All language subtitles for Espana.La.Primera.Globalizacion.2021.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC

At the end of the 16th century,

China concentrates
a quarter of the world’s population

and represents 40%
of the planet’s wealth.

In the Ming Empire,

taxes were collected in kind,

an ineffective system

for such a developed economy.

In 1580,

the emperor's secretary,
Zhang Juzheng,

completely changed the tax system

and the collection unit
changed from rice

to silver.

But there was a problem:

China had no silver.

Only the Spaniards,

already established in Manila,

were in a position to meet
this need in a stable manner

and with quality guarantees,

thanks to silver from America.

This confluence of interests

connected the two most
powerful world economies of the time:

the Hispanic and the Chinese,

the Habsburgs and the Ming.

In a few decades,
from East to West,

the world becomes aware of its shape,

and the Hispanic monarchy

becomes the engine
of an unprecedented globalization.

The history of the Spanish Empire
is unknown to most Spaniards;

it should be known.

It is worth it.

No other story can compare.

There is an entire
connection of cultural,

scientific and artistic exchange

between Europe and China.

Matteo Ricci and Diego de Pantoja,

a Jesuit missionary from Valdemoro

arrive in Beijing,

gain audience

and present a series of gifts:

two clocks

and a clavichord.

Diego de Pantoja is
in charge of teaching how to play

the first keyboard instrument

to four eunuchs

at the Chinese court.

Right now,

there is a translation project in China

due to his great
production in Chinese,

publishing about
religion or philosophy…

but also about music.

The emperor

asked for Chinese themes to be played

with Western instruments
and vice versa,

They were looking for
that sonic encounter,

that miscegenation
that occurred at that time,

which is a
fascinating phenomenon.

The communication between
the Ming Empire and the Habsburg Empire

through the silver trade

and through the Manila Galleon,

which is also called Nao of China

had transcendental
importance for all humanity.

A kind of metallic silver
mono-standard was established,

to such an extent that
countries that did not have it,

for example,
Holland, France or England,

first needed to
get hold of Spanish silver

if they came to trade with China.

American silver was also used in India;

it was used everywhere.

Spanish silver was the
immense international currency,

that is why it is the
foundation of the first globalization.

Why is history so important?

Sure, professor,
history explains the past.

No, I tell you, son,
history does not explain the past;

history actually explains the present,

but much more important than that,

is that he who knows history,

builds the future.

You cannot see history
permanently from the present

as it is being seen;

judge it from the present,
analyze it from the present...

Spain was a country
that dominated half the world,

it had a language
that half the world spoke,

its culture expanded enormously.

Spain needs to recover its history.

The Roman Empire existed

and changed the world.

The Spanish Empire existed

and changed the world.

It is a false link to think that
the Spanish Empire is an issue of Spain.

No, the Spanish Empire
is an issue of the whole world,

because it changed it,

and left its blood, its institutions,
its life and its way of existing

through various continents.

All of those

are descendants of
the Spanish Empire as we are.

Being ashamed of
that past makes no sense, at all.

That empire was an amazing
moment in the history of humanity,

and I don't think anyone

should be ashamed of it,
unless half of humanity

is determined to be
ashamed of itself.

That could happen, right?

I studied in Galicia,

and the Catholic Monarchs
were the devil there.

In any subject,
Galician language, or history itself...

the Catholic Monarchs immediately
appeared like the demon at noon

and the Black Legend

was the official history
from the point of view

of education there.

And yet, as soon as you
explored a little, not too much,

you began to see the contradictions

and that something didn't fit.

From there on, those
contradictions become, I suppose...

like the Platonic Cave, right?

You start to see contradictions
and you want to get out.

Castile has
a very convulsed 15th century,

with a major civil war,

with the presence of Islam
in Granada but, to a large extent,

it was almost an agreed
presence for many years.

Henry IV of Castile realized,

after the Turks took Constantinople,

that there was a medium-term danger

of Islamic expansion or Turkish support
for Barbary Islam in North Africa.

His sister and his successor,
Isabel I, already conquered Granada

between 1482

and 1491.

In 1516,

the Turks were already in Algiers.

Then it would probably
have been impossible to conquer Granada.

In Spain,

it is assumed that
the Jews were expelled in 1492,

without knowing

that we are the last Europeans

to expel the Jews

and, of course, it was done against
the Catholic Monarchs' desire

and against

all the elites of that time.

In Spain,

the Jewish minority
in the late Middle Ages

was the most important
of the entire European diaspora.

There were
approximately 380,000 Jews,

around 7 or 8 percent
of the population,

and around 70,000 or 80,000
people were expelled.

Throughout the entire 15th century,

all that converted world
gradually assimilated

into Spanish society.

There were several
processes of attempts to transform

that Jewish race into converts,

and that is precisely
what makes it not racist,

because what they wanted is
to incorporate them as converts.

In other words, to stop being a Jew,
you had to get baptized, that's it.

That does not make any racist sense:

If you were Jew
from a racist point of view,

like in the 1937 Nuremberg Nazi Laws,

as much as you were baptized,
you would continue being a Jew;

That transformation
would be worthless then.

And yet, here of course it was worth it,
as the converts also rose socially,

and tremendously so.

Most of the Jewish minority converted

more or less spontaneously.

I can tell you specific cases
of how the Jews were converted

in Soria or Murcia, for example.

What happened?

Mixed marriages, permanently.

The third generation
was already consolidated.

There the Holy Office
did not intervene at all.

From the end of the 14th century
until the Expulsion of the Jews in 1492,

three-quarters of that
Jewish population were converted

and that is a unique
and singular phenomenon

in the entire history
of the European Jew diaspora.

You ask anyone
from Gibraltar to the North Cape:

An expulsion of Jews in Western Europe?

1492 in Spain.

And why do you not know
the dates of the expulsion of Jews

in the territories of the
Germanic Holy Roman Empire?

Or those in France?

Or those that have occurred in…?

No,

the others don’t matter.

Only that one matters.

In 1492, three events
happened at the same time:

the end of the Hispano-Muslim
period in Spanish history;

secondly,

the expulsion of
a section of Spanish Jews

while the others convert or stay…

and, evidently also,
the Discovery of America.

Actually,

the expansive possibility that
Castile had with Portugal on one side,

Aragon on the other,
Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in the south,

was practically a strip
of the Andalusian Atlantic.

Castile will go out
to the great expansion

and will collide with
the interests of Portugal.

Columbus is a man
that the Portuguese discarded.

They are not interested
in a bluff move,

which is to hire
this very strange man

who says that there
is a route to the west

and he is going to try to reach
Asia by the Western Route.

Portugal

already had the Cape Route

towards the Indian Ocean,

which was the one that was known

and the one that led safely
to India and the spice Islands.

