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But they were likely the zealous type for whom this was plenty justification to classify Maya as subhuman and have no trouble killing all of them.

by mtsr 7y ago

tapland 7y ago
Not really the reason they are gone. As stated on wiki > It is estimated that 90% of the indigenous population had been eliminated by disease within the first century of European contact.
lrei 7y ago
Probably, they were the type that had no problem killing. Someone of a different type was in charge of justifications. The latter would’ve also been more the type that wrote, now historical, documents.
layoutIfNeeded 7y ago
killing them ALL Lol. That’s definitely false.
_petronius 7y ago
At least for the first conquistadores, this is wildly incorrect. It is true that they saw the Mesoamerican culture as wrong (particularly the human sacrifice bit), and put the conquest of territory for Spain as of high importance, but their understanding of the world was more complex than what you describe. I really recommend reading Bernal Díaz del Castillo‘a firsthand account of the conquest of “New Spain” to get an idea of how these people viewed the world!
kragen 7y ago
This is similar to what happened in some ways: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Pet%C3%A9n https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Pet%C3%A... However, the Maya still survive today, so the conquistadores didn't kill all of them; all but one of the Maya cities had fallen before the arrival of the conquistadores (as the article mentions, the sacrifices at the particular site profiled ended in 900, over six centuries before the Spanish conquest); it isn't clear that the conquistadores knew about the Maya history of human sacrifice; it isn't clear that the conquistadores had any qualms about killing people they saw as fully human, or indeed abusing them in a wide variety of creatively sadistic and depraved fashions. One of the key sources is Bartolomé de las Casas; this translation is readable but the extensive prefaces about how Catholicism is evil may give you some idea of the difficulties in getting an objective account of what really happened. If you can read Spanish, the original may be easier to read, because English has changed a lot more since that time. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20321/pg20321-images.html http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20321/pg20321-images.htm...

But they were likely the zealous type for whom this was plenty justification to classify Maya as subhuman and have no trouble killing all of them.

by mtsr 7y ago

But they were likely the zealous type for whom this was plenty justification to classify Maya as subhuman and have no trouble killing all of them.

tapland 7y ago

Not really the reason they are gone. As stated on wiki > It is estimated that 90% of the indigenous population had been eliminated by disease within the first century of European contact.

lrei 7y ago

Probably, they were the type that had no problem killing. Someone of a different type was in charge of justifications. The latter would’ve also been more the type that wrote, now historical, documents.

layoutIfNeeded 7y ago

killing them ALL Lol. That’s definitely false.

_petronius 7y ago

At least for the first conquistadores, this is wildly incorrect. It is true that they saw the Mesoamerican culture as wrong (particularly the human sacrifice bit), and put the conquest of territory for Spain as of high importance, but their understanding of the world was more complex than what you describe. I really recommend reading Bernal Díaz del Castillo‘a firsthand account of the conquest of “New Spain” to get an idea of how these people viewed the world!

kragen 7y ago

This is similar to what happened in some ways: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Pet%C3%A9n https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conquest_of_Pet%C3%A... However, the Maya still survive today, so the conquistadores didn't kill all of them; all but one of the Maya cities had fallen before the arrival of the conquistadores (as the article mentions, the sacrifices at the particular site profiled ended in 900, over six centuries before the Spanish conquest); it isn't clear that the conquistadores knew about the Maya history of human sacrifice; it isn't clear that the conquistadores had any qualms about killing people they saw as fully human, or indeed abusing them in a wide variety of creatively sadistic and depraved fashions. One of the key sources is Bartolomé de las Casas; this translation is readable but the extensive prefaces about how Catholicism is evil may give you some idea of the difficulties in getting an objective account of what really happened. If you can read Spanish, the original may be easier to read, because English has changed a lot more since that time. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20321/pg20321-images.html http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20321/pg20321-images.htm...