The white man as weapon of mass destruction—part 1

To understand the impact the white man has had on world history, we must take a look at the deaths, destruction, and chaos that the white man has created.

By white man, I am referring to those people whose origins are in Europe and extended to the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

We must keep in mind, that most of the world destruction is the result of the members of the elite class searching for ways to increase their wealth (capitalism). They financed explorations around the world searching for greater resources, products, and markets.

Religion was used to bring God and “civilization” to the Godless “savages” they met in the lands they invaded.

The crusades were holy wars, beginning in 1095, sponsored by the popes of the Roman Catholic Church, directed at what were perceived as the enemies of Christendom. The pope’s (Pope Urban11)call was to go to war against the Muslims living in the Holy Land. These crusades were fought over approximately 200 years in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Spain, Latvia, Prussia, Italy, and southern France.

During the 200 years of Holy Wars, it is estimated that a minimum of 2.5 million people lost their lives.

Let us now attend to the white man’s search for cheap or free labor:

The first reported African slaves to be brought to the “New World” was in 1502. At least 10-15 million Africans were enslaved and brought to Europe and the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries.

At least 2 million slaves died in what has been called the Middle Passage across the Atlantic. Another 15%-30% died after they reached the U.S., during their march to their destinations or their confinement.

While slavery did not create a major share of the capital that financed Europe’s industrial revolution, slave labor did produce the major consumer goods that were the basis of world trade during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries: coffee, cotton, sugar, and tobacco. In addition, the slave trade provided stimulus to shipbuilding, banking, and insurance, and Africa became a major market for iron, textiles, firearms, and rum.

The issue of slavery brought much conflict to the United States. In order to maintain their right to enslave Africans, the southern states threatened to and eventually did secede from the Union. They formed the Confederate States of America.

Although the Civil War was primarily an attempt to maintain the Union, the issue of the legality of slavery was prominent. The conflict was resolved when Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

The number of deaths due to the Civil War exceeded 600,000 people.

After the Civil War, from 1865-1877, we have what historians have labeled the Reconstruction Period. Newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes wrought by Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South.

The southern white man was soon able to enact what was called “Jim Crow” laws, which gave official sanction to segregation. The Ku Klux Klan, with the support of the white communities, became the unofficial enforcers of racial segregation often using lynchings and the burning down of African-American homes as their main method of intimidation.

Millions of black people, who were forced to live in fear, decided to leave their homes and migrate to the northern cities where segregation existed but was not officially sanctioned by law.

There may not have been millions of black people killed during this era, close to 5,000 have been documented but, certainly, millions of people had to live in fear and intimidation in order to survive the wrath of the white man.

Whitening the Americas

It is said that Christopher Columbus discovered the “New World.” But, that is nothing more than ethnocentric nonsense where the white Europeans experience events through white colored glasses. However, since it is the white man who writes and publishes our textbooks, that distorted perception of history has become reality.

Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Columbus completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World.

There were millions of people already here when Columbus arrived. Those he came into contact with were naively kind and helpful to the new European arrivals. Columbus wrote in his diary, “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I pleased.”

So, on his second voyage to the “New World,” Columbus came fully armed. With his advanced weapons, he quickly was victorious and proceeded to enslave the native people.

Besides the vicious treatment of the native population, the Europeans brought with them the smallpox virus for which the natives had no immunity. Hundreds of thousands died. It is estimated that over a fifty year period, after Columbus “discovered” America, 3-5 million natives died from starvation and/or disease.

The Native-American population, which is estimated at 12 million in 1500, was reduced to 237,000 by 1900. Does this sound like genocide to anyone?

An example of the intent of the newcomers is that in 1837, the U.S. Army dispensed trade blankets to Indians at Fort Clark in what is today North Dakota. The blankets had been taken from a military infirmary in St. Louis quarantined for smallpox. That tribe was virtually exterminated.

And, yet, Columbus Day is an American tradition. It was organized in the 1930s by the Knights of Columbus, a male only, Catholic organization.

Does anyone know who we are really celebrating and honoring? Does anyone care?

Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.