Thursday, July 22, 2010

Historical revisionism: 1807

I was one day reproaching a Spaniard, lately arrived from Buenos-Ayres, with the cruelties which his countrymen had committed on their first conquests in America. I recalled to mind, with horror, the crimes which had tarnished the glory of a Cortez, a Pizarro, and many other heroes who have, perhaps, by their talents and valour, surpassed all that we admire in the ancients; and regretted, that so glorious an epocha in the Spanish history should be recorded on blood-stained pages.
My friend had hitherto listened to me with patience; a tear rolled down his cheek...
...let us not reproach each other: we have all been barbarians, but leave to history the melancholy employment of recording the crimes of our forefathers...
--From La Belle assemblée--

How can it be historical revisionism to portray our forefathers as bad and horrible people if many of our forefathers would have agreed with the assessment?

2 comments:

Pete said...

A good thing to remember for the current crop of "hate America" crowd. Our ancestors were no different than anyone else's ancestors and are guilty of the same crime: being human. No excuse, of course, but there it is. Let's move on from there.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Yes, they need to start hating everybody. They aren't really open-minded citizens of the world if they fixate on hating just one country.