By Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein
If conquest and forced colonization were a misfortune for the peoples of the South, the fact that the Spanish reached vast regions of America before other colonial powers was a double tragedy. At the end of the 15th century, Spain was in the process of transition to the Modern Age, lagging behind much of Europe in this regard.
The culmination of the Reconquista at the end of the 15th century resulted in the violent expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula and the political and territorial convergence of the main Spanish crowns, those of Castile and Aragon. Other kingdoms soon joined this monarchical union, thus achieving the complete union of the Hispanic, or Iberian, peninsula within the framework of a common monarchy.
The title of Catholics, granted to the kings of Spain by Pope Alexander VI in 1496, referred at the time to the specific religious affiliation of the monarchy and its defense of the Catholic faith. Thus, the processes of conquest and colonization were carried out not only in the name of political power, but also in the name of divine power. Both were used to unleash the worst genocide ever committed in human history.
Thus, history teaches us in rich detail what that cursed race from across the seas did. Perhaps it wouldn’t be right to blame today’s Spaniards for the misdeeds their ancestors committed, except that they continue to claim it as a glorious past that also denies the consummation of the murder of approximately 56 million human beings, 90% of the population of Abya Yala at that time.
After 332 years of savage occupation, they were defeated and forced to leave. But they remained in Cuba and Puerto Rico for another 74 years. All this came to mind when I read that the current Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, trying to reject the recent measures taken against Europe by President Donald Trump’s administration, said, more or less, that a good part of the United States’ wealth had been obtained thanks to Europe… and Spain has certainly played a significant role in that regard. What’s strange is that its leaders claim it as something positive.
As early as February 1819, Spain gladly ceded the territories of Florida and Oregon to the United States, as well as navigation on the Mississippi River, in exchange for Washington’s support in its fight against the southern independence movement. Through the Adams-Onis Treaty, or Transcontinental Treaty, Spain accepted some crumbs, including that the United States “respect” its possession of Texas and the boundaries of California. We know what happened later to these territories, which increased the “wealth” of the United States. But Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, later President of the United States, refused to even make a formal promise; he limited himself to a verbal declaration on these matters.
Long before, at least since 1801, the United States had shown interest in seizing Cuba. A few decades later, Spain once again eagerly agreed to increase America’s wealth. In December 1898, a Spain accustomed to having ignominious agreements imposed on it signed the Treaty of Paris with the United States, renouncing the “sovereignty and ownership of Cuba” while ceding—in favor of US wealth—Puerto Rico, the Guam Islands, and the Philippine archipelago. Of course, Spain allowed the United States to interfere in Cuba’s war of independence when the unrepentant Mambises had practically won the war.
In Article 7 of the treaty, Spain renounced all claims to compensation of “whatever kind” and in Article 8 surrendered all its estates and properties in these territories. The stupidity and cowardice of the Spanish elite throughout history is so great that the Treaty of Paris, in Article 16, states verbatim: “It is understood that any obligations accepted by the United States in this Treaty with respect to Cuba are limited to the duration of their occupation of this island; but at the termination of such occupation, they will advise any government established on the island to accept the same obligations.”
Thus, in 1901, the Platt Amendment was established, incorporated into the Cuban Constitution, limiting its independence and establishing a neocolonial system for the control and domination of the island. This contraption remained “valid” until 1934, but effectively disappeared from Cuba’s political horizon with the triumph of the revolution in 1959. The Treaty of Paris was a major contribution from Spain—once again—to increasing the wealth of the United States, which it so desperately needed.
Continuing its stoic practice, years later, in 1975, Spain, without even signing a treaty, handed over its possessions in Western Sahara to the rotten Moroccan monarchy. It seemed that the utter lack of dignity it displayed in favor of the United States would also be expressed in Africa in support of other entities that also ” needed” European aid to increase their wealth. In November of that year, through Operation Swallow, they prepared the urgent evacuation of the armed forces and their property from the Saharawi territory.
Through a shadowy figure named José Solís, Spain expressed its willingness to abandon the Sahara immediately to Morocco’s Alawite monarch, Hassan II, only on condition that Morocco “cover up its promises and honor Spain’s obligations” and that the Bourbon monarchy agreed to the Sahara being placed under Moroccan sovereignty. It was such a dishonorable act that even the occupying Spanish armed forces rejected it.
After that, Hassan II and his son, the current monarch, had enough money to buy off the Spanish elites, this time to contribute to increasing their own wealth and that of other European leaders needing to feed their personal pockets. Nothing could be done to change the situation. Ignominy and shamelessness are embedded in the DNA of the Spanish elites, whether monarchical or political. It is a natural condition of their repulsive existence.
In the middle of the last century, at the end of World War II, the United States devised the Marshall Plan, which was “sold” as Washington’s effort to rebuild war-ravaged Europe. In reality, the Marshall Plan was the instrument by which—in the midst of the Cold War—the United States bought Europe to confront the Soviet Union.
But once that was gone and the 20th-century ideological conflict ended, Europe was no longer necessary for Washington. However, the Atlanticist elites who have governed on both sides of the ocean for the past 35 years continued to construct the fiction that they were still allies, partners, and friends.
Today, as President Trump puts things right, Europe is taking note of the parasitic and dependent nature that led it to nurture US power to the detriment of its own people. Now, it realizes that, like certain gadgets that are used and discarded, the United States is consigning it to the dunghill of history from which it will never escape.
Given the decisions of its elites, Europe is a nobody, among other reasons because it has no material wealth: it depended on Russia for cheap energy to guarantee its industrial and technological development, and it gave up on that to— contribute to the wealth of the United States—buy it at three times the price. Now, they are mired in a deep economic crisis from which they don’t know how to escape.
It depends on China for its economic trade, especially since 2021 when Beijing became its main trading partner. Even though it ceded that position again to the United States in 2023, today, in the midst of its crisis, it has been forced to turn to the Asian giant to avoid deepening its dependence on Washington.
They depend on the United States for their defense. This subservience came at a very low price, while they raised the specter of a possible Russian invasion that never happened, but which the Atlanticist elites in Washington “bought” because it was in their interest. However, when, based on the most basic rules of capitalism, Trump proposed to charge for the service rendered, they crumbled and had no answer, so they chose to shamelessly flaunt their mediocrity.
Furthermore, since they lack a robust military industry of their own, when they set out to strengthen their military potential, they will have to purchase weapons from the United States—at least in the initial phase—thus contributing to the expansion of America’s wealth.
If Pedro Sánchez thinks that saying this to Trump will change the state of affairs, he only exposes his narrow-mindedness, his lack of understanding of what’s happening in the world, and his insignificance as a politician and statesman.
Nothing else could be expected of him, given the blood that runs through his veins and the DNA of his lineage… if we would only know it here in Our America.