Discoveries of Columbus. Colonization of South and Central America

Alperovich Moses Samuilovich, Slezkin Lev Yurievich ::: Formation of independent states in Latin America (1804-1903)

By the time of the discovery and conquest of America by European colonialists, it was inhabited by numerous Indian tribes and peoples who were at various stages of social and cultural development. Some of them managed to reach a high level of civilization, others led a very primitive way of life.

The oldest known Maya culture on the American continent, the center of which was the Yucatan Peninsula, was characterized by a significant development of agriculture, crafts, trade, art, science, and the presence of hieroglyphic writing. While maintaining a number of tribal institutions, the Maya also developed elements of a slave-owning society. Their culture had a strong influence on neighboring peoples - Zapotecs, Olmecs, Totonacs, etc.

Central Mexico in the 15th century came under the rule of the Aztecs, who were the successors and heirs of more ancient Indian civilizations. They had a developed agriculture, construction equipment reached a high level, and various trade was conducted. The Aztecs created many outstanding monuments of architecture and sculpture, a solar calendar, and had the beginnings of writing. The emergence of property inequality, the appearance of slavery and a number of other signs testified to their gradual transition to class society.

Quechua, Aymara and other peoples, distinguished by high material and spiritual culture, lived in the region of the Andean Highlands. In the XV - early XVI century. a number of tribes in this region subjugated the Incas, who formed a vast state (with the capital in Cusco), where Quechua was the official language.

Pueblo Indian tribes living in the Rio Grande del Norte and Colorado river basins (Hosti, Zuni, Tagno, Keres, etc.), inhabiting the Orinoco and Amazon river basins, Tupi, Guarani, Caribs, Arawaks, Brazilian Kayapo, inhabitants of the Pampas and the Pacific coast warlike Mapuche (whom the European conquerors began to call Araucans), the inhabitants of various regions of modern Peru and Ecuador, the Colorado Indians, Jivaro, Saparo, the tribes of La Plata (Diagita, Charrua, Kerandi, etc.) "Patagonian Tehuelchi, Indians of Tierra del Fuego - she, yagan, chono - were at different levels of the primitive communal system.

At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. the original process of development of the peoples of America was forcibly interrupted by the European conquerors - the conquistadors. Speaking about the historical fate of the indigenous population of the American continent, F. Engels pointed out that "the Spanish conquest cut short their further independent development."

The conquest and colonization of America, which had such fatal consequences for its peoples, were due to the complex socio-economic processes that were then taking place in European society.

The development of industry and trade, the emergence of the bourgeois class, the formation of capitalist relations in the depths of the feudal system caused at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. .in the countries of Western Europe, the desire to open new trade routes and seize the untold riches of East and South Asia. To this end, a number of expeditions were undertaken, in the organization of which Spain took the main part. The main role of Spain in the great discoveries of the XV-XVI centuries. was determined not only by its geographical position, but also by the presence of numerous bankrupt nobility, which, after the completion of the reconquista (1492), could not find a use for itself and feverishly sought sources of enrichment, dreaming of discovering a fabulous “golden country” across the ocean - Eldorado. “... Gold was that magic word that drove the Spaniards across the Atlantic Ocean to America,” F. Engels wrote, “gold - that’s what the white man first demanded as soon as he set foot on the newly opened shore.”

In early August 1492, a flotilla under the command of Christopher Columbus, equipped at the expense of the Spanish government, left the port of Palos (in southwestern Spain) in a westerly direction and after a long voyage in the Atlantic Ocean on October 12 reached a small island, which the Spaniards gave the name San -Salvador" i.e. "Holy Savior" (the locals called him Guanahani). As a result of the travels of Columbus and other navigators (the Spaniards Alonso de Ojeda, Vicente Pinson, Rodrigo de Bastidas, the Portuguese Pedro Alvarez Cabral, etc.) by the beginning of the 16th century. the central part of the Bahamas archipelago, the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica), most of the Lesser Antilles (from the Virgin to Dominica), Trinidad and a number of small islands in the Caribbean were discovered; explored the northern and a significant part of the eastern coast of South America, most of the Atlantic coast Central America. Back in 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was concluded between Spain and Portugal, delimiting the areas of their colonial expansion.

Numerous adventurers, bankrupt nobles, hired soldiers, criminals, etc. rushed to the newly discovered territories in pursuit of easy money from the Iberian Peninsula. Through deceit and violence, they seized the lands of the local population and declared them possessions of Spain went to Portugal. In 1492, Columbus founded on the island of Haiti, which he called Hispaniola (that is, "little Spain"), the first colony "Navidad" ("Christmas"), and in 1496 he laid the city of Santo Domingo here, which became a springboard for the subsequent conquest of the entire island and the subjugation of its indigenous inhabitants. In 1508-1509. Spanish conquistadors set about capturing and colonizing Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the Isthmus of Panama, whose territory they called Golden Castile. In 1511, Diego de Velasquez's detachment landed in Cuba and began its conquest.

By plundering, enslaving and exploiting the Indians, the invaders brutally suppressed any attempt at resistance. They savagely destroyed and annihilated entire cities and villages, brutally dealt with their population. An eyewitness to the events, the Dominican monk Bartolome de Las Casas, who personally observed the bloody “tows” of the conquistadors, said that they hanged and drowned the Indians, chopped them into pieces with swords, burned them alive, fried them over low heat, poisoned them with dogs, not sparing even the elderly, women and children. “Robbery and robbery is the only goal of the Spanish adventurers in America,” K. Marx pointed out.

In search of treasures, the conquerors sought to discover and capture more and more new lands. “Gold,” Columbus wrote to the Spanish royal couple from Jamaica in 1503, “is perfection. Gold creates treasures, and whoever owns it can do whatever he wants, and is even able to enter human souls into paradise.

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama from north to south and went to the coast Pacific Ocean, and Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the Florida peninsula - the first Spanish possession in North America. In 1516, the expedition of Juan Diaz de Solis explored the basin of the Rio de la Plata ("Silver River"). A year later, the Yucatan Peninsula was discovered, and soon the coast of the Gulf of Mexico was explored.

In 1519-1521. Spanish conquistadors led by Hernan Cortes conquered Central Mexico, destroying the ancient Indian culture of the Aztecs here and setting their capital Tenochtitlan on fire. By the end of the 20s of the XVI century. they captured a vast territory from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, as well as most of Central America. In the future, the Spanish colonialists continued their advance to the south (Yucatan) and north (up to the basin of the Colorado and Rio Grande del Norte, California and Texas).

After the invasion of Mexico and Central America, conquistador detachments poured into the South American continent. Since 1530, the Portuguese began a more or less systematic colonization of Brazil, from where they began to export valuable breed pau brazil tree (from which the name of the country comes). In the first half of the 30s of the XVI century. The Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, captured Peru, destroying the Inca civilization that had developed here. They began the conquest of this country with a massacre of unarmed Indians in the city of Cajamarca, the signal for which was given by the priest Valverde. The Inca ruler Atahualpa was treacherously captured and executed. Moving south, the Spanish conquerors led by Almagro invaded in 1535-1537 the borders of the country they called Chile. However, the conquistadors ran into stubborn resistance from the warlike Araucans and failed. At the same time, Pedro de Mendoza began the colonization of La Plata.

Numerous detachments of European conquerors also rushed to the northern part of South America, where, according to their ideas, the mythical country of Eldorado, rich in gold and other jewels, was located. The German bankers Welsers and Ehingers also participated in financing these expeditions, having received from their debtor, Emperor (and King of Spain) Charles V the right to colonize the southern coast of the Caribbean Sea, which at that time was called "Tierra Firme". In search of Eldorado, the Spanish expeditions of Ordaz, Jimenez de Quesada, Benalcazar and detachments of German mercenaries under the command of Ehinger, Speyer, Federman penetrated in the 30s of the 16th century. in the basins of the Orinoco and Magdalena rivers. In 1538, Jimenez de Quesada, Federman and Benalcazar, moving respectively from the north, east and south, met on the plateau of Cundinamarca, near the city of Bogotá.

In the early 40s, Francisco de Orella did not reach the Amazon River and descended along its course to the Atlantic Ocean.

At the same time, the Spaniards, led by Pedro de Valdivia, undertook a new campaign in Chile, but by the beginning of the 50s they were able to capture only the northern and central part of the country. The penetration of Spanish and Portuguese conquerors into the interior of America continued into the second half of the 16th century, while the conquest and colonization of many areas (for example, southern Chile and northern Mexico) dragged on for a much longer period.

However, the vast and rich lands of the New World were also claimed by other European powers - England, France and Holland, who unsuccessfully tried to seize various territories in South and Central America, as well as a number of islands in the West Indies. To this end, they used pirates - filibusters and buccaneers, who robbed mainly Spanish ships and the American colonies of Spain. In 1578, the English pirate Francis Drake reached the coast of South America in the La Plata region and passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. Seeing a threat to their colonial possessions, the Spanish government equipped and sent a huge squadron to the shores of England. However, this "Invincible Armada" was defeated in 1588, and Spain lost its maritime power. Soon another English pirate, Walter Raleigh, landed on the northern coast of South America, trying to discover the fabulous Eldorado in the Orinoco basin. Raids on Spanish possessions in America were made in the 16th-17th centuries. the British Hawkins, Cavendish, Henry Morgan (the latter completely plundered Panama in 1671), the Dutch Ioris Spielbergen, Schouten and other pirates.

The Portuguese colony of Brazil was also subjected in the XVI-XVII centuries. attacks by French and English pirates, especially after its inclusion in the Spanish colonial empire in connection with the transfer of the Portuguese crown to the King of Spain (1581-1640). Holland, which during this period was at war with Spain, managed to capture part of Brazil (Pernambuco), and hold it for a quarter of a century (1630-1654).

However, the fierce struggle of the two largest powers - England and France - for world superiority, their mutual rivalry, caused, in particular, by the desire to seize the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in America, objectively contributed to the preservation of most of them in the hands of weaker Spain and Portugal. Despite all attempts by rivals to deprive the Spaniards and the Portuguese of their colonial monopoly, South and Central America, with the exception of a small territory of Guiana, divided between England, France and Holland, as well as Mosquito Coast (on the east coast of Nicaragua) and Belize (southeast Yucatan) , which were the object of English colonization, until the beginning of the XIX century. .continued to remain in the possession of Spain and Portugal.

Only in the West Indies, for which during the XVI - XVIII centuries. England, France, Holland and Spain fought fiercely (moreover, many islands repeatedly passed from one power to another), the positions of the Spanish colonialists were significantly weakened. By the end of the XVIII - beginning of the XIX century. they managed to save only Cuba, Puerto Rico and the eastern half of Haiti (Santo Domingo). Western half According to the Ryswick Peace Treaty of 1697, this island of Spain had to be ceded to France, which founded a colony here, which in French began to be called Saint-Domingue (in traditional Russian transcription - Saint-Domingo). The French also captured (back in 1635) Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Jamaica, most of the Lesser Antilles (St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, etc.), the Bahamas and Bermuda archipelagos were in the 17th century. captured by England. Its rights to many islands belonging to the Lesser Antilles group (St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada) were finally secured by the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. In 1797, the British captured the Spanish island of Trinidad, located near northeast coast of Venezuela, and at the beginning of the XIX century. (1814) achieved official recognition of their claims to the small island of Tobago, which had actually been in their hands since 1580 (with some interruptions).

