I thought it was due to Cortez and his 100 bringing their own diseases by contact
Kinda goes against the whole sort of stuff propogated by the Left-Right Dichotomy & Underdog or Oppression Olympics type of stuff
Never knew until at least two or three years ago that the Native American tribes had slaves, even bought black people like Don Cheadle’s ancestors and went to war with one another whilst being allied to various European powers
Question, were those accidental plagues caused by contact with European clothes on purpose or not? Hollywood kinda makes it out to be on purpose last I watched. But I doubt they knew germ theory or whatever so well and had contact with Native Americans before that didn’t result in the latter dying of a disease they weren’t innoculated to
Well the diseases did hurt the Native populations immensely. The Europeans didn't know that, not until later. But they didn't know that at the time of the initial European colonization. In addition, upon initial contact many Europeans also died from the climate and local diseases. The thing was that the Europeans had more population to come to replace the people who lost and better food and technology to improve birthrate. The Natives didn't have that.
In reference to the smallpox infection associated with the Trail of Tears? That's probably historical revisionism. The Cherokee deaths from their forced relocation were primarily due to poor food, disease from exposure, and cold. It was a cruel action, undertaken by President Andrew Jackson due to facing the nullification crisis in South Carolina and not wanting to risk Georgia joining in a potential civil war over the slavery issue. It doesn't excuse this terrible action, nor many other Native removals that were done by force. That said, many other Indian tribes took payment for their lands and were relocated peacefully. So it's not as clear cut as it's often presented.
But let's be honest: Forced removal of native peoples is still awful and it's still a black mark on America's history.
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