Colonial Domination Quotes
No one at the time knew the answer to the question but we do today. The colonial whites brought small pox with them to the new world. The whites had many generations of building immunity to small pox so that only a small percentage of whites who contracted the disease would die. The Indians, however, had never before been in contact with small pox and their immune. Their systems had not had the time to evolve resistance to the disease. The same thing occurred with the Spanish conquistadors and the native people in Central and South America only the percentage of death was much higher than the Indians of North America—possibly due to more sexual and other interpersonal contact, possibly climate, and possibly the North American Indians were better nourished and generally healthier to better withstand the disease which wiped out the vast majority of the Indians of Central and South America.
The graphic is the famous Benjamin West painting of the treaty signing between the Lenape Indians and William Penn in 1686. Tenoughan was one of the Indians depicted at the signing but we do not know which one.
Genocide generally means the intentional destruction and elimination of a people. In the case of Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadors, they thought little of the lives of the indigenous people of the New World, but they wanted them for slaves to extract the gold and silver. They wiped out several peoples, mostly as a result of the communicable diseases (mainly smallpox) they brought from Europe for which the South Americans had little or no immunity. Also the size of the invasion forces (the Spanish) was relatively small. The size in land and number of people who they invaded was huge. The Spanish were the worst of the European empires from the point of view of the native colonized people. And Columbus was the trigger. So Chavez has a point in castigating Columbus and the Spanish but, typically, and like many politicians, his oratory lacked the precision of total accuracy.
Many are surprised that the first Mexican revolutionary leaders were Catholic Priests, because the Catholic Church was always on the side of Spain and against Mexican revolutionary efforts. The church and the state were totally intertwined at the time, so the Church officials supported the government officials and vica verca. However, there were priests who saw the injustice and corruption of the colonial Spanish government, and not only sided with the revolutionists but became revolutionary leaders. These were opposed and usually excommunicated by the Church establishment authorities.
Clinton was a founder of the society.
