King Felipe VI of Spain spoke publicly about the country’s colonial past during a visit to Madrid’s Archaeological Museum in mid-March, in what was seen as a landmark moment of recognition from the Spanish royal family.
king Attend An exhibition at the museum titled “Half the World: Indigenous Women of Mexico”, alongside Quirino Ordaz Coppel, Mexico’s ambassador to Spain.
During his visit, the king admit The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in what is now Mexico in the 1500s and subsequent colonization of much of the rest of the Americas were marked by “abuses” and “moral controversies.”
It has been a hot point of contention in Spanish and American political divisions ever since. While some claim that Spain’s conquest of the region was a civilizing mission, others point to how it resulted in death Up to 80 or 90% The indigenous populations of Central and South America; either directly through Spanish wars of conquest or through enslavement and disease brought by Europeans.
If accurate, it would be the single largest human death event in history, with an absolute death toll second only to World War II in proportion to the global population at the time.
The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in the world at the time of its conquest of the Americas, and continued to rule much of the region for the next three centuries—and was an important source of wealth and prestige for the monarchy.
Old wounds reopened
This history of colonialism has led to tensions between Spain and Mexico in recent years, with the Mexican government repeatedly demanding a formal apology from Spain.
In 2019, then-Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador sent a letter to the King of Spain and the Pope calling for official and public recognition of historical abuses committed during the conquest. However, there was no such apology. On the contrary, the Spanish government point out Events that occurred 500 years ago “cannot be judged by contemporary concepts.”
In response, Mexico’s current president, Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo, chose not to invite King Felipe to her 2024 inauguration, citing the lack of any formal apology from the Spanish royal family. This sparked outrage from the Spanish government, with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez describe The behavior was “unacceptable”.
Spain has since tried to rectify this and now has some recognition of its imperial past.
Late last year, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Alvarez publicly acknowledged the “pain and injustice” experienced by Mexico’s indigenous people during a visit to the same exhibition in Madrid.
“The shared history between Spain and Mexico, like all human history, has its lights and shadows,” Albarez said. “Injustice does exist and it is right to acknowledge and regret it. It is part of our shared history; we cannot deny it or forget it.”
King Felipe echoed the sentiment during his visit earlier this month – a rare acknowledgment from the royal family.
While the king insisted that past monarchs had acted with “protective intent”, he acknowledged that this may not have worked out “as intended” and that there had been “lots and lots of abuse”.
“We cannot be proud of certain aspects of our past when viewed through the lens of contemporary values,” the king acknowledged.
“However, these events must be assessed within their historical context, utilizing objective and rigorous analysis rather than excessive moral presentism.”
Too little, too late?
It remains to be seen how far these statements will go in repairing relations between Spain and Mexico.
Comments by King Felipe and Minister Alvarez welcomed by Mexico, Scheinbaum admit A “conciliatory gesture” by the monarch. She had previously congratulated Albarez, calling it a “first step.”
“Forgiveness lifts the country up,” Scheinbaum has said previously. “On the contrary, it is not a shame. Acknowledging history, acknowledging grievances, asking for forgiveness – or expressing regret – and seeing it as part of history enhances the government’s standing.”
Still, Felipe’s statement falls short of a formal apology for Spain’s behavior during its imperial period. “It’s not everything we want,” Sheinbaum said Echoing the King’s speech, “But it’s just one step.”
“Arguably, it’s not everything we wanted, but for what we’re talking about, it’s a conciliatory gesture from the king: an acknowledgment of the atrocities and exterminations that took place during the Spanish arrival,” the Mexican president additional.
“It’s not enough,” insists Humberto Beck, a historian at the Institute of Mexico. who claims It will only be viewed as a “substitute for an official apology.”
“It is a mistake for the Mexican government to base relations between the two countries on this apology. It distracts from the deeper issues, which are reflections and the ongoing process of memory and awareness between the two societies,” he Tell newspaper national newspaper.
wider pattern
Spain’s avoidance of an apology largely mirrors the approach of most countries when faced with similar demands.