For Castile,

it meant the possibility of
finding a route to the Indies

without entering Portuguese territory.

This is probably what made
Isabel and Fernando think

they could try it
at a very low cost,

just over a million maravedis.

Castile could not give up
on a business like that of spices.

It is truly boxed in

and Aragon
has the Mediterranean

and a whole organized and
incredible commercial tradition.

Therefore, you have to venture
into unknown spaces,

and that’s how it was.

Isabel the Catholic now becomes,

without opponents,

the great Queen of Spain.

She is going to undertake
a universal adventure,

first through the
suppression of Islam,

and secondly through
the great opening to America.

Spain’s action

is one of the most important
in the history of humanity.

Discovery is a legal,
political, economic, scientific

and technological fact
in Western tradition,

which means that I arrive at a place,

I proclaim to the other Europeans
that I have arrived there,

I return home and tell about it

and then I also manage to return
to the place that I was able to discover.

When Christopher Columbus returns
from that unsuccessful spice attempt,

he nevertheless brings

six or seven Taino men and women

and small pieces of Guanin gold…

which means he has
reached somewhere interesting.

The kings have
appointed him Viceroy,

Admiral, Governor of that place

and realize that this is a contradiction

to the modern political
project they want to carry out.

Therefore, they look for someone

with prestige to be able to neutralize

the personalisms of Columbus

and use him for the hegemonic project
the king and queen have.

Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca
is going to become

the man of action

for American projects.

Every time they have to
organize an expedition,

he starts from scratch.

You have to look for money, crew, ships

and all this is consolidated
and coordinated by Fonseca

until he dies in 1524.

Then, there is
the Council of the Indies

which is basically created to
replace everything Fonseca did.

Between America and Castile,

the navigation flow is increasing

and that must be controlled.

How?

In 1503, the Casa de la Contratación
is created in Seville.

It will control not only commerce

and laws

but also science and technology.

Pedro Medina’s book

is the manual

from which all the others
in Europe will be inspired.

He is the one who is going
to teach Europeans cosmography;

Pedro de Medina,

unknown to practically everyone.

As Pedro Medina said,

a current sailor
is wiser than Aristotle;

he knows the world
more than Aristotle.

Spain does not merely rise up

and that’s it,

as if Finland arose.

No, Spain rises up

and the ancient world collapses,

which is not just anything.

The ancient world collapses,

a fourth continent appears
and, therefore,

the entire world appears.

It is the beginning of
the Scientific Revolution.

This document is one of the key elements

in the history of Globalization

as it proposes

what the Salamanca Academy
establishes for the calendar’s reform.

The calendar, which until then
had served Western humanity,

had been the Julian Calendar,

established and signed
by Julius Caesar

in 46 BC.

The Julian Calendar’s reform

begins precisely
at the University of Salamanca.

There, a series of calculations
are made to close a gap that existed.

The mathematical problem
was that there was no way to match

the Sun's rhythm
with the rhythm of the Moon,

as seen from the Earth.

The struggle for the search
for a perfect calendar

led to the mobilization of
all the important mathematicians:

Catholics,

Jews,

Arabs...

On February 24, 1582,

the papal bull that starts
the calendar’s reform

is issued by Gregory XIII.

This implied eliminating ten days

in the territories of the Spanish crown
or in the papal territories.

October 4, 1582,
becomes October 15, 1582.

That reform implied two things:

on the one hand,

that the salaries of those ten days
be deducted for the royal officials,

today’s civil servants.

On the other hand,
that debts were not computed.

It seems appropriate to
the Council of the Indies

to send that reform to the new world.

The same thing happens
in Mexico, but in 1583,

and it is replicated once more in Peru

and throughout its viceroyalty in 1584.

We find that, by 1586,

it is starting up
even in the Philippines.

That implies, in turn,
a global synchrony.

There is a constant use of the past

to say that the Spanish past
is a disaster,

a horror,
a colonial state…

and also,
another aspect, the Inquisition,

and together with this one,
more aspects are added…

This is the idea that
Christians are the bad guys.

This fantasy paradise existed

and then the Christians
came to establish their Inquisition.

More or less,
this is the Black Legend.

The Inquisition
operated before in Europe,

more precisely, in France.

In England, the executioner
took the accused to his house

and did what he wanted,

while in Spain there were certain laws.

The Inquisition was born,
precisely,

so that the crime
of religious intolerance

is subject to a
structured legal process.

It took the territories
that did not have it

a long time to be able to tame the
crime of religious dissent of any kind.

Between 1540 and 1700 in Spain,

those rendered to the civil authorities
to execute punishment at the stake,

were approximately 1,500 people,

of which,
approximately half,

were in effigies,

that is,
people who had died or were absent.

In 17th and 18th centuries,

witches were burned in France,
England or in the United States...

and that is not talked about at all.

Between 1540 and 1700,
approximately,

the witches prosecuted
would be around 150 or 200.

And from 1604 onwards,

in the Inquisitorial Courts of Spain,

Italy and the dependencies
in the Courts in the Indies in America,

the three courts
that existed in the Indies,

there were no more witch procedures,

at all,

unlike what happened
in other parts of Europe.

In the Germanic territories,
this figure reached 25,000

and it is possible that it reached
100,000 in the whole of Western Europe.

A cosmic confusion occurs
when it is understood that,

since there is no Inquisition
in those countries,

the crime of religious dissent
is not prosecuted.

That is false.

In the Protestant territories,

religious crimes became
crimes against the State,

that is, there was a fusion
between the Church and the State.

The queen is still the head,

she is the Pope of the Anglican Church

in the same way the Princes of Saxony
were the Popes, of their churches.

Luther was a good servant
at the service of those German princes,

who are the great antagonists
of the European project of Charles V,

produces a creature
that is going to have a very long life,

and is going to condition
the history of the entire West:

propaganda.

What the Protestants,
especially the Dutch and the English did

was to take advantage
of the printing press

to publish books or pamphlets

in up to fifteen different languages

to discredit the Spanish Empire.

It works like a cartoon, but literary.

Exaggerate features that can harm us,

as a nation,

underline those acts that at
certain times are seen as reprehensible

and omit those features that can
favor us in the international arena.

All anti-Catholic propaganda is,

by definition, anti-Spanish.

It was born to be a way of
eroding the Catholic hegemonic power

which was from Spain.

The Germanic lords have the right to
impose their religious option

on the population
of the territory they govern.

This is called religious freedom.

With Luther’s and Calvin’s idea,

in the face of salvation,
works are worth nothing,

because otherwise God
would be a wimp in the hands of man.

Otherwise freedom
would work in the face of salvation,

and it cannot work.

The total attributes of God,

omniscient, omnipotent,
allknowing, omnipresent…

would fall apart.

