Here is some information about Western/European Imperialism.
Unfortunately for the United States, rhetoric cannot take the place of reality, and sugarcoated speeches cannot change historical facts. Despite Morrison窶冱 infatuation with the glory of the Columbus persona, he admits, 窶徼he cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in a complete genocide窶? A glance at history therefore discloses the rather horrifying facts that the citizens of the US - as well as the other Western nations - have, quite astoundingly, managed to erase from their consciousness. When the Americans celebrate Columbus Day they fail to realise that they are celebrating the systematic slaughter of the entire indigenous population of the Americas: Genocide was a central factor in the establishment of the United States.
There were originally an estimated 80 million Native Americans in Latin America when Columbus discovered the continent, and approximately 12 to 15 million more north of the Rio Grande. By the year 1650, 95 per cent of the native population of Latin America had been massacred. Michael A. Dorris observes that by the time the continental borders of the United States were established, the entire population had been decimated 窶徼o a low of 210,000 in the 1910 census.窶拏13]
Even Columbus expressed his admiration for the culture of the South American 窶露ndians窶 whom he subsequently slaughtered, describing them as 窶徭o free and so naive with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask them for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer their share with anyone窶?[14] He even acknowledged: 窶弋hey [the Native Americans] are the best people in the world and above all the gentlest - without knowledge of evil - nor do they murder and steal窶?[15] A French Jesuit priest similarly observed of the Iroqouis tribe: 窶廸o poorhouses are needed among them, because they are neither mendicants nor paupers... Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have, but causes them to possess hardly anything except in common.窶拏16] According to the missionary priest Las Casus the natives:
"窶ｦ are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world... they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy... They are very clean in their persons, with alert, intelligent minds."[17]
However, this Native American culture of altruism, fraternity, and mutual compassion was to be replaced by other more important European values. The indigenous population 窶忤ould make fine servants窶? noted Columbus. 窶弩ith fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.窶拏18] Accordingly, Columbus had returned to the continent in 1493 with a force of 17 ships, to implement a programme of mass slavery and extermination of the Taino population of the Caribbean: Within three years five million were dead; fifty years on, the Spanish census recorded only 200 alive. It is worth analysing this representative case study of colonialism in some detail to comprehend the reality behind the distorted version we are so often presented with.
----------------------------
Indeed, Clarke provides extensive documentation of how slavery and genocide were institutionalised into a new global system of domination and destruction, which colonised land, labour, resources and information at the expense of indigenous people. The Holocaust perpetrated against the Native Americans was therefore characteristic of European colonial exploits in general. In other regions, such as Asia and Africa, the combination of enslavement, slaughter, and the introduction of European diseases combined in a similar fashion to facilitate European domination. For instance, in the African Holocaust between 10 and 20 million Africans were deported in the name of the Western slave-trade; which means that Africa窶冱 population was decimated by about 100-200 million, since ten people had to be killed for a single African to be taken alive during capture by slave-traders. Professor Clarke comments: 窶廬 am not saying it [the Jewish Holocaust] was not tragic, or that it was not wrong. [However] There is no comparison between six million and 100 million deaths.窶 The African Holocaust, he notes, was 窶彗 protracted act of aggression窶ｦ Europeans declared war on everybody窶冱 culture, everybody窶冱 way of life窶ｦ If you weren窶冲 like him you were an infidel, a savage.窶 That was has continued in a more sophisticated form within the current world order. 窶弋his was not a war against the African body, but against the African mind. And it has not let up to this day.窶拏36]
The European invasion and occupation of Aboriginal Australia is another characteristic example of outright genocide committed by colonialists intent on acquiring land and wealth, which has similarly been dispensed to the memory hole. Sir Ronald Wilson, President of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission stated: 窶廨enocide is the attempt to destroy a people, a culture. The first act was the dispossession of Aboriginal people of their children. The land was stolen. The children were stolen. What is the third act going to be?窶拏37] From 1910-1970, up to a third of Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families - 100,000 children - were stolen from their families from the early 1900s to 1970 and forced into slave labour, often to undergo physical and sexual abuse.[38] Australian historian Bruce Elder comments that:
"The blood of tens of thousands of Aboriginal Australians killed since 1788, and the sense of despair and hopelessness which informs so much of modern-day Aboriginal society, is a moral responsibility all white Australians share. Our wealth and lifestyle, the much-touted 窶連ussie way of life窶? have all been achieved as a direct consequence of Aboriginal dispossession. We should bow our heads in shame."[39]
The consequences continue to plague the indigenous population. Today, 40 per cent of Aborigines are so poor they still lack 窶徼he most basic needs imaginable.窶 Such dire conditions are part of the legacy of Australia窶冱 colonial history. Dr Keith Wollard, President of the Australian Medical Association, notes that: 窶廴uch of the poverty and disease in Aboriginal communities is a result of the dispossession of their lands.窶拏40] The motive throughout this global colonialist Holocaust was the enrichment of European elites, obtained through the establishment of a hegemony in which newly conquered colonies were to be either eliminated or forced into mass slave labour.
