Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies… I could spread the holy name of Jesus Christ and the Gospel throughout the world.”[^6]

This was not a mission of racial supremacy. It was a mission of faith.

Life Before & After: Which Would You Choose?

Ask yourself: Would you rather live in a world of ritual heart extractions - or in one with hospitals, literacy, and cathedrals?

Before the Spanish:

• Human sacrifice and cannibalism.

• Short life expectancy.

• Tribal warfare and slavery.

After the Spanish:

• Universities (the first in the Americas - Universidad Santo Tomás - founded in 1538, nearly a century before Harvard)[^7].

• Hospitals, cathedrals, roads, architecture, literature.

• A unified legal code inspired by Catholic teaching.

Was it perfect? No. But it is undeniable that Spanish colonization brought the light of Christ and the foundations of civilization.

Spain’s Ethical Revolution

Yes, there was greed. Yes, there were sins - because men are sinners. But unlike Islamic conquests (which enforced jizya, destroyed churches, and offered conversion or death), Catholic Spain did something unheard of: it tried to regulate colonization under Christian ethics.

• Pope Paul III issued Sublimis Deus in 1537, declaring:
  “The Indians are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property… nor should they in any way be enslaved.”[^8]

• Men like Bartolomé de las Casas fought abuses tirelessly, writing:
  “All mankind is one. The entire human race is one.”[^9]

• The Spanish Crown enacted reforms to curb exploitation - a radical move in the 16th century[^10].

Compare that to the Mongol conquests, African slave kingdoms, or Islamic invasions - which get a free pass in modern discourse because they don’t fit the narrative of evil white Europeans and non white victims.

The Black Legend: How the Lie Began

Where did the myth of “Spanish brutality” come from? It wasn’t written by the Aztecs. It was manufactured by Spain’s Protestant enemies.

The Black Legend (La Leyenda Negra) was born in the 16th century as English and Dutch propagandists demonized Catholic Spain. They exaggerated atrocities and ignored reforms to paint Spain as uniquely evil - all to justify their own imperial ambitions.

As historian Julián Juderías explained:

“The Black Legend consists of attributing to Spain all possible evils, exaggerating facts, spreading inventions, and hiding or silencing everything that is good.”[^11]

Sound familiar? It’s the same tactic used by modern cancel culture.

The Spanish Inquisition: The Myth vs Reality

Critics love to invoke the Spanish Inquisition as proof of Catholic barbarism. But here’s the truth:

• Total executions during 350 years of the Inquisition? Around 3,000–5,000[^12] - not the millions imagined by Hollywood.

• Purpose: Maintain religious unity in a volatile time - not mass extermination.

• Compare: During the same era, English Protestants burned Catholics alive by the hundreds - and the French Wars of Religion killed over a million[^13].

Yet only Catholic Spain is vilified. Why? Because the narrative isn’t about history - it’s about ideology.

Why the Hate Today?

Because shaming Europe - and by extension, Christianity - serves a political and cultural agenda. They don’t care about historical nuance. They ignore that every civilization practiced conquest and slavery, including the same indigenous cultures they idolize.

Where’s the outrage over:

• The Islamic slave trade, which lasted over 1,300 years, enslaving Africans and Europeans alike[^14].

• Native empires committing genocide against other tribes?

• African kingdoms selling their own people to Arabs and Europeans?

Silence. Why? Because the target isn’t justice - it’s Western civilization and the Catholic Church, and again, because it don’t fit the narrative of evil white Europeans and non white victims.

Look Around You

Hospitals. Electricity. Written language. Modern science. Constitutional government. Do you enjoy these things? Thank Catholic Europe.

If Spain had “left the Americas alone,” there would likely still be human sacrifice, ritual cannibalism, and zero medicine. But go ahead - condemn the people who gave you the very world that allows you to virtue-signal on social media.