The islands of Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire and others came under the rule of Holland, and the largest of the Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John), initially captured by Spain, and then being the object of a fierce struggle between England, France and Holland, in 30-50s of the XVIII century. were bought by Denmark.

The discovery and colonization of the American continent by Europeans, where pre-feudal relations had previously reigned supreme, objectively contributed to the development of the feudal system there. At the same time, these events were of great world-historical significance for accelerating the development of capitalism in Europe and drawing the vast territories of America into its orbit. “The discovery of America and the sea route around Africa,” pointed out K. Marx and F. Engels, “created a new field of activity for the rising bourgeoisie. The East Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, exchange with the colonies, the increase in the number of means of exchange and goods in general, gave an impetus hitherto unheard of to trade, navigation, industry, and thus caused the rapid development of the revolutionary element in the disintegrating feudal society. The discovery of America, according to Marx and Engels, prepared the creation of a world market, which "caused a colossal development of trade, navigation and means of overland communication."

However, the inspiration of the conquistadors, as W. Z. Foster noted, “is not at all the ideas of social progress; their only goal was to seize everything they could for themselves and for their class. At the same time, during the conquest, they ruthlessly destroyed the ancient civilizations created by the indigenous population of America, and the Indians themselves were enslaved or exterminated. Thus, having seized the vast expanses of the New World, the conquerors barbarously destroyed the forms of economic life, social structure, and original culture that had reached a high level of development among some peoples.

In an effort to consolidate their dominance over the occupied territories of America, the European colonialists created the appropriate administrative and socio-economic systems here.

From the Spanish possessions in North and Central America, the Viceroyalty of New Spain was formed in 1535, with Mexico City as its capital. In its composition by the end of the XVIII - beginning of the XIX century. included the entire modern territory of Mexico (with the exception of Chiapas) and the southern part of the current United States (Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, part of Colorado and Wyoming). The northern border of the viceroyalty was not clearly established until 1819 due to territorial disputes between Spain, England, the United States and Russia. The colonies of Spain in South America, with the exception of its Caribbean coast (Venezuela), and the southeastern part of Central America (Panama) formed in 1542 the Viceroyalty of Peru, whose capital was Lima.

Some areas that were nominally under the authority of the viceroy were in fact independent political and administrative units, ruled by captains general, who were directly subordinate to the government of Madrid. So, most of Central America (with the exception of Yucatan, Tabasco, Panama) was occupied by the captaincy general of Guatemala. Spanish possessions in the West Indies and on the Caribbean coast "until the second half of the 18th century. constituted the captaincy general of Santo Domingo. As part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until the 30s of the XVIII century. included the captaincy general of New Granada (with its capital in Bogotá).

Along with the formation of viceroyalties and captaincy generals in the process of the Spanish conquest, special administrative-judicial colleges, the so-called audiences, which had advisory functions, were established in the largest colonial centers. The territory under the jurisdiction of each audience constituted a certain administrative unit, and its borders in some cases coincided with the borders of the corresponding captaincy general. The first audience - Santo Domingo - was established in 1511. Later, by the beginning of the 17th century, the audiences of Mexico City and Guadalajara were established in New Spain, Guatemala in Central America, Lima, Quito, Charcas (covering the basin of La -Plata and Upper Peru), Panama, Bogota, Santiago (Chile).

It should be noted that although the governor of Chile (who was also the head of the audience) was subordinate and accountable to the Peruvian viceroy, due to the remoteness and military significance of this colony, its administration enjoyed much greater political independence than, for example, the authorities of the audiences of Charcas or Quito. In fact, she dealt directly with the royal government in Madrid, although in certain economic and some other matters she depended on Peru.

In the XVIII century. the administrative and political structure of the American colonies of Spain (mainly its possessions in South America and the West Indies) has undergone significant changes.

New Granada was in 1739 transformed into a viceroyalty. It included territories that were under the jurisdiction of the audiences of Panama and Quito. After Seven Years' War 1756-1763, during which the Cuban capital of Havana was occupied by the British, Spain had to cede Florida to England in exchange for Havana. But the Spaniards then received the French colony of West Louisiana with New Orleans. Following this, in 1764, Cuba was transformed into a captaincy general, which also included Louisiana. In 1776, another new viceroyalty was created - Rio de la Plata, which included the former territory of the audience of Charcas: Buenos Aires and other provinces of modern Argentina, Paraguay, Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia), "East Coast" ( "Banda Oriental"), as the territory of Uruguay, located on the eastern bank of the Uruguay River, was called at that time. Venezuela (with its capital in Caracas) was in 1777 transformed into an independent captaincy general. The following year, the status of captaincy general was granted to Chile, whose dependence on Peru was now even more fictitious than before.

By the end of the XVIII century. there was a significant weakening of Spain's position in the Caribbean. True, under the Versailles Peace Treaty, Florida was returned to her, but in 1795 (according to the Basel Peace Treaty), the Madrid government was forced to cede Santo Domingo to France (i.e., the eastern half of Haiti), and in 1801 - to return to her Louisiana. In this regard, the center of Spanish rule in the West Indies moved to Cuba, where the audience was transferred from Santo Domingo. The governors of Florida and Puerto Rico were subordinate to the captain-general and audiences of Cuba, although legally these colonies were considered as being directly dependent on the mother country.

The system of government of the American colonies of Spain was built according to the type of the Spanish feudal monarchy. The supreme authority in each colony was exercised by the viceroy or captain general. The governors of individual provinces were subordinate to him. The cities and rural districts into which the provinces were divided were ruled by correhidors and senior alcaldes subordinate to the governors. They were, in turn, subordinated to hereditary elders (caciques), and later elected elders of Indian villages. In the 80s of the XVIII century. in Spanish America, an administrative division into commissariats was introduced. In New Spain, 12 commissariats were created, in Peru and on La Plata - 8 each, in Chile - 2, etc.

Viceroys and captain-generals enjoyed broad rights. They appointed provincial governors, corregidores and senior alcaldes, issued orders relating to various aspects of colonial life, were in charge of the treasury and all armed forces. The viceroys were also royal governors in ecclesiastical affairs: since the Spanish monarch had the right of patronage in relation to the church in the American colonies, the viceroy appointed priests on his behalf from among the candidates presented by the bishops.

The audiences that existed in a number of colonial centers performed mainly judicial functions. But they were also entrusted with monitoring the activities of the administrative apparatus. However, the audiences were only deliberative bodies, the decisions of which were not binding on viceroys and captains general.

The brutal colonial oppression led to a further decrease in the Indian population of Latin America, which was greatly facilitated by frequent epidemics of smallpox, typhoid and other diseases introduced by the conquerors. The catastrophic situation with the labor force thus created and the sharp reduction in the number of taxpayers seriously affected the interests of the colonialists. In this regard, at the beginning of the XVIII century. the question arose of eliminating the institution of the encomienda, which by that time, as a result of the spread of peonage, had largely lost its former significance. The royal government hoped to get new workers and taxpayers at its disposal in this way. As for the Spanish American landowners, most of them, in connection with the dispossession of the peasantry and the development of the peonage system, were no longer interested in preserving the encomienda. The elimination of the latter was also due to the growing resistance of the Indians, which led in the second half of the 17th century. to numerous uprisings.

Decrees of 1718-1720. The institution of encomienda in the American colonies of Spain was formally abolished. However, in fact, it was kept hidden in places or even legally for many more years. In some provinces of New Spain (Yucatan, Tabasco), encomiendas were officially abolished only in 1785, and in Chile only in 1791. There is evidence of the existence of encomiendas in the second half of the 18th century. and in other areas, in particular on La Plata and New Granada.

With the abolition of encomiendas, large landowners retained not only their estates - “haciendas” and “estancias”, but in fact also power over the Indians. In most cases, they seized in whole or in part the lands of Indian communities, as a result of which the landless and landless peasants, deprived of freedom of movement, were forced to continue to work on the estates as peonies. The Indians, who in one way or another escaped this fate, fell under the authority of the Corregidores and other officials. They had to pay a poll tax and serve a labor service.

Along with the landowners and the royal government, the Catholic Church was the oppressor of the Indians, in whose hands were vast territories. Enslaved Indians were attached to the vast possessions of the Jesuit and other spiritual reduction missions (of which there were especially many in Paraguay), who were subjected to the most severe oppression. The church also received huge incomes from the collection of tithes, payments for services, all kinds of usury operations, “voluntary” donations from the population, etc.

So by the end XVIII - beginning 19th century the majority of the Indian population of Latin America, having lost their personal freedom, and often their land, found themselves in fact in feudal dependence on their exploiters. However, in some inaccessible areas remote from the main centers of colonization, there remained independent tribes that did not recognize the authorities of the invaders and offered stubborn resistance to them. These free Indians, who stubbornly avoided contact with the colonialists, basically retained their former primitive communal system, traditional way of life, their own language and culture. Only in the XIX-XX centuries. most of them were conquered, and their lands were expropriated.

In some areas of America, there was also a free peasantry: "llanero" - on the plains (llanos) of Venezuela and New Granada, "gauchos" - in southern Brazil and on La Plata. In Mexico, there were small land holdings of the farm type - "rancho".

Despite the extermination of most of the Indians, in many countries of the American continent, a certain number of indigenous people survived. The bulk of the Indian population were exploited, enserfed peasants who suffered under the yoke of landowners, royal officials and catholic church, as well as workers in mines, manufa.ktur and craft workshops, loaders, domestic servants, etc.

The Negroes imported from Africa worked mainly on plantations of sugar cane, coffee, tobacco and other tropical crops, as well as in the mining industry, in manufactories, etc. Most of them were slaves, but even those few who were nominally considered free, in their own way position, in fact, almost did not differ from slaves. Although during the XVI-XVIII centuries. many millions of African slaves were imported into Latin America, due to high mortality caused by overwork, unaccustomed climate and disease, their numbers in most colonies by the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. was small. However, in Brazil it exceeded at the end of the 18th century. 1.3 million people, with a total population of 2 to 3 million. The population of African descent also predominated on the islands of the West Indies and was quite numerous in New Granada, Venezuela and some other areas.

Along with the Indians and Negroes in Latin America, from the very beginning of its colonization, a group of people of European origin appeared and began to grow. The privileged elite of the colonial society were the natives of the metropolis - the Spaniards (who were contemptuously called "gachupins" or "chapetons" in America) and the Portuguese. These were predominantly representatives of the noble nobility, as well as wealthy merchants, in whose hands was the colonial trade. They occupied almost all the highest administrative, military and ecclesiastical positions. Among them were large landowners and owners of mines. The natives of the metropolis boasted of their origin and considered themselves a superior race compared not only with the Indians and Negroes, but even with the American-born descendants of their compatriots - the Creoles.

The term "creole" is very arbitrary and inaccurate. Creoles in America were called "purebred" descendants of Europeans born here. However, in fact, most of them had, to one degree or another, an admixture of Indian or Negro blood. Most of the landowners came out of the Creole environment. They also joined the ranks of the colonial intelligentsia and the lower clergy, and occupied secondary positions in the administrative apparatus and the army. Relatively few of them were engaged in commercial and industrial activities, but they owned most of the mines and manufactories. Among the Creole population were also small landowners, artisans, owners of small businesses, etc.