http://www.globalresearch.org/view_article.php?aid=636311629#376480390
WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?
HOW DID IT DEVELOP IN EUROPE IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY? WHY?
Racism: HOW DID MOST EUROPEANS EXPLAIN THEIR ABILITY TO CONQUER LARGE AREAS OF THE WORLD?
Imperialism is empire building. Expansion occurs when one state is more
powerful than are the obstacles to expansion. The obstacles may be other states or peoples, or they may be geographic or physical or technological obstacles.
The central core of the empire may be a nation-state, or in ancient times, a city state or a tribe.
European civilization experienced a period of unprecedented rapid expansion around the globe during the last third of the nineteenth century. European nation-states had become very powerful because of industrialization and because of the organizational efficiency of the nation-state.
European global expansion had actually begun in the fifteenth century, but the process greatly accelerated in the nineteenth century.
Latin America and the seaports of Asia and Africa were the first to be colonized by Europeans. Native Americans were liquidated or thoroughly subjugated to European rule. Most Latin American descendents (Latinos) of the Spanish conquerors gained independence from Spain by the early 19th century, while many indigenous peoples remained subject.
The African climate, disease and geography delayed most European colonization until the 19th century, although the descendents of Dutch settlers, known as Afrikaans or Boers, came to South Africa as early as the 16th century.
Slavery took a heavy toll on African development ever since the 16th century. Millions of young people of working age were taken away. Great conflict ensued.
Asia's population was too great, its civilization too firmly established for Europeans to rule it directly. The Europeans did establish control over seaports and trade. In places like India and Indonesia, Europeans ruled indirectly through their domination of the local aristocracy.
England was the leading European colonial power and had already established much of its overseas empire by the beginning of the 19th century.
France was second, with its holdings in Southeast Asia and in North Africa, both
of these being established during the 19th century.
Portugal, Spain and Holland retained some colonies because they had been
the earliest colonial powers, and still retained some of them in the 19th century.
Germany and Italy were late arrivals on the colonial scene because they
had only unified themselves in the 1860's.
The United States became a colonial power at the end of the 19th century, after having spent the century moving across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean. Defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War led to the establishment of American colonies in the Caribbean and in the Philippines. The Hawaiian Islands were conquered at the sametime. (1890's)
Japan was the first Asiatic nation to become a colonial power. Long isolated and refusing to trade with Europeans, except for a limited, controlled trade with Holland, the Japanese were forced to trade by a United States naval squadron in 1845. Subsequently, the Japanese experienced a political revolution. The new leadership modernized rapidly
by adopting European technology and organization.
The British forced China to open itself to the Opium trade in the 1840's. China also experienced social upheaval (The Tai Ping rebellion), and was unable to prevent foreign domination of its trade. By the end of the 19th century, England, Germany, Russia, Japan, and the United States had all compelled China to trade with them. Russia occupied Manchuria and Port Arthur, Japan was in Korea, Germany was in the Shantung peninsula, and the British were in Hong Kong.
The French, the British, the Germans and the Italians competed with each other in the last third of the 19th century to lay claim to Africa. The Belgian king Leopold was also extensively involved. The only remaining areas of Africa not colonized by the end of the century were Ethiopia in the horn of Africa and Liberia on the Atlantic coast.
Another aspect of European expansion in the last half of the 19th century involved the emigration of large numbers of Europeans to other parts of the world. European population had been increasing more rapidly than non-European populations during this time. Population pressure combined with improved overseas transportation led to the greatest migration in history up to that time.
