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In-Depth Information
cultural achievements during the so-called
S IGLO DE O RO (Golden Age) added resentful
jealousy to moral indignation and patriotic
fervor as elements contributing to a deep
enduring antagonism toward all things
Spanish. During the 18th century, a period
of relative decline for the country, Spain
was perceived as the opponent of Enlight-
enment and modernism. The loss of its
colonial empire in the 19th century and its
socioeconomic backwardness were added
to the evidence of its fundamentally flawed
character and even of divine punishment
for the misdeeds of a corrupt nation, whose
material deterioration proved its unworthi-
ness to participate in the mainstream of
European society. Spain's long-term antag-
onists, Great Britain and the Habsburg
Empire, provided prolific promoters of the
Leyenda Negra. The United States by and
large inherited its perspective from Britain.
Even such chroniclers of Spain's past glo-
ries as William H. Prescott tended to see
Spanish achievements outweighed by the
bad principles and conduct of its leaders.
The negative view of Spain among North
Americans was inevitably intensified by
the S PANISH -A MERICAN W AR of 1898.
French opinion was less consistently hos-
tile to Spain, but France's writers usually
cultivated an image in fiction, operatic sce-
narios, and travel accounts of Spain as a
romantic but violent and dangerous place,
whose denizens were given to extreme
passion and violent action. Spain's relative
isolation from the Western mainstream
through most of the 20th century com-
pounded ignorance and prejudice to pro-
duce a mixture of dismissal and contempt
even more lacerating to Spanish pride.
Although some Spanish writers have
actually made their own contributions to
the Black Legend by emphasizing particular
misdeeds (for example, B ARTOLOMÉ DE L AS
C ASAS in his denunciation of Spanish mis-
treatment of the Indians and A NTONIO P ÉREZ
in his depiction of P HILIP II), most Spaniards
defended their country from its traducers,
even while lamenting its shortcomings. The
legacy of the Black Legend remains pro-
foundly significant even at the beginning of
the 21st century.
Lisbon (Lisboa)
An important seaport from ancient times,
Lisbon was held by many rulers, from
Romans to Visigoths before becoming a
Moorish stronghold in the early Middle
Ages. Captured by Christian lords in 1147,
it became the capital of the newly indepen-
dent kingdom of Portugal. A base for trans-
atlantic and circum-African voyages of
exploration and trade, it was one of the
most important cities of Renaissance Europe
until the end of the 16th century, when it
fell under Spanish control. It experienced a
revival during the reign of J OHN V (1706-
50) due to the influx of wealth derived from
Brazilian mineral discoveries. After the dev-
astating earthquake of 1755 it never
regained its former prosperity, although
much was done to reconstruct its public
buildings and to restore its historic struc-
tures. The decline and fall of the B RAGANÇA
dynasty between 1807 and 1910 further
diminished links with the historic grandeur
of the past. During World War II (1939-45)
Lisbon became celebrated as a center of
international espionage, as agents from all
over the world met and competed for infor-
mation in this neutral capital. Following
the end of the Salazar dictatorship in 1974,
Lisbon began to emerge from its isolation
 
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