American History

PROLOGUE
Oppenheimer makes a reference to the Bhagavad Gitas words on death when he speaks of the explosion of the first atom bomb in the New Mexican Desert in 1945. The same words could be remembered by the Spanish ships that reached the Mexico in 1492 to explore the New Lands. Though these two instances are spoken of as periods of crowning glory for the technology age, they were at the same time, moments that laid the ground for the worst form of human destructiveness. Hispaniola and Hiroshima were the products of destruction.

When the Europeans contacted the outside world, there always was a bloodbath following after which only very few of the natives were left alive. The greatest genocide though was that of the native Indians at the hand of the invading Europeans. The current statistics of the post  Columbian holocaust declares that atrocities committed against the natives of the New Lands were far greater than those often stated in general history. The writings of the Spanish adventurers themselves are testimony to the brutalities they committed on the natives. One Mayan woman was even thrown to the dogs because she refused to indulge sexually with the invaders (pg.xi). Killing the women and children was merely a sport for the invaders (pg.xi). In the post  Columbian America, only a few of the natives remained after the carnage so that their race did not go extinct. It is true that epidemics and plagues caused due to infectious diseases put an end to the lives of natives. At the same time, it is cannot be ignored that the brutality of the invaders did exist immensely.

Attempts are made to erase all the blame that must necessarily fall on the invaders for the carnage on the natives. This book tends to study cases of the racist carnages that occurred from 15th century Hispaniola to 19th century California and to find out the underlying theme and culture behind this wild attitude of the invaders. The need to study this history, as a historian of the Jewish Holocaust put it, is not merely so that we pay homage to the dead, but also that so that we do not see a repetition of the same tomorrow due to our own ignorance and negligence of the holocaust history behind us (pg.xiii). Columbus is being praised for his conquests in media today, but the carnage that his voyages resulted in should not be ignored, so that carnages like those of yesteryears being committed today can be stopped. Such carnages do occur even today as was witnessed in Guatemala in 1986. Killings of a lesser degree have occurred in the Vietnamese War, the Korean War, the Civil War. The natives always resisted the attacks of the invaders to a degree that even amazed the invaders themselves. In this book we tend to look into the magnitude of the destruction caused by these carnages.

The following chapters explore the native civilization in comparison to the invaders to the New Lands. Did they have their own cultures before those from the New Lands supposedly civilized them Or was there ever a need for them to be civilized by the invaders Did the invaders actually need to be civilized by these natives who were already living on the peak of civilization

THE MAGNIFICANCE OF THE CULTURE OF THE CITIES OF THE NATIVES IN THE PRE-COLUMBIAN ERA
     
BEFORE COLUMBUS
Before the Spanish conquest, the Lake of Moon in the Valley of Mexico had many populations of people in its various towns and cities. Trade and commercial activity ran high, and the landscape and creative town planning was unbelievingly impressive. The Spanish invaders were amazed by Tenochtitlan, the central city of the Aztecs and surrounding Iztapalapa.

The invaders were appalled by landscape, the volcanoes with the mountains and volcanoes, the creative abilities of the inhabitants, and construction of the city. Public works and the sanitation system of the city were flawless and accurate. The network of canals running through the city resembled Venice, but the floating gardens were matchless. Trade and commerce in the Great Market of the city was uncomparable. However, the eyes of the invaders were on the citys Gold mines that resulted in the destruction of these cities by 1492  starting from the ruin of Hispanolia and extending to Tenochtitlan and spreading further.        

The natives were emigrants from Berengia, which city the melting glaciers drowned and the migrants settled in Hispanolia and Tenochtitlan in early 70,000 B.C(pg.11). Unlike popular belief, the natives were cultured and civilized long before the Old World. Mere cultural conceit hides this truth from the public eye and history being taught today. The history and cultural thickness of these civilizations were distorted in the greedy search of the invaders for gold mines(pg.13) beside the attempt to rationalize colonial conquests. The colonist is portrayed as benevolent arm of the Holy amidst the barbarian natives who allegedly have no past.

