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English Controversialists seized on Acosta's admissions of superficial conversions to argue that Spaniards had succeeded in partial conversions only because Catholicism was marked by the same forms of idolatry and superstition as native religions.

=== The Spanish Black Legend[edit] === Main article: Black legend (Spain)

However, factors that would set the Spanish Black Legend apart from others might include its abnormal permeation and outreach across nations, its racialized component, and its abnormal persistence through time. The causes of this have been suggested as:


 * 1) The overlap of the period of splendour of the Spanish Empire with the introduction of the printing press in England and Germany, which allowed the propaganda of such colonial and religious rivals to spread faster and w ider than ever before and persist in time long after the disappearance of the empire.
 * 2) Permanence after the dissolution of the empire due to religious factors.
 * 3) The dismantling and substitution of the Spanish intellectual class by another more favorable to former rival France following the War of the Spanish Succession, which established the French narrative in the country.
 * 4) The unique characteristics of the colonial wars of the early contemporary period and the need of new colonial powers to legitimize claims in now independent Spanish colonies, as well as the unique and new characteristics of the British Empire that succeeded it.

The hypothesis of a Spanish Black Legend assimilating anti-Hispanic propaganda from the 16th and 17th centuries has a high level of acceptance among specialists, but the extent of its reach and the data it affected, and what may have actually occurred instead, is still debated, especially regarding the Spanish colonization of the Americas, where few written sources have been proven reliable. Historians are now exploring genetic as well as new scientific and statistical investigative techniques.

There is also debate regarding whether the Spanish Black Legend is still in effect today. While some authors like Powell believe that the Black Legend continues to influence modern-day policies and international relationships, other authors, like Henry Kamen, believe it has been left behind.

English Controversialists seized on Acosta's admissions of superficial conversions to argue that Spaniards had succeeded in partial conversions only because Catholicism was marked by the same forms of idolatry and superstition as native religions.

During the middle ages France and Spain were the two great imperial rivals of Europe. The French were Christians and The Spanish were Muslims. They had been fighting border Skirmishes for more than one thousand years. The Christian armies reclaimed control of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims by the 18th Century.