According to historian Elvira Roca Barea, the formation of a black legend and its assimilation by a nation is a phenomenon observed in all multicultural empires (not just the Spanish Empire. A black legend about an empire would be the result of propaganda attacks and efforts by most smaller contemporary powers and defeated rivals; propaganda created by rival factions in the empire; self-criticism by the intellectual elite, and a need by new powers consolidated during (or after) the empire's existence.[7]