Possessing nominally equal rights with the natives of the metropolis, the Creoles were in fact discriminated against and only as an exception were appointed to the highest positions. In turn, they treated the Indians and the "colored" in general with contempt, treating them as representatives of an inferior race. They prided themselves on the alleged purity of their blood, although many of them had absolutely no reason for this.

In the course of colonization, a process of mixing of Europeans, Indians, blacks took place. Therefore, the population of Latin America in the late XVIII - early XIX century. in my own way ethnic composition was extremely heterogeneous. In addition to Indians, Negroes and colonists of European origin, there was a very large group that arose from a mixture of various ethnic elements: whites and Indians (Indo-European mestizos), whites and Negroes (mulattos), Indians and Negroes (Sambo).

The mestizo population was deprived of civil rights: mestizos and mulattoes could not hold bureaucratic and officer positions, participate in municipal elections, etc. Representatives of this large population group were engaged in crafts, retail trade, liberal professions, served as managers, clerks, overseers wealthy landowners. They made up the majority of the small landowners. Some of them by the end of the colonial period began to penetrate the ranks of the lower clergy. Part of the mestizos turned into peonies, workers in factories and mines, soldiers, constituted a declassed element of cities.

In contrast to the ongoing mixing of various ethnic elements, the colonialists sought to isolate and oppose each other natives of the metropolis, Creoles, Indians, Negroes and mestizos. They divided the entire population of the colonies into groups on a racial basis. However, in fact, belonging to one category or another was often determined not so much by ethnic characteristics as by social factors. Thus, many wealthy people who were mestizos in the anthropological sense were officially considered Creoles, and the children of Indian women and whites who lived in Indian villages were often considered by the authorities as Indians.

The tribes belonging to the Carib and Arawak language groups also made up the population of the West Indies.

The estuary (expanded mouth) formed by the Parana and Uruguay rivers is a gulf of the Atlantic Ocean.

K. Marxi F. Engels, Works, vol. 21, p. 31.

Ibid., p. 408.

It was one of the Bahamas, according to most historians and geographers, the one that was later called Fr. Watling, and recently re-named San Salvador.

In the future, they began to call the entire Spanish colony in Haiti and even the island itself.

Archive of Marx and Engels, vol. VII, p. 100.

Travels of Christopher Columbus. Diaries, letters, documents, M.,. 1961, p. 461.

From the Spanish "el dorado" - "gilded". The idea of ​​El Dorado arose among the European conquerors, apparently on the basis of greatly exaggerated information about some of the rites common among the Chibcha Indian tribes inhabiting the northwest of South America, who, when electing a supreme leader, covered his body with gilding and brought gold and emeralds as a gift to their deities. .

That is, "solid land", in contrast to the islands of the West Indies. In a more limited sense, this term was used later to refer to the part of the Isthmus of Panama adjacent to the South American mainland, which made up the territories of the provinces of Darya, Panama and Veraguas.

The last attempt of this kind was made in the 70s of the XVIII century. Spaniard Rodriguez.

About the fate of Santo Domingo at the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. see page 16 and ch. 3.

K. Marxi F. Engels, Works, vol. 4, p. 425.

W. Z. Foster, Outline of the Political History of America, Ed. foreign lit., 1953, p. 46.

This city was built on the site of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, destroyed and burned by the Spaniards.

K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, vol. 23, p. 179.

Gachupins (Spanish) - "people with spurs", Chapetons (Spanish) - literally "newcomers", "new arrivals".

Beginning of European colonization North America

Remark 1

At the end of the 15th century, Europeans discovered North America. The Spaniards were the first to reach the shores of America.

For half a century they dominated the Pacific coast of the continent. They managed to explore the California Peninsula and numerous territories coastline. The Atlantic coast of North America was mastered by the British, French and Portuguese.

In 1497-1498, an Italian from England, Giovanni Caboto, led two expeditions. He discovered the island of Newfoundland and explored the areas along the north coast. By the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese discovered Labrador, the Spaniards mastered the coast of Florida. The French moved inland, reaching the Gulf and the St. Lawrence River.

At this time, England was a leader in the development of the economy and the development of maritime space. She was the first to not only export the natural resources of open lands to the metropolis. She chose to colonize coastal areas.

Spain became the main rival of England in the colonization of new lands. The Spaniards gained a foothold in Florida, having mastered the shores of two oceans, and advanced from western Mexico to the Appalachians and the Grand Canyon. By the end of the 16th century, Spain founded New Spain, captured Texas and California. These territories were not as profitable as the lands in Central and South America, so Spain soon turned its attention to the latter.

France remained a dangerous rival to Great Britain in North America. The French founded a settlement in Quebec in 1608 and began to explore Canada (New France). In 1682, they established colonies in Louisiana, developing the Mississippi River basin.

The Dutch did not seek to gain a foothold on the American continent. Having gained access to the vast wealth of India, in 1602 they created East India Company. Following the trends of the times, the Dutch founded the West India Company. This company founded New Amsterdam, settlements in Brazil and captured part of the islands. These territories served as a base for the development of new lands.

British colonization of North America

In the 17th century, the process of British colonization of North America accelerated:

• in 1620 the English Puritans laid out New Plymouth;
• in 1622 New Hampshire was founded;
• Massachusetts built in 1628;
• Maryland and Connecticut were laid out in 1634;
• in 1634, the settlement of Rhode Island appeared;
• North and South Carolina, New Jersey founded in 1664.

In the same year, 1664, the British pushed the Dutch out of the Hudson River basin. The city of New Amsterdam and the Portuguese colony of New Holland received a new name - New York. Dutch attempts in 1673-1674 to recapture the territories occupied by the British were unsuccessful.

Remark 2

Almost 170 years from the founding of the first English settlements to the achievement of independence came to be called the US colonial period.

The British, having reached the North American coast, met here only hunting tribes. Their level of development did not match the level and wealth of the Incas and Aztecs, whom the Spaniards met in America. The British did not find gold and silver here, but they realized that the main value of the new lands was their land resources. Queen Elizabeth I of England approved in 1583 the colonization of American territories. All newly discovered lands were declared by the British to be the property of the English crown.

The British used another way to secure the new lands. They used the first settlements of sailors and pirates as transshipment bases or temporary shelters. In 1584, by order of the Queen, Walter Reilly led a caravan of ships with settlers. Quite quickly, the east coast of northern Florida became British property. The new lands were named Virginia. From Virginia, the British moved to the foothills of the Appalachians. The English colonists settled in the New World independently of each other, trying to have their own access to the sea.

In the 18th century, European powers weakened their influence in North America. The Spaniards lost Florida, the French lost Canada and Quebec to England.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ The specifics of the colonization of North America. Video lesson on General History Grade 7

✪ "Terra incognita" or Russian colonization of America

✪ Conquest and conquistadors (narrated by Andrey Kofman)

✪ Exploration of America by Europeans. How Whites Took Over America

✪ The American-Mexican War (narrated by historian Andrey Iserov)

Subtitles

The history of the discovery of America by Europeans

Pre-Columbian era

Currently, there are a number of theories and studies that make it highly likely that European travelers reached the shores of America long before the expeditions of Columbus. However, there is no doubt that these contacts did not lead to the creation of long-term settlements or the establishment of strong ties with the new continent, and thus did not have a significant impact on the historical and political processes in both the Old and New Worlds.

Travels of Columbus

Colonization of South and Central America in the 17th century

Chronology major events:

• - Christopher Columbus lands on the island.
• - Amerigo Vespucci and Alonso de Ojeda reach the mouth of the Amazon.
• - Vespucci, after the second journey, finally comes to the conclusion that the open continent is not part of India.
• - After a 100-day trek through the jungles of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, he crosses the Isthmus of Panama and reaches the Pacific coast for the first time.
• - Juan Ponce de Leon goes in search of the legendary Fountain of Youth. Having failed in reaching the object of search, he, nevertheless, discovers deposits of gold. Names the Florida peninsula and declares it a Spanish possession.
• - Fernando Cortez enters Tenochtitlan, captures the Emperor Montezuma, thereby starting the conquest of the Aztec empire. His triumph leads to 300 years of Spanish rule in Mexico and Central America.
• - Pascual de Andogoya discovers Peru.
• - Spain establishes a permanent military base and settlement in Jamaica.
• - Francisco Pizarro invades Peru, destroys thousands of Indians and conquers the Inca Empire, the most powerful state of South American Indians. A huge number of Incas die from chickenpox brought by the Spaniards.
• - Spanish settlers found Buenos Aires, but after five years they were forced to leave the city under the onslaught of the Indians.

Colonization of North America (XVII -XVIII  centuries)

But at the same time, the balance of power in the Old World began to change: the kings spent the streams of silver and gold flowing from the colonies, and had little interest in the economy of the metropolis, which, under the weight of an inefficient, corrupt administrative apparatus, clerical dominance and lack of incentives for modernization, began to lag behind more and more. from the booming economy of England. Spain gradually lost the status of the main European superpower and mistress of the seas. Many years of war in the Netherlands, huge funds spent on the fight against the Reformation throughout Europe, the conflict with England hastened the decline of Spain. The last straw was the death of the Invincible Armada in 1588. After the English admirals, and more so in a violent storm, destroyed the largest fleet of the time, Spain fell into the shadows, never to recover from this blow.

Leadership in the "relay race" of colonization passed to England, France and Holland.

English colonies

The well-known chaplain Gakluyt acted as the ideologist of the English colonization of North America. In and 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, by order of Queen Elizabeth I of England, made two attempts to establish a permanent settlement in North America. The reconnaissance expedition reached the American coast in 1584 and named the open coast of Virginia (eng. Virginia - "Virgin") in honor of the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I, who never married. Both attempts ended in failure - the first colony, based on Roanoke Island off the coast of Virginia, was on the verge of collapse due to Indian attacks and lack of supplies and was evacuated by Sir Francis Drake in April 1587. In July of the same year, a second expedition of 117 colonists landed on the island. It was planned that ships with equipment and food would arrive in the colony in the spring of 1588. However, for various reasons, the supply expedition was delayed by almost a year and a half. When she arrived at the place, all the buildings of the colonists were intact, but no traces of people, with the exception of the remains of one person, were found. The exact fate of the colonists has not been established to this day.

At the beginning of the 17th century, private capital entered the business. In 1605, two joint-stock companies received licenses from King James I to establish colonies in Virginia. It should be borne in mind that at that time the term "Virginia" denoted the entire territory of the North American continent. The first of these companies was the London Virginia Company. Virginia Company of London) - received the rights to the south, the second - the "Plymouth Company" (eng. Plymouth Company) - to the northern part of the continent. Despite the fact that both companies officially proclaimed the spread of Christianity as the main goal, the license received granted them the right to "search and mine gold, silver and copper by all means."

On December 20, 1606, the colonists set sail aboard three ships, and after a difficult, almost five-month voyage, during which several dozen people died of starvation and disease, in May 1607 they reached Chesapeake Bay (Eng. Chesapeake Bay). Over the next month, they built a wooden fort, named after King Fort James (English pronunciation of the name Jacob). The fort was later renamed Jamestown, the first permanent British settlement in America.

The official historiography of the United States considers Jamestown the cradle of the country, the history of the settlement and its leader, Captain John Smith (Eng. John Smith of Jamestown) is covered in many serious studies and works of art. The latter, as a rule, idealize the history of the city and the pioneers who inhabited it (for example, the popular cartoon Pocahontas). In fact, the first years of the colony were extremely difficult, in the hungry winter of 1609-1610. out of 500 colonists, no more than 60 survived, and, according to some accounts, the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism in order to survive the famine.

