Exceptionalism In Spain

Exceptionalism is the belief that a nation is uniquely different from all other nations because of several factors. The majority of countries have at one time or another had their own brand of “exceptionalism”. Two great examples of this are Spain and America, which both had periods of believing themselves to be exceptional. These are also two great examples because in both cases, the countries use the term “exceptional” to be synonymous with “great”- which is not necessarily true. In the 1500s, Spain had its own brand of exceptionalism that heavily influenced its interactions with the Natives of the New World. As Spain became accustomed to its settlement in the New World, many problems were faced upon dealing with how to handle those they

The debate became so heated that the King of Spain decided to call for a debate to settle the issue. This debate took place between Juan Sepulveda and Bartolome Las Casas, who both had strong opinions about the right thing to do. In a magazine article by Bonar Hernandez, he gives a full account of the Great Debate of Valladolid and looks at every side of the argument. The article shows that in this debate, both parties agreed with Spanish Exceptionalism to a certain extent, but had different ways of displaying it. Sepulveda believed that the Spanish were better than the Indians in every way and that the Indians were natural slaves because of how barbaric, uneducated, and cruel they were. He also believed that Spain’s form of Christianity was obviously the correct way to live and should, therefore, be followed by everyone, even if forced against their will. On the opposing side, Las Casas believed that the Indians did not deserve to be mistreated and abused in the Indies. However, he did believe that Spain was an exceptional country that should try to help the Indies. He thought that evangelization should be done peacefully and that the responsibility of Spain was to use their sophistication and education to help the Indians spiritually. In reality, both Sepulveda’s and Las Casa’s belief in Spanish Exceptionalism failed to have a positive effect on their foreign policy ideas.

American Exceptionalism works under the idea that the U.S is unique when compared to all the other countries. In U.S politics, this is often interpreted to mean that the U.S is better than all other countries. This mindset causes problems when making decisions about how to interact with other countries. In an article from The National Interest, it talks about the U.S having a “rule-based foreign policy” that other countries should follow. While these rules are usually norms that are widely accepted and generally good, the U.S often breaks them. This is because American perceives itself as exceptional, and therefore has justification for breaking the norms agreed upon by other countries, and constantly perpetuated by them. The article cites China as being one major example of this because we push rules on them under the guise that they are necessary to being in the international community. However, China follows rule such as not invading countries, while the U.S has invaded countless. If the U.S consistently goes against the rules that it has agreed upon with other countries, then foreign relations because of a lack of