How many times have we said it, that History is more interesting and disturbing than fiction. So entering into the analysis of a historical process can be more instructive than a series of fictitious events, to construct something that only imaginatively happened during a past time.
In that sense, the truth is that in recent times I am increasingly on the side of historians rather than novelists. And this is what I experienced very recently, in the organization and direction of a Course on Hispanidad at the Institute of Spain. Of which we gave a good account in this column, in three successive articles.
Within these horizons that are more historical than fictional, we are now going to move on to what was a succession of centers of power, which can be simplified with the name of the dominant country, or which had aspirations to be so. And so, as is the most normal thing in the world, mentions of Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, Germany, Japan arise, until reaching the present day, with only two superpowers, the United States and China. Followed by other living powers, with different more or less promising futures, such as India (on the rise) and Russia (with a certain decline).
Naturally, in all this development that we will present in due course, there may be excessive simplifications, or excessive magnificence. How could it happen to us in Spain. But that is precisely what criticism and controversy are for… which sometimes also happens, as also happens in our case. With the much-used Black Legend, which by the way Henry Kamen tells us in his book Defending Spain (Espasa, 2022), today it is virtually surpassed by any educated person.
We will inform the readers of this Planet Earth column of the vicissitudes of my essay, which is still somewhat green, and which like any self-respecting creation, deserves a certain maturation. Those ideas will have them in their day, and we will bring them to light.