American stamp issued for the tercentenary of the founding of Jamestown

In subsequent years, when the issue of physical survival was no longer so acute, the two most important problems were strained relations with the indigenous population and the economic feasibility of the existence of the colony. To the disappointment of the shareholders of the Virginia Company of London, neither gold nor silver was found by the colonists, and the main commodity produced for export was ship timber. Despite the fact that this product was in some demand in the metropolis, which exhausted its forests in order, the profit, as well as from other attempts at economic activity, was minimal.

The situation changed in 1612, when the farmer and landowner John Rolfe (Eng. John Rolfe) managed to cross a local variety of tobacco grown by the Indians with varieties imported from Bermuda. The resulting hybrids were well adapted to the Virginia climate and at the same time suited the tastes of English consumers. The colony acquired a source of reliable income and for many years tobacco became the basis of the economy and exports of Virginia, and the phrases "Virginia tobacco", "Virginia blend" are used as characteristics of tobacco products to this day. Five years later, tobacco exports amounted to 20,000 pounds, a year later it was doubled, and by 1629 it reached 500,000 pounds. John Rolfe rendered another service to the colony: in 1614 he managed to negotiate peace with the local Indian chief. The peace treaty was sealed by marriage between Rolf and the leader's daughter, Pocahontas.

In 1619, two events occurred that had a significant impact on the entire subsequent history of the United States. This year Governor George Yardley George Yeardley) decided to transfer part of the power Council of Burghers(English) House of Burgesses), thus founding the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. The first meeting of the council took place on July 30, 1619. In the same year, a small group of Africans of Angolan origin was acquired by the colonists. Although formally they were not slaves, but had long-term contracts without the right to terminate, it is customary to count the history of slavery in America from this event.

In 1622, almost a quarter of the population of the colony was destroyed by the rebellious Indians. In 1624, the license of the London Company, whose affairs had fallen into decay, was revoked, and from that time Virginia became a royal colony. The governor was appointed by the king, but the colony council retained significant powers.

Settlement of New England

In 1497, several expeditions to the island of Newfoundland, associated with the names of the Cabots, laid the foundation for the claims of England to the territory of modern Canada.

In 1763, under the Treaty of Paris, New France came into the possession of Great Britain and became the province of Quebec. Rupert's Land (the area around Hudson Bay) and Prince Edward Island were also British colonies.

Florida

In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for control of Havana, which the British occupied during the Seven Years' War. The British divided Florida into East and West and began to attract immigrants. For this, the settlers were offered land and financial support.

In 1767, the northern boundary of West Florida was substantially moved, so that West Florida included parts of the present-day territories of the states of Alabama and Mississippi.

During the American Revolutionary War, Britain retained control of East Florida, but Spain was able to take over West Florida through an alliance with France at war with England. Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 between Great Britain and Spain, all of Florida was ceded to Spain.

Caribbean Islands

The first English colonies appeared in Bermuda (1612), St. Kitts (1623) and Barbados (1627) and were then used to colonize other islands. In 1655, Jamaica, taken from the Spanish Empire, was under the control of the British.

Central America

In 1630, British agents founded the Providence Company. (Providence Company), whose president was the Earl of Warwick, and the secretary was John Pym, occupied two small islands near the Mosquito Coast and established friendly relations with the locals. From 1655 to 1850, England, and then Great Britain, claimed a protectorate over the Miskito Indians, but numerous attempts to establish colonies were of little success, and the protectorate was disputed by Spain, the Central American republics and the United States. The objections from the United States were caused by fears that England would gain an advantage in connection with the proposed construction of a canal between the two oceans. In 1848, the capture of the city of Greytown (now called San Juan del Norte) by the Miskito Indians, with the support of the British, caused great excitement in the United States and almost led to war. However, by signing the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, both powers pledged not to strengthen, colonize, or dominate any part of Central American territory. In 1859, Great Britain transferred the protectorate to Honduras.

The first English colony on the banks of the Belize River was established in 1638. IN mid-seventeenth century, other English settlements were created. Later, British settlers began harvesting logwood, from which a substance used in the manufacture of textile dyes was extracted, which was of great importance for the wool-spinning industry in Europe (see article Belize#History).

South America

In 1803, Britain captured the Dutch settlements in Guiana, and in 1814, under the Treaty of Vienna, officially received the lands, united in 1831 under the name of British Guiana.

In January 1765, British captain John Byron explored Saunders Island at the eastern tip of the Falkland Islands and announced that it was annexed to Great Britain. Captain Byron named the bay on Saunders Port Egmont. Here in 1766 Captain McBride founded an English settlement. In the same year, Spain acquired French possessions in the Falklands from Bougainville and, having consolidated its power here in 1767, appointed a governor. In 1770, the Spanish attacked Port Egmont and drove the British off the island. This led to the fact that the two countries were on the brink of war, but a later peace treaty allowed the British to return to Port Egmont in 1771, while neither Spain nor Great Britain abandoned their claims to the islands. In 1774, in anticipation of the impending American Revolutionary War, Great Britain unilaterally abandoned many of its overseas possessions, including Port Egmont. Leaving the Falklands in 1776, the British installed a commemorative plaque here to confirm their rights to this territory. From 1776 until 1811, a Spanish settlement remained on the islands, administered from Buenos Aires as part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. In 1811, the Spaniards left the islands, also leaving a tablet here to prove their rights. After declaring independence in 1816, Argentina claimed the Falklands as its own. In January 1833, the British again landed in the Falklands and notified the Argentine authorities of their intention to restore their power on the islands.

Timeline of the founding of the English colonies

1. 1607 - Virginia (Jamestown)
2. 1620 - Massachusetts (Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Settlement)
3. 1626 - New York
4. 1633 - Maryland
5. 1636 - Rhode Island
6. 1636 - Connecticut
7. 1638 - Delaware
8. 1638 - New Hampshire
9. 1653 - North Carolina
10. 1663 - South Carolina
11. 1664 - New Jersey
12. 1682 - Pennsylvania
13. 1732 - Georgia

French colonies

By 1713, New France was at its largest. It included five provinces:

• Acadia (modern New Scotland and New Brunswick).
• Hudson's Bay (present-day Canada)
• Louisiana (the central part of the USA, from the Great Lakes to New Orleans), subdivided into two administrative regions: Lower Louisiana and Illinois (fr. le Pays des Illinois).

Spanish colonies

The Spanish colonization of the New World dates back to the discovery of America by the Spanish navigator Columbus in 1492, which Columbus himself recognized eastern part Asia, the east coast or China, or Japan, or India, because the name West Indies was assigned to these lands. The search for a new route to India is dictated by the development of society, industry and trade, the need to find large reserves of gold, for which demand has risen sharply. Then it was believed that in the "land of spices" it should be a lot. The geopolitical situation in the world has changed and the old eastern routes to India for Europeans, which passed through the lands now occupied by the Ottoman Empire, have become more dangerous and difficult to pass, meanwhile there was a growing need for a different trade with this rich land. Then some already had the idea that the earth was round and that India could be reached from the other side of the Earth - by sailing west from the then known world. Columbus made 4 expeditions to the region: the first - 1492-1493 - the discovery of the Sargasso Sea, the Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba, Tortuga, the foundation of the first village in which he left 39 of his sailors. He declared all the lands to be possessions of Spain; the second (1493-1496) years - the complete conquest of Haiti, the discovery

From the school bench we are told that America settled by the inhabitants of Asia, who moved there in groups through the Bering Isthmus (in the place where the strait is now). They settled in the New World after a huge glacier began to melt 14-15 thousand years ago. Did the indigenous population of America really come to the mainland (more precisely, two continents) in this way?!

However, recent discoveries by archaeologists and geneticists have shaken this coherent theory. It turns out that America was inhabited repeatedly, some strange peoples did this, almost related to the Australians, and besides, it is not clear on what transport the first "Indians" got to extreme south New World.

The population of America. First version

Until the end of the 20th century, the “Clovis first” hypothesis dominated American anthropology, according to which it was this culture of ancient mammoth hunters that appeared 12.5-13.5 thousand years ago that was the most ancient in the New World.

According to this hypothesis, people who ended up in Alaska could survive on ice-free land, because there was quite a bit of snow here, but then the path to the south was blocked by glaciers until a period of 14-16 thousand years ago, due to which settlement in the Americas began only after the end of the last glaciation.

The hypothesis was coherent and logical, but in the second half of the 20th century some discoveries were made that were incompatible with it. In the 1980s, Tom Dillehay, during excavations in Monte Verde (southern Chile), found that people had been there at least 14.5 thousand years ago. This caused a strong reaction from the scientific community: it turned out that the discovered culture was 1.5 thousand years older than Clovis in North America.

In order not to rewrite students and not change their view of the characteristics of the American population, most American anthropologists simply denied the find scientific reliability. Already during the excavations, Delai faced a powerful attack on his professional reputation, it came to the closure of funding for excavations and attempts to declare Monte Verde a phenomenon that was not related to archeology.

Only in 1997 did he manage to confirm the dating at 14,000 years, which caused a deep crisis in understanding the ways of settling America. At that time, there were no places of such ancient settlement in North America, which raised the question of where exactly people could get to Chile.

Recently, the Chileans suggested that Delea continue excavations. Influenced by the sad experience of twenty years of excuses, he initially refused. “I was fed up,” the scientist explained his position. However, in the end he agreed and found tools at the MVI site, undoubtedly man-made, whose antiquity was 14.5-19 thousand years.

History repeated itself: archaeologist Michael Waters immediately questioned the findings. In his opinion, the finds can be simple stones, remotely similar to tools, which means that the traditional chronology of the settlement of America is still out of danger.

Delays found "guns"

Seaside nomads

To understand how justified the criticism of the new work, we turned to the anthropologist Stanislav Drobyshevsky (Moscow State University). According to him, the tools found are indeed very primitive (processed on one side), but made from materials that are not found in Monte Verde. Quartz for a significant part of them had to be brought from afar, that is, such items cannot be of natural origin.

The scientist noted that the systematic criticism of discoveries of this kind is quite understandable: "When you teach in school and university that America was inhabited in a certain way, it is not so easy to give up this point of view."

Mammoths in Beringia

The conservatism of American researchers is also understandable: in North America, the recognized finds date back thousands of years after the period indicated by Delea. And what about the theory that before the melting of the glacier, the ancestors of the Indians blocked by it could not settle south?

However, Drobyshevsky notes, there is nothing supernatural in the more ancient dates of the Chilean sites. The islands along Canada's present-day Pacific coast were not glacier-covered, and there are remains of bears from ice age. This means that people could well spread along the coast, swimming across in boats and not going deep into the then inhospitable North America.

Australian footprint

However, the fact that the first reliable finds of the ancestors of the Indians were made in Chile does not end with the oddities of the settlement of America. Not so long ago, it turned out that the genes of the Aleuts and groups of Brazilian Indians have features characteristic of the genes of the Papuans and Australian Aborigines.

As the Russian anthropologist emphasizes, the data of geneticists are well combined with the results of the analysis of skulls previously found in South America and having features close to Australian ones.

In his opinion, most likely, the Australian trace in South America is associated with a common ancestral group, part of which moved to Australia tens of thousands of years ago, while the other migrated along the coast of Asia to the north, up to Beringia, and from there reached the South American continent. .

