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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ratan lal who wrote (8373)	10/31/2001 10:01:49 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I think both you and Maurice are right on this one. On the one hand, you are right about the horrors of colonialism. On the other hand, Maurice is right that some good things were introduced into the colonies. An interesting question, to me, is what would have happened if there had been no colonies. If the only interactions had been peaceful trade, where would India and Africa be now? I don't know enough about the history of Africa and India to resolve the matter but I do know enough about the history of North America to tell you that the image of Native Americans fighting, and being trounced by, Euroamericans is a poor representation of reality. There is a lot of history that doesn't seem to make it into John Wayne movies. Western movies are pretty much all about the Plains Indians, on horseback. You know, of course, that the horse is not native to the Americas. What you may not know is that until the Euroamericans ventured west to trade with the Native Americans, bringing horses and guns and other trade goods in return for fur (beaver pelts, mostly, the beavers were almost wiped out), the Native Americans who lived on the periphery of the Great Plains were unable to exploit it as an ecological niche. They hunted on foot, practiced horticulture and gathering. Hunting parties on horseback are such a strong image that we assume that it was always so, but it really did not happen until the eighteenth century. The Native Americans who lived on the periphery of the Great Plains were forced west by other tribes, who were forced west by other tribes, who were forced west by Euroamerican settlers. They gave up horticulture, gave up villages, and transformed themselves into nomadic tribes over the course of decades. In that way, they avoided being destroyed by smallpox. The smallpox-infested blanket is an urban myth. Smallpox spreads by touching anything infected, from touching a corpse, from touching an infected person, from touching anything they touched, from touching a person who has recovered from smallpox but is still carrying the virus. In sedentary tribes (Mandan, Caddo), as many as 92% of the residents died. In nomadic tribes (Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho), less than 10%. Euroamericans did not have to kill the Native Americans. Smallpox did it for them. With 90% of a tribe wiped out, the rest are not in much of a position to argue. But Euroamerican entrepreneurs did not want to kill Native Americans. They wanted to trade with them, sleep with the women, make babies, settle down and have mixed-blood families, and assimilate each other. Euroamerican farmers are another story, of course. Unlike Christian women, Native American women were not taught that sex is only for procreation. :) The Plains Indians traded buffalo hides for horses, guns, bullets, knives, pots, pans, blankets, food. They became integrated into 19th century market culture just like everyone else in North America. So much so that they almost eradicated the buffalo everywhere but in the far Western plains. What finally wiped out the buffalo was steam-powered and water-powered factories, which needed leather belting to run the equipment. Buffalo hide was perfect. Euroamericans shot buffalo by the thousands, removed the hides, and left the meat. And thus the Plains Indians no longer had a livelihood. What you see in Western movies are Native Americans and Euroamericans struggling over that last little bit of land in the far West. You don't see the Native Americans who assimilated. You don't see the Native Americans who adapted. You don't see the extraordinarily rich cross-fertilization between Native American culture and the culture of Euroamericans. It's not all bad, it's not all good. It's complicated. Wasn't it you who said that you should not offer an opinion about things you never experienced?