Conquest The Destruction of the American Indios

by Livi-Bacci, Massimo

• ISBN13: 9780745640006
• ISBN10: 0745640001
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-08
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

The arrival of Europeans in the Americas brought with it a demographic catastrophe of vast proportions for the native populations. What were the causes? The surviving documentation is extraordinarily rich: conquistadors, religious figures, administrators, officials, and merchants kept records, carried out inquiries, and issued edicts. The native world, for its part, has also left eloquent traces of events as well as direct testimony of its harsh subjugation at the hands of the Europeans. Drawing on these sources, Livi Bacci shows how not only the 'imported' diseases but also a series of economic and social factors played a role in the disastrous decline of the native populations. He argues that the catastrophe was not the inevitable outcome of contact with Europeans but was a function of both the methods of the conquest and the characteristics of the subjugated societies. This gripping narrative recounts one of the greatest tragedies of human history, one whose protagonists include figures like Columbus, Montezuma, Atahuallpa, Pizarro, Corts and Tupac Amaru.

Author Biography

Massimo Livi Bacci is Professor of Demography at the University of Florence.

Table of Contents

Preface

In which are described three voyages that changed the face of a continent, the American population at the time of contact, the demographic catastrophe of the Indios, the sorrowful increase of the Africans, and the expansion of the Europeans

A humble Franciscan, two combative Dominicans, an Italian humanist at the Court of Spain, a remorseful viceroy, a naturalist 'alcade', a Europeanized Inca and an Inca fallen on hard times, a conquistador observer

different witnesses and a common analysis of the catastrophe

A tireless traveler disrupts a continent, but a quarter century too late.

From the Caribbean to Peru: a brief history of a long voyage and of the suspected assassin of Huayna Capac, father of Atahuallpa

The true and presumed sins of smallpox and other crowd diseases

A golden nose ring and the tragic destiny of the Taino

An Indio follows a deer and discovers a mountain of silver

A people in constant movement, over 1000 miles and at an elevation of 4000 meters, and the wealth of Potosi

Deeds and misdeeds of gold and silver

Hispaniola, the territorial paradise of Columbus and the imagination of modern scholars

One hundred thousand or ten million Taino?

The catastrophe of the Antilles as seen from close up and a credible leyenda negra

People die while animals flourish

A great and rich city, dreamed of by Columbus and destroyed by Cortes

The modern dispute over the population of Mesoamerica

Tributaries, tributes, and population

Thirteen brigantines hauled overland and a tunnel in the rock

Men and beasts

The Incas and many millions of subjects

A quarter century of wars: Indios versus Indios, Spaniards versus Indios, Spaniards versus Spaniards

'Quipu' pen and ink

A viceroy who counts, measures and acts

Epidemics: the moderns debate them, the ancients ignore them

Colonists and 'Paulists' hunting down Guarani between the Parana and the Uruguay

One hundred Jesuits for 100,000 Indios

Steel axes and security in exchange for Christian habits

Monogamy and reproduction stronger than crowd diseases

Epilog

Appendices

Tables

Figures

Notes

Chronology

Glossary

Note on Illustrations

Index

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