That is the opinion of Juan Miguel Zunzunegui Ibarra, a Mexican writer and lecturer known for his Hispanist perspective on Mexican history.
While the statement may sound controversial, he cites the following facts: Before 1492, American civilizations had achieved remarkable things within their own context: calendars, stone architecture, intensive agriculture, and complex states.
The author noted that Mesoamerican civilizations also faced clear limitations:
No iron or steel
No wheeled transport
No draft animals (horses, oxen, mules)
No versatile alphabet or printing press
No ocean navigation or firearms
Spain did more than just conquer; it introduced the technological and organizational package that enabled a leap forward:
The alphabet and the systematic writing of indigenous languages (Nahuatl, Quechua, Otomi, Mayan, etc.) allowed them to be studied and preserved as never before.
Iron metallurgy, the plow, and animals that multiplied productivity.
A common legal and administrative framework.
Connection to European knowledge and the rest of the world.
Many local political structures were integrated into the Spanish Monarchy (such as caciques, curacas, and repúblicas de indios).
Indigenous languages were not erased; they were written down and taught, and many survive today precisely because the Spanish recorded them.
Without that contact, those societies would have continued at their own pace… but isolated from the tools that were transforming the planet during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Mestizaje—cultural and biological mixing—was not merely biological; it was also technological, linguistic, and political. And it was this mixing that enabled subsequent progress.
“History is not a tale of good guys and bad guys. It is the clash of two worlds from which a new one emerged”, Juan Miguel Zunzunegui concluded.