The appearance of Luzia is the name of a woman who lived 11 thousand years ago, whose remains were discovered in a Brazilian cave

As if that weren't enough, genetic studies in 2013 showed that Brazilian Botacudo Indians are close in mitochondrial DNA to Polynesians and part of the inhabitants of Madagascar. Unlike the Australoids, the Polynesians could well have reached South America by sea. At the same time, traces of their genes in eastern Brazil, and not on the Pacific coast, are not so easy to explain.

It turns out that a small group of Polynesian navigators, for some reason, did not return after landing, but overcame the Andean highlands, which were unusual for them, in order to settle in Brazil. One can only guess about the motives for such a long and difficult overland journey for typical sailors.

So, a small part of the American natives have traces of genes that are very far from the genome of the rest of the Indians, which contradicts the idea of ​​​​a single group of ancestors from Beringia.

30 thousand years before us

However, there are more radical deviations from the idea of ​​settling America in one wave and only after the melting of the glacier. In the 1970s, the Brazilian archaeologist Nieda Guidon discovered the cave site of Pedra Furada (Brazil), where, in addition to primitive tools, there were many bonfires, the age of which radiocarbon analysis showed from 30 to 48 thousand years.

It is easy to understand that such figures caused great rejection by North American anthropologists. The same Deley criticized radiocarbon dating, noting that traces could remain after a fire of natural origin.

Gidon reacted sharply to such opinions of her colleagues from the United States in Latin American: “Fire of natural origin cannot arise deep in a cave. American archaeologists need to write less and dig more.”

Drobyshevsky emphasizes that although no one has yet been able to challenge the dating of the Brazilians, the doubts of the Americans are quite understandable. If people were in Brazil 40 thousand years ago, then where did they go then and where are the traces of their stay in other parts of the New World?

Toba volcano eruption

The history of mankind knows cases when the first colonizers of new lands almost completely died out, leaving no significant traces. This is what happened to Homo sapiens who settled in Asia. Their first traces there date back to the period up to 125 thousand years ago, however, genetic data say that all of humanity originated from a population that emerged from Africa, much later - only 60 thousand years ago.

There is a hypothesis that the reason for this could be the extinction of the then Asian part as a result of the eruption of the Toba volcano 70 thousand years ago. The energy of this event is considered to exceed the combined yield of all the combined nuclear weapons ever created by mankind.

However, even an event more powerful than a nuclear war is difficult to explain the disappearance of significant human populations. Some researchers note that neither Neanderthals, nor Denisovans, nor even Homo floresiensis, who lived relatively close to Toba, died out from the explosion.

And judging by individual finds in South India, local Homo sapiens did not die out at that time, traces of which are not observed in the genes of modern people for some reason. Thus, the question of where the people who settled 40 thousand years ago in South America could have gone remains open and to some extent casts doubt on the most ancient finds of the Pedra Furada type.

Genetics vs genetics

Not only archaeological data often come into conflict, but also such seemingly reliable evidence as genetic markers. This summer, Maanasa Raghavan's group at the Natural History Museum in Copenhagen announced that genetic data disproved the idea that more than one wave of ancient settlers participated in settling the Americas.

According to them, genes close to Australians and Papuans appeared in the New World later than 9,000 years ago, when America was already inhabited by immigrants from Asia.

At the same time, the work of another group of geneticists led by Pontus Skoglund came out, which, based on the same material, made the opposite statement: a certain ghost population appeared in the New World either 15 thousand years ago, or even earlier, and, perhaps, settled there before the Asian wave of migration, from which the ancestors of the vast majority of modern Indians originated.

According to them, relatives of the Australian Aborigines crossed the Bering Strait only to be forced out by the subsequent wave of "Indian" migration, whose representatives began to dominate the Americas, pushing the few descendants of the first wave into the Amazon jungle and the Aleutian Islands.

Ragnavan's reconstruction of the settlement of the Americas

Even if geneticists cannot agree among themselves on whether the “Indian” or “Australian” components became the first natives of America, it is even more difficult for everyone else to understand this issue. And yet, something can be said about this: skulls similar in shape to Papuan ones have been found on the territory of modern Brazil for more than 10 thousand years.

The scientific picture of the settlement of the Americas is very complex, and present stage changes significantly. It is clear that groups of different origins participated in the settlement of the New World - at least two, not counting a small Polynesian component that appeared later than the others.

It is also obvious that at least part of the settlers were able to colonize the continent despite the glacier - bypassing it in boats or on ice. At the same time, the pioneers subsequently moved along the coast, quite quickly reaching the south of modern Chile. The early Americans appear to have been highly mobile, expansive, and well versed in the use of water transport.

As a result of the voyage of Columbus, they found much more, a whole " New world”, inhabited by numerous peoples. Having conquered these peoples with lightning speed, the Europeans began the merciless exploitation of the natural and human resources of the continent they had captured. Namely, from this moment begins a breakthrough that by the end of the 19th century made the Euro-American civilization dominant over the rest of the peoples of the planet.

The remarkable Marxist geographer James Bluth, in his groundbreaking study The Colonial Model of the World, paints a broad picture of early capitalist production in colonial South America and shows its key importance for the rise of European capitalism. It is necessary to briefly summarize his conclusions.

precious metals

Thanks to the conquest of America, by 1640, Europeans received from there at least 180 tons of gold and 17 thousand tons of silver. This is official data. In fact, these figures can be safely multiplied by two, taking into account the poor customs records and the widespread development of smuggling. The huge influx of precious metals led to a sharp expansion of the sphere of money circulation, necessary for the formation of capitalism. But, more importantly, the gold and silver that fell on them allowed European entrepreneurs to pay higher prices for goods and labor and thereby seize the dominant heights in international trade and production, ousting their competitors - the groupings of the non-European proto-bourgeoisie, especially in the Mediterranean region. Leaving aside for now the role of genocide in the extraction of precious metals, as well as other forms of capitalist economy in Columbus America, it is necessary to note Blaut's important argument that the very process of mining these metals and the economic activity necessary to ensure it were profitable.

plantations

In the 15-16 centuries. commercial and feudal sugar production was developed throughout the Mediterranean, as well as in West and East Africa, although in Northern Europe honey was still preferred due to its lower cost. Even then, the sugar industry was an important part of the proto-capitalist sector in the Mediterranean economy. Then, throughout the 16th century, there is a process of rapid development of sugar plantations in America, which replaces and displaces the production of sugar in the Mediterranean. Thus, using the two traditional benefits of colonialism - "free" land and cheap labor - European proto-capitalists eliminate their competitors with their feudal and semi-feudal production. No other industry, Blauth concludes, was as important to the development of capitalism before the 19th century as the sugar plantations in Columbian America. And the data he cites is truly amazing.

So in 1600, 30,000 tons of sugar were exported from Brazil with a selling price of 2 million pounds. This is about twice the value of all British exports for that year. Recall that it is Britain and its commodity production of wool that Eurocentric historians (i.e. 99% of all historians) consider to be the main engine of capitalist development in the 17th century. That same year, Brazil's per capita income (excluding the Indians, of course) was higher than that of Britain, which only caught up with Brazil later. By the end of the 16th century, the rate of capitalist accumulation on Brazilian plantations was so high that it allowed production to double every 2 years. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch capitalists, who controlled a significant part of the sugar business in Brazil, made calculations that showed that the annual rate of return in this industry was 56%, and in monetary terms, almost 1 million pounds sterling (a fantastic amount for that time). Moreover, these profits were even higher at the end of the 16th century, when the cost of production, including the purchase of slaves, was only one-fifth of the income from the sale of sugar.

Sugar plantations in America were central to the rise of the early capitalist economy in Europe. But besides sugar, there was also tobacco, there were spices, dyes, there was a huge fishing industry in Newfoundland and other places on the East coast of North America. All this was also part of the capitalist development of Europe. The slave trade was also extremely profitable. By the end of the 16th century, up to 1 million people worked in the colonial economy of the Western Hemisphere, according to Blauth's calculations, about half of whom were employed in capitalist production. In the 1570s, the huge mining town of Potosi in the Andes had a population of 120,000, more than at that time lived in such European cities as Paris, Rome or Madrid.

Finally, about fifty new types of agricultural plants, cultivated by the agrarian genius of the peoples of the "New World", fell into the hands of Europeans, such as potatoes, corn, tomatoes, a number of pepper varieties, cocoa for chocolate production, a number of legumes, peanuts, sunflowers, etc. Of these — potatoes and corn became cheap substitutes for bread for the European masses, saving millions from devastating crop shortages, allowing Europe to double food production in fifty years from 1492 and thus provide one of the main conditions for creating a market for wage labor for capitalist production.

So, thanks to the works of Blaut and a number of other radical historians, the key role of early European colonialism in the development of capitalism and its “centering” (centratedness - neologism of J. Blaut - A.B.) is beginning to emerge in Europe, and not in other areas of world proto-capitalist development. . Huge territories, cheap slave labor of enslaved peoples, robbery natural resources The Americas gave the European proto-bourgeoisie a decisive superiority over its competitors in the international economic system of the 16th and 17th centuries, allowed it to rapidly accelerate the already existing tendencies of capitalist production and accumulation and, thus, initiate the process of socio-political transformation of feudal Europe into a bourgeois society. As the famous Caribbean Marxist historian S.R.L. James, "the slave trade and slavery became the economic basis of the French Revolution... Almost every industry that developed in France in the 18th century was based on the production of goods for the coast of Guinea or for America." (James, 47-48).

This fateful turn in world history was based on the genocide of the peoples of the Western Hemisphere. This genocide was not only the first in the history of capitalism, not only stands at its origins, it is both the largest in terms of the number of victims and the longest extermination of peoples and ethnic groups, which continues to this day.

"I have become death, the destroyer of worlds."
(Bhagavad Gita)

Robert Oppenheimer remembered these lines when he saw the first atomic explosion. With much more right, the ominous words of an ancient Sanskrit poem could be recalled by the people who were on the ships Ninya, Pinta and Santa Maria, when, 450 years before the Explosion, in the same dark early morning, they noticed a fire on the lee side of the island, subsequently named after the Saint Savior - San Salvador.

26 days after the nuclear device was tested in the New Mexico desert, the Hiroshima bomb killed at least 130,000 people, almost all of them civilians. In just 21 years after Columbus landed on the islands of the Caribbean, the largest of them, renamed by the Admiral in Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), lost almost its entire indigenous population - about 8 million people killed, died from disease, hunger, slave labor and desperation. The devastating power of this Spanish "nuclear bomb" on Hispaniola was equivalent to more than 50 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. And that was just the beginning.

Thus, University of Hawaii historian David Stanard begins his book American Holocaust (1992) by comparing the first and “most monstrous in terms of size and consequences of genocide in world history” with the practice of genocides in the 20th century, and in this historical perspective lies, in my opinion. view, the special significance of his work, as well as the significance of Ward Churchill's follow-up book "The Minor Question of Genocide" (1997) and a number of other studies of recent years. In these works, the destruction of the indigenous population of the Americas by Europeans and Latinos appears not only as the most massive and long-lasting (up to the present day) genocide in world history, but also as an organic part of the Euro-American civilization from the late Middle Ages to Western imperialism of our days.