The natives of America have a long civilization and history than Europe, for eg., the Adena culture of 500 B.C. People of these cities were hunters and farmers, nomads who lived in iglus. Yet their well organized culture speaks of respect for the elderly, excellent social networking and political makeup. Women were well valued. Pottery, jewelry, carpentry, agriculture, and fisheries flourished. Homes of chieftains were exquisite. In fact, their political thinking had a great impact on European social mind that logic suggests that it was the Indians who civilized the Europeans and not vice-versa. Women suffrage, and equality were contributions to the American Constitution by these native Indians. The natives regard for nurturing children and for the poor impacted the European mind(pg.32). Their architectural masterpieces were also brought to ruins by the invaders.

The Olmec culture also thrived with trade activity. Teotihuacan with its great pyramids and artworks monuments, town planning and writing methods, trade and commerce of the Maya culture and the Toltecs and the Mixtecs were other awe inspiring cultures. Central and South American cultures too was no less civilized. The Inca Empire also had similar impressive trade, commerce and town planning, palaces with magnificent masonry and social organization that explorers earmarked them as model cities. The Cuzco civilization, the Awaraks and Amazon lowlands also had such ancient cultures of well organized people who lived in peace and amity with their neighbours, courteous and affectionate and hospitable to strangers from other lands. Pre-Columbian era was disease free.

The native peoples of America before the Columbian conquest lived with their cultural diversity and speaking in many tongues but living in peace and cordially.

THE POST COLUMBIAN ERA AND THE IMPACT OF THE INVADERS ON THE NATIVE CULTURE AND CIVILISATION.

Spain, Switzerland and France in the 14th and 15th centuries were attacked by plague and famine. Public health suffered, and diseases, rebellions, food riots, violence, witchcraft, torture and murder thrived (pg.62). During these dark days that Columbus set sail on his first voyage from the City of Palos, Spain in 1942 (pg.62), along with deported Jews to the New Lands mistaking them as areas around the Indian Sea. Natives were unchristian pagans who needed Christian transformation the Spanish invaders prided in the same, which made the natives detest Jesus. These peaceful natives were made to read a declaration they never understood that subjected them to the brutal Christian rule.

Columbuss second voyage to Hispaniola in1949 to build his town Isabela (pg.68). On arrival there, disease broke out among the Spaniards and spread to the natives who died in huge numbers though history blames the natives for the plague. However, Columbus focused on the goldmines. The natives were forced to give gold as a tax for staying alive. These slaughters have been recorded as brutal and merciless even killing little children (pg.71, 72). The invasions spread to the Caribbean Islands and the Bahamas, Central America and Mexico and the Aztec Tenochtitlian. The Spanish used treachery and the divide and rule policy to destroy the city and left behind the small pox virus to annihilate it.  Dogging and murderous attacks on women were done in order to terrorize the natives. Native rituals were condemned. Birth rates of the depressed natives declined to extinction. Peru and Chile, the Andeans, the Brazilians and the Mayas and the Incas were massacred.
           
Aguirres expeditions of Peru were equally brutal. At this time, the English also began racist reactions to the native Irishmen. In fact, the English wanted to conquer the beautiful lands occupied by the Irish in the pretext of civilizing the Irish modeling on the Spanish holocaust of native Indians (pg.99). While English expeditions reached the New World, the Spanish were terrorising Florida, Georgia, Virginia and beyond to capture the Indians to labour as slaves in the Bahamas. The measles epidemic spread during this time and English men who attempted help natives were killed(pg.105). George Percy sent a brutal campaign to subdue the Indians. The British used the Bible verses to justify their actions (pg.111). Captain John Endicotts army proudly destroyed the Block Islands (pg.113). Rhode Island that was neutral was also pulled into attacks (pg.118).

Modern warfare also only exhibits this European craze for killings like the attack of Nagasaki and Hiroshima of Japan. Even today, American invaders believe that natives need elimination(pg.120).The genocides today have lessed native population in North and South Carolina. The Cherokee population, the Nootka Indian Village in 1972, tribal populations in Lower Mississipi and Eastern Colorado in 1864, Santa Barbara and California have been driven off their land by the whites brutally. When the Indian adults attempt to use courts to give them justice, will they ever get it (pg.145)

GENOCIDE
These stories of genocide are indeed stories that tell of 4 centuries of American invaders attacking, conquering and destroying the native innocent Indians, a history that should not be turned a blind eye to.