i might have my history all jumbled and confused, but didn't europeans steal this country from the natives?

Question

also, i believe that instead of organizing peaceful marches and protests, the conquistadors just slaughtered everyone.... please organize my naive perspective of the world...

Answer 1

Yes. Read "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" Also known as "Arrow in the Sun" for a historical perspective from the view point of the Indians. You should also read other books to get a well rounded perspective of the whole ordeal but IMHO the American Indians were treated and slaughtered like animals. Just another Government sanctioned "Brain Surgery" carried out with just the right sized "Pickaxe". 8-(

Answer 2

Yes, we took the empty land and then, took the land the natives used. The Europeans who "settled" the "new" world didn't always outright kill the natives. Some of the natives caught European diseases they had no natural biological defenses for and died of things like the measles. That was an unintended consequence of settlement. However, later on, the Indian Bureau of the American Government delibertly gave Indians blankets infected with the small pox virus to decimate the Native American population. In the United States the Native American population was destroyed by war, plague and false treaty.

In South and Central America, the conquistadors (the Spanish and the Portuguese) supposedly conquered the "new" world in the name of "catholic" god. Native Central and South Americans were forced to give up their customs and religious practice and become good Catholics or suffer the Inquisition.

I really can't say who treated the natives in the worst way, the USA who outright warred against the native population, or the Spanish and Portuguese who threatened them with hell fire until they completely lost their culture. (The US tried to take culture away from natives too with Indian Schools). Frankly, it's a toss up as to whose behavior was more despicable.

However, humans are still behaving despicablly throughout the world, the Europeans who settled the Americas certainly did not have the corner on the market of cruelty and bigotry. All you need to do is to listen to the news of genocide in Africa and in Europe after the end of the Soviet era to realize that we are all still human. The trick is to call it when you see it. Pay attention to what your government and other governments do and make them responsible for their behavior. Until that happens, with today's weapons, what the conquistadors did will be child's play in comparison.

Answer 3

That Was 300 + Years Ago
Get Over It
The Injuns Did, Why Cant You

This Is The USA Now
And NOBODYs Takin It Away From Us

Not With Some STOOPID @$$ Reason Like
"You Stole It From Them"

Not By Demographics

And CERTAINLY Not By Warfare


Its 2006, Not 1700

We Have X - Box And DVD Players

Now Go Play On Your X - Box
Your Too Stupid To Use The Computer

Answer 4

In a way you are correct but for the most part wrong yes europeans took the land but the native americans didn't own it either. They even stated that at one point in history " no man has the right to own the land and all things in it" so by there own admission they never owned it he just made them move over and over and over.
Yes we used cruel tactics to aquire the land but you also have to realize native americans were far more brutal towards neighboring tribes than we were to them. Some tribes would capture another and literally torture them for weeks and rape the women for months even years on end. there were even some tribes that had what could be the earliest dragster pulls. They would tie children of captured tribes to the backs of horses and and who ever killed there child first wins ( usually the opurtunity to rape a captured woman)
As far as the conquistadors if you look into your history they were only mildly violent towards native americans here it's when you get into south america they became extremely brutal. But you have to take into account they were fighting a race of people that would have sacrifices that lead to the deaths of 1000's of it's own people. In some cases these sacrificial ceremonies would literaly kill hundreds to thousands at a time.
How we can be compared to the people back then it's like trying to compare the flinstones to the jetsons. So It basicly boils down to white man gets blamed for something thats was being done already accept far worse and by there own people.....

Answer 5

I don't think there is anything to organize you're right. Europeans came to the Americas and more or less slaughtered everyone who got in there way, so that they could have the land.

I don't know too much about South America, but in North America I know that there was a bounty on Natives and that's where scalping came from, Europeans gave blankets that were diseased to the natives so that the natives would die from the disease, also to appease many of the natives Europeans gave them the worst chunks of land they could find (and thus "Indian" casinos were born).

Answer 6

You know, I got kicked out of American History in high school, and sent to the principal's office for asking the very same question. I was naive back then, and I hadn't been to euphemism school, either.

What I have since learned is that history is written by the winners. Since we won the war we waged on the natives, we get to write history, and we get to say that this land wasn't actually stolen, it was...it was...well, I don't know what the hell it was, except it's "ours" now. And because it's "ours", a lot of people, most of them not descended from the original settlers who came to the colonies, don't want to have to share. Some of the most rabid anti-immigration people I know have names that were changed just two or three generations ago when their progenitors came here from somewhere else seeking what? A better life in a free country. What blows my mind is that they want to deny that same opportunity to someone else. Want to hear something hilarious? One of the leaders of the anti-immigration Minutemen group in our state has a hispanic last name. They did an article on him in the newpaper, and it turns out his parents came here before he was born. He was born a US citizen, but his parents were "illegals" for a very long time.

I always say to people, if the US were in the same state as Mexico and Latin America, and Canada were the land of opportunity, and all that was standing between you and a chance at a better life for your children was a border, would you let it stand in your way? I still haven't gotten a decent response, because that's when they all look at me like I have just risen from Hell and turn and walk away.

Your perspective doesn't need to be organized, it needs to be heard.

Answer 7

Steal is such a harsh word, didn't you go to euphemism school? When you win, you have "liberated" or "conquered" maybe even "acquired".

Any country that has existed stole something. Before Europeans arrived the native nations waged war and took land. Is it better to be booted from your land by natives or Europeans? I think they both suck equally.

In a nutshell, people steal. That's life. Is it right...? No. But it's not a strictly European trait.

Answer 8

Read history.

Nope, not strong enough. Try again.

READ HISTORY!

Tribes in North and South America were committing genocide on each other long before any white people came here. Let’s not forget slavery, human sacrifice, and cannibalism were some of the original inhabitants’ favorite sports.

Really, you have to go back to the Neanderthals to find out who was here first. And those damned homo sapiens just slaughtered them!

Answer 9

yes its true,but a part of history no one likes to talk about or profess,and here is a link to a great campaign for buffalo
http://www.buffalofieldcampaign.org/faq/nocattle.html

they where all most wiped to extinction at one time in history
The Buffalo

Poem by Mary Ann Pont

While grazin' quietly a man I see,
so I watch him as he watches me,
the question bein' who's gonna flee.

I guess he will 'cuz I'm that big,
but I can't stand his feathered wig,
so I'll just blow me lots of snot,
and watch his pony spook a lot.

Well it bucks to the West lands in the East,
for I the buffalo am a mighty beast,
brown and hairy but do I care,
these northern plains I will not share.

But go young Indian do not fear,
as your painted pony starts to rear,
I shall let you live to tell the tale,
brave young Warrior who's face is pale.

As the sunset fades over mountains yonder,
I can't help but to look and wonder,
why the painted pony stands quiet and proud,
beneath western skies without a cloud.

But then I see in the Warrior's eyes,
sad tears have filled,
for I the buffalo shall be killed.

Answer 10

yeah I'm confused too...what peoples got wiped out by Mexico's ancestors that they stole land from again?

Were the Europeans the only people that did that, did it happen in Europe...Russia...South America...did by any chance the Native American Indians fight with each other and vow to the death themselves?

Hmm...I don't see how any of this changes the fact that JUST LIKE MEXICO THAT HAD THEIR PEOPLE TO WIPE OUT that America IS A SOVERIEGN COUNTRY.

THERE IS SUCH A PLACE AS AMERICA, THERE IS SUCH A PERSON AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN AND THERE IS SUCH A VALID IDEA OF CITIZENS RIGHTS.

YOU CAN'T BULL ME THAT ONLY MEXICO CAN CLAIM THAT.