{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-12:spain-and-the-spaniards",
  "slug": "spain-and-the-spaniards",
  "title": "Spain and the Spaniards",
  "subtitle": "On the Spanish-American War.",
  "excerpt": "Ingersoll's short, unsparing history of Spain — its Inquisition, its empire, and its defeat in 1898.",
  "year": 1898,
  "volume": 12,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/spain-and-the-spaniards/",
  "wordCount": 1315,
  "body": "SPAIN has always been exceedingly religious and exceedingly cruel. That\ncountry had an unfortunate experience. The Spaniards fought the Moors\nfor about seven hundred or eight hundred years, and during that time\nCatholicism and patriotism became synonymous. They were fighting the\nMoslems. It was a religious war. For this reason they became intense in\ntheir Catholicism, and they were fearful that if they should grant the\nleast concession to the Moor, God would destroy them. Their idea was\nthat the only way to secure divine aid was to have absolute faith, and\nthis faith was proved by their hatred of all ideas inconsistent with\ntheir own.\n\nSpain has been and is the victim of superstition. The Spaniards expelled\nthe Jews, who at that time represented a good deal of wealth and\nconsiderable intelligence. This expulsion was characterized by infinite\nbrutality and by cruelties that words can not express. They drove\nout the Moors at last. Not satisfied with this, they drove out the\nMoriscoes. These were Moors who had been converted to Catholicism.\n\nThe Spaniards, however, had no confidence in the honesty of the\nconversion, and for the purpose of gaining the good will of God, they\ndrove them out. They had succeeded in getting rid of Jews, Moors and\nMoriscoes; that is to say, of the intelligence and industry of Spain.\nNothing was left but Spaniards; that is to say, indolence, pride,\ncruelty and infinite superstition. So Spain destroyed all freedom of\nthought through the Inquisition, and for many years the sky was livid\nwith the flames of the Auto da fe; Spain was busy carrying fagots\nto the feet of philosophy, busy in burning people for thinking, for\ninvestigating, for expressing honest opinions. The result was that a\ngreat darkness settled over Spain, pierced by no star and shone upon by\nno rising sun.\n\nAt one time Spain was the greatest of powers, owner of half the world,\nand now she has only a few islands, the small change of her great\nfortune, the few pennies in the almost empty purse, souvenirs of\ndeparted wealth, of vanished greatness. Now Spain is bankrupt, bankrupt\nnot only in purse, but in the higher faculties of the mind, a nation\nwithout progress, without thought; still devoted to bull fights and\nsuperstition, still trying to affright contagious diseases by religious\nprocessions. Spain is a part of the mediaeval ages, belongs to an ancient\ngeneration. It really has no place in the nineteenth century.\n\nSpain has always been cruel. S. S. Prentice, many years ago, speaking\nof Spain said: \"On the shore of discovery it leaped an armed robber, and\nsought for gold even in the throats of its victims.\" The bloodiest pages\nin the history of this world have been written by Spain. Spain in Peru,\nin Mexico, Spain in the low countries—all possible cruelties come back\nto the mind when we say Philip II., when we say the Duke of Alva, when\nwe pronounce the names of Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain has inflicted\nevery torture, has practiced every cruelty, has been guilty of every\npossible outrage. There has been no break between Torquemada and\nWeyler, between the Inquisition and the infamies committed in Cuba.\n\nWhen Columbus found Cuba, the original inhabitants were the kindest and\ngentlest of people. They practiced no inhuman rites, they were good,\ncontented people. The Spaniards enslaved them or sought to enslave them.\nThe people rising, they were hunted with dogs, they were tortured, they\nwere murdered, and finally exterminated. This was the commencement of\nSpanish rule on the island of Cuba. The same spirit is in Spain to-day\nthat was in Spain then. The idea is not to conciliate, but to coerce,\nnot to treat justly, but to rob and enslave. No Spaniard regards a\nCuban as having equal rights with himself. He looks upon the island as\nproperty, and upon the people as a part of that property, both equally\nbelonging to Spain.\n\nSpain has kept no promises made to the Cubans and never will. At last\nthe Cubans know exactly what Spain is, and they have made up their minds\nto be free or to be exterminated. There is nothing in history to equal\nthe atrocities and outrages that have been perpetrated by Spain upon\nCuba. What Spain does now, all know is only a repetition of what Spain\nhas done, and this is a prophecy of what Spain will do if she has the\npower.\n\nSo far as I am concerned, I have no idea that there is to be any war\nbetween Spain and the United States. A country that can't conquer Cuba,\ncertainly has no very flattering chance of overwhelming the United\nStates. A man that cannot whip one of his own boys is foolish when he\nthreatens to clean out the whole neighborhood. Of course, there is\nsome wisdom even in Spain, and the Spaniards who know anything of this\ncountry know that it would be absolute madness and the utmost extreme\nof folly to attack us. I believe in treating even Spain with perfect\nfairness. I feel about the country as Burns did about the Devil: \"O wad\nye tak' a thought an' mend!\" I know that nations, like people, do as\nthey must, and I regard Spain as the victim and result of conditions,\nthe fruit of a tree that was planted by ignorance and watered by\nsuperstition.\n\nI believe that Cuba is to be free, and I want that island to give a new\nflag to the air, whether it ever becomes a part of the United States\nor not. My sympathies are all with those who are struggling for their\nrights, trying to get the clutch of tyranny from their throats; for\nthose who are defending their homes, their firesides, against tyrants\nand robbers.\n\nWhether the Maine was blown up by the Spaniards is still a question. I\nsuppose it will soon be decided. In my own opinion, the disaster came\nfrom the outside, but I do not know, and not knowing, I am willing\nto wait for the sake of human nature. I sincerely hope that it was an\naccident. I hate to think that there are people base and cruel enough\nto commit such an act. Still, I think that all these matters will be\nsettled without war.\n\nI am in favor of an international court, the members to be selected\nby the ruling nations of the world; and before this court I think all\nquestions between nations should be decided, and the only army and the\nonly navy should be under its direction, and used only for the purpose\nof enforcing its decrees. Were there such a court now, before which\nCuba could appear and tell the story of her wrongs, of the murders, the\nassassinations, the treachery, the starvings, the cruelty, I think that\nthe decision would instantly be in her favor and that Spain would be\ndriven from the island. Until there is such a court there is no need of\ntalking about the world being civilized.\n\nI am not a Christian, but I do believe in the religion of justice, of\nkindness. I believe in humanity. I do believe that usefulness is the\nhighest possible form of worship. The useful man is the good man, the\nuseful man is the real saint. I care nothing about supernatural myths\nand mysteries, but I do care for human beings. I have a little short\ncreed of my own, not very hard to understand, that has in it no\ncontradictions, and it is this: Happiness is the only good. The time to\nbe happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is\nto make others so.\n\nI think this creed if adopted, would do away with war. I think it would\ndestroy superstition, and I think it would civilize even Spain.\n"
}