Anti-Spanish sentiment

Anti-Spanish sentiment, also referred to as Hispanophobia (from Latin Hispanus, "Spanish" and Greek φοβία (phobia), "fear"), is the fear, distrust, hatred of, aversion to, or discrimination against Spanish people, culture, or nationhood.

Instances of anti-Spanish prejudice, often embedded within anti-Catholic prejudice and propaganda, were stoked in Europe in the early modern period, pursuant to the Spanish Crown's status as a power siding with the Counter-Reformation. The Spanish colonization of the Americas was also singled out as uniquely barbarous by some commentators. 20th-century Spanish historiography shaped the construct of "Black Legend" to denote such manifestations of prejudice, generally overplaying their reach and pervasiveness. The justification of the civil wars from which new republics emerged independent from Spanish rule in the Americas also partially relied on a hispanophobic discourse.

Within Spain, elements of stateless nationalist movements (such as Catalan, Basque, and Galician) competing with Spanish nationalism embrace anti-Spanish views and discourse.