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mrmitchell
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The best way to rank this would be just by "people killed by or during event". Is there a ranking of the biggest deaths in history?
1. Holocaust
...duh.
2. The Rest of WWII
Nukes, firebombings, hell on both sides. It would be very reasonable to call 1933 to 1945 the lowest point in human history.
3. Slavery
Millions of people systematically oppressed...which is actually pretty common, but the same nation that did the oppression also held itself up as the shining light of freedom and democracy.
4. Treatment of Natives
I've got mixed feelings about this one. They were trampled all over, but things like treaties weren't worth as much back then anyway. Breaking treaties and stealing Injuns' land today would be a crime, but in the 1500s-1800s, it was fairly acceptable. You've got to judge things in context, or else everything that was 50 years ago is suddenly a horrible crime against humanity.
4. (tie) Stalin
:vomit:
4. (tie) ****ing up the Planet
I don't think any other species so successfully FUBAR'd Planet Earth. I give us a century before we cut down all forests, extinct major gaping holes into the food chain, or global-warm ourselves into a firey hell.
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Dr Strangelove
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quote:
Originally posted by Wernazuma III
This is a century old topos and not true. The Spanish relation to the Indians was in many aspects better than that in Angloamerica, they approached them in a completely different way. Yes, they were to be exploited (in the eyes of the colonizers) and in this process they suffered and in certain occasions massive deaths occured, but they were also to be considered subjects of the crown and therefore to be protected. They had special rights and enjoyed quite some autonomy and were not everytime pushed back and forcefully resettled and slayed just for being Indians in the way. The Spanish American society was never meant to be exclusively white, while in Anglo-America coexistance and mingling was never an option. |
What a bunch of baloney! In the Caribean the Spaniards exterminated the Indians, plain and simple. Some may have been offered the option of being allowed to work to death before expiring, but the results were the same.
In the Andes the Spaniards opened up several mines that became infamous as death camps. Some of these mines were located at altitudes of over 17,000 feet, an altitude beyond the range of human adaptation. The Spaniards brought them up to the mine and chained them in, then retreated down to a more habitable level until the workshift was over. Few workers survived more than a month. In these mines the Spanish chewed up the entire Incan nation. The Indians currently inhabiting Peru are actually not the descendents of the Incas, but instead were brought into the area after the mines were depleted.
Recent genetic studies conducted in Columbia uncovered yet another Spanish atrocity. The mitochondria of virtually all Columbians appears to be Native American, but the somatic chromosomes are aproximately 50% Spanish. This means that at some point in the history of the area ALL of the male natives were eliminated such that the remaining people there today are the descendents of the breeding of the surviving females with the Spanish conquerers. The Spanish would have had to not only murdered the native men, but also the teenaged boys, the preteen boys, the little boys, and even the baby boys in order to have achieved this result.
In the American Southwest there are numerous reports of Spanish missionaries using Spanish soldiers to exterminate any natives who refused to submit to living at missions as converts, and of course as obligatory workers (translated as "slaves".)
In British America the bad history between the whites and the natives began at Jamestown, known as the Rebellion of Martin's Hundred, and in the Plymouth colony with King Phillip's War. Both incidents were known to have been incited by natives escaping the Spaniards. These refugees told stories about the atrocities visited upon their peoples by the Spaniards, and the natives of Virginia and Massachusetts becoming fearful that the English would eventually treat them in the same way staged pre-emptive attacks. Thus three centuries of Anglo-American reaction to native Americans was actually triggered by Spanish misbehavior.
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Dr Strangelove
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quote:
Originally posted by monkspider
How so?
Would you rather Germany still be Prussia, Bavaria, Hannover, Saxony, etc, etc. |
Well, it would be much more colorful and charming don't you think? Think of all the little principalities, duchies, baronies, sultanates and satrapies. It would be like a giant version of Busch Garden's "The Olde Country", so quaint, almost toylike. People would pay good money to go there and ride the rides. This should be given careful thought. It sounds like a golden opportunity for the German people. 
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25-12-2003 00:11
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