American Holocaust (David E. Stannard)
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In his book American Holocaust, David E. Stannard writes about the nature of life and society in the New World before the coming of Columbus, the Conquest that followed the arrival of Columbus, the attitude taken toward the Native Americans by Europeans after this, and the idea that what occurred should e classified as genocide. The period before the coming of Columbus is not completely peaceful, but it was a set way of life in which the Native Americans enjoyed their isolation from the rest of the world and attained a level of development as a result. After the arrival of Columbus, though, the people were exploited, suffered from diseases they had never seen before, died by the millions, and lost their land over a period of time until they were placed in the unfortunate position they remain in to this day. Columbus and his men introduced diseases into the New World which killed thousands of Indians who were not immune to organisms that had long since ceased to have any adverse effects on the Europeans. Calling this genocide is to see the effect and treat it as a desired end. In truth, Columbus and other Europeans could not have known that this would be the result, even if Columbus had known that he was arriving in a completely New World and not in India as he thought he was. Stannard notes that there is a tragic irony in the fact that the greatest threat to the health of the Native Americans in the New World was the fact that they had such extraordinary good health
. . .
f potentially serious diseases among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. What diseases there were consisted primarily of gastrointestinal disease and various minor infections, and even these had been mitigated by thousands of years of exposure to them, as well as by generally beneficent living conditions and more than adequate nutrition (54).
In any case, Columbus's second voyage to the New World brought sickness with it. The fleet arrived in January of 1494 on the northern coast of Hispaniola where Columbus had chosen to build his New World capital, the town of Isabela. As soon as the ships were unloaded, sickness broke out among the crew and quickly spread to the natives:
Within a few days, the Admiral's surgeon reported, a third of the Spaniards had fallen ill, while natives everywhere were dead. Columbus directed groups of the healthy among his crews to explore the island's inland regions and find the fabulous gold mines they all were sure existed. But many of those men returned to the ships, having come down with the mysterious illness along the way (68).
Historians ever since have speculated about what illness this was. One suggested some sort of intestinal infection, and another thought it to be malaria. Sm
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1550
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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