So, if God is all that,

man cannot be free.

This is Luther.

This is Luther,
Servo Arbitrio,

Luther,
who triggered all this controversy.

Lutheranism is a manifestation
of Germanic nationalism

and was deeply marked
by that Germanic seal.

The Dutch needed their own heresy

and Calvinism comes to offer them

that ideological ammunition
that William of Orange totally needs.

Calvinism in Geneva

caused about 500 deaths

in the roughly 20 years
that John Calvin

controlled and ruled that city,

a city of about 10,000 inhabitants.

John Calvin has today,

in the Park of the Bastions of Geneva,

a monument several meters high,

placed by the city of Geneva
to honor its reformer.

If we were to make a monument
to Torquemada, for example,

who caused many fewer deaths,
incomparable really,

we would have to leave the country.

It is inconceivable that something
like this would happen in Spain,

but it is perfectly conceivable
that it happens in Geneva.

How many people did
Torquemada really process?

In 160 years,

1,500 people had been prosecuted
at the stake

and that eliminates that simple,
manipulable and grotesque idea

that the Tribunal was so bloody.

What we call torture today torture in
the Inquisition was meticulously arranged

and was very limited,

much more than
that the civil courts of the time.

Of course, the civil courts were
much crueler and with less guarantee.

The popularity of the inquisitorial
issue reaches such extremes

that it has become a real business.

A lot of money is earned by

exhibiting instruments of torture
artificially manufactured,

based on images found in
different parts of Europe

that are not Spanish and have never had
anything to do with the Inquisition,

and that are shown

as if at some point they
had been used by the Inquisition.

This has not stopped growing,

it manifests itself in textbooks,
comics and movies

and in this kind of very crude
and even vulgar falsification.

It is one more development,
of the absurd Black Legend

and of the enormous profitability
this argument has had

and continues having.

Whoever, without
much information, sees this

is convinced that these
atrocities were a normal practice

in the Spanish Inquisition.

And then, that affects Spain, in
terms of the image that the country has.

But, everyone is content, you see?
And nothing happens.

The Protestants used
the Spanish Inquisition

to build the myth
of the Black Legend.

The English and the Dutch assemble
History's first propaganda campaign

to weaken Spain,

to attack it and to mobilize
other dynasties against it,

because in purely military terms,

they can't do it.

I have studied La Invencible.

I have studied it in my textbooks.

Instead of studying
the war or who won it,

I have studied La Invencible.

La Invencible wasn’t relevant,

not even in the context of that war

which finally ended with an
honorable defeat on England’s part.

England is quite
a minor country at the moment.

We see a bit of the history of
England as the great imperial power,

when at this moment it is not.

It was honestly not an invasion attempt.

A large part of the English population
supported a change of dynasty,

which was really
what it was intended to do.

Isabel I is absolutely dependent
on a religious schism to be queen.

She cannot reign if this
religious schism is not consolidated

as she is illegitimate.

She take the opportunity to
contradict something very clear:

"We are people with
less force and less power

but God has sent his winds
against the emperor's ships,

against Philip II

and God is with us."

In its day, it was an act of
affirmation of the dynasty of Isabel I,

but then, in the 17th century,

that act of affirmation becomes
one of the myths of English,

and later British, nationalism.

It makes sense that
English children study it.

But that the Spanish
children study it, in the same key…

I don't know if what we have
is a suicidal tendency, let's say.

I don't know,
something is wrong there.

Textbooks do not adequately
reflect the history of Spain,

they reflect it very badly.

History, in general, went one way
and the history of America, another.

The proof is in the
high school textbooks where,

when speaking about America, only
Columbus and Cortés are mentioned, a bit.

But history is never explained.

It never was.

The conquerors never stopped.

Cortés is a man who succeeds young,

he goes to La Española,
to Santo Domingo at the age of 19,

and he is rich in just ten years,

he has responsibilities and herds...

In a manner of speaking,
he had no need to get into more trouble.

There is an urge that leads
him to continue later to Cuba,

to listen to the rumors
of the Western Empire

and to become the conqueror of New Spain.

He was a man well aware that he was
opening new horizons for his own time.

Besides, he couldn't sit still,
I think he was a hyperactive man.

There is a fascinating moment

when Cortés sends
Carlos I his first letter

with a list including the
famous feathers that are in Vienna

the Aztec plume

and a series of riches,

gold, silver, jade...

The offerings from the Aztecs to scare
him so that Cortés would not advance.

The effect is the opposite
as Cortés has more desire to go there.

Of course, those incredible
riches stimulate his ambition.

Cortés can exercise violence

when he has to exercise it
as captain of his army,

but he is also capable of being surprised
and marvel at the American reality,

and not only to marvel but
to describe it with enormous detail.

Cortés is Mexico’s inventor

He builds the foundations of a nation.

What more portentous legend than that?

A statesman who creates
a new state is a unique case.

He even lays the foundations
of the economic structure of Mexico.

It is awesome.

Hernán Cortés is
a character off the charts,

he is magnificent.

Cortés, poor him,
and a couple of other crazy people;

no dogs, nor horses,
arquebuses or anything else.

They could never conquer
an empire of a million soldiers

if it was not for the fact
that the entire people,

subjugated by the Aztecs,
threw themselves into the arms of Cortés

to free themselves from the blood
sacrifice the Aztecs demanded of them.

The famous genocide did not exist.

The conquest of Mexico
was not made by Hernán Cortés,

but rather by the Indians themselves.

Cortés had no idea where he got to,

or how many people inhabited the land,

or who were friends or enemies.

Marina, an Indian nobleman’s daughter,

knew perfectly well
who she could ally with,

and she was guiding Cortés
to build those alliances.

The true architect of the
conquest of what is now called Mexico

has been a woman,
who is Doña Marina herself.

I ask in class:
Who conquered Mexico?

And people look at me
as if to say "this has to be a trap."

And someone already says,
Hernán Cortés.

No.

It was an alliance,
an allied army.

Aztecs were one of many peoples.

Each of these people
had their own peculiarity.

Therefore, they offered multiple
responses of fear, alliance or combat

to the Hispanic presence.

This happens when something
unknown comes into our reality.

The military conquest is not
necessarily carried out by the Spaniards

but by the indigenous
Mesoamerican in the name of the king,

who conquer the barbarian,
semi-nomadic tribes of the North.

That is fascinating,

because they are indeed king’s soldiers
and are part of the Spanish army

There is an image
of a chief from Tetzcoco

who was in charge of conquering
the entire part of Querétaro

in the north part of Mexico

He appears represented
with his General flare

and his cross of Santiago
as Captain of the Spanish army.

He could have been in Flanders,

directly.

He wanted to reach China
as he always wanted to go further.

