"Whoever knows history, builds the future."
— The documentary's Tag Line
How did a third of México's silver end up in the Ming dynasty China?
Spain, the first globalization (España, la primera globalización) is a 2021 historical documentary by Goya Award-winner director José Luis López-Linares. It was started production, partially through crowdfunding by history aficionados, back in 2018.
The documentary addresses the least known aspects of the historical Hispanic Monarchy, popularly known as the Spanish Empire, and his main role in creating the first truly global power. It features the presence of 39 historians of all around the world, like John Elliott, María Ángeles Pérez Samper, Ricardo García Cárcel, Ramón Tamames, Nigel Townson, Marcelo Gullo, Carmen Iglesias, Elvira Roca Barea or Carlos Martínez Shaw, all of which try the always uphill battle of debunking the Spanish Black Legend and create a new understanding of the first empire where sun never set.
It became the most watched in Spain in all of 2021, with reports of many standing ovations in cinemas, although, oddly enough (or maybe not so oddly), it was not pre-selected as a Goya candidate.
Tropes found in this documentary are:
- The Alliance:
- As the documentary's historians point out, the Spanish Conquest of America was undergone by a minority of white Spaniards and a majority of indigenous allies working together. Why aren't the latter considered conquistadores in their own right is the question the documentary tries to answer.
- Masses of indigenous from Ecuador and Perú fight for the Royalist side alongside whites during the Spanish American Wars of Independence, sometimes outnumbering the tribes on the Patriot side.
- Bold Explorer:
- Magallanes and Elcano, who go in a crazy expedition around the globe seeking for spices and end up proving empirically the Earth is round.
- Hernán Cortés is presented as a skilled entrepreneur that could have made money in easier ways, but instead, embodying the spirit of 16th century Castile, chose to go big.
- Burn the Witch!: Part of the popular image of the always unexpected Spanish Inquisition, in actuality a near-exclusive thing of Protestant countries and France.
- Chain of Deals: Trade in the Spanish Empire forms a new silk road through both oceans, with the route Manila-Acapulco-Veracruz-Cádiz-Sevilla being its main line.
- Christianity is Catholic: This is discussed, as the main reason of this trope's existence might be the Catholic church being the largest branch of Christianity in the world - which is, of course, due to the Spanish Empire.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Ferdinand Magellan's expedition is considered an almost suicide mission at his time, but it is successful (if at the cost of the lives of Magellan and many other crewmen). Out of five ships, only one returns, yet the spice load it carries is enough to get the entire inversion back, generating also the first truly global maps.
- Double Standard: Discussed. As the documentary points out, the Black Legend erases the context of certain events in Spanish history to make them look bad, often taking phenomena that were usual and widespread at the time and instead presenting them as unique misdeeds that only could happen in the brutal Spain.
- A map of Europe in the documentary shows dozens of expulsions of Jews, of which countries like Germany, France (those two four times each), England, Gales, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Napoles, Crimea and Portugal are guilty. However, as the documentary points out, chances are that you could live in any of those countries and only learn about the 1492 Spanish expulsion, in which comparatively, only a remnant, unassimilated fourth quarter of the Spanish Jewish population was kicked out.
- Geneva has a statue of John Calvin, who executed around 500 dissidents in the city, comparing it to the likely outrage that would come out of a statue of Tomás de Torquemada in Spain.
- It's also recalled that the Spanish Inquisition came after French and British homologues, rather than being an unique manifestation of Spanish Christianity, and even then, the thing actually compares favorably when put in context. In Spain, registers imply the Inquisition hosted likely around 3,000-5,000 executions,[[/note]]In the documentary, historian Jaime Contreras explicitly mentions around 750 executions between 1540 and 1700. The rest of the Inquisition's history (1478-1540, 1700-1812) goes unmentioned, as it is not his field. However, the total numbers are in the work of another of the historians interviewed, Ricardo García Cárcel.[[/note]] with 150-200 of them being supposed witches. In Germany alone, around 25,000 witches alone were killed.
- The Empire: This is the popular image of the Spanish Empire, only partially true. Curiously, the name Spanish Empire is basically an exonym - it was not used during most of its existance, and not by their own authorities, who instead referred to their domain as the Kingdom of Castile.
- Epic Fail: The historians mention some research performed in the Netherlands, on the basis that, as the Spanish troops were so bloodthirsty and inhuman, there must have been a decrease of population due to their massacres, as being as some Spanish genetics in modern Netherlanders due to mass rape. Both of them fall flat: the former shows that the population grow was higher during the era of The Duke of Alba compared to that of William of Orange, and the latter that there are no such genetics. (Of course, you could argue those papers were already based on very farfetched ideas, so proving them wrong is not so big of a feat, but a lot of people actually believe such things.)
- Evil Colonialist: Another popular image of this, challenged in both of its point by the historians quoted. It's noted that the Spanish Empire wasn't truly colonial, as it didn't work by planting colonies in foreign territory, but by assimilating the whole territory as an extension of the original, with all of its theoretical rights and chances of development. In other words, after the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire, an Aztec was theoretically as much of a legal citizen of Spain as an Andalusian or an Extremaduran.
- Foreign Ruling Class: Subverted. While the Hispanic Monarchy administers the conquered territory, it respects indigenous royal lineages and cultivates them as much as possible, so many native communities continue being ruled by their original chieftains under the Spanish administration. The lineage of Isabel de Moctezuma is mentioned, as well as Nicolás Montáñez, a Texcocan indigenous turned Spanish general.
