Preview

American Holocaust: American History

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1426 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
American Holocaust: American History
AMERICAN HOLOCAUST The other side of the story to our great American history is not as pretty as they teach us in grade school. The American Holocaust by David Stannard is a novel full of live excerpts from eyewitnesses to the genocide of the American Indians. He goes as far as to describe what life was most likely like before Europeans came to the Americas and obliterated the "Paradise" so described. Columbus even wrote how beautiful the places were in which he committed acts against the Natives so horrific, it was hard to read about, let alone talk about. The Natives were so innocent and naive, that when Columbus would "show them his sword" they would grab the end and in effect slice open their hand. These people had no chance of survival once the Europeans came with their EXTREME religious ideals and power hungry minds. Stannard's strength in his work is how he gives detailed accounts of incidents to back up his theories. The only weakness of his book is that there were times when further description was unnecessary. There are only so many ways to describe babies getting their heads bashed against rocks, and he described every one of them. Perhaps it is more my weakness for reading about it then his weakness for writing it. Overall, this book ranges and compares major genocide throughout history from Nazi Germany to Stalin, and even compares how Europe was before Columbus was sent over. Stannard's wide range of history is well put together in order to give the reader the full effect of how this "American Holocaust" came into effect. The conquest of the America's started with, basically , the pursuit of better trade and possibly more lands. When they found the Natives, friendly and wonderful, word got back about the Paradise which the men had found. However, word spread that such a place could be almost Satanic. Therefore, soon they started to see the Natives as demons which either had to be converted to had to be destroyed. By reading the "Requirmiento" in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    "American Holocaust" by David E Stannard was first published and distributed in 1992, the same year that celebrated the quincentenary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The release date would not have been decided upon by happenchance, but would have been part of a well thought out marketing strategy to take best advantage of the five hundredth anniversary of American 'civilisation '. The book is highly controversial in its choice of theme, in that it shows the American people of the time as a barbarous, murdering race, which, at its zenith of policy making, instigated a deliberate tactic of extermination and genocide against the native Indian tribes by the leaders of the new United States, such as Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Americans of today are taught to revere the leaders of the past, to elevate their memories to almost mythical status, to see them not as mortal men but as nearing the level of demi-gods. For someone to portray their iconic figures of this time in any other way than civilised and beneficent, for a large percentage of the modern day United States, would be as a minimum seen as disrespectful to their memory and for the majority would be seen as bordering on blasphemous and seditious dissertation. It is also shown in this book that the everyday common folk in eighteenth and nineteenth century America, although not necessarily direct advocates of a genocide policy, allowed it to happen, either with the excuse of the soldier when following orders of the slaughter of natives or by the malaise of the man in the street that is seen as guilty by his own inaction. This also would not have pleased 1990s Americans, being told that their direct ancestors were as guilty as the perpetrators of these heinous crimes, even if they had had no direct effect on the outcome. Even one of their favourite authors, L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz is shown as being a radical Indian hater and exponent of racial cleansing who urges the…

    • 1126 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    They had one goal in mind and that was to claim land and destroy anything in their way. Unfortunately their vicious acts of violence weren’t what did most of the damage to the natives. They carried diseases like influenza, malaria and measles with them and so millions of the natives died from these diseases. After decades of this type of treatment from the Conquistadors, the Spanish Crown realized that if they wanted to have permanent Catholic colonies in North America they would have to change. In 1542 Charles I created “The New Laws of the Indies” which in it he stated “That having for many years had will and intention as leisure to occupy ourselves with the affairs of the Indies, on account of their great importance, as well in that touching the service of God our Lord and increase of his holy Catholic faith, as in the preservation of the natives of those parts, and the good government and preservation of their persons.”…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Motives of European conquest to America- land, trade, missionary: A series of wars began between Christians and Muslims. They were fighting for control of the area of Southwest Asia called Palestine. This area contained Christian shrines and holy places. Land: each noble ruled a piece of land and hoped to rule more. Strong rulers were able to unify nearby lands.…

