Final answer:
The Spanish misunderstood their relationship with native populations, viewing them as subjects to be exploited and converted rather than as equals. In practice, this led to brutal exploitation, although resistance from native peoples persisted, enabling aspects of their cultures to survive. The Black Legend also portrayed Spanish cruelty, which was used by rivals to justify their own colonial practices.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Spanish had significant misunderstandings regarding the native population they encountered in the Americas. They believed they had the right to not only the land but also to the labor and the spiritual lives of the indigenous people, based on their military conquest and the imposition of Catholicism. This was supposed to be a reciprocal relationship wherein the Spanish would protect and Christianize the natives in return for their labor. However, in practice, this led to the brutal exploitation and cultural destruction of native societies. Native resistance was significant, as indigenous peoples found ways to retain their cultures, challenge Spanish rule legally, and adapt to the new colonial societies.
Examples of this exploitation included the encomienda system, which was an abusive labor practice that eventually gave way to the repartimiento system, which was only slightly less exploitative. Additionally, European diseases like smallpox devastated native populations to a greater extent than warfare. Despite these challenges, native populations managed to preserve aspects of their culture, and even today, native languages and customs continue to thrive in parts of Central and South America, contrasting with the near-complete erasure of native culture in North America.
In terms of propaganda, the so-called Black Legend highlighted the cruelty of the Spanish toward the natives, although this depiction sometimes exaggerated reality to justify the colonial actions of other European powers. Even those Spanish reformers like Las Casas, who criticized the treatment of natives, were still influenced by paternalistic views and did not fully escape the mindset of superiority that pervaded colonial attitudes.