- Founder of the Kingdom: Cortés is called the founder of México's economic structure, if not even México itself, as the myriad of indigenous states that populated Mesoamerica only became truly unified as a nation after they were conquered and bunched together in a viceroyalty.
- From Bad to Worse: When the Turks capture Constantinopla, there is panic in the court of Henry IV of Castile, already under pressure, as they believe the Turks might reinforce the Berbery Moors.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: The attitude of the Spanish Empire, which by 1636 (the foundation year of Harvard University, the first of the Thirteen Colonies) had already found thirteen universities throughout Americanote and would to fund four more before 1721.note
- Global Currency: The piece of eight, Spanish dollar or real de a ocho was the first of those. It becomes the basis for the modern dollar, with the latter's symbol being a remnant of the Spanish crest (Hercules's Pillars and the cloth wrapped around them).
- Good Shepherd: The work of the Franciscans and Junípero Serra is reframed on the knowledge that, with their actions, Native American population didn't decrease, but increase. On the opposite, the level of population would fall much later, with the Gold Fever.
- Guile Hero: The Black Legend is interpreted as this; being unable to destroy the Hispanic Monarchy on the battlefields, the Dutch and British destroyed it in the history books.
- Hijacked by Jesus: Inverted; hijacked by Buddha in this case. Statues of Madonna and Jesus Christ made in China and Philippines often have elongated ears and serene facials echoing Buddhist artwork.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The goal of the Black Legend is to paint the Hispanic Monarchy as irredeemably brutal, racist and ignorant, often turning realities on their head in order to fit the narrative. Still, Marcelo Gullo warns about going to the opposite end, clarifying that the history of Spain "is one of men, not angels."
- Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: Literally, when the needs of the new globalization drive the University of Salamanca and Pope Gregory XIII to upgrade the old Julian calendar. Ironically, the contribution of the university that made it technically possible in the first place goes historically unnoticed in the whole topic.
- Horrible Judge of Character: The Catholic Monarchs realize Christopher Columbus is a douchebag, so they instead appoint Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca to administer the newly discovered lands. Subverted, as Fonseca himself turns to be troublesome as well, so he is later replaced by the Consejo de Indias.
- Illegal Religion: Around 380,000 Jews live in the Spain of the period, the greatest community of the European diaspora, of which only around 80,000 are expelled in the infamous Expulsion of the Jews. As the kings' problem with them is religious and not racial, most of them are instead assimilated as conversos by being baptized and often marrying other Christians, some of them end up reaching quite high jobs, such as the Haro family. This is considered an unique case in the harsh history of Jews in Europe.
- It's Been Done:
- The documentary shows encyclopedies claiming Sir Francis Drake was the first to circumnavigate the world instead of Elcano.
- The documentary also mentions José de Acosta, who discovered the Humboldt Current 250 years before Alexander von Humboldt and performed studies that foreshadowed those of Charles Darwin.
- Malicious Slander: The Spanish Black Legend itself, probably the greatest, most successful Malicious Slander in history.
- The Man Behind the Man: The woman behind the man in this case. La Malinche is called the true conquistadora of America and not Cortés.
- MegaCorp: The Haro family, a clan of possibly Jewish conversos led by Christopher of Haro, keeps a multi-national merchant corporation with branches in Netherlands, Portugal and other countries. It founds several exploring expeditions in Spain.
- The Navigator: Several mentioned, like Magellan, Juan de la Cosa (who draws the first map of America) and Andrés de Urdaneta (who discovered the easterly route across the Pacific Ocean).
- The Philosopher: Francisco de Vitoria from the School of Salamanca. He contributes heavily to the modern international law and freedom of commerce.
- Propaganda Machine: Protestantism and Germanic nationalism arefuel for propaganda for William of Orange against the Hispanic Monarchy. The trope becomes literal when they capitalize on the recently invented printing press to mass generate anti-Spanish propaganda, now in 15 different languages.
- La Résistance:
- Countries squaring off against the evil, colonial Spanish Empire acquire this vibe by default.
- It's also argued against assuming this trope when talking about the Spanish War of Independence, noting that, even if Napoléon Bonaparte had the military upper hand, the Spanish Empire he invaded was way bigger than his own.
- Small Reference Pools: Everything surrounding the Spanish Armada, the admittedly spectacular failure of an invasion of the British Islands. Everybody around the world has studied a bit of the story, but comparatively, very few people are even familiar with the very war of which the Armada was just one battle, and even less people know said war ended in a treaty favorable to Spain, which succeeded at removing Britain as an extra obstacle in its conflict in the Netherlands. (The British Armada, a similarly failed counter-invasion that came immediately after the first, is seldom mentioned too.)
- Ur-Example:
- A Spanish cosmographer, Pedro de Medina, writes an absolutely seminal work on high seas navigation, Arte de navegar, which will be copied in all of Europe. The same happens with Pedro Ciruelo and his treatises on mathematics. The movie also notes medics like Francisco López de Villalobos, who profiled syphilis for the first time, and Cosme de Medina, a pioneer of anatomy.
- As shown in the documentary, William Gilbert's studies aboit magnetism are preceded by those of Fernán Pérez de Oliva, and Galileo Galilei's and Newton's by those of Domingo de Soto.
