Citaat:
Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door De Groene Chinees
Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.[17] After first contacts with Europeans and Africans, some believe that the death of 90 to 95% of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases such as smallpox and measles.[18]
Determining how many people died as a direct result of armed conflict between native Americans, and Europeans and their descendants, is difficult as accurate records were not always kept.
In his book American Holocaust, David Stannard argues that the destruction of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, in a "string of genocide campaigns" by Europeans and their descendants, was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world.[13][19] While no mainstream historian denies that death and suffering were unjustly inflicted by a number of Europeans upon a great many American natives, most scholars of the subject maintain that genocide, which is a crime of intent, was not the intent of European colonization. Historian Stafford Poole wrote: "There are other terms to describe what happened in the Western Hemisphere, but genocide is not one of them. It is a good propaganda term in an age where slogans and shouting have replaced reflection and learning, but to use it in this context is to cheapen both the word itself and the appalling experiences of the Jews to mention a major victim of this century."[20]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocid...story#Americas |
Natuurlijk vielen al die doden niet door een kogel.
Het staat vast dat, dekens besmet met mazelen en andere ziektekiemen werden uitgedeeld aan indianen omdat men wist dat ze er aan zouden doodgaan.
Anderen stierven van honger, kou, ontbering tijdens hun tocht naar en verblijf in een reservaat.
bron "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" van Dee Brown (Begraaf mijn hart bij de bocht van de rivier)