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MaintenanceInternal t1_izdxx7n wrote

Reply to Why is the Spanish colonial empire often said/implied to be "less focused on trade" or "not prioritising trade" compared to other empires like the Dutch, British, Portuguese etc.? by raori921

One interesting part of Spanish history that isn't as widely known as it should be is the Reconquista.

Christian Spain had been reduced to the small kingdom of Asturias in the North West of the country by the invading Muslims from North Africa.

This small Kingdom eventually expanded and Spain spent hundreds of years recovering her land from the Muslim invaders until they were completely expelled from the country.

This caused Spain to be religiously fervorous which resulted in the mistreatment of people's from other religions.

This is large part of why Spain had a strong focus on converting people to Christianity.

Also, the conquest of the Americas, Mexico in particular resulted in such an influx of gold and silver to Spain that the economy crashed due to the devaluation of the currency.

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MaintenanceInternal t1_iy7p8ob wrote

Reply to Barbados plans to make Tory MP pay reparations for family’s slave past by rein_deer7

Noone should be punished for the actions of their forefathers.

If the argument turns to people currently benefitting from the slaver actions of their ancestors then consider the following;

The slaves came from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ghana,the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon.

At least some of the people with African descent who currently live in Barbados are likely living a better life than their cousins in some of these countries.

Point being that while slavery is vile, we need to move past it, it happened, Africans were enslaved by Europeans, 2000 years prior to this the Romans enslaved entire tribes of hundreds of thousands of people.

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