King Felipe VI of Spain said Monday that the colonization of the Americas involved “a lot of abuse” and “ethical controversies” — marking the most direct acknowledgment of colonial-era wrongs the Spanish Crown has made in the years-long dispute with Mexico over an official apology.
The remarks came during an unscheduled visit to La mitad del mundo. La mujer en el México indígena (“Half the World: Women in Indigenous Mexico”), an exhibition of roughly 250 Prehispanic pieces now on display at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid, Spain. Many of the objects had never left Mexico before. The king toured the show alongside Mexico’s ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, along with museum director Isabel Izquierdo and other officials.
In an informal exchange captured on video shared by the Casa Real — the Spanish royal household — Felipe VI said that certain things from that period, viewed through today’s values, “obviously cannot make us feel proud.” He called for rigorous historical analysis without what he described as excessive moral presentism. He also noted that debates over the exercise of colonial power existed from the very beginning, and that good intentions expressed in legislation — such as the Leyes de Indias — often fell short in practice. “There was a lot of abuse,” he said.
The king added that Mexico is the product of all its cultures, including the encounter with Spain.
The comments carry weight because they come from the king himself, not a minister. They follow a November 2025 statement by Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, who acknowledged “pain and injustice toward indigenous peoples” during the conquest — the first such admission by a senior Spanish official. President Claudia Sheinbaum called that statement a “first step.” Monday’s remarks by Felipe VI are seen as another move in a gradual diplomatic thaw between the two countries.
The friction goes back to 2019, when then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote to Felipe VI and Pope Francis demanding a formal apology for the abuses of the 1519–1521 conquest and the three centuries of colonial rule that followed. Spain rejected the request, and the king never replied publicly. When Sheinbaum took office in October 2024, she declined to invite the king to her inauguration as a result. Spain responded by pulling all official representation from the ceremony, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The backdrop to all of this is deeply familiar in Yucatán. The Peninsula was among the last regions of Mesoamerica to be fully subdued by Spanish forces, and the Maya resisted colonial rule for centuries. Spanish colonial history shaped Mérida from the ground up — the city was founded on top of the Maya city of T’ho in 1542, and even Plaza Grande was built using stones from destroyed Maya structures.
Neither Monday’s visit nor Felipe VI’s comments constitute a formal apology. The Casa Real described the exhibition as a binational cultural project, organized jointly by Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mexico’s Secretaría de Cultura, aimed at highlighting the role of indigenous women in pre-Columbian societies. The king’s visit was not listed on his public agenda.
Still, analysts watching the Mexico-Spain relationship are paying attention. Spain has so far stopped well short of the kind of formal colonial reckoning carried out by countries like Germany (Tanzania), Belgium (Democratic Republic of Congo), and The Netherlands (former enslaved colonies). Whether Monday’s words move that needle remains to be seen.
For now, El País is reporting the king’s statement as a notable shift from a Crown that had, until recently, stayed out of the debate entirely.
About the Exhibition
- La mitad del mundo. La mujer en el México indígena is on display at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
- Features approximately 250 Prehispanic pieces, many never before exhibited outside Mexico
- Highlights include the guerrera águila (eagle warrior) figure from Tehuacán, Puebla; Olmec terracottas from the Gulf Coast; the Palenque priestess figure; a Mayan incense holder; and the Joven de Amajac sculpture found in Veracruz
- Organized jointly by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mexico’s Secretaría de Cultura
- The show is also running at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and other Madrid venues