Christopher Columbus

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Historians agree that the Taíno people of Hispaniola had not developed a written language system. They waged war with wooden clubs, whereas the invading Europeans came with firearms. And the allegedly noble natives were paddling around local waters in cheap canoes when Columbus encountered them—after he’d made a 2,400-mile journey across the brutal Atlantic in three mighty ships ranging from 60 to 150 tons each.

Does anyone who’s remotely honest think that if the technological disparities were reversed, indigenous Americans wouldn’t have tried conquering Europe? If the Taíno and Arawak and Cherokee had written languages dating back millennia, and if they’d possessed the sort of nautical and cartographic prowess that would have permitted them to cross the Atlantic—while Europeans were huddled in caves and still trying to figure out the basics of starting a fire—could anyone really think the North Americans wouldn’t have taken advantage of this situation? And does anyone honestly believe they wouldn’t have erected monuments to their triumph, and, more importantly, defended those monuments in case the conquered locals decided to try getting uppity?

Remember—the mighty indigenous peoples of the Americas couldn’t even figure out the wheel. The WHEEL. The average lifespan for Native Americans before Columbus committed “genocide” against them was around 35. It is now more than double that. When Columbus arrived in the New World, the total number of indigenous Injuns in what is now North America was less than two million. There currently are 5.2 million self-identified “Native Americans” in the USA alone and another two million or so in Canada.

So they’re living more than twice as long and there are more than twice as many of them. That doesn’t sound like genocide to me. That sounds like an upgrade into the first-class section.