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MADRID (AP) \u2014 Spain\u2019s monarch<\/a> said Monday the Spanish conquest of the Americas included \u201cmuch abuse\u201d and \u201cethical controversies,\u201d striking a conciliatory tone in a yearslong row between Spain and Mexico<\/a> over colonial era abuses committed by the Spanish crown centuries ago.<\/p>\n He made the remarks while speaking with Mexico\u2019s ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz, during a visit to a museum exhibition in Madrid about the role of women in pre-Columbian Mexico.<\/p>\n About the centuries-old Spanish conquest, Felipe VI said: \u201cThere are things that, when we study them, we come to know them, and well, with our current values, they obviously cannot make us feel proud.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut they must be understood in their proper context, not with excessive moral presentism, but with an objective and rigorous analysis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Bourbon king’s symbolic remarks came after years of a diplomatic spat between Spain and Mexico over the Mexican government’s demands that Spain apologize for its 1519-1521 conquest of Mexico, which resulted in the death of a large part of the country’s pre-Hispanic population.<\/p>\n In 2019, former Mexican President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/a> demanded that Spain \u201cpublicly and officially\u201d recognize the abuses committed during the conquest of Mexico in a letter sent to the Spanish king and Pope Francis. Spain refused to do so, which resulted in worsening relations between the two governments.<\/p>\n