History of the Conquest of Mexico: The Black Legend, Prescott’s Paradigm, Tlaxcalans, and US-Mexican War
Accompanying an increasing interest in Spain during the antebellum era was a repackaging of the “Black Legend” – a cultural and racial stereotype that became a long-held historiographical generalization.
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General Grant Encounters Terrorism in Madrid: The 1878 Attempted Regicide of King Alfonso XII
When former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant visited Europe on a post-presidential world tour in the late 1870s political terrorism was in its nascent stage. The International Workingmen’s Association (or First International) split in 1872 between anarchist and statist factions and disbanded in 1876. After that, violence against heads of state increased.
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Conquer and Divide: The Spanish Resistance that Broke Napoleon’s Second Strategy
Although he was a brilliant military tactician, one of the ways Napoleon managed to hold on to conquered regions was by employing a strategy of carving up states based on historical precedent. The Rhodanic Republic (1802-1810), the Kingdom of Italy (1805-1814), and the Republic of Danzig (1807-1814) were among a few “sister republics” created by Napoleon. These client states, formed under the guise of revanchist history, aided the control of occupied lands in the First French Empire. When Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, he set about to redraw its map in a similar fashion.
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