The Vikings were actually the first to colonize North America. They were only here 60 years, largely because the natives slaughtered anyone that didn't starve to death. Not exactly a harmonious relationship...
An interesting little thing is the voyage of Saint Brendan, an Irish monk who may have been the first European to North America, he saw it as the promised land, and left shortly after
Cute but no genocide I took an entire history class on the discover of America and Colombus can only be contributed to the commitment of mass murder which is much different than genocide
Genocide: the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. So, yeah, what the Europeans did to the Native Americans was genocide.
Not to mention that they did pretty much all they did to squander their cultures and ways of life. Hell, they were even forced to be sterilized in the United States (along with the deaf, blind, mentally retarded, mentally ill, people with epilepsy, the physical deformed, and African Americans) until the last forced sterilization in 1981. Hitler actually took these eugenic laws that the U.S. had written and used them against the Jews (and all other targets).
So, not only were Native Americans annihilated, they weren't given a chance to regrow the population. So, going by the definition and general meaning, it definitely WAS genocide, no way around that. I mean, pre-Europen contact, there were literally MILLIONS of Native Americans, after there were barely 500,000 Native Americans.
Native American populations were decimated by European diseases almost accounting for 95% of the population loss. Also that vague definition of genocide emerged after the holocaust in which the world powers did nothing to stop the holocaust for several years I know my shit because I have a masters degree in in the history of god damn genocide so nice try trying to establish a false belief hell I even conducted a two month mock trial of Colombus's situation in which I proved to 14 of the 16 jury members that it was indeed not genocide the pre ww2 definition was: the intentional systematic extermination of a people's or ethnic group, not to mention Columbus couldn't have been apart of the genocide due to him falling ill on his 2nd voyage when this supposed genocide occurred take an accurate history class or go fuck yourself because you would know the three official genocides of world history: the Armenians, the Jews, and the Rwandans
Some Europeans handed out smallpox infested blankets to the Native Americans, knowing that it would kill them. While I know the diseases was what mostly took them out, it's still deliberate killings of groups because of their ethnicity, religion, etc. Anyways, I didn't know that the definition of genocide was different before the Holocaust, so that's interesting. I could care less about your degrees. I'm just going on what I know, excuse me for not having a bunch of degrees to "back me up." Anyways, if it wasn't genocide, I have no doubt that it would have been if they hadn't died from the diseases. And it still doesn't make up for the destruction of their culture and land. And, I wasn't talking about Columbus when I said genocide, I was just talking about the Europeans in general (I should have made that clearer). Also, sorry that I (an eighth grader) don't know as much as a college graduate, I should definitely go fuck myself for that. Thanks for the civilized conversation.
The small pox infested blankets were handed out during the French and Indian war in which the natives ran rampant slaughtering men women and children along the frontier for the French
All this smallpox on blankets "genocide" happened in the 1700's, while the very concept of viruses and the spread of them wasn't barely formed until the very late 1800's. There was a reason why people back then shitted in the same water they drank from, DISEASES WERE AN UNKNOWN CONCEPT!!! The first man that tried to make hand washing mandatory in hospitals was LAUGHED AT BY EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR, the year 1840! Did you know there was such a thing as hearth death, caused by when pregnant woman would cook over an open fire, heating her baby so much she would have a miscarriage. Even the concept of FIRE BAD was unknown at the time. Let's not give Europeans any more credit then they deserve. All they got was fucking lucky by dealing with people that did not have generations of plague that wiped out tens of millions of people, allowing the survivors to pass on resistant genes. They had know idea why so many Indians were dying, and neither did anyone else for almost a hundred years!
Not to mention that they did pretty much all they did to squander their cultures and ways of life. Hell, they were even forced to be sterilized in the United States (along with the deaf, blind, mentally retarded, mentally ill, people with epilepsy, the physical deformed, and African Americans) until the last forced sterilization in 1981. Hitler actually took these eugenic laws that the U.S. had written and used them against the Jews (and all other targets).
So, not only were Native Americans annihilated, they weren't given a chance to regrow the population. So, going by the definition and general meaning, it definitely WAS genocide, no way around that. I mean, pre-Europen contact, there were literally MILLIONS of Native Americans, after there were barely 500,000 Native Americans.