Hello and welcome to conflicted, the history podcast where we talk about the struggles that shaped us,

the tough questions that they pose, and why we should care about any of it.

Conflicted is a member of the Evergreen Podcast Network, and as always, I'm your host, Zach Cornwell.

Today's episode is taking us to a part of the world that we haven't really visited before on Conflicted.

This past year, we've been spending a lot of time in the Middle East, in Japan, even India.

But this time we're heading to the balmy waters of the Western Mediterranean, to a part

of Europe that has been ground zero for some of the nastiest, most contentious conflicts

in human history.

Throughout the centuries, armies of every shape and rulers

of every stripe have tried to exert their political will on this place. It's been coveted by

Roman consuls, Morish sultans, even Napoleon himself. It's a nation that the famous American

writer Ernest Hemingway once called, quote, more of a continent than a country.

Ladies and gentlemen, today we are traveling to Spain, and the struggle that we will be exploring is not a military conflict, but a cultural one.

Today, we are going to be examining in great detail the history of a quintessentially

Spanish pastime, bullfighting.

Now, we have covered a lot of extremely contentious and polarizing topics on this show before,

but this one might take the cake, because no one really feels neutral about bullfighting.

Depending on who you're talking to, bullfighting, or the Corida de Toros, as it's known in the

Spanish-speaking world,

is either a legitimate art form or a barbaric blood sport.

Some people look at bullfighting and see a vital cornerstone of Spanish cultural heritage.

Others see institutionalized animal cruelty on an industrial scale.

...