That is a frontier
and innovative spirit.

Conquerors are frontier heroes

and I believe that this impulse
is that of 16th century Spain.

In 1500, Juan de la Cosa’s map
can already be drawn,

which is a spectacular advance.

In 1505 onwards, there are
meetings of pilots in all directions.

The entire land of Mexico is traversed.

For an obvious reason, a passage
does not appear as it does not exist.

There is a decisive point:

Vasco Núñez de Balboa.

On September 29, 1513,
he bumps into the Pacific Ocean.

We have reached the other sea
through the isthmus of Panama,

but we do not know how
they connect by sea.

On their return of
every trip to America,

pilots brought new
information about the coast

that is then incorporated into a model,
which was made in La Casa de la
Contratación.

named Padrón Real.

In 1508,

the figure of the
Piloto Mayor (Head Pilot)

and this Padrón Real
(Royal Register) were created.

Burgos and Seville are the two
great cosmopolitan cities of the crown.

What is special about Burgos is that,

since mid 15th century,

high-level merchants there
handle a vast amount of money

and have branches in different points
especially important for European trade,

such as Amberes, London, Lisbon...

The Haros are one of those families.

They are a converted lineage
family originally from La Rioja

who usually trade through
the fairs of Medina del Campo.

Cristobal de Haro is responsible
for managing the Lisbon branch

and he reaches out
where there is something to profit.

In 1515,

Juan Díaz de Solís
enters the Río de la Plata

He did not know that Cristobal de Haro
had already sent an expedition

with the Portuguese to explore the area.

Next step is going further south.

Haro met Fernão Magalhães,
Fernando de Magallanes, in Lisbon.

They were both angry
with the king of Portugal,

and somehow, they understand that their
best chance is going to be in Castile.

Haro's role will be
fundamentally financial.

He was, together with
Juan de Fonseca, the shipowner.

Magallanes,
who was a naturalized Spaniard.

carried all the weight of the expedition.

He manages to take the step

from the North Sea

to the South Sea.

The dimension of
the Pacific is established here.

There was a sea
between Asia and America,

which is the largest
body of water on the planet.

Until that moment
this was not known.

And with this, an ordeal begins.

Day by day,
the Pacific is killing people.

When he got to the Philippines,

to Cebu,

Magallanes is almost a missionary.

He starts preaching and so on.

- Bring me the gifts for King Humabón.

- Yes, my captain.

- These are gifts that
I offer you, and you, madam

They are fabrics from Spain.

In Cebu, King Humabón
and his wife are baptized.

King Humabón is
named after Emperor Carlos,

and his wife,
is named after Carlos’ mother

who was Queen Juana,

the so-called Juana la Loca.

But the queen is craving
that statue of baby Jesus.

Therefore,

Magallanes,

as a sign of friendship and goodwill,

donates that statue
of the Cebu child

to Queen Juana.

Magallanes gets into a war
that was not his with Lapu Lapu,

who has a tremendous
bronze sculpture in the Philippines.

The soldier Lapu Lapu kills Magallanes.

The Spaniards
walk away and flee.

The child Jesus
is left abandoned in Cebu,

and what do the
indigenous people do with that child?

They worshipped him.

When it wasn't raining,

they took that statue
of the child from Cebu

and carried it to the sea.

They soaked it in the sea

and they did not remove it
from there until it rained.

For forty-four years,

this baby Jesus became
the God of Water for the Filipinos,

the God who attracted
rain in times of drought.

There is confusion among
those who succeed him.

They lose ten months in Asia,

and when Elcano and
Gómez-Espinosa finally take charge

of the two remaining ships,

they go to the Moluccas.

That is to say, they fulfill the
objective for what had been organized,

which is to get to the spices,

the richest commodity
there was at that time.

The value was incalculable,

more than gold, in weight

and, at that time, it was considered
a valid element against Black Death.

When it reached Europe,

its yields were
10,000% at its highest.

Above all, clove and nutmeg,

which are unique spices,
rare in the world,

that appeared naturally in those islands.

Above all,
spices bring sophistication, right?

If there were spices,

the dishes were much tastier.

It was like today’s caviar or truffle.

Elcano trades there with clove,
the most valuable spice.

He loads the Nao Victoria with it,
and says, now I'm leaving, but which way?

There were two ships,

his and the Trinidad,

led by Gómez de Espinosa,
another great man.

Gómez Espinosa says:

the shortest way is
to go towards America,

but we are
trying a new way back.

He doesn't make it.

Actually, the decision to go around
the world was Elcano's in the Moluccas.

Elcano devised a
more ingenious solution,

which was to try to use
the Portuguese route,

trying not to run into the Portuguese.

That was his success.

Elcano's action has
an impressive intrepidity.

The journey from Timor
to Cape Verde is impressive.

An ocean liner doesn't do that.

Nao Victoria,
which was the most modern ship,

consisted of floating wooden planks.

It was the one with the best caulking,

and that was probably
what allowed it to hold.

Because the return from Cape Verde
to Sanlúcar de Barrameda is terrible.

Those who have to sail
a ship that involves fifty people

are indeed eighteen.

They are baling water,
they are defeated.

It was very hard because
they were going with very few troops.

There are no continents
dividing the seas;

the entire planet
can be crossed by sea.

A comparison is made
with the arrival to the Moon…

I believe the trip around the world was
much more important than that event.

When they arrive to Cape
Verde Islands they are one day late.

The Portuguese say
that it is Thursday,

but their charts say
that it is Wednesday.

That means that the Earth
is spinning on its own axis,

that is, it is a spinning globe.

For the first time ever,
this is verified.

The same year that
Magallanes' expedition begins,

the city of Veracruz
and Panama City are founded,

and Carlos I is elected,
not crowned, as emperor.

King Carlos I,
who was young but no stupid

understands that he has to have a real
investment to ensure some benefits.

Haro tried to make the trip a private
initiative so the crown could not enter.

In the end,
it is going to be a joint venture.

In this Armada Haro invested
almost 2,000,000 maravedis

and the Crown around 6,500,000.

There were enormous benefits,

if we put aside
the number of lives it cost.

The coverage of
the entire investment is made

with just one of the five ships.

What they carry is so valuable…

Expenses were covered
and money was earned.

A few months after Elcano’s return,

we already have a map on the table.

The following year,

in 1523,

Nuño García de Toreno made the first map

in which the American continent and
the Pacific Ocean were already included.

That is, a world map
as we find them today.

At the same time
that a cartography is being made

for precisely that conquest of space,

the conquest of time is taking place
in a synchronic and coordinated way.

The network we would call
longitude and latitude today

is being formed
through that circumnavigation

and Iberian expansion in the world.

All the continents and oceans
begin to be placed as they should.