The ease with which Europeans dominated non-European areas of the world is explained by the power they had resulting from industrialization and the nation-state organization.
But the explanations that Europeans made to themselves were that they
were superior to non-European peoples. There were a number of racist ideas widely believed by Europeans:
Whites were superior to non-whites. One variation was Rudyard Kipling's idea of the White Man's Burden. The white man had the burden and responsibility of bringing the blessings of their superior civilization to the savages of the non-European world.
Another was a variation of Social Darwinism in which white Europeans were considered more fit in the struggle for survival. Another variation was that Christianity was the only true religion.
Racist attitudes also separated northern Europeans from southern Europeans, Anglo-Saxons, Nordics and Teutons from Latins, and Aryans from Semites.
Anti-Semitism had traditionally been interpreted on the basis of religion with Jews considered to be Christ-killers. A new anti-Semitic concept of Jews as an inferior race, which endangered the purity of Aryans, developed in the late 19th century, particularly in
eastern Europe.
Vienna, as the capitol of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire, was a particular site for the greatest variety of anti-Semitic writings.
Racism and anti-Semitism was a virulent motivating force in 19th century Europe, which boded ill for the future.
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/imperialism.html
European Emigration 1851-1960
Origins
Gr. Britain & Ireland 34%
Italy 19%
Germany 11%
Spain 9%
Austria 7%
Poland 5%
Portugal 5%
Russia 4%
Sweden, Norway, Holland 4%
Finland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Switzerland 4%
Destinations
United States 45%
Asiatic Russia 20%
Argentina 10%
Canada 8%
Australia & N. Zealand 7%
Brazil 7%
Other 4%
Source: Statistics based on W. Woodruff, Impact of Western Man: a Study of Europe's Role in the World Economy, St. Martin's Press, NY, 1967
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/emigration.html
I have to say that the European massive colonization and emigration to other regions in the world in the past has not been a success in the long run. Because today, White/western/European people are decreasing in numbers rapidly, because of low birthrates of Europeans and non-Europeans are growing in numbers in their own countries, because of massive immigration, racial mixing etc. Here is a article about that: The last days of a white world Non-whites will be majority in US and Europe by 2050
Unfortunately for the United States, rhetoric cannot take the place of reality, and sugarcoated speeches cannot change historical facts. Despite Morrison窶冱 infatuation with the glory of the Columbus persona, he admits, 窶徼he cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in a complete genocide窶? A glance at history therefore discloses the rather horrifying facts that the citizens of the US - as well as the other Western nations - have, quite astoundingly, managed to erase from their consciousness. When the Americans celebrate Columbus Day they fail to realise that they are celebrating the systematic slaughter of the entire indigenous population of the Americas: Genocide was a central factor in the establishment of the United States.
There were originally an estimated 80 million Native Americans in Latin America when Columbus discovered the continent, and approximately 12 to 15 million more north of the Rio Grande. By the year 1650, 95 per cent of the native population of Latin America had been massacred. Michael A. Dorris observes that by the time the continental borders of the United States were established, the entire population had been decimated 窶徼o a low of 210,000 in the 1910 census.窶拏13]
Even Columbus expressed his admiration for the culture of the South American 窶露ndians窶 whom he subsequently slaughtered, describing them as 窶徭o free and so naive with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask them for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer their share with anyone窶?[14] He even acknowledged: 窶弋hey [the Native Americans] are the best people in the world and above all the gentlest - without knowledge of evil - nor do they murder and steal窶?[15] A French Jesuit priest similarly observed of the Iroqouis tribe: 窶廸o poorhouses are needed among them, because they are neither mendicants nor paupers... Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have, but causes them to possess hardly anything except in common.窶拏16] According to the missionary priest Las Casus the natives:
"窶ｦ are by nature the most humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world... they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods. For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy... They are very clean in their persons, with alert, intelligent minds."[17]
However, this Native American culture of altruism, fraternity, and mutual compassion was to be replaced by other more important European values. The indigenous population 窶忤ould make fine servants窶? noted Columbus. 窶弩ith fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.窶拏18] Accordingly, Columbus had returned to the continent in 1493 with a force of 17 ships, to implement a programme of mass slavery and extermination of the Taino population of the Caribbean: Within three years five million were dead; fifty years on, the Spanish census recorded only 200 alive. It is worth analysing this representative case study of colonialism in some detail to comprehend the reality behind the distorted version we are so often presented with.
----------------------------
Indeed, Clarke provides extensive documentation of how slavery and genocide were institutionalised into a new global system of domination and destruction, which colonised land, labour, resources and information at the expense of indigenous people. The Holocaust perpetrated against the Native Americans was therefore characteristic of European colonial exploits in general. In other regions, such as Asia and Africa, the combination of enslavement, slaughter, and the introduction of European diseases combined in a similar fashion to facilitate European domination. For instance, in the African Holocaust between 10 and 20 million Africans were deported in the name of the Western slave-trade; which means that Africa窶冱 population was decimated by about 100-200 million, since ten people had to be killed for a single African to be taken alive during capture by slave-traders. Professor Clarke comments: 窶廬 am not saying it [the Jewish Holocaust] was not tragic, or that it was not wrong. [However] There is no comparison between six million and 100 million deaths.窶 The African Holocaust, he notes, was 窶彗 protracted act of aggression窶ｦ Europeans declared war on everybody窶冱 culture, everybody窶冱 way of life窶ｦ If you weren窶冲 like him you were an infidel, a savage.窶 That was has continued in a more sophisticated form within the current world order. 窶弋his was not a war against the African body, but against the African mind. And it has not let up to this day.窶拏36]
The European invasion and occupation of Aboriginal Australia is another characteristic example of outright genocide committed by colonialists intent on acquiring land and wealth, which has similarly been dispensed to the memory hole. Sir Ronald Wilson, President of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission stated: 窶廨enocide is the attempt to destroy a people, a culture. The first act was the dispossession of Aboriginal people of their children. The land was stolen. The children were stolen. What is the third act going to be?窶拏37] From 1910-1970, up to a third of Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families - 100,000 children - were stolen from their families from the early 1900s to 1970 and forced into slave labour, often to undergo physical and sexual abuse.[38] Australian historian Bruce Elder comments that:
"The blood of tens of thousands of Aboriginal Australians killed since 1788, and the sense of despair and hopelessness which informs so much of modern-day Aboriginal society, is a moral responsibility all white Australians share. Our wealth and lifestyle, the much-touted 窶連ussie way of life窶? have all been achieved as a direct consequence of Aboriginal dispossession. We should bow our heads in shame."[39]
The consequences continue to plague the indigenous population. Today, 40 per cent of Aborigines are so poor they still lack 窶徼he most basic needs imaginable.窶 Such dire conditions are part of the legacy of Australia窶冱 colonial history. Dr Keith Wollard, President of the Australian Medical Association, notes that: 窶廴uch of the poverty and disease in Aboriginal communities is a result of the dispossession of their lands.窶拏40] The motive throughout this global colonialist Holocaust was the enrichment of European elites, obtained through the establishment of a hegemony in which newly conquered colonies were to be either eliminated or forced into mass slave labour.
http://www.globalresearch.org/view_article.php?aid=636311629#376480390
WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?
HOW DID IT DEVELOP IN EUROPE IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY? WHY?
Racism: HOW DID MOST EUROPEANS EXPLAIN THEIR ABILITY TO CONQUER LARGE AREAS OF THE WORLD?
Imperialism is empire building. Expansion occurs when one state is more
powerful than are the obstacles to expansion. The obstacles may be other states or peoples, or they may be geographic or physical or technological obstacles.
The central core of the empire may be a nation-state, or in ancient times, a city state or a tribe.
European civilization experienced a period of unprecedented rapid expansion around the globe during the last third of the nineteenth century. European nation-states had become very powerful because of industrialization and because of the organizational efficiency of the nation-state.
European global expansion had actually begun in the fifteenth century, but the process greatly accelerated in the nineteenth century.
Latin America and the seaports of Asia and Africa were the first to be colonized by Europeans. Native Americans were liquidated or thoroughly subjugated to European rule. Most Latin American descendents (Latinos) of the Spanish conquerors gained independence from Spain by the early 19th century, while many indigenous peoples remained subject.
The African climate, disease and geography delayed most European colonization until the 19th century, although the descendents of Dutch settlers, known as Afrikaans or Boers, came to South Africa as early as the 16th century.
Slavery took a heavy toll on African development ever since the 16th century. Millions of young people of working age were taken away. Great conflict ensued.
