Reassessing European Contact: Insights from Spanish America
[From Isonomia Quarterly 4.1 Spring 2026. Read the full article at Isonomia Quarterly.]
There’s no doubt that the Americas were irrevocably changed by European contact. The decimation and sociopolitical transformation of the Western Hemisphere was so thorough that many scholars speak of an indigenous genocide—the intentional destruction of native societies. But there’s also no doubt that the story is not so simple.