Discovery fo America OR the start of the largest mass killing of humans ever?

1. Colombus

One of the most significant dates during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs was 12th October 1492: the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

Today, 12 of October of 2006, we "celebrate" 514 years.

The fact that Christopher Columbus (who was not originally Spanish, but Italian) appealed to a foreign court to offer his services proved that the discovery of America was not incidental.
Portugal and Castilla (Spain) were well-advanced in the exploration of overseas mercantile routes and Sevilla, a wealthy and populous Spanish city, was by then an important commercial centre.

The Canary Islands were an excellent bridgehead for alternate routes. This is what Christopher Columbus offered and he offered it to a State that needed them, but which was also accustomed to and prepared for this type of venture. Unified Spain possessed in 1492 a powerful war machine, a solid economy, an exterior projection, naval experience including the exploration of trade routes and notable scientific-technical potential mathematicians, geographers, astronomers and shipbuilders who had been formed in a melting-pot of three cultures (Jews, Muslims and Christians). Its only rival was its neighbour, Portugal, which, as we know, had put a stop to Spanish expansion in Africa.

Columbus' offer was rapidly accepted in spite of his acknowledged errors. But during his journey to Asia his caravels unexpectedly came across the American continent. His original attempt was to find a new route to India and China, known as "the Indies".

The Spanish were especially well prepared by history to conquer, occupy, populate and exploit new lands and assimilate new people. America thus became the new frontier-land for those people used to its ways and with the military, diplomats and administrative arms at their disposal to face the challenge. By the middle of the 16th century, they had settled in the two most important viceroyalties, Mexico on the Atlantic, and Peru on the Pacific.

2. The start of the largest mass killing of humans ever

The European colonists, whose lifestyle included sharing close quarters with animal resevoirs of disease (cows, pigs, sheep etc.), introduced novel germs to the agriculturally-advanced indigenous peoples of the Americas. Smallpox (1525, 1558, 1589), typhus (1546), influenza (1558), diphtheria (1614) and measles (1618) epidemics swept ahead of initial European contact killing between 10 million and 112 million indigenous peoples of the Americas in the largest mass killing of humans ever. These unprecidented epidemics, which killed between 95% and 98% of the indigenous population, subsequently facilitated the conquest of these native civilizations.

Territories that at some point belonged to Spain (red) or Portugal (purple)

3. After our indigenours people were exterminated, Africans were called

The mass death of the Native Americans from slavery, disease and war led to severe changes in the population and ethnic identity of America's inhabitants. The slave labor of Americans killed by European incursions was replaced by that of sub-Saharan African peoples through the slave trade. Native populations became increasingly minor as the European and African slave populations grew rapidly. The dominance of white peoples continued through the period of widespread independence from European rule, begun in the late 18th century by the United States.

There is a substantial difference though, between the English and Spanish areas and models of colonisation. While Native Americans suffered death, slavery and exploitation throughout the Americas and were virtually exterminated almost everywhere, Native Americans, along with Mestizos, now make up the majority of the population in many Central and South American countries due to higher rates of intermarriage between the Spanish and Native Americans, [citation needed] the lower rates of European immigration there, and the lack of the black-white racial classification system found in the United States.

The number of Native Americans is increasing now in the U.S. by actual population growth, changing enrollment laws, and from the immigration from Spanish America, especially from Mexico, though the definition being applied to them is Hispanic.