"The Indians in the first fatal decades of the white man in America were conquered because
they could not conceive what it was that the white man was after, and what manner of man
he was." (The Indians of the Americas, p97)
This misconception, was that the Indians could not imagine was that the Spanish
Conquistadors would come to the Americas and brutally murder men women and children in
the name of a god. They could not see how a group of people could follow such a god. The
Spanish conquistadors raped the American natives of their naiveness. The Spanish
conquistadors took away the Indians right to their way of life and their land.
Living in the United States of America, it's hard to imagine a group of people coming
into our country, and taking our land. But this event has already happened, almost 500
years ago. The people who dominated the United States before the Spanish invasion roamed
among a 2 large continents. Today the Indians are restricted to reserves or
"reservations". Their land has been taken from them, and little if any was given in
return. The people who live among these reservations try to preserve the "old way of
life."
Another thing taken from the Indians of Americas was their way of life. One thing almost
all people hold close to their heart is their way of life whatever it may be. The Indians
however were persecuted for their beliefs and either killed or converted to the "Spanish
Catholicism" or many other varying ways of life. This conversion did not take place
peacefully. Many resisting Indians died for their cause. The Indians of the Americas
could no longer hunt and gather food freely. Nor could they farm just for their
community. Strong men were taken as slaves either to Hispa?ola (Modern Day Haiti), Cuba
or taken back to Spain. Such slaves were often worked to death, because of the seemingly
endless supply of American Indians. Other Indians were forced to pay tribute to the
Spanish by working on farms to feed the invaders when they themselves were barely
nourished enough to live. Some American Indians went so far as to commit mass suicides
and not to have children, because they knew their fate if they were to go on living or to
bring another child into the world only to see him or her worked to death (Collier, 63).
Another very important factor in the demise of Native American Indians was disease, the
native Americans had no immunity to the European diseases. A large percentage of the
American Some natives died from "Alien diseases." As the population of the American
Indians decreased the Spanish had to bring more and more native Spanish people. American
Indians became Catholic and intermarried with the Spanish. Other natives moved to
desolate mountains in Mexico in order to preserve the "Indian way of life."
The majority of the American inhabitants also lost something that would never be
restored, their respect for nature. While Spain, Portugal, Northern China, and other
countries were taking from nature without remorse, the American Indians respected nature
so much that their way of life was altered to preserve the environment that they had. The
Indians gave back what they took. They lived for the environment. Only recently have
countries like the United States of America looked at these concepts with anywhere near
the intensity of the Indians of the Americas. What has been lost may never be restored.
The current inhabitants of the Americas do not have the same respect as the Incans or the
Aztecs or the Pueblos. Instead of paying tribute to the environment the Spanish paid
tribute to the King or the Queen and God. In turn the Spanish demanded that the American
Indians pay tribute to themselves; taking from the earth and not giving back.
All of these factors contributed to the downfall in of great Empires. This downfall was
not a peaceful transfer of power but, a ruthless murder of millions of Indians living in
the Americas. These ideas are hard to imagine, people coming and taking your house, your
way of life, and making you work until you die. And if they couldn't didn't die then they
would most probably die of a foreign disease. In my idea there is no parallel to this
monumental mass murder. 95% of the population was depleted. Although the chances of this
happening in our own country are slim, the United States of America, the consequences are
unimaginable. But, what would happen if another country "raped" the USA?
Bibliography
1.) Aiton, Arthur Scott. Antonio de Mendoza. New York: Russell & Russell, 1967.
2.) Collier, John. The Indians of the Americas. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1947
3.) Lummis, Charles Fletch. Spanish Pioneers and the California Missions. Chicago: A.C.
McClurg & Co., 1930
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