Stanard begins his book by describing the astounding richness and diversity of human life in the Americas until the fateful voyage of Columbus. He then takes the reader along the historical-geographic route of genocide, from the extermination of the native inhabitants of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, to the turn north and the destruction of the Indians in Florida, Virginia and New England, and finally through the Great Prairies and the Southwest to California. and the Pacific coast of the Northwest. The following part of my article is based primarily on Stanard's book, while the second part, the genocide in North America, uses Churchill's work.

Who was the victim of the most massive genocide in world history?

The human society destroyed by the Europeans in the Caribbean was in all respects superior to their own, if we take proximity to the ideal of a communist society as a measure of development. It would be more accurate to say that, thanks to a rare combination of natural conditions, the Tainos (or Arawaks) lived in a communist society. Not in the way the European Marx imagined it, but nevertheless communist. The inhabitants of the Greater Antilles have reached a high level in regulating their relations with the natural world. They learned to get everything they needed from nature, not exhausting it, but cultivating and transforming it. They had huge aqua farms, in each of which they raised up to a thousand large sea turtles (the equivalent of 100 head of cattle). They literally “collected” small fish from the sea, using plant substances that paralyzed them. Their agriculture was superior to European levels and was based on a three-tier planting system that uses a combination of different types of plants to create a favorable soil and climate regime. Their dwellings, spacious, clean and bright, would be the envy of the European masses.

The American geographer Carl Sauer comes to the following conclusion:

"The tropical idyll that we find in the descriptions of Columbus and Peter Martyr was basically true." About Tainos (Arawak): “These people did not feel the need for anything. They took care of their plants and were skilled fishermen, canoeists and swimmers. They built attractive dwellings and kept them clean. Aesthetically, they expressed themselves in wood. They had free time to play ball, dance and music. They lived in peace and friendship." (Standard, 51).

But Columbus, this typical European of the 15th and 16th centuries, had a different idea of ​​"good society." October 12, 1492, the day of "Contact", he wrote in his diary:
“These people walk in what their mother gave birth to, but they are good-natured ... they can be made free and converted to our Holy Faith. They will make good and skillful servants.”

On that day, representatives of the two continents met for the first time on an island that the locals called Guanahani. Early in the morning, under the tall pines on the sandy shore, a crowd of curious Tainos gathered. They watched as a strange boat with a fishbone-like hull and bearded strangers in it swam up to the shore and buried itself in the sand. Bearded men came out of it and pulled it higher, away from the foam of the surf. Now they were facing each other. The newcomers were swarthy and dark-haired, shaggy heads, overgrown beards, many of their faces were pitted with smallpox - one of the 60-70 deadly diseases that they would bring to the Western Hemisphere. There was a heavy smell coming from them. In Europe of the 15th century, they did not bathe. At a temperature of 30-35 degrees Celsius, the aliens were dressed from head to toe, with metal armor hanging over their clothes. In their hands they held long thin knives, daggers and sticks sparkling in the sun.

In the logbook, Columbus often notes the striking beauty of the islands and their inhabitants - friendly, happy, peaceful. And two days after the first contact, an ominous entry appears in the log: "50 soldiers are enough to subdue them all and make them do whatever we want." “The locals let us go where we want and give us everything we ask of them.” Most of all, Europeans were surprised by the incomprehensible generosity of this people for them. And this is not surprising. Columbus and his comrades sailed to these islands from a real hell, which was at that time Europe. They were the real fiends (and in many respects the dregs) of the European hell, over which the bloody dawn of the initial capitalist accumulation arose. It is necessary to tell briefly about this place.

Hell called "Europe"

A fierce class war was going on in hell Europe, frequent epidemics of smallpox, cholera and plague devastated cities, death from hunger even more often mowed down the population. But even in prosperous years, according to the historian of Spain of the 16th century, "the rich ate, and ate to satiety, while thousands of hungry eyes looked eagerly at their gargantuan dinners." So precarious was the existence of the masses that, even in the 17th century, every "average" increase in the price of wheat or millet in France killed an equal or twice civil war. Centuries after Columbus' voyage, the urban ditches of Europe still served public toilet, the insides of slaughtered animals and the remains of carcasses were thrown out to rot in the streets. A particular problem in London was the so-called. "holes for the poor" - "large, deep, open pits, where the corpses of the dead poor people were piled, in a row, layer on layer. Only when the pit was filled to the brim, it was covered with earth. One contemporary wrote: “How disgusting is the stench that comes from these pits filled with corpses, especially in the heat and after the rain.” Little better was the smell coming from the living Europeans, most of whom were born and died without washing once. Nearly every one of them bore the marks of smallpox and other deforming diseases that left their victims half-blind, covered in pockmarks, scabs, festering chronic ulcers, lame, and so on. The average life expectancy did not reach 30 years. Half of the children died before reaching 10.

Around every corner you could lie in wait for a criminal. One of the most popular methods of robbery was to throw a stone from the window on the head of his victim and then search it, and one of the festive entertainments was to burn a dozen or two cats alive. In the famine years, the cities of Europe were shaken by riots. And the largest class war of that era, or rather a series of wars under the general name Peasants, claimed more than 100,000 lives. The fate of the rural population was not the best. The classic description of the French peasants of the 17th century, left by La Bruère and confirmed by modern historians, summarizes the existence of this most numerous class of feudal Europe:

"Sour animals, males and females scattered across countryside, dirty and deathly pale, scorched by the sun, chained to the earth, which they dig and shovel with invincible tenacity; they have a kind of gift of speech, and when they straighten up, you can see human faces on them, and they are really people. At night they return to their lairs, where they live on black bread, water and roots.

And what Lawrence Stone wrote about a typical English village can be applied to the rest of Europe at that time:

“It was a place full of hatred and malice, the only thing that connected its inhabitants were episodes of mass hysteria, which for a time united the majority in order to torture and burn the local witch.” There were cities in England and on the Continent in which up to a third of the population were accused of witchcraft, and where 10 out of every hundred citizens were executed on this charge in one year alone. At the end of the 16th - 17th century, in one of the regions of peaceful Switzerland, more than 3,300 people were executed for "Satanism". In the tiny village of Wiesensteig, 63 "witches" were burned in one year. In the Obermarchtal, with a population of 700, 54 people died at the stake in three years.

Poverty was such a central phenomenon in European society that in the 17th century the French language had a whole palette of words (about 20) to designate all its gradations and shades. The Dictionary of the Academy explained the meaning of the term dans un etat d'indigence absolue as follows: "one who previously had no food or necessary clothing or a roof over his head, but who has now said goodbye to a few crumpled cooking bowls and blankets that constituted the main property working families.

Slavery flourished in Christian Europe. The church welcomed and encouraged him, she herself was the largest slave trader; the significance of her policy in this area for understanding the genocide in America, I will say at the end of the essay. In the 14th and 15th centuries, most of the slaves came from Eastern Europe, especially Romania (history repeats itself in modern times). Little girls were especially valued. From a letter from a slave trader to a customer interested in this product: “When the ships from Romania arrive, there must be girls there, but keep in mind that small slave girls are as expensive as adults; none of those of any value is worth less than 50-60 florins.” Historian John Boswell observes that "between 10 and 20 percent of the women sold in Seville in the 15th century were pregnant or had babies, and these unborn children and babies were usually delivered to the buyer with the woman at no extra charge."

The rich had their own problems. They coveted gold and silver to satisfy their habits of exotic goods, habits acquired since the time of the first crusades, i.e. the first colonial expeditions of Europeans. Silks, spices, fine cotton, drugs and medicines, perfumes and jewelry required a lot of money. Thus gold became for the Europeans, in the words of one Venetian, “the veins of the whole state life ... its mind and soul. . .her essence and her very life.” But the supply of precious metals from Africa and the Middle East has been unreliable. In addition, the wars in Eastern Europe drained the European treasury. It was necessary to find a new, reliable and preferably cheaper source of gold.

What to add to this? As can be seen from the above, brutal violence was the norm of European life. But at times it took on a particularly pathological character and, as it were, foreshadowed what awaited the unsuspecting inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere. In addition to the everyday scenes of witch-hunts and campfires, in 1476 in Milan, a mob tore a man to pieces, and then his tormentors ate them. In Paris and Lyon, the Huguenots were killed and cut into pieces, which were then openly sold on the streets. Other outbreaks of sophisticated torture, murder and ritual cannibalism were not unusual either.

Finally, while Columbus was searching Europe for money for his maritime adventures, the Inquisition was raging in Spain. Here and everywhere in Europe, suspected apostates were subjected to torture and execution in every way that the inventive imagination of Europeans was capable of. Some were hung, burned at the stake, boiled in a cauldron, or hung on a rack. Others were crushed, decapitated, skinned alive, drowned and quartered.

Such was the world that the former slave trader Christopher Columbus and his sailors left astern in August 1492. They were the typical inhabitants of this world, its deadly bacilli, whose deadly power was soon to be tested by millions of human beings who lived on the other side of the Atlantic.

Numbers

“When the white gentlemen came to our land, they brought fear and withering of the flowers. They mutilated and destroyed the color of other peoples. . . Marauders by day, criminals by night, murderers of the world." Mayan book Chilam Balam.

Stanard and Churchill devote many pages to describing the conspiracy of the Euro-American scientific establishment to withhold the true population of the American continent in the pre-Columbian era. At the head of this conspiracy was and continues to be the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. And Ward Churchill also talks in detail about the resistance, which American Zionist scientists specializing in the so-called strategic area for the ideology of modern imperialism. "Holocaust", i.e. of the Nazi genocide against European Jews, render the attempts of progressive historians to establish the real scale and world-historical significance of the genocide of the native inhabitants of America at the hands of "Western civilization". The latter question will be dealt with in the second part of this article on genocide in North America. As for the flagship of official American science, the Smithsonian Institution until very recently promoted as "scientific" estimates of the pre-Columbian population made in the 19th and early 20th centuries by racist anthropologists like James Mooney, according to which no more than 1 100,000 people. Only in the post-war period, the use of agricultural analysis methods made it possible to establish that the population density there was an order of magnitude higher, and that back in the 17th century, for example, on the island of Martha's Vinyard, now a resort place for the richest and most influential Euro-Americans, 3 thousand Indians lived. By the mid 60s. an estimate of the indigenous population north of the Rio Grande had risen to a minimum of 12.5 million by the start of the European invasion. Only in the Great Lakes region by 1492 lived up to 3.8 million, and in the Mississippi basin and the main tributaries - up to 5.25. In the 80s. new research has shown that the population of pre-Columbian North America may have been as high as 18.5, and the entire hemisphere as high as 112 million (Dobyns). From these studies, Cherokee demographer Russell Thornton made calculations to determine how many people did, and could not, live in North America. His conclusion: at least 9-12.5 million. Recently, many historians have taken the average between the calculations of Dobyns and Thornton as the norm, i.e. 15 million as the most likely approximate number of native North Americans. In other words, the population of this continent was about fifteen times what the Smithsonian claimed back in the 1980s, and seven and a half times what it is willing to admit today. Moreover, calculations similar to those carried out by Dobyns and Thornton were already known in the middle of the 19th century, but they were ignored as ideologically unacceptable, contradicting the central myth of the conquerors about the supposedly “primordial”, “desert” continent, which was just waiting for them to populate it. .

