Debates
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Colón |
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Perhaps the Spanish were
late at recognising the direct causality. But there is
sufficient documentation that US troops gave blankets from
infected people (smallpox, etc.) to Native Americans and that
they would become ill.
Certainly we should
not believe that the Spanish were less observant or
intelligent than the Anglo-Saxons. It would be sufficient
that the conditions under which indigenous Americans were
forced to live denied them even the chance of resisting the
illnesses Europeans brought with them. Deliberate neglect,
refusal to treat their lives as of equal value and therefore
deserving of the best possible care-- these are the factors
which aggravate the infection of America by the Spanish,
Portugueses, English et. al.
They may not have had
the wonderful theory of Lawrence Summers for defining the
relative worth of people exposed to toxic waste but they
certainly had the experience to say that slave labour was
cheap. In Europe it took the Great Plagues and the sheer
scarcity of people to pursuade the ruling classes that
labour had to be paid properly-- because there was not
enough to go around. "Discovering America" was not only
about finding precious metals but about finding what at
least one scholar called "red gold"-- indigenous slave
labour.
However, it is no
accident that "reform" came after the decimation. African
slavery was not only promoted because of climate or the "inability"
to enslave the indigenous, it was also because the
indigenous population was exhausted and the supply was
inadequate to meet colonial demand for free labour. The
Jesuits were expelled largely because the "paid" better for
their labour than the rest-- not because they were less
willing to exploit them.
From the view of
colonial economics the Spanish have been great failures,
except at plunder. One could say that the Spanish "dark ages"
from 1936 to 1975 are a reprise of that monumental step into
barbarism called affectionately the "Reconquista". The same
spirit that made Spain one Catholic kingdom was that which
was borne to America. If the colonisers had not had the
least notion of health and hygiene, then they could thank
Mother Church for this. One is ever too fond of the cross
brought to foreign lands while forgetting that a cross is
inconceivable without the nails.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen/ Cordialement/
Cordiali saluti/ Yours sincerely/
Dr. Patrick Wilkinson
Cognitive Consulting and Language Logistics
Kirchstrasse 32
D-40227 Düsseldorf
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