History Extra podcast The tangled legacies of two Americas
54 snips
Aug 17, 2025 
In this engaging discussion, Greg Grandin, a Yale professor and author of America, América: A New History of the New World, delves into the intertwined histories of North and Latin America. He highlights the moral complexities of the Spanish conquest and critiques by figures like Bartolomé de las Casas. Grandin also explores evolving ideas of liberty in Latin America, contrasting them with U.S. expansionist ideologies. The conversation reveals how historical narratives continue to shape contemporary relations and identity between these regions.
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Conquest Shaped Modern International Law
- The modern interstate liberal order grew out of New World experiences from Spanish conquest to WWII.
- Debates over the doctrine of conquest link Cortez to 20th-century fights against fascism.
Las Casas' Moral Challenge To Conquest
- Greg Grandin recounts Bartolomé de las Casas' critique of Spanish brutality and its moral impact on Catholicism.
- Las Casas argued Indigenous peoples were equal, undermining justifications for conquest and slavery.
Epidemics Enabled Moral Evasion
- English colonists often evaded moral reckoning by arriving after epidemics depopulated lands.
- That evasion shaped the very different founding narratives of the United States versus Spanish America.