On the basis of modern data, it can be said that when on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus descended on one of the islands of the continent, soon called the "New World," its population ranged from 100 to 145 million people (Standard). Two centuries later, it was reduced by 90%. To date, the most "fortunate" of the once existing peoples of both Americas have retained no more than 5% of their former numbers. In its size and duration (until today), the genocide of the indigenous population of the Western Hemisphere has no parallel in world history.

So in Hispaniola, where about 8 million Tainos flourished until 1492, by 1570 there were only two miserable villages of the indigenous inhabitants of the island, about which 80 years ago Columbus wrote that "there are no better and more affectionate people in the world."

Some statistics by region.

In the 75 years from the arrival of the first Europeans in 1519 to 1594, the population of Central Mexico, the most densely populated region of the American continent, declined by 95%, from 25 million to barely 1,300,000 people.

In the 60 years since the arrival of the Spaniards, the population of Western Nicaragua has declined by 99%, from over 1 million to less than 10,000 people.

In Western and Central Honduras, over half a century, 95% of the indigenous people were destroyed. In Cordoba, near the Gulf of Mexico, 97% in a little over a century. In the neighboring province of Jalapa, 97% of the population was also destroyed: from 180,000 in 1520 to 5,000 in 1626. And so it is everywhere in Mexico and Central America. The advent of Europeans meant the lightning-fast and almost complete disappearance of the indigenous population, who lived and flourished there for many millennia.

On the eve of the European invasion of Peru and Chile, from 9 to 14 million people lived in the homeland of the Incas ... Long before the end of the century, no more than 1 million inhabitants remained in Peru. And in a few years - only half of it. 94% of the Andean population was destroyed, from 8.5 to 13.5 million people.

Brazil was perhaps the most populated region of the Americas. According to the first Portuguese governor, Tome de Souza, the reserves of the indigenous population here were inexhaustible "even if we butchered them in a slaughterhouse." He was wrong. Already 20 years after the founding of the colony in 1549, epidemics and slave labor on plantations brought the peoples of Brazil to the brink of extinction.

By the end of the 16th century, about 200 thousand Spaniards moved to both "Indies". To Mexico, Central America and further south. By the same time, from 60 to 80 million indigenous people of these areas had been destroyed.

Genocidal methods of the Columbian era

Here we see striking parallels with Nazi methods. Already in the second expedition of Columbus (1493), the Spaniards used an analogue of the Nazi Sonderkommandos to enslave and destroy the local population. Parties of Spanish thugs with dogs trained to kill a person, instruments of torture, gallows and shackles staged regular punitive expeditions with indispensable mass executions. But it is important to emphasize the following. The connection between this early capitalist genocide and the Nazi genocide ran deeper. The Tainos people, who inhabited the Greater Antilles and were completely exterminated within a few decades, fell victim not to “medieval” cruelties, not to Christian fanaticism, and not even to the pathological greed of the European invaders. Both that, and another, and the third led to genocide, only being organized by new economic rationality. The entire population of Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica and other islands was registered as private property, which was supposed to bring profit. This methodical accounting of the huge population scattered over the largest islands in the world by a handful of Europeans who have just emerged from the Middle Ages is most striking.

Columbus was the first to use mass hangings

From Spanish accountants in armor and with a cross, a direct thread stretches to the "rubber" genocide in the "Belgian" Congo, which killed 10 million Africans, and to the Nazi system of slave labor for destruction.

Columbus obliged all residents over the age of 14 to hand over to the Spaniards a thimble of golden sand or 25 pounds of cotton every three months (in areas where there was no gold). Those who fulfilled this quota were hung around their necks with a copper token indicating the date of receipt of the last tribute. The token gave its owner the right to three months of life. Caught without this token or with an expired one, the hands of both hands were cut off, they were hung around the neck of the victim and sent to die in their village. Columbus, who had previously been a slave trader along the western coast of Africa, apparently adopted this form of execution from Arab slave traders. During the governorship of Columbus, only in Hispaniola, up to 10 thousand Indians were killed in this way. It was almost impossible to fulfill the established quota. The locals had to give up growing food and everything else in order to dig for gold. Hunger has begun. Weakened and demoralized, they became easy prey for diseases introduced by the Spaniards. Such as influenza brought by pigs from the Canaries, which were brought to Hispaniola by the second expedition of Columbus. Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Taínos died in this first pandemic of the American genocide. An eyewitness describes huge piles of Hispaniola residents who died of influenza, who had no one to bury. The Indians tried to run wherever their eyes looked: across the entire island, into the mountains, even to other islands. But there was no escape anywhere. Mothers killed their children before killing themselves. Entire villages resorted to mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs or taking poison. But even more found death in the hands of the Spaniards.

In addition to atrocities that could at least be explained by the cannibalistic rationality of systematic gain, the genocide at Atilla, and then on the continent, included seemingly irrational, unjustified forms of violence on a mass scale and pathological, sadistic forms. Sources contemporary to Columbus describe how the Spanish colonists hung, roasted on skewers, and burned the Indians at the stake. Children were cut into pieces to feed the dogs. And this despite the fact that the Tainos at first did not offer the Spaniards practically no resistance. “The Spaniards wagered who could cut a man in two with one blow or cut off his head, or they ripped open their bellies. They tore babies from their mother's breasts by the legs and smashed their heads against stones .... Other children they strung on their long swords along with their mothers and all who stood before them. No SS man on the Eastern Front could have been asked for greater zeal, Ward Churchill rightly observes. Let us add that the Spaniards established a rule that for one killed Christian, they would kill a hundred Indians. The Nazis didn't have to invent anything. All they had to do was copy.

Cuban Lidice 16th century

The evidence of the Spaniards of that era about their sadism is truly incalculable. In one oft-cited episode in Cuba, a Spanish unit of about 100 soldiers made a halt on the banks of the river and, finding whetstones in it, sharpened their swords on them. Wanting to test their sharpness, an eyewitness of this event reports, they attacked a group of men, women, children and old people (apparently specially rounded up for this) sitting on the shore, who looked in fear at the Spaniards and their horses, and began to rip open their stomachs, chop and cut until they have killed them all. Then they entered a large house standing nearby and did the same there, killing everyone they found there. Streams of blood flowed from the house, as if a herd of cows had been slaughtered there. Seeing the terrible wounds of the dead and dying was a terrible sight.

This massacre began in the village of Zukayo, whose inhabitants had prepared a lunch of cassava, fruit and fish for the conquistadors shortly before. From there it spread throughout the region. No one knows how many Indians the Spaniards killed in this outburst of sadism before their bloodlust was blunted, but Las Casas reckons well over 20,000.

The Spaniards took pleasure in inventing sophisticated cruelties and tortures. They built a gallows high enough for the hanged man to touch the ground with his toes to avoid strangulation, and thus hung thirteen Indians, one by one, in honor of Christ the Savior and his apostles. While the Indians were still alive, the Spaniards tested the sharpness and strength of their swords on them, opening their chest with one blow, so that the insides could be seen, and there were those who did worse things. Then, straw was wrapped around their cut bodies and burned alive. One soldier caught two children of two years old, pierced their throats with a dagger and threw them into the abyss.

If these descriptions seem familiar to those who have heard of the massacres in My Lai, Song Mai, and other Vietnamese villages, the similarity is made even stronger by the term "appeasement" that the Spaniards used to describe their terror. But as horrific as the massacres in Vietnam were, they are nothing compared in scale to what happened five hundred years ago on the island of Hispaniola alone. By the time Columbus arrived in 1492, the population of this island was 8 million. Four years later, from a third to a half of this number died and was destroyed. And after 1496 the rate of destruction increased even more.

Slave work

Unlike British America, where the genocide had as its immediate goal the physical extermination of the indigenous population in order to conquer "living space", the genocide in Central and South America was a by-product of the brutal exploitation of the Indians for economic purposes. Massacres and torture were not uncommon, but they served as instruments of terror to subdue and "pacify" the indigenous population. The inhabitants of America were regarded as tens of millions of gratuitous laborers of natural slaves to extract gold and silver. There were so many of them that the rational economic method for the Spaniards was not to reproduce the labor force of their slaves, but to replace them. The Indians were killed by overwork, then to be replaced with a fresh batch of slaves.

From the highlands of the Andes, they were driven to coca plantations in the lowlands of the rainforest, where their organism, unusual for such a climate, became easy prey for deadly diseases. Such as "outa", from which the nose, mouth and throat rotted and died a painful death. So high was the mortality on these plantations (up to 50% in five months) that even the Crown became worried, issuing a decree restricting coca production. Like all decrees of this kind, he remained on paper, because, as a contemporary wrote, “there is one disease on coca plantations that is worse than all others. This is the unlimited greed of the Spaniards."

But it was even worse to get into the silver mines. Workers were lowered to a depth of 250 meters with a bag of fried maize for a week-long shift. In addition to overwork, landslides, poor ventilation and the violence of overseers, Indian miners breathed poisonous fumes of arsenic, mercury, etc. “If 20 healthy Indians go down the shaft on Monday, only half can get out of it crippled on Sunday,” wrote one contemporary. Stanard calculates that the average life expectancy of coca pickers and Indian miners during the early period of the genocide was no more than three or four months, i.e. about the same as in the synthetic rubber factory in Auschwitz in 1943.

Hernán Cortes tortures Cuauhtémoc to find out where the Aztecs hid the gold

After the massacre in the Aztec capital of Tenochtetlan, Cortes declared Central Mexico the "New Spain" and established a colonial regime based on slave labor there. This is how a contemporary describes the methods of "appeasement" (hence "appeasement" as Washington's official policy during the Vietnam War) and the enslavement of Indians to work in the mines.

“Numerous testimonies of numerous witnesses tell how the Indians are led in columns to the mines. They are chained to each other with neck shackles.

Pits with stakes on which the Indians were strung

Those who fall down get their heads cut off. There are stories of children being locked up in houses and set on fire, and also stabbed to death if they walk too slowly. It is common to cut off women's breasts and tie weights to their legs before throwing them into a lake or lagoon. There are stories of babies torn from their mothers, killed and used as road signs. Fugitive or "wandering" Indians are cut off the limbs and sent to their villages, having cut off hands and noses hung around their necks. They talk about "pregnant women, children and the elderly, who are caught as much as possible" and thrown into special pits, at the bottom of which sharp stakes are dug and "leave them there until the pit is full." And many, many more." (Standard, 82-83)

Indians are burned in their houses

As a result, of the approximately 25 million inhabitants who inhabited the Mexican kingdom at the time of the arrival of the conquistadors, by 1595 only 1.3 million remained alive. The rest were mostly tortured in the mines and plantations of "New Spain".

In the Andes, where the Pizarro bands wielded swords and whips, by the end of the 16th century the population had fallen from 14 million to less than 1 million. The reasons were the same as in Mexico and Central America. As one Spaniard in Peru wrote in 1539, “The Indians here are completely destroyed and dying ... They pray with a cross that for God's sake they will be given food. But [the soldiers] kill all the llamas for nothing more than to make candles ... The Indians are not left with anything to sow, and since they have no livestock and nowhere to get it from, they can only die of hunger. (Churchill, 103)

Psychological aspect of genocide

The latest historians of the American genocide are beginning to pay more and more attention to its psychological aspect, the role of depression and stress in the destruction without a trace of tens and hundreds of peoples and ethnic groups. And here I see a number of parallels with the current situation of the peoples of the former Soviet Union.

