Spain’s King Felipe VI acknowledges that ‘much abuse’ occurred in the conquest of the Americas

By Suman Naishadham

Spain’s monarch said Monday the Spanish conquest of the Americas included “much abuse” and “ethical controversies,” striking a conciliatory tone amid a yearslong row between Spain and Mexico over colonial era abuses committed by the Spanish crown centuries ago.

King Felipe VI

King Felipe VI made the remarks while speaking with Mexico’s ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz, during a visit to a museum exhibition in Madrid about the role of women in pre-Columbian Mexico.

About the centuries-old Spanish conquest, Felipe said: “There are things that, when we study them, we come to know them, and well, with our current values, they obviously cannot make us feel proud.”

“But they must be understood in their proper context, not with excessive moral presentism, but with an objective and rigorous analysis,” he said.

The Bourbon king’s symbolic remarks came after years of a diplomatic spat between Spain and Mexico over the Mexican government’s demands that Spain apologize for its 1519-1521 conquest of Mexico, which resulted in the death of a large part of the country’s pre-Hispanic population.

Colonial Spain ruled one of the largest empires in history with its territorial holdings spanning 5 continents at its peak between the 16th and 18th centuries. That included much of Central and South America.

Mexico City was the seat of Spain’s colonial power in the Americas after the Spanish and their Indigenous allies toppled the Aztecs in 1521. Mexico City was built over the ruins of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.

In 2019, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded that Spain “publicly and officially” recognize the abuses committed during the conquest of Mexico in a letter sent to the Spanish king and Pope Francis. Spain refused to do so, which soured relations between the two governments.

In 2024, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum did not invite Felipe to her inauguration over the palace’s refusal to issue a formal apology, a move that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called “unacceptable.” Spain refused to send a representative to Sheinbaum’s inauguration.

But tensions appeared to thaw last fall when Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares acknowledged the “pain and injustice” suffered by Mexico’s Indigenous population at the hands of Spanish conquerors. Those comments came at the inauguration of the same museum exhibit attended Monday by the king.

“There has been pain, pain and injustice toward the indigenous peoples to whom this exhibition is dedicated,” Albares said at the time.

Sheinbaum recognized the foreign minister’s remarks as a first step, saying then that “this is the first time that a Spanish government authority has spoken of regretting the injustice.”

Felipe’s comments do not constitute a formal apology by Spain’s royal palace. Sheinbaum on Monday said she would look into his remarks.
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Credit: Associated Press