How Heroic Language Works: An example at Wikipedia on "Isabella I of Castile"

In the original (prior to writing this post) introductory paragraph (seen below) about Isabella I of Castille there is no mention of the colonization, genocide and slavery, which came as a direct result of their adventures and conquests.  Isabella  who was the chief sponsor of Christopher Columbus, is framed as a heroic benefactor to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas - and as a "Servant of God" by the Catholic Church  As a frequent contributor to Wikipedia, I did a minor, but important edit, also seen below.  Bold font at the end of each paragraph reflects the original and edited portion of heroic language in the article, which was updated to more accurately reflect historical truth. Screenshots follow text:

Isabella I (Spanish: Isabel I de Castilla, Old Spanish: Ysabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504) was Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile of their Muslim and Jewish subjects in the Spanish Inquisition, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage that led to the opening of the New World and to the establishment of Spain as the first global power which dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century. Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974.

Isabella I (Spanish: Isabel I de Castilla, Old Spanish: Ysabel I; 22 April 1451 – 26 November 1504) was Queen of Castile. She was married to Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their marriage became the basis for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. After a struggle to claim her right to the throne, she reorganized the governmental system, brought the crime rate to the lowest it had been in years, and unburdened the kingdom of the enormous debt her brother had left behind. Her reforms and those she made with her husband had an influence that extended well beyond the borders of their united kingdoms. Isabella and Ferdinand are known for completing the Reconquista, ordering conversion or exile of their Muslim and Jewish subjects in the Spanish Inquisition, and for supporting and financing Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage,  which would lead to centuries of genocide, slavery and colonization in Africa, as well as the Caribbean and the Americas; a collective global region referred to by Europeans as the New World.  Isabella I's conquests created the foundation of globalization and the establishment of Spain as the first global power to dominated Europe and much of the world for more than a century. Isabella was granted the title Servant of God by the Catholic Church in 1974.

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About:

The Art of Oppression: Colonization and the Language of Heroes is a forthcoming book by Max Eternity, which assembles an original collection of historical essays that closely examines how heroic language has been used to successfully propagate psychological and spiritual terror, as well as mass genocide, and a transcontinental theft of land and natural resources by Euro-Americans over the last 500 years.

Book Summary:

Written as a collection of essays approximately 1500 words each, The Art of Oppression: Colonization and the Language of Heroes, brings together a concise historical narrative surveying the colonial identities and motivations of key individuals, their enablers and accomplices, who demolished and reorganized Africa and America from the late 1400’s to the mid-1900’s, and how after World War II the same ideologies of colonization were reborn into a new and more sophisticated mechanism, implemented as policed domestic control and militaristic global control, or neocolonization, and observed in numerous ways from the 1950’s and since, including Senator Joseph McCarthy’s  House Committee on Un-American Activities, J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s war on communism, which enjoined the (COINTELPRO) war on the African-American civil rights movement and the war on [homosexuals] the LGBTI movement, as well as the subsequent War on Drugs and War on Terror—and how it all became conveniently enshrined in the seductive language of nationalistic heroism, capitalistic enlightenment and/or altruistic personal sacrifice, which is sometimes referred to as the “White Man’s Burden.”

The idea of the colonization benefiting all of humanity—propagated and celebrated by Europe and the United States—is juxtaposed by the resulting slavery, land grabs, destruction and extinction of flora and fauna, the gross extraction of petroleum, valuable stones, metals and mineral, direct and indirect genocides, religious persecution and institutionalized violence carried out against ancient inhabitants in the exceptionally rich and prosperous lands of Africa, and  Americas, whose worlds were, and largely remain, demolished and destroyed, and for whom recompense has yet been administered.

While an overarching research theme of The Art of Oppression: Colonization and the Language of Heroes is a dissection of the normalized dishonesty, grandeur and prestige associated with White male aggression in the name of colonization, the primary aim is dispassionate insight, not indictment.

- Max Eternity – July 9, 2017