    • 2290 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1933, Adolph Hitler launched a program to ‘cleanse’ Germany of Jewish influence. 1936 this program was extended to countries occupied by Germany, and in January, years later, the “Final Solution” policy was adopted. The massive industrial annihilation of Jews in Concentration and extermination camps only reached the American public after the war ended. The Roosevelt’s failure to act, however, was not due to a lack of evidence on the holocaust, but rather the lack of a desire to rescue the persecuted. Twelve specific propositions and actions proposed in the face of these atrocities in the United States may have saved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most of the beginning of American history seems like a race of conquest between the Spaniards and Europeans with Native Americans caught in the crossfire. A seemingly peaceful group of people, the Native Americans were under constant attack from the moment settlers arrived into their territory. Historians can pull from first-hand accounts and primary sources to piece together the history of this nation. One Spainard exploratory mission wrecked off the coast of Florida with about 400 men (OTP S1-6, OTP 22). After long battles and shipwrecks, the expedition was cut short and only four men survived, one an African slave and Spanish explorer named Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca. De Vaca wrote a narrative explaining his encounters with Native Americans who had never seen white or black people before. De Vaca described the Indians as “war like people…and protect themselves from their enemies as they would have if they had been raised in Italy and in continuous war” (OTP S1-6). He explains in his narrative…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The number of Japanese-Americans who were killed in the internment camps is unknown but over 127,00 were put into the labor camps and about 7% of them died from hunger, dehydration or other unnatural causes such as executions. Japanese-Americans and Jews were both excluded of citizenship for either their nationality or religion. Jews were put in these concentration camps from 1933 to around 1945 by Hitler and the German army. Japanese-Americans were put in the internment camps around the year of 1945 through 1946 or 1947 by the American government. The Nazi concentration camps and Japanese-American internment camps were not essentially the same thing because they were put in the camps for different…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A Review of policies and attitudes of the American government that allowed the final solution to take place.…

    • 2973 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World retells the story about the invasion and occupation of the Americas by western Europeans, but it is told in a way that I have never heard before. From the first Spanish assault against the Arawak people to the US army’s massacre of the Sioux Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of north and south America have endured a great deal of racism slavery, cruelty, brutality, and murder. Author David Stannard does an excellent job of putting everything into view and seeing that what you were thought in junior high is nothing compared to what the indigenous people actually faced. This books contents are remarkably well researched, and its graphic and explicit contents are incredibly convincing.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    False American Ideals As many call the Indian Holocaust, the poor treatment of Indians in America existed the minute Europeans stepped foot on their land. In 1492, Columbus arrived in the New World only to find that it was already inhabited. Still, the Europeans murdered, enslaved, and relocated the Native Americans westward. Still, hundreds of years later in the 1800’s, this indigent treatment of Native Americans still existed.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    For this final project we have been asked to select a significant sociological event for which I have chosen the Holocaust of World War II, and then analyze the effects on society by answering the several questions. First how and why this event was sociologically interesting? Next we will discuss what social context that the event occurred in. Then we will look at how many people were affected by this event and the presence of possible trends in shared characteristics of the people affected by this event or similar events. Finally we will discuss the sociological theory that best explains this event.…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The year is 1933. A devastated people stare into a black abyss. Having witnessed the utter destruction of their economy and the years of destitution that followed, the people are desperate for relief. A failed art student and embittered World War I veteran begins to gain a following within the national political scene. Being a gifted orator with strong political ideology, he manages to gain the support of millions. Unknown to the people who ultimately elect him to be their leader, he has a dark and sadistic plan. The events that follow are one of humanity’s greatest embarrassments and tragedies. It is not often that something happens that is repulsive enough to make the world collectively gasp. For a moment the world stood still, paralyzed with disbelief. The goal is the same for all involved, but the ways in which each nation choose to respond vary wildly. The United States has often garnered criticism for the way in which it decided to address and solve the problem of the mass extermination of innocent millions.…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Justice In The Holocaust

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    By the end of World War II, about two-thirds of the Jewish population were killed. Countless people lost their family and their friends. When the survivors were released from the concentration camps, numerous individuals had nowhere to go, and no place to call home. The Allied forces tried a multitude of Nazi War criminals in the Nuremberg Trials hoping that the imprisonment or killing of these flawed, yet guilty German officials would bring justice to those who survived the Holocaust. But was justice truly ever achieved?…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The conquistadors believed the strong could dominate the weak. Europeans with confidence and arrogance thought it was right to destroy civilizations, and take valuable possessions when they wanted. Political Mythology lies and portrays the indigenous Americans as if they perpetuated their own Americna Holocaust. Indigenous Americans had the valuables the conquistadors were searching for.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When people hear the word genocide, the first thing that comes to their mind is probably The Holocaust; unfortunately there are many more genocides that not many people know about. The Holocaust was a tragic genocide in which six million Jews were murdered by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi soldiers, and for what reason? Sadly there is no valid reason other than the fact that they were just Jewish and Hitler didn’t like that. Genocide is when a large group of people are murdered because of their beliefs or their ethnicity. Even gays have been murdered in genocides.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On The Holocaust

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages

    What made the holocaust the worst case of genocide in the world? The holocaust began when Adolf Hitler came into power and believed that anyone different did not belong in Germany. While there are other cases of genocide with more kills than the holocaust, the holocaust was the worst case of genocide in the world because the methods they used to kill the people was unethical, they killed them based on race, looks, and sexuality; around 11 million innocent people were killed.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays