This paper elucidates how David E. Stannard describes the nature of European society before the end of the 15th Century and how this society was able to manufacture the stereotypes that are relevant enough to justify the subjugation as well as the annihilation of the indigenous population. The experiences were encountered in the Northern Hemisphere. There is also the relation of several horrific instances of viciousness as indicated by Stannard.
In his book, David writes about the nature of life and the society in general in the New World before the coming of Columbus, the invasion which came with the arrival of Columbus, and the concept that what took place should be considered as genocide (Winin 78). The phase before the arrival of Columbus is not entirely peaceful. Nevertheless, it was a set way of life whereby the indigenous Americans enjoyed the kind of isolation they were subjected to from the rest of the world and reached a level of development at the end of it all. People were highly exploited and suffered from all sorts of diseases. Some lost their lands and ended up remaining in the unfortunate positions they are in today (Stannard 77).
For over four hundred years from the beginning of the first Spanish assault against the people of Arawak, Hispaniola in the 1940s to the massacre of the United States Army in the 1980s, the native inhabitants of South and North America endured an unrelenting firestorm of aggression. During this period, the indigenous population that lived in the western Hemisphere reduced by over 100 million individuals. David Stannard argues that both the European together with white American destruction of the indigenous people of America presented the highly massive act of genocide in the history of the entire world (Winin 5).
Stannard shows a portrait of massive richness and the varied nature of the United States before Columbus’ most fateful voyage in 1494. Stannard then takes the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico as well as other parts such as Central and Southern America. He further goes to the Southwest of California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard makes a revelation that in case European or white Americans managed to go, the indigenous people were caught between the possibility of imported plagues as well as barbarous turmoil. This typically resulted in the annihilation of about ninety-five percent of the total population. According to Stannard, those kinds of people who did such acts were inhuman. He believes that through digging deeper into ancient Europe, the attitude of Christians towards sex, race, and war is one of the driving forces. Through them, the cultural grounds are well prepared towards the end of the middle ages (Stannard 91).
Through the advancement of a hypothesis that is most likely to bring about the controversy, the writer argues that the architects of the American Holocaust relied upon the same ideological wellspring the same way it was with the later architect of the Nazi Holocaust. It is one of the ideologies that are still precariously alive and has mainly featured among the American validation for military intervention both in South East Asia as well as the Middle East. Stannard’s work is meticulously detailed. It is a work of impassioned scholarship that easily ignites both historical and moral debate.
Works Cited
Stannard, E David. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1993.
Winin, Pereira. Inhuman rights: the western system and global human rights abuse. New Orleans: Other India Press, 1997.