Posted on 05/09/2008 6:05:00 PM PDT by indcons
Empire building isn't for sissies.
Just ask the Spanish conquistadors of the 16th century. Before attacking Indian settlements, they were required to read a summons called the Requerimiento, which spelled out the consequences of resistance: "I assure you that, with the help of God, I will attack you mightily. I will make war against you everywhere and in every way ... I will take your wives and children, and I will make them slaves ... I will take their property. I will do all the harm and damage to you that I can ... I declare that the deaths and injuries that occur as a result of this would be your fault and not His Majesty's, nor ours."
The Indians, of course, had no idea what was being shouted at them, and for the sake of expediency, Hernando De Soto never bothered with the Requerimiento. He preferred to loot the local maize supply, then impress available natives into service as porters and guides. Any natives who tried to escape were attacked by dogs or burned at the stake. In conquering the settlement of Mavila, De Soto's army succeeded in massacring between 2,500 and 3,000 Indians -- a single-day death toll that rivals Antietam.
The Indians at least had weapons. Spanish fleet commander Pedro Menéndez, after capturing two parties of unarmed French Huguenot settlers on the Florida coast, condemned hundreds of them to immediate death by stabbing. Among the few spared: those who converted on the spot to Catholicism and a few musicians "to play for dancing." The river where French blood ran still bears the name Matanzas, Spanish for "slaughters."
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Wasn’t the Spaniard who was in charge of the atrocity Pedro Menedez de Aviles? What happened to him?
I never understood why the Canadian colonies and the British Caribbean colonies did not join in. Perhaps they did not think the chances of success were very good? If, for example, the British had been denied the port of Halifax it would have seriously hurt their war effort.
There were far more Virginia Indians in 1587 than in 1609!
Aviles probably “went native” with his heirs showing up 50 years later as “Dutch” fur traders operating under the surname “Abeel”.
It was "an impoverished and Hobbesian world," says Horwitz, "where all struggled against all for survival." A (UNNAMED,UNIDENTIFIED)Spanish traveler found one (UNNAMED,UNIDENTIFED)tribe reduced to eating spiders, worms and deer dung(IN AN UNNAMED,UNIDENTIFIED GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION AND TIME).
Best regards,
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