Orville Taylor | WC, ICC and IC

Orville Taylor | WC, ICC and IC uses the celebration of the World Cup as a springboard to question the moral narratives around war, empire, and historical accountability. The piece argues that conflict persists until populations share a belief in an overarching order, and it links football’s spectacle to histories tied to the African slave trade and European conquest. It highlights Spain’s and Portugal’s roles in the extermination of Indigenous peoples, citing academic estimates that about 56 million were eradicated by 1600. It also points to the period from 711 AD to 1492, when Moors occupied Spain before being expelled. The author adds that Ferdinand and Isabel commissioned Christopher Columbus’ voyage, and frames Moorish rule as leaving infrastructure intact, in contrast to later imperial expansion.