In the UK earlier this month, for example, dozens of British MPs similarly called on the government to formally apologize for its past involvement in occupied Palestine from 1918 to 1948.
The Britain Owes Palestine campaign group previously submitted a 400-page petition demanding an apology for the war crimes it allegedly committed at the time. Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, the first British MP of Palestinian origin, point out:
“The consequences of these actions profoundly shape the conflict we are witnessing today, yet successive governments have refused to acknowledge this record or offer a formal apology. If the UK is serious about promoting peace in Gaza today, it must first confront its historical role, recognize the harm caused and take meaningful responsibility for it.”
The British government has yet to apologize and the Foreign Office said it does not routinely comment on such petitions.
Although countries such as Australia have Since 1998An annual National Apology Day is held to acknowledge mistreatment of Aboriginal people, but it remains relatively rare.
Thomas Berger, a professor at Boston University, said such apologies are usually made only when a country feels the need to do so, because failure to do so would trigger a stronger political backlash.
“Apologizing doesn’t come cheap. It’s not just about having your leaders say ‘I’m sorry’; it means a whole set of policies including reparations, education policy, commemoration policy, how to remember the past in museums, cultural venues, through holidays and events,” he debate.
Generally speaking, such an apology would only be made where there is a significant movement within the country that requires an apology (such as the case of Aboriginal Australia), or where it is vital that the country re-establishes normal working relations with other countries involved.
Berger noted that this was the case in post-World War II Germany, adding that Germany was “under tremendous economic, political, and geostrategic pressure to be sensitive to the perspectives of the victims of democracies, especially France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Israel.”
The same could be said when Italy apologized to Libya 2008while it is signing important agreements on trade and migration with the Gaddafi regime.
Britain also apologizes to Ireland for the great famine Before the Good Friday Agreement was signed, although it ignored similar requests for an apology from south africa.
controversial legacy
For the most part, most governments will only seek to issue a statement of sadness or regret rather than an outright apology to avoid further problems around issues such as compensation and political backlash.
The varying reactions to the Spanish king’s announcement illustrate this point. While some on the left welcomed King’s comments – which were also supported by Inclusion Minister Elma Saiz Delgado – others on the right did. expressive Anger – especially among those who continue to defend Spain’s colonial legacy.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), said, “It is crazy to look at what happened in the 15th century and see it in the 21st century.”
He went on to add that Spanish people should be proud of their history, highlighting both the positives and negatives of the empire.
“After Spain arrived in the Americas, it formed a special linguistic and cultural community. Any Spanish actions during the conquest can be compared with any other actions of any other empire during that period.”
The far-right VOX party went even further to defend Spain’s actions, praising the conquest as “the greatest work of evangelization and civilization in the history of the world.”
Vox MEP Hermann Tertsch expressed surprise that the king was siding with those who “seek only to destroy and discredit Spanish history”.
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a British historian and professor at the University of Notre Dame, emphasizes this point
“I’m very happy to see that the king clearly and unequivocally did not apologize,” Fernandez-Armesto told reporters. EU report.
“There is no point in apologizing for something that is beyond one’s responsibility. When a pope or a politician does this, you can be sure they are concealing their own guilt. The King said that moral judgments about the past must be freed from presentism: it is true that one should not blame people of the past for being themselves or adhering to the standards of their time.”
“There has never been a polity free of abuses. Hispania as a whole and Spain as a whole have every reason to be proud of the period when much of the Americas was part of the Spanish monarchy,” the scholar added.
“I did not hear Mrs. Scheinbaum apologize for the massacre of indigenous peoples in modern independent Mexico. The entire enterprise of a global monarchy like Spain is scarred by its failure: it is a matter to be regretted, but it does not need to be corrected, it needs to be apologized, but it does not need to be apologized for.”
Featured image: SM el Rey ha clausurado el X Congreso Iberoamericano de periodismo
source: House of the Americas (via Flickr)
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This article was originally published by Daniel Goldstraw on EU report and republished with permission.