As Theodore Roosevelt said:

“No other conquering nation has ever treated its new subjects with such generosity as Spain did.”[^15]

A Message to the Spanish - and to Americans

To the People of Spain: Be Proud

Spanish readers, listen carefully: you have nothing to be ashamed of. Your ancestors did not “ruin paradise” - they ended barbarity and brought faith, law, and civilization to half the planet. You built cathedrals where human hearts once bled on altars. You taught literacy where there was none. You gave the world universities, hospitals, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Black Legend - those lies that stain your name - was not written by history, but by propaganda. It was crafted by enemies of Catholic Spain to destroy its moral authority. Do not let their lies define you. The blood and sweat of your ancestors built nations, and millions today live freer, safer lives because of them.

Be proud. Not arrogant, but proud - because you carried the Cross across oceans and changed history for the better.

To Americans: Stop Virtue - Signalling on a European Foundation

And to Americans: this obsession with painting Europe as uniquely evil? It’s not history - it’s ideology. Your entire culture has been built on a narrative that keeps you ashamed of your roots. You’ve been raised to think “white equals oppressor” and “non-white equals victim.” That’s why every time a post like this appears, someone inevitably pops up with, “What about the Spanish Inquisition?”

It happened on a Substack Note I saw (Inspiration for this post). A reader named Ruth proudly dropped that tired line, claiming, “conveniently left out the Inquisition and genocide.” As if repeating slogans is the same as understanding history. Here’s the irony: whether you like it or not, America is European. Your laws, your language, your freedoms - everything that makes your country what it is - came from Christian Europe. The hospitals you were born in, the rights you claim, even the notion of liberty you worship - all of it was built by the civilization you now demonize.

Now, to be clear, this is not every American. But far too many - especially the ones who dominate online discourse - parrot this lazy, guilt-driven narrative. They’ve swallowed propaganda whole: Anglo-Protestant myths, the Black Legend, and modern woke ideology - all designed to make you hate the very heritage that gave you your freedoms.

Do you think virtue-signalling about “innocent natives” makes you enlightened? It doesn’t. It makes you ignorant. The Aztecs were not noble environmentalists - they were sacrificing humans by the thousands. The tribes you idolize enslaved and slaughtered each other long before Columbus, in fact, long before white man set foot on the Americas. Yet you sit there, tweeting from an iPhone in a heated home, pretending that rejecting Europe is justice.

Here’s the truth: Europe built America. Not the other way around. And if Spain hadn’t carried the Cross across oceans, your continent would not be what it is today. Stop kneeling to the cult of guilt. Stop spitting on the foundation that gave you everything. This narrative doesn’t free you - it enslaves you to shame and strips you of identity until nothing remains but weakness.

Final Word

Spanish colonization wasn’t perfect - but it wasn’t the cartoon villain story activists want you to believe. It was a civilizing mission rooted in faith, one that ended barbaric practices and introduced law, literacy, and the Gospel.

So the next time someone whines about “brutal colonization,” ask them this:

Would you trade antibiotics, hospitals, and freedom from ritual slaughter - for life under Aztec priests pulling out your heart on a stone altar?

Glory to God.

References

[^1]: Michael Harner, “The Ecological Basis for Aztec Sacrifice,” American Ethnologist 4 (1977): 117–135.

[^2]: Ross Hassig, Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control (University of Oklahoma Press, 1995).

[^3]: Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain (1568).

[^4]: Ibid.

[^5]: Lewis Hanke, The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of America (1949).

[^6]: Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage (1492).

[^7]: UNESCO, “First Universities in the Americas,” Historical Archives.

[^8]: Pope Paul III, Sublimis Deus (1537).

[^9]: Bartolomé de las Casas, In Defense of the Indians (1550).

[^10]: Lewis Hanke, ibid.

[^11]: Julián Juderías, La Leyenda Negra (1914).

[^12]: Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision (1998).

[^13]: Mack Holt, The French Wars of Religion, 1562-1629 (Cambridge University Press, 1995).

[^14]: John Alembillah Azumah, The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa (2001).

[^15]: Theodore Roosevelt, Fear God and Take Your Own Part (1916).