Chronicles of the genocide have preserved numerous evidence of the mental "deployment" of the indigenous population of America. The cultural war waged by the European conquerors for centuries against the cultures of the peoples they enslaved with the open intention of destroying them had horrendous consequences on the psyche of the indigenous population of the New World. The response to this "psychic attack" ranged from alcoholism to chronic depression, mass infanticide and suicide, and even more often people just lay down and died. By-products of mental damage were a sharp drop in the birth rate and a rise in infant mortality. Even if diseases, hunger, hard labor and murder did not lead to the complete destruction of the indigenous collective, sooner and later low birth rates and infant mortality led to this. The Spanish noticed a sharp drop in the number of children and at times tried to force the Indians to have children.

Kirpatrick Sale summed up the reaction of the Taínos to their genocide thus:

“Las Casas, like others, expresses the opinion that what most struck the strange white people from the big ships of the Tainos was not their violence, not even their greed and strange attitude towards property, but rather their coldness, their spiritual callousness, their lack of love ". (Kirkpatrick Sale. The Conquest of Paradise. p. 151.)

In general, reading the history of imperialist genocide on all continents - from Hispaniola, the Andes and California to Equatorial Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China and Tasmania - one begins to understand literature like Wells' War of the Worlds or Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles differently, not to mention Hollywood alien invasions. Do these nightmares of Euro-American fiction originate from the horrors of the past repressed in the "collective unconscious", are they not designed to suppress guilt (or, conversely, prepare for new genocides) by portraying themselves as victims of "aliens" who were exterminated by your ancestors from Columbus to Churchill, Hitler and the Bushes?

Demonization of the victim

The genocide in America also had its own propagandistic support, its own “black PR”, strikingly similar to that used by the Euro-American imperialists to “demonize” their future enemy in the eyes of their population, to give war and robbery an aura of justice.

On January 16, 1493, three days after killing two Tainos while trading, Columbus turned his ships back to Europe. In his journal, he described the natives and their people killed by the Spaniards as "evil inhabitants of the island of Kariba who eat people." As proven by modern anthropologists, it was a fabrication clean water, but it formed the basis of a kind of classification of the population of Antill, and then of the entire New World, which became a guide to genocide. Those who welcomed and submitted to the colonialists were considered "affectionate Tainos". Those natives who resisted or were simply killed by the Spaniards fell under the heading of cannibal savages, deserving everything that the colonialists were able to inflict on them. (In particular, in the log of November 4 and 23, 1492, we find such creations of the gloomy medieval imagination of Columbus: these "ferocious savages" "have an eye in the middle of their foreheads", they have "dog noses with which they drink the blood of their victims, which they slit the throat and castrate.")

“These islands are inhabited by the Cannibals, a savage, rebellious race that feeds on human flesh. They are properly called anthropophagi. They wage constant wars against the affectionate and timid Indians for the sake of their bodies; these are their trophies, what they are after. They ruthlessly destroy and terrorize the Indians."

This description of Coma, one of the participants in the second expedition of Columbus, says much more about Europeans than about the inhabitants of the Caribbean. The Spaniards dehumanized in advance people whom they had never seen, but who were to become their victims. And it's not a distant story; it reads like today's newspaper.

"A wild and recalcitrant race" are the keywords of Western imperialism, from Columbus to Bush. "Wild" - because she does not want to be a slave to a "civilized" invader. The Soviet communists were also recorded among the "wild" "enemies of civilization". From Columbus, who in 1493 invented Caribbean cannibals with an eye on his forehead and dog noses, there is a direct thread to the Reichsführer Himmler, who, at a meeting of SS leaders in mid-1942, explained the specifics of the war on the Eastern Front in this way:

"In all previous campaigns, Germany's enemies had enough common sense and decency to succumb to superior force, thanks to their "old and civilized ... Western European sophistication." In the Battle of France, enemy units surrendered as soon as they received a warning that "further resistance is pointless." Of course, “we SS men” came to Russia without illusions, but until the last winter too many Germans did not realize that “Russian commissars and die-hard Bolsheviks are filled with a cruel will to power and animal stubbornness, which makes them fight to the end and has nothing to do with human logic or duty ... but is an instinct inherent in all animals. The Bolsheviks were "animals" so "deprived of everything human" that "surrounded and without food, they resorted to killing their comrades in order to hold out longer", behavior that bordered on "cannibalism". This is a "war of annihilation" between "the rough matter, the primitive mass, better to say, the subhuman Untermensch waged by the commissars" and the "Germans..." (Arno J. Mayer. Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? The "Final Solution" in History (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988, p. 281.)

In fact, and in strict accordance with the principle of ideological inversion, cannibalism was practiced not by the indigenous inhabitants of the New World, but by their conquerors. The second expedition of Columbus brought to the Caribbean a large batch of mastiffs and greyhounds, trained to kill people and eat their insides. Very soon the Spaniards began to feed their dogs with human flesh. Living children were considered a special delicacy. The colonizers allowed dogs to gnaw them alive, often in the presence of their parents.

Dogs eat Indians

Spaniard Feeding Hounds with Indian Children

Modern historians come to the conclusion that in the Caribbean there was a whole network of "butcher shops" where the bodies of the Indians were sold as dog food. Like everything else in the legacy of Columbus, cannibalism also developed on the mainland. A letter from one of the conquerors of the Inca empire has been preserved, in which he writes: “... when I returned from Cartagena, I met a Portuguese named Rohe Martin. On the porch of his house hung pieces of cut Indians to feed his dogs, as if they were wild beasts…” (Standard, 88)

In turn, the Spaniards often had to eat their human-fed dogs when, in search of gold and slaves, they fell into a difficult situation and suffered from hunger. This is one of the dark ironies of this genocide.

Why?

Churchill asks how to explain the fact that a group of human beings, even if such as the Spaniards of the Columbus era, collectively obsessed with the thirst for wealth and prestige, could for a long time show such boundless ferocity, such transcendent inhumanity towards other people ? The same question was raised earlier by Stanard, who traced in detail the ideological roots of genocide in America from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. “Who are these people whose minds and souls were behind the genocides of Muslims, Africans, Indians, Jews, Gypsies and other religious, racial and ethnic groups? Who are they who continue to commit massacres today?” What kind of people could commit these heinous crimes? Christians, Stanard replies, and invites the reader to acquaint himself with ancient European Christian views on gender, race, and war. He discovers that by the end of the Middle Ages, European culture had prepared all the necessary prerequisites for a four-hundred-year-old genocide against the indigenous inhabitants of the New World.

Stanard pays special attention to the Christian imperative to suppress "carnal desires", i.e. Church-inspired repressive attitudes towards sexuality in European culture. In particular, he sets genetic connection between the genocide in the New World and the all-European waves of terror against the "witches", in which some modern researchers see the carriers of the matriarchal pagan ideology, popular among the masses and threatening the power of the Church and the feudal elite.

Stanard also emphasizes the European origin of the concept of race and skin color.

The Church has always supported the slave trade, although in the early Middle Ages it was in principle forbidden to keep Christians in slavery. Indeed, for the Church, only a Christian was a man in the full sense of the word. The "infidels" could become human only by adopting Christianity, and this gave them the right to freedom. But in the 14th century, an ominous change took place in the politics of the Church. With the increase in the volume of the slave trade in the Mediterranean, the profits from it also increased. But these incomes were threatened by a loophole left by the clergy to reinforce the ideology of Christian exceptionalism. Earlier ideological motives came into conflict with the material interests of the Christian ruling classes. And so, in 1366, the prelates of Florence authorized the importation and sale of "infidel" slaves, explaining that by "infidels" they meant "all slaves of the wrong origin, even if by the time of their importation they became Catholics", and that "infidels by origin " means simply "from the land and race of the infidels." Thus, the Church changed the principle that justifies slavery from religious to ethnic, which was an important step towards modern genocides based on unchanging racial and ethnic characteristics (Armenian, Jewish, Gypsy, Slavic, and others).

European racial "science" did not lag behind religion either. The specificity of European feudalism was the requirement for the genetic exclusivity of the nobility. In Spain, the concept of "blood purity", limpieza de sangra, became central towards the end of the 15th and throughout the 16th century. The nobility could not be achieved either by wealth or merit. The origins of "racial science" lie in the genealogical research of the time, which was conducted by a whole army of specialists in checking pedigree lines.

Particularly important was the theory of "separate and unequal origin", put forward by the famous Swiss physician and philosopher Paracelsus by 1520. According to this theory, Africans, Indians and other non-Christian "colored" peoples did not descend from Adam and Eve, but from other and lower ancestors. The ideas of Paracelsus received wide use in Europe on the eve of the European invasion of Mexico and South America. These ideas were an early expression of the so-called. the theory of "polygenesis", which became an indispensable part of the pseudoscientific racism of the 19th century. But even before the publication of the writings of Paracelsus, similar ideological justifications for genocide appeared in Spain (1512) and Scotland (1519). The Spaniard Bernardo de Mesa (later Bishop of Cuba) and the Scot Johann Major came to the same conclusion that the original inhabitants of the New World were a special race that God intended to be the slaves of European Christians. The height of the theological disputes of Spanish intellectuals about whether the Indians are people or monkeys falls on the middle of the 16th century, when millions of inhabitants of Central and South America died from terrible epidemics, brutal massacres and hard labor.

The official historian of the "Indies" Fernandez de Ovieda did not deny the atrocities against the Indians and described "countless brutal deaths as innumerable as the stars. But he considered it acceptable, for "to use gunpowder against the Gentiles is to smoke incense for the Lord." And to the pleas of Las Casas to spare the inhabitants of America, the theologian Juan de Sepulveda declared: "How can one doubt that peoples so uncivilized, so barbaric and corrupted by so many sins and perversions were justly conquered." He quoted Aristotle, who wrote in his Politics that some people are "natural slaves" and "must be driven like wild beasts to make them live right". To which Las Casas replied: "Let's forget about Aristotle, because, fortunately, we have the covenant of Christ: Love your neighbor as yourself." (But even Las Casas, the most passionate and humane European defender of the Indians, felt compelled to admit, that they are "possibly complete barbarians").

But if among the church intelligentsia opinions about the nature of the native inhabitants of America could differ, among the European masses there was complete unanimity on this score. Even 15 years before the great debate between Las Casas and Sepulveda, a Spanish columnist wrote that "ordinary people" universally consider those who are convinced that the American Indians are not people, but "a special, third kind of animals between man and ape and were created God to better serve man." (Standard, 211).

Thus, in the early 16th century, a racist apology for colonialism and suprematism was formed, which in the hands of the Euro-American ruling classes would serve as a justification ("defense of civilization") for subsequent genocides (and more to come?). It is not surprising, therefore, that on the basis of his research, Stanard puts forward the thesis of a deep ideological connection between the Spanish and Anglo-Saxon genocide of the peoples of America and the Nazi genocide of Jews, Gypsies and Slavs. European colonizers, white settlers and Nazis had the same ideological roots. And that ideology, Stanard adds, remains alive today. It was on it that US interventions in Southeast Asia and the Middle East were based.

List of used literature

J. M. Blaut. The Colonizer's Model of the World. Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History. New York: The Giulford Press, 1993.

Ward Churchill. A Little Matter of Genocide. Holocaust and the Denial in the Americas 1492 to the present. San Francisco: City Lights, 1997.

C. L. R. James. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1989.

Arno J Mayer. Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? The "Final Solution" in History. New York: Pantheon Books, 1988.

David Stannard. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press, 1993.