Not only America, but Europe
and Asia are also discovered,

everything is discovered...

For the first time, the globe
and the orb are discovered.

Continents, seas and oceans
begin to be distributed

in conditions that adjust
to the one and only geographical reality.

What bothered many people the most

was precisely that Spain
built the first overseas world empire,

because there are two oceans in between

the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Even the Black Legend
is still manifesting itself,

and it has continued to function.

There is no doubt that the Black Legend

is the most perfect
work of political marketing.

Never in the history of humanity
has there been a lie turned into truth

that lasted so long.

All the countries that have had
power at some point in their lives

have always had people
who have denigrated them.

We can call it Black Legend, propaganda
or a denigration of the contrary.

Our case is a special one.

How is it different?

In the fact that we assume it
from the first moment,

and we rejoice
in that external denigration.

The hatred of Spain leads to admitting
the Black Legend in a complete way,

which does not mean that there
were errors, because there were.

There were acts of violence

because the company
was a company of men, not angels.

It would be stupid to think
that it was a company of angels,

it was a company of men.

And men are like that,
sometimes violent, sometimes they love,

sometimes they fight,
sometimes they hate,

sometimes they detest...

they have sublime acts
and horrible acts,

Using only one part of that,
as when you believe the Black Legend

the legend the enemy
invented about them,

they begin to have
a hatred for themselves

a contempt for themselves.

In reality, a lower value,

that is, to consider
themselves less than they were.

All good things have been forgotten.

You still hear nonsense
about the Conquest of America

and children and generations
have not been educated

in the objectivity of history.

Spain not only
discovered that new continent,

but also brought Western,
European cultures there.

It opened printing presses,
universities,

the magnificent
urbanism that it developed

and, above all, a Laws of
the Indies by which the Indians

were equal subjects
of the kings of Spain,

as non-Indians of European Spain were.

The subjects of Felipe IV…

All are subjects of Felipe IV,

the Indians, the non-Indians,
the mestizos, the non-mestizos,

who are born in Europe
or are born in America.

Colonialism is something else entirely.

It is a model of expansion based on
the difference between the metropolis

and its colonies.

England did not
generate other Englands.

Spain did generate other Spains.

It was incorporating territories

and to all of them
it brought their ways of life,

their rights,
their aqueducts, their societies,

their organizational systems...

Spain is going to completely sow all
of Spanish America with universities...

And there is a rosary of universities.

Lima’s University,

the University of
San Marcos de Lima,

was founded almost
seventy years earlier than

what we could consider the first North
American university, which is Harvard.

When the English founded Harvard,

Spain had already
founded ten universities.

It is always said that
Spain had sent criminals,

swineherds, pig farmers
like Pizarro, right?

The Spanish Empire did not export
something worse than themselves,

but the best of themselves.

The best teachers
in Spain come to America.

They go to Mexico and to Peru.

And one looks at those universities

and they had the same privileges

and the same conditions
as the University of Salamanca.

It had always been said

that Spain had not participated in
what had been the scientific revolution.

However,

at the University of Salamanca,
there are great discoveries of physics,

of the Earth.

In 1555,
Domingo de Soto

formulates in a book
the law of free fall,

but in the books that
we have read as children,

it is written that it had
only been discovered by Galileo Galilei,

sixty three years later.

Or, for example, in 1529,

there was a rector of the University
of Salamanca named Pérez de Oliva.

who was explaining some new things,

among them magnetism.

According to science books,

magnetism is something invented by
or that appears in Gilbert's first book

from 1600.

The same happens in medicine.

The solutions to the subject
of syphilis by Doctor Villalobos,

or the discovery of the
ear bones and the skull's structure

by Doctor Cosme de Medina
or his student, Doctor Collado.

In 1516, Pedro Ciruelo published
for the first time in Salamanca,

a complete Treatise on Mathematics.

Here,

Acosta's book on the Natural History
of the Indies was written and published,

in which two
very important elements appear:

Darwin's evolutionary theory

two hundred fifty years before Darwin

and the Humboldt Current Theory,

which in this case was discovered
by Humboldt in the 19th century.

It appears in Acosta's work
published here.

That is to say,

Salamanca was a leader in knowledge

and still today,
we continue to enjoy its results.

There were a lot of positions in Spain,

from Father Las Casas to Fonseca.

There are many very diverse approaches,

it is not possible to give
a single and monolithic answer.

Perhaps, the man who
has gone the furthest in his vision

was Father Vitoria.

Do we legitimately have the possibility
of having sovereignty over America?

There should be a people's law above all,

and to which all,

winners and losers,
had to be accountable.

From there,
the Salamanca School was born,

but it does not stop
revealing a philosophical

and legal valuation of persons.

Castile, or Spain, has arrived,

and has imposed its law
because it is the victor.

But what he proposes is
that it is possible to evangelize

without conquering.

Basically, from there on,
an extremely interesting development

will take place
in the Salamanca School,

which is, somehow,
one of the great legacies

of our story.

If one crosses the Atlantic,

goes through the baquía,
baquía is the tropical fever,

the drowsiness, the adaptation…

You survive

and become a veteran
of the Antillean frontier.

It is a very risky enterprise,

comparable to the
first circumnavigation.

nineteen out of two hundred forty-five
arrive.

One would hire life insurance for that
trip…

All the sailors who embarked
made a will before leaving.

There is neither a course
nor a road or route

that leads from
Far East Asia to America,

which is the way back so as
not to run into the Portuguese way.

That must be discovered
so a first attempt is made,

followed by a second,
a third, a fourth, a fifth...

All failed.

In 1559, Felipe II wrote a letter
addressed to Fray Andrés de Urdaneta.

What does a king say to a friar?

Felipe II notes that Urdaneta says
that he is able to bring the ships back,

from the Philippines to Mexico.

Urdaneta was ordained a priest,

became an Augustinian,

and was a professor
at the seminary in Mexico.

Already sixty-five years old
he began, with a renewed spirit,

to plan that expedition.

Urdaneta is the one who chooses
Legazpi as head of the expedition.

Legazpi and Friar Urdaneta,

the cosmographer,

the adventurer, a character too…

Both of them are incredible characters.

They set sail from Mexico,
from Puerto de Navidad,

with a practically secret destination.

In fact, it is read
when they are already at sea,

and Miguel López de Legazpi
reads the orders to the crew.

They don't go to the spices,
they go to the Philippine Islands.

There are seven expeditions
one after another,

spending money, blood,
time and what there was not...

Until the genius Urdaneta arrives,

and says no, I am going
and I am coming back.

He knew that he had to
navigate to a northern parallel,

the closer to the
40th parallel the better,

so the winds and currents

were conducive to finally reach
the West Coast of the United States,

around California, and then
go down to what is now Acapulco.

