Born to Die
Why did the native populations, such as the Incas and the Aztecs, appear to be, not equals to be met with military and diplomatic force, but as victims born to die in the eyes of the invading European powers? Why were they not feared, despite the extensive technological capacities of their civilizations, and the detailed political and religious theology these civilizations created? Simply put, the invading Europeans came to regard them as sick and ailing bodies of a sick and ailing body politic, born to die because of their lack of immunity to European diseases, even more than European firearms.
The book Born to Die thus presents the provoking thesis that disease was the major cause of the European power's seemingly never-ending successes of colonial successes and conquests in Latin America, rather than these nation's prowess in military conquest. In some cases, the nations had already been decimated even before the full military capacity of the European powers had been launched. With such a small and relatively technically ill equipped population, no contest resulted in overwhelming conquest.
Although the author of the book admits that technological military superiority on the part of the invading Europeans thus did have some impact in the tremendous success of the invading powers, he asserts that the death rates by the native empires that were incurred were so overwhelming, even if the parties had been equal technically, there was no way the natives could have won. Ultimately disease and the resulting deaths from smallpox, which the local populations were not protected from, were the main reasons that the Europeans were able to dominate the indigenous populations.
Thus, states David Noble Cook, "the critical factor in the European conquest and collapse of the New World civilization was disease," not military might, much less the cultural superiority often ascribed until the recent postcolonial era of European, Western thought, to the conflict between natives and colonists. (17) This escalating death rate of natives, Cook asserts, affected all of human history, not...
They began rounding up people by the hundreds and shipping them back to Europe to work as slaves; the conditions of travel were so severe that approximately half died at sea. On the New World islands, the Spanish explorers forced the native inhabitants to mine for the gold that the Spanish erroneously believed was present in great quantities and they enforced ridiculously unrealistic daily quotas through barbaric means such
.. may not lack people to work their holdings for their maintenance, and may be able to take out what gold there is on the island;... And because this can better be done by having the Indians living in community with the Christians of the island, and by having them go among them and associate with them, by which means they will help each other to cultivate and settle and
Admittedly, these two teams were faced with a daunting challenge in acquiring and interpreting those works of art that were most appropriate for their exhibition goals, and interpretive efforts must use some framework in which to present the resources in a fashion that can be understood and appreciated by the targeted audiences. Nevertheless, there is little or no discussion concerning the fusion of artistic styles in the two catalogs, with
Women, Blacks and Indigenous People in Colonial Latin America Colonial Latin America was a diverse country, though it largely consisted of women, blacks and indigenous peoples. The manner of life for these groups was not always the same, as class could be divided between slaves and owners; and even in the work, there was diversity according to region. For example, in various urban areas, women "administered bakeries and worked in wax
Inquisitions have played a major role in the Catholic Church since early in the Church's history.[footnoteRef:1]. They are considered one of the most shameful part of the history of the Catholic Church and part of the darkest periods in Jewish history. One of the great Catholic theologians, St. Augustine, offered support for the Inquisition process by citing from the Book of Luke, 14:23. Then the master told his servant, "Go
Latin America Starting from the very beginning of the Colonial Era, Latin America has been dominated politically, economically, socially and even physically by European powers. Spain and Portugal are famous for their conquest into this region of the world, but other European countries such as England, France and the Netherlands also had their hand in essentially taking over and reshaping Latin America. There is an extensive and abundant amount of published
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now