King Felipe VI says Spain’s conquest of Americas involved “much abuse”

Spain’s King Felipe VI said Monday that the Spanish conquest of the Americas included “much abuse” and “ethical controversies,” striking a conciliatory tone amid a yearslong diplomatic dispute with Mexico over colonial-era abuses.

Felipe made the remarks while speaking with Mexico’s ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz, during a visit to a museum exhibition in Madrid about the role of women in pre-Columbian Mexico.

In his comments on the centuries-old conquest, Felipe said: “There are things that, when we study them, we come to know them, and well, with our current values, they obviously cannot make us feel proud.”

He added that the events must be understood “in their proper context, not with excessive moral presentism, but with an objective and rigorous analysis,” according to the AP report.

The remarks landed against the backdrop of Mexico’s demands that Spain apologize for its 1519-1521 conquest of Mexico, which Mexico says resulted in the death of a large part of the country’s pre-Hispanic population. Spain and Mexico have traded accusations and refusals during the dispute, which AP described as a diplomatic spat that has dragged on for years.

AP reported that the conflict has included major moments on both sides. In 2019, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded that Spain “publicly and officially” recognize the abuses committed during the conquest of Mexico in a letter sent to the Spanish king and Pope Francis. Spain refused to do so, which soured relations between the two governments.

The dispute worsened further in 2024, when Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum did not invite Felipe to her inauguration over the palace’s refusal to issue a formal apology. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez later called the lack of a formal apology “unacceptable,” and AP reported that Spain also refused to send a representative to Sheinbaum’s inauguration.

Tensions appeared to thaw last fall when Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares acknowledged the “pain and injustice” suffered by Mexico’s Indigenous population at the hands of Spanish conquerors. AP reported that Albares made the comments at the inauguration of the same museum exhibition attended by Felipe on Monday, saying: “There has been pain, pain and injustice toward the indigenous peoples to whom this exhibition is dedicated,” and that Sheinbaum later described the statement as “the first time that a Spanish government authority has spoken of regretting the injustice.”

AP reported Monday that Felipe’s remarks do not amount to a formal apology by Spain’s royal palace, and that Sheinbaum said she would look into his comments.

The conquest that underpins the dispute reshaped much of the Americas. AP said colonial Spain ruled one of the largest empires in history, spanning 5 continents at its peak between the 16th and 18th centuries, with holdings that included much of Central and South America. It said Mexico City became the seat of Spain’s colonial power after the Spanish and their Indigenous allies toppled the Aztecs in 1521, and that Mexico City was built over the ruins of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.