Urdaneta himself is the one who insists
on Acapulco to be the port of departure

and entry for those galleons.

Very shortly after, in 1571,

Miguel López de Legazpi
founded the city of Manila,

and from that bay

it was finally possible to maintain
commercial relations across the Pacific.

From that moment on,
that astral conjunction is produced:

Urdaneta's return trip

and the crown of Portugal to Felipe II.

Then, my dear friend,
the total panic attack.

From 1580 onwards,

the entire Asian market

is in the hands of
the Hispanic Monarchy.

They achieved what
they had been looking for

since the end of the 15th century.

This explains the
paroxysm in the rebellions

that take place in the Netherlands.

There is a commercial
aspect that is normally ignored.

You just have to see
how the dates coincide,

and that helps to
understand a lot of things.

In the first meeting
between China and the West,

the Hispanic link is key.

It is the Spanish who become catalysts
for this economic and cultural exchange

between China and the West.

I think there is no real
awareness of the importance

the connection that existed between the
Habsburg Empire and the Ming Empire had.

Butter and sugar began to appear,

which were things that
did not exist in the Chinese Empire.

It is providential
when the Spanish arrive.

They arrive at the right time.

China is increasingly demanding

that the payment to the public treasury
should be made in silver,

and that only metallic payments in silver
and nothing else would be accepted.

But China had very few
original sources of silver.

The sources, the silver
remittances, were also huge,

those that come from the American mines,
mainly from the Zacatecas in New Spain,

and from Potosí
in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

Through Manila,

which is the place of
exchange with the Chinese

who come from the shores of Fujian,

an economy generates
that will transform the world’s finance.

With China being the most
populous country on Earth,

the conversion of its economy

around the silver standard

will have effects around the globe.

For the first time,

there is a standard, silver,

as a medium of exchange,

as a monetary unit.

The Real-de-a-Ocho is a Spanish coin

whose launch and
above all, its later development,

coincides with the
Conquest and the Empire.

After it is minted with new methods
that make counterfeiting more difficult,

and maintains value,
weight and measure,

the Real-de-a-Ocho
becomes international currency.

In the United States,

the Spanish Milled Dollar,
the Spanish minted dollar

is the monetary standard for the dollar.

Even the symbol is created
with the two columns of Plus Ultra

and the tie that joins the columns.

That is the symbol's origin.

Many think that much of America's silver
ended up in Spain, and it did not.

A third of the American Spanish silver
ended up in China.

They added engravings to those
coins to give them circulation.

They came out with some engravings,
which they called Chops.

They were Chinese characters,
sometimes conventional characters,

or sometimes the merchant's signature,

Chong, Cheng, Li...

Keep in mind that the
Philippines was the bazaar of the East.

The Chinese say:
The Spanish are interested in this.

Well, we are going to
bring porcelain to them.

Are they interested in silk?
We bring silk.

Are they interested in ivory?
We bring ivory.

One of the characteristics
of Buddhist art

is that they usually
have enlarged lobes.

Therefore, it is striking that these
virgins sometimes have very large ears

reminiscent of Chinese iconography.

Also, there are folds in the neck
that sometimes appear a bit chubby.

The Chinese who are
going to Manila every year,

understand what the Spanish wanted

and end up making religious
images that make no sense to them,

or much later,
Manila shawls

that can also have an
affectionate meaning in Spain

but none for them.

- Where do you go with a Manila shawl?

Where do you go with a chiné dress?

- To show off and see the Verbena,

and to get into bed afterwards.

The famous Manila shawl
had not been woven in the Philippines.

It had been woven in China,

but the Philippines traded it in America.

Then Spain created its own silk road,
the Manila Galleon sea route.

Manila-Acapulco, Acapulco-Veracruz,
Veracruz-Cádiz-Seville.

We call Manila the epicenter
of the first Globalization,

because it is the place
where Asia meets America,

and the place, above all,
where silver arrives.

That is why Manila
has essential importance

from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Chinese goods were very cheap.

Because of that, the Galleon
was an impressive business.

Manila Galleon's capacity,

one of the largest
wooden ships of its time,

was more than 1,500 tons,
even reaching 2,000 tons.

The importance of this trade route

has made humanity,
the entire world, connect.

Consequently, it also
arouses interest in exchange

between western and eastern worlds

because the products
arouse curiosity about China

and vice versa.

It will be the longest-lived
intercontinental route

that has ever existed.

It will end in 1815,
with the arrival of the Magellan Galleon,

returning from Acapulco to Manila.

Almost 250 years of trade.

This explains the importance
of all this exchange of products,

tools and techniques

that come from America to Europe,
from Asia to America, directly.

They arrive for any type of cuisine
and they open huge new possibilities.

There really was a connection
through the fleet

and the entire
administrative organization,

which made possible
something that, even today,

with all the means we have,
would have been difficult.

A widow from a town
in Córdoba goes to Mexico.

In her will, she says

she was able to endow
all of her daughters with her work,

and I believe there were four.

Finally,

at sixty years old, which is a lot
for the end of the 16th century,

she continued working

and did business with an other
daughter residing in Zacatecas

that would send her carrots

bought from farms
on the outskirts of Mexico.

Preserved carrots.

She even managed silver resources,

to invest in the Manila Galleon.

Hers and others.

Reading those who were there
and lived during that time,

you notice the existence
of a link with the crown.

Maybe not so much with
the rest of the regions or kingdoms,

but with the figure of the crown,
absolutely,

"We are subjects
of the Hispanic Monarchy"

and that is an identity card.

Two important elements of the
action of Spain in America remain:

Catholicism

and Spanish.

In Asia, only Catholicism,

indeed in the Philippines.

Without Spain, Catholicism
would possibly now be an entelechy

The vast majority
of Catholics are in areas

colonized by the Spanish
and the Portuguese.

In Greek, Catholic means
he that looks at everything.

We Spaniards looked at everything.

We Spaniards aspired to everything,

and we have also travelled it.

You talk about the Spanish Empire

or you talk about the history of Spain,

and you automatically judge.

Immediately.

It is a moral history.

All the other histories
of the western countries

are the history of that country,

but the history of Spain is not.

You immediately put a moral
judgment ahead the Spanish history.

What happened in the
Netherlands was not a war

between Spain and the Netherlands.

It was a civil war
in the interior of the Netherlands,

between some Dutch who supported unity

and the great project
that was the Catholic Monarchy,

and others who
decided that the best option

in order to control
that territory on their own,

was Secession.

- You see?

I think we are unfair
with the Spaniards.

- What do you want?
It is politics.

When you start to
study different episodes,

you realize there are more Dutch
with the Duke of Alba

than there are Dutch

on the Orange side.

It has been told as
a David and Goliath story:

Heroic, young and wonderful David,
always a lover of freedom...

