It kind of sounds like I'm pro Spain, but I'm just trying to answer the question what do you think?
2. Is the view of the Spanish and Portuguese as especially harsh conquerors and exploiters valid-or is this image just another version of the English “Black Legend†concerning the Spanish role in the Americas?
It's not completely true, wile some Spanish and Portuguese conquerors were very cruel, harsh, and exploitive, it's not fair to say all of them were.
A lot of people came from Spain and Portugal to create a system, similar to the one's in Europe, in the New World. They needed the Indians to do the labor that peasants would have done in Europe. If they killed thousands of Indians, the Europeans would have to do the work themselves, so it was important for them to take care of the Indians. It just wouldn't make sense to be cruel and harsh to people that you need for your feudal system to work.
Also, many of the Spanish and Portuguese married Native Americans, and combined parts of each other cultures into their own. If they were just hash conquerors and exploiters they would have just conquered the Natives, and destroyed them. They wouldn't of married them, and incorporated parts of the Native American' culture into their own.
Many of the Spanish and Portuguese converted and baptized Native Americans. They thought it was very important to the Native Americans salvation to be converted. It shows that they did some things they thought would benefit the Indians. They did more than just destroy and conquer, they built churches and missions for the Native Americans.
A lot of the stories about how the Spanish and Portuguese were hash conquerors and exploiters was started by the British, who were in some ways worse to the Native Americans. The Spanish needed the Indians for their feudal system, but the British didn't. They were self governed, so they had no need for the Indians to be around. The result was a lot of tension and fighting between them, and in many places killing or kicking the Native Americans out.
The British started a lot of these stories, the “Black Legend†because they didn't really like Spain, the two countries didn't get along very well. One of the biggest points of tension between the two was religion. Spain was strongly Catholic, wile Britain on the other hand was protestant (Church of England). Henry the VIII, broke off of the Catholic Church and started the Church of England which was ruled by the monarch, not the pope. He died, he was succeeded by his son Edward, who was also Protestant, but died after, only reigning for a little wile. Henry's Daughter Mary I became Queen. She was strongly Catholic and married Phillip II of Spain. During that time Brittan was on good terms with Spain, because the Spanish King had control over both countries. When She died she was succeeded by her half sister Elizabeth I, who was protestant. This caused tension again between Spain and England and with Elizabeth's ascension to the English throne, Philip lost control over Britain.
The British didn't like Spain converting so many Native Americans to Catholicism. They wanted to convert them to be Protestant.
The British also didn't get along well with Spain because their American colonies were giving them a lot of wealth. They were able to create the Spanish Armada, and basically control the Atlantic Ocean. Elizabeth even secretly paid sailors such a Sir Francis Drake, who she later knighted, to seize Spanish treasure ships.
With all the tension between the two countries, it's believable that the British made up, or exaggerated stories about the Spanish and Portuguese, because they didn't get along with them.
So, the view of the Spanish and Portuguese as especially harsh conquerors and exploiters isn't completely correct. Some were, but most weren't. They needed the Native Americans, to be laborers in their Feudal system, so it didn't make sense to be especially harsh to them. They also wouldn't have married Native Americans and wouldn't have gone to the trouble of converting, baptizing and building churches for the Native Americans if they were just cruel conquerors. They would have just destroyed and took over the Native Americans. Most of the stories about their cruelty were started by the British, who were in some ways more cruel, because they didn't get along very well with Spain.
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