Asia's population was too great, its civilization too firmly established for Europeans to rule it directly. The Europeans did establish control over seaports and trade. In places like India and Indonesia, Europeans ruled indirectly through their domination of the local aristocracy.
England was the leading European colonial power and had already established much of its overseas empire by the beginning of the 19th century.
France was second, with its holdings in Southeast Asia and in North Africa, both
of these being established during the 19th century.
Portugal, Spain and Holland retained some colonies because they had been
the earliest colonial powers, and still retained some of them in the 19th century.
Germany and Italy were late arrivals on the colonial scene because they
had only unified themselves in the 1860's.
The United States became a colonial power at the end of the 19th century, after having spent the century moving across the North American continent to the Pacific Ocean. Defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War led to the establishment of American colonies in the Caribbean and in the Philippines. The Hawaiian Islands were conquered at the sametime. (1890's)
Japan was the first Asiatic nation to become a colonial power. Long isolated and refusing to trade with Europeans, except for a limited, controlled trade with Holland, the Japanese were forced to trade by a United States naval squadron in 1845. Subsequently, the Japanese experienced a political revolution. The new leadership modernized rapidly
by adopting European technology and organization.
The British forced China to open itself to the Opium trade in the 1840's. China also experienced social upheaval (The Tai Ping rebellion), and was unable to prevent foreign domination of its trade. By the end of the 19th century, England, Germany, Russia, Japan, and the United States had all compelled China to trade with them. Russia occupied Manchuria and Port Arthur, Japan was in Korea, Germany was in the Shantung peninsula, and the British were in Hong Kong.
The French, the British, the Germans and the Italians competed with each other in the last third of the 19th century to lay claim to Africa. The Belgian king Leopold was also extensively involved. The only remaining areas of Africa not colonized by the end of the century were Ethiopia in the horn of Africa and Liberia on the Atlantic coast.
Another aspect of European expansion in the last half of the 19th century involved the emigration of large numbers of Europeans to other parts of the world. European population had been increasing more rapidly than non-European populations during this time. Population pressure combined with improved overseas transportation led to the greatest migration in history up to that time.
The ease with which Europeans dominated non-European areas of the world is explained by the power they had resulting from industrialization and the nation-state organization.
But the explanations that Europeans made to themselves were that they
were superior to non-European peoples. There were a number of racist ideas widely believed by Europeans:
Whites were superior to non-whites. One variation was Rudyard Kipling's idea of the White Man's Burden. The white man had the burden and responsibility of bringing the blessings of their superior civilization to the savages of the non-European world.
Another was a variation of Social Darwinism in which white Europeans were considered more fit in the struggle for survival. Another variation was that Christianity was the only true religion.
Racist attitudes also separated northern Europeans from southern Europeans, Anglo-Saxons, Nordics and Teutons from Latins, and Aryans from Semites.
Anti-Semitism had traditionally been interpreted on the basis of religion with Jews considered to be Christ-killers. A new anti-Semitic concept of Jews as an inferior race, which endangered the purity of Aryans, developed in the late 19th century, particularly in
eastern Europe.
Vienna, as the capitol of the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire, was a particular site for the greatest variety of anti-Semitic writings.
Racism and anti-Semitism was a virulent motivating force in 19th century Europe, which boded ill for the future.
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/imperialism.html
European Emigration 1851-1960
Origins
Gr. Britain & Ireland 34%
Italy 19%
Germany 11%
Spain 9%
Austria 7%
Poland 5%
Portugal 5%
Russia 4%
Sweden, Norway, Holland 4%
Finland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Switzerland 4%
Destinations
United States 45%
Asiatic Russia 20%
Argentina 10%
Canada 8%
Australia & N. Zealand 7%
Brazil 7%
Other 4%
Source: Statistics based on W. Woodruff, Impact of Western Man: a Study of Europe's Role in the World Economy, St. Martin's Press, NY, 1967
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/emigration.html
I have to say that the European massive colonization and emigration to other regions in the world in the past has not been a success in the long run. Because today, White/western/European people are decreasing in numbers rapidly, because of low birthrates of Europeans and non-Europeans are growing in numbers in their own countries, because of massive immigration, racial mixing etc. Here is a article about that: The last days of a white world Non-whites will be majority in US and Europe by 2050