(Untitled)

[kveran]

Every time I read about the Spanish explorers--Cortes, Alvaro, Pizarro--, it makes me absolutely livid. How could they justify to themselves the utter destruction of some of the most brilliant civilizations in the known world, in order to gain transient wealth?

Comments

[ajora]

Because...

"Why does any advanced civilization seek to destroy a less advanced one? Because the land is strategically valuable, because there are resources that can be cultivated and exploited; but most of all, simply because they can."

Pardon the Babylon 5 quote, I figured it was apt and much more streamlined than I would have done. It is an unfortunate truism for any invasive force (see also: Japanese vs Ainu, Japanese war crimes, Nazi Germany, English settlers in Australia, etc etc etc).

[kveran]

Consciously I know that--it just makes me so angry. I like animals so much better than people.