To the Victors Go a Lot of Things

What happened to the Native Americans was unconscionable (or at least HOW it happened was). Unfortunately, so, too, was it inevitable. Think about it, folks. To have expected the white Europeans who eventually "settled" both Americas to turn around and NOT try to annex the land was simply not plausible. This, me-buckos, in that it totally goes against both human nature AND human history.................................................................................................I mean, think about it here. All throughout human history - up to that point, everything basically centered around empire/conquest; the Egyptian empire, the Babylonian empire, the Athenian empire, the Persian empire, the Macedonian empire, the Roman empire, the Islamic empire, the Mongolian empire, the Ottoman empire, etc.. To think that the Spanish, English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese explorers of the 16th-18th centuries were suddenly going to act magnanimously and not try and exploit (literally, one could say) a resource-filled/sparsely populated land isn't at all realistic. It simply wasn't (as much as our romanticism would have preferred) going to happen................................................................................................Of course, the way that it happened certainly left much to be desired. Far more emphasis should have been placed on trying to accommodate and/or "bring in" the indigenous populations. We certainly shouldn't have had broken one treaty after another treaty, instituted a system of substandard Indian reservations, etc.. BUT, the end result, I'm saying, a European takeover of the Americas was inevitable.................................................................................................P.S. Just for the record, folks, this spirit of conquest was hardly restricted to the white Europeans (the greatest Satans of all, if in fact you listen to some bloggers) of the world. Genghis Khan, for instance, wasn't a white European. Neither, either, were the Muslim conquerers of Spain and Palestine. Hell, folks, even the Native Americans themselves attempted to conquer....EACH OTHER. Yes, folks, even before Columbus came here, the Sioux, The Crow, The Blackfoot - they frequently fought over territory and even men. Sometimes, SOMETIMES, they even tortured.