This is directly opposite of excusemaking for genocide. The Spanish never had an intention to exterminate the local population: they needed people to exploit t

This is directly opposite of excusemaking for genocide. The Spanish never had an intention to exterminate the local population: they needed people to exploit the land they had conquered. The massive death toll was a result of an influx of diseases from the old world, and not due to some extermination policy they had. On the other had, the natives did perpetrate genocides on a regular basis, and the conquest did put an end to it. So I believe that in the end life actually improved for the majority of those natives who did survive the waves of diseases, compared to what they could hope for under their traditional way of life.