That is,
something wonderful,

in opposition to the
horrible Spanish Empire,

obscurantist and Catholic,

which has taken freedom
from that happy people,

that was the Netherlands' territory until
the Spanish arrived and happiness ended.

The Habsburgs led a whole
policy of support for Catholicism

which was persecuted by Calvinism
and Lutheranism, et cetera.

All these circumstances make
the history of Spain highly ideological.

Let's say you are a historian
of modern France, right?

And you study modern France.

You are not saying all day long
if Louis XIV is good or bad.

With Felipe II it's different as he
must be immediately condemned.

You first proceed to condemn,

and once you have done it, in order to
show that you are one of the good guys,

you can then say something.

But first, you have to condemn,

because if you
do not condemn that story,

it means you are
contaminated with the same evil.

It has always been said, right?

The decadence, Carlos II...

The Black Legend
of an inquisitorial Spain,

a dark Spain,

a Spain that does not keep pace
with the evolution of European culture

and so on.

What Carlos II had was
an heir who came from abroad,

who found himself in need of prestige.

Obviously, the way of saying that this
change has been favorable and positive

is a condemnation
of the entire previous era.

Not at all.

Carlos II was not stupid.

Carlos II is not
mentally weak but physically.

I think he is a mentally normal person.

Of course, the word
"bewitched" is very beautiful,

there is no one to uproot it.

Not even if it were shown
that he was a phenomenon, a great King…

First of all, Felipe V
was the grandson of Louis XIV,

and the French shadow

permanently floated over Spain.

When Felipe V is named King,

Louis XIV begins to take over
Spanish trade with America,

and to try to have even more of it...

It was a great business.

One of the elements was the
rights of the slave trade in America,

and the commercial rights
with Spanish America

sought by France,
as well as by England

and Holland and later on, of course,
the immense American market.

Deep down what is being dealt
with is the desire of many to participate

in all the possessions and commercial
possibilities of the Spanish Empire.

The Spain of Carlos III
is a world power.

Where is that decadence then?

The Bourbon triumph meant
that Spain became France's doorman,

and that has greatly conditioned us on
the specific themes of the Black Legend.

In the 18th century, Spain
still had the entire American Empire

with important reforms,

but that image
passed through that French filter,

which says that
the neighbors were the worst.

From 1808, the disaster breaks out.

This is the greatest moment
of the disaster.

So far, the historical event that
I think we can consider the most serious

is the Napoleonic Invasion.

The war of 1808 should
not be called the War of Independence,

because we didn't achieve
independence from anything.

Spain was absolutely independent,

and had been more powerful than France,
throughout the modern age.

The Napoleonic Invasion
absolutely destroyed everything

that had been done throughout the
18th century and previously in the 17th.

The invading army,
the French, razed everything it could.

The English allied army was even worse,

because they burned all the
factories that competed with England...

For six years, we had
the longest Napoleonic War in Europe,

and then bad luck
that Fernando VII came.

Long Live Spain.

Long Live Spain

and Death to France

who burned the papal bull.

From 1808 to 1810, there was a war
between the Spanish Empire and Napoleon,

in America and in Europe.

Despite the dire circumstances
and the continuous wars until 1810,

there is no rupture of the empire.

And deny faith

Long Live Spain

Long Live Spain

England had always
looked at Spanish America

like the cat looks at the canary,

but it had not been able to eat it.

First, what it wants is free trade

as it allows them to sell their goods.

Secondly,

if this is going to
produce a breakup with Spain,

from whatever arises,

many states have to emerge.

It wants territorial fragmentation.

Balkanization.

The Spanish Empire collapses,

and not even the viceroyalties survive.

There were the viceroyalties of Mexico,
New Spain, Granada, Río de la Plata...

Great Britain preaches
Campanario's nationalism,

so each one of the republics
that are going to be created,

is created differently
from one another

as if they had been enemies.

It also preaches Hispanophobia.

Civilizations.

It is the English language.

Spanish is barbaric.

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

despite being the greatest
prose writer in Castillian,

that he handled admirably,
he did not like it.

What is civilization?

The Protestant says
catholicism is awful.

Everything is an atrocity.

What is civilization?
It is the city of Buenos Aires.

What is barbarism?
It is the barbaric inland

and its chieftains.

It must be razed.

That is why during
the Argentinian Civil War

he tells a general
not to spare gaucho blood

as it is the only human
attribute they have...

Kill them.

When you study the 19th century and
how the Argentine nation loses strength,

you find that the concept of
extermination appears in the Law.

That is a very dramatic breakdown.

When you study the 16th century,

you find that all legislation is
in favor of indigenous subjects.

The so-called “Pueblos Originarios”
were the most faithful to Spain

because the indigenous masses
in Peru, in Ecuador,

were against Independence,
and that is how it was.

The War of Independence
was not the end of a 300-year struggle.

No. For 300 years
they lived in peace in America.

It would be desirable
for the whole population

to stop using history as a weapon,

to stop using history to win votes,

to cut off Fray Junipero’s head,
because this comes in handy...

We must leave history there,
where it is.

Period.

Many American cities
have been founded by Fray Junipero.

The first mass and the city’s
name has been given by Fray Junipero.

San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Santa Clara, San Bernardino,

Sacramento…

Are all Christian names.

If they wanted to say in the past
that Junipero's work did not exist or

Junipero's work was
something bad for this place,

they would simply
have changed the names.

At the time of the Franciscans,

the indigenous populations
of California increased,

not decreased.

They disappeared later,
during the Gold Rush when,

by the way, Stanford
was California’s Governor

and the disappearance
of all these population

occured in just twenty or thirty years.

The indigenous people
called him Padre Viejo.

When he was already on his deathbed,

they removed pieces of his clothing,

they wanted to cut his hair

and they gave him
a great funeral and great masses.

The natives wept a lot for him.

He is buried there.

Many of those Indians spoke Spanish.

Geronimo is called like that
because he is from Arizpe.

Arizpe is a town founded by a Jesuit
whose name was Geronimo de la Canal.

Two generations had been sedentary there.

From 1848, when the
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed,

and Mexico loses a little
more than half of its territory,

the Apaches have to stay
on the other side of the border,

as they absolutely
refuse to abandon the lands

in which they
had been reasonably well-off.

Most of the tribes

and populations
in California disappeared

when the Spanish Empire disappeared.

It's the job of North American cinema
to tells us how the Anglo-Saxons

advance against these evil natives,

who want to scalp and destroy them,

and they come up
against these wild people.

This is simply trying not to see reality.

All the villages of the West,

which were already
founded and evangelized,

disappear from history.

Someone is going to be to blamed for
the disappearance of those populations,

and it is not going
to be a white Protestant.

This distortion of history
with a poorly told story

generates all that we have now.

There is one thing
that is absolutely ignored:

The “Pueblos Originarios”,
the natives, were never anti-Hispanic,

they always remained
faithful to the Hispanic idea.

For this reason, the saying goes:
Sir, the Conquest was made by the Indians

and the Independence
was made by the Spanish.

- There is a lot of injustice,
we can no longer bear it.

That is why,
from the first of January,

we had no choice
but to take up arms.

The Zapatista movement developed

as a response

to the state's lack of attention

to these indigenous populations.

Once the hostilities ended,

negotiations were conducted
that resulted in the San Andrés Accords.

What did they consist of?

In that the Mexican state undertook
to respect the uses and customs

of the Government and Administration
of those indigenous populations.

What the indigenous groups understood
as "traditional uses and customs"

were nothing other than the ones
they had in the 16th and 17th centuries,

consolidated by the Hispanic Monarchy.

So, they claimed as autochthonous
what had been created

during the viceregal system.

For the moment,

the laws that govern the interior
of these communities are the laws

of the 16th and 17th centuries.

But, of course, they do not know it.

I have already sent a letter

to the King of Spain

and another letter to the Pope,

so that an account of grievances is made

and the native people
are asked for forgiveness.

In historical processes
there are neither good nor bad,

neither heroes nor villains;

There are actors who,
depending on their own ideas

act in one sense or another.

It seems to me that it is a
historiographical exercise to erase

the imprints of the
Spanish-Iberian culture on the territory.

Artificially,
as it happens, as day after day,

one encounters reality
and with it that Hispanic heritage.

It is almost an act of
psychoanalytic denial, right?

To deny our own past,

because otherwise
it could not be explained that way

as three hundread years go a long way.

By 1500, this clear
perspective has already been taken.

Native Americans are persons
and they should be treated as such.

Therefore, they cannot be sold.

King Fernando is going to summon
to Burgos the best theologians

and jurists in the kingdom
to stipulate what to do.

They draft in the convent
of San Francisco de Burgos

the so-called
Thirty-Five Laws of Burgos.

They are a wonder of humanity.

There is one thing about Indian women,

how they cannot be
forced into marriage,

how they can appeal…

It is a wonderful thing.

At this time, when slavery
was absolutely normal,

it is very important that they stopped
to think about something like that:

That they could have private property,
their family home,

that their wives
would be kept from other men…

It is not only authorized,

but Spaniards are asked
to marry the natives.

And we found this
from the very beginning.

From the second voyage
of Columbus onwards,

Castilian families started to go there.

When institutions can advance,

women begin to go,
often in groups of single women,

who have not been able or didn’t have
an easy time getting married in Castilla.

They go to America because,
in the early years,

there are mainly men there.

For example,

in Cortés' company there are women
who do not want her husband to go alone

to such an adventure
so they go with them.

There are nurses, cooks,
prostitutes, obviously,

but there are also women
who embark out of necessity,

out of love

or adventure.

In the new world,
at least in the mindset of that moment,

creation is possible.

Colonialist countries
do not export themselves,

nor do they provoke
integration phenomena.

It is an absolutely
commercial enterprise,

not one of territorial integration.

You see Christopher
Columbus arrive in America,

and what is in America
a hundred years later?

Something else.

To begin with, we have a phenomenon
of extraordinary longevity:

It lasts for a very long time.

The painting of Martín de Loiola
marrying the Inca Princess

is a gigantic statement of inclusion.

Spanish nobility
did not deny indigenous nobility,

it accepted it as such.

They married them.

Those children that were sired
continued to be noble.

They did not stop being noble because
their mother or father was an Indian.

Until the 20th century, the British Raj
had forbidden mixed marriages

in India.

They were forbidden in such a way...
That they were excluded

from social and official life.

Maharaja of Kapurthala
had to marry an Indian woman,

but as he married a white woman,

that marriage could not be recognized

and Anita Delgado
couldn't be invited anywhere.

She had broken the rule.

She married an Indian man.

Something that absolutely characterizes

and defines Spanish colonization
is miscegenation.

There was also
reverse miscegenation,

indigenous men who married
Spanish women, but to a lesser extent.

Approaching that world
is very interesting

because you see figures
that come from a culture

and are able to take root
in a totally different environment,

and humanize it.

In a way,

they make that
impressive cultural fusion

that I think is
another great legacy:

human miscegenation,
cultural blending, etcetera.

That is what defeats,
let's say, the Black Legend,

which speaks of the
Spanish being genocidal.

If you see us,

the Mexicans or Latin Americans,

we are a mixture between the Spanish
who came from the peninsula,

or those Spaniards' children
who were born right there in Mexico:

the Creoles,

the indigenous people,
the mulattos,

and all those who lived
in the kingdom’s territories.

On the other hand,

there is no mixture in the United States

or let's say,
the Anglo-Saxon settlers.

The English Empire is colonization,

or the French Empire and,

of course,
the Dutch above all.

The Spanish conquest in America
should never be called colonization,

because they did not create a colony.

The American Empire
did not create colonies.

It transferred the way of life of the
Spanish and Spaniards moved there,

and they first creating viceroyalties,
and then, during the 19th century,

our overseas province.

There were no colonies.
They never were colonies.

There was a time when Mexicans clearly
knew they were the world's capital.

The true capital of the Spanish Empire
was not Madrid but Mexico.

The Philippines were called
the colony of the colony,

because it was a Mexican colony
more than a Spanish one.

Spain’s viceroyalty is
with the Philippine governance.

It is like a coexistence,
not only administrative,

but also a very rich cultural one.

In the 16th and 17th centuries
in Nueva España,

the same was happening
in Lima as in Seville,

including mores,
reading habits, ambience.

They are equidistant
from China and Spain.

The capital Mexico is worth more
than Madrid in everything.

Mexico should recover the awareness
of having been the articulating axis

of the economy of the world,

and of the importance
that Mexican's silver had

in the consolidation
of those international markets.

I think this could
help us to deconstruct

the victimizing
discourse of the conquered,

poor us,
who were massacred.

No, just the opposite.

We lack a global version.

We lack a global history
of the Spanish-speaking world,

of Spain and Hispanic America.

We hold the answers
to many questions about Globalization

from the perspective of other cultures.

We are at a good time,
on both sides of the Atlantic,

to rethink how we have
constructed the historical discourse,

and adhere more to that reality

and less to the founding myths
and the Black Legends.

World history cannot be explained
without Spanish history.

There are stories
that can be told independently,

but nothing of the
current world is understood

without telling the history of the
Hispanic countries and monarchy.

If it has always been true,

now more than ever,

the fight for the past
is definitely the fight for the future.

In memory of our ancestors,
for our sons.