The Indians of the Americas were the victims of the greatest genocide in human history.
To satisfy the appetites for wealth of Europeans, the indigenous peoples of the Americas were exterminated, in the West Indies, Mexico, South America, Brazil and North America by the Spanish, Portuguese and Anglo-Saxons.
@ -10,17 +10,13 @@ The Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica) had some 1.5 million natives in
In 1550, there was no Indian left in these islands. The accounts of Bartholomew de Las Casas are proof of this:
“While the Indians were so well disposed towards them, the Christians invaded these countries like rabid wolves who throw themselves on sweet and peaceful lambs.
And, as all these men who came from Castile had no concern of their souls, thirsty for riches and possessed of the vilest passions, they put so much diligence into destroying these countries that no feather, not even any language, would suffice to recount.
So much so that the population, initially estimated at eleven hundred thousand souls, is completely dissipated and destroyed. ” (346)
So much so that the population, initially estimated at eleven hundred thousand souls, is completely dissipated and destroyed. ” \footnote{“Report of the Dominicans of the Spanish Isle to M. de Chievres » (1519) in \emph{Las Casas et la défense des Indiens}(Las Casas and the defense of the Indians), Julliard, Éd., Paris, 1971.}
“Other, more aggressive indigenous populations are organized for combat, but they were going to suffer the same fate:
such as the Caniba (Martinique, Guadeloupe), the Puelches, Picunches, Tehuelches de la Pampa and Patagonia;
such as the Araucans (Chile) whose resistance and courage stunned the conquerors commanded by Valdivia who paid with his life for his obstinacy;
such as the Chibchas (Colombia) who intervened in the penetration of the military columns of Jimenez de Quesada in search of the “Eldorado ” ” (347).
346 “Report of the Dominicans of the Spanish Isle to M. de Chievres » (1519) in \emph{Las Casas et la défense des Indiens}(Las Casas and the defense of the Indians), Julliard, Éd., Paris, 1971.
347 Félix Reichlen, in \emph{Les Amérindiens et leur extermination délibérée}(Thez Indians and their deliberate extermination), Éd. Pierre-Marcel Fabre, Lausanne, 1987.
such as the Chibchas (Colombia) who intervened in the penetration of the military columns of Jimenez de Quesada in search of the “Eldorado ” ” \footnote{Félix Reichlen, in \emph{Les Amérindiens et leur extermination délibérée}(Thez Indians and their deliberate extermination), Éd. Pierre-Marcel Fabre, Lausanne, 1987.}.
\section{Brazil}
@ -66,7 +62,7 @@ As in all of so-called “Latin” America, the contact between the two peoples,
Famine, repression, massacres, forced labor and diseases brought by Europeans (especially smallpox), against which the inhabitants of the “new world” had no biological immunity, having lived in a closed circuit since the Paleolithic, caused 90\% of the indigenous population of Mexico to perish during the 16th century.
Then, it is the conquest of the Mayan Empire by Alvarado in 1523 and the Inca Empire by the bloodthirsty Francisco Pizarre from 1532 to 1537.
“Thus, in the space of some twenty years, empires built in several centuries are annihilated, indigenous communities dismantled and enslaved, the foundations of astonishing civilizations undermined.” (348).
“Thus, in the space of some twenty years, empires built in several centuries are annihilated, indigenous communities dismantled and enslaved, the foundations of astonishing civilizations undermined.” \footnote{Félix Reichlen in \emph{op. cit.}}.
The population of Central and South America, estimated at 70 million before the arrival of the Spaniards by Dr. Rivet and the Berkeley School, drops to some 20 million.
The Aztec Empire alone, with a population of 25 million Indians in 1519, had only 6 million thirty years later, barely reaching one million at the end of the 16th century.
@ -80,10 +76,6 @@ Massacres of Indians by the Guatemalan army and “anti-riot” militias have in
Everywhere in South America, massacres of Indians are reported. In Colombia, Peru, Chile...
Indians are victims of multinational corporations and the “big stick” policy whereby the United States has a de facto right to scrutinize and intervene in the political development of these countries.
348 Félix Reichlen in \emph{op. cit.}
\section{United States}
@ -110,4 +102,4 @@ Alcoholism affects one in four men and one in eight women.
Urban Indians suffer more from this scourge than those on reserves, but 80\% of the Indian population is victimized in various ways by this form of alienation caused by idleness and awareness of its loss of identity.
Drugs, the “crack” are now wreaking significant havoc among the Indians.
BBOCANON
2 years ago