Isnt this what Europe used as an excuse to invade African Tribes, Mayans and Aztecs?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_on_sc/europe_human_sacrifice

Answer 1

From the very journals of people like Columbus, and many other sources, it's obvious that the Europeans were looking for wealth in the new world. It's why all these exploration voyages got funded in the first place. They wanted what the indigenous people had, and so they took it by force when the people wouldn't just hand it over.

This practice of taking what Native people had for ourselves continued well into the end of the 19th Century, when they finally had nothing left that we wanted. This is not theorizing. These were the stated goals of European explorers and the U.S. Government of the time.

Answer 2

All peoples around the world practiced Pagan rites at one time or another.

  Sorry, the Christianity theory doesn't hold water.

Christianity to 'save the heathens" was an excuse to come over to the Americas and benefit from the natural resources and riches here.

Christianity was also the excuse for the Crusades, as well.

Those were about money and territory,too.

Good question!

Good luck

Answer 3

Not that I heard of. they invaded the "new world" with a mission from "God" and "Gold": Get rich and Convert all so-called "savages" to the Catholic Church. I am being sarcastic of course. Based on what we know regarding the violence and bloody wars that resulted from these missions, we do wonder who the "savages" really were... Thank you for the thumbs down. I did not know that some of you still argue on the fact that we killed most indigenous people throughout the Americas in less than 2 or 300 years. To go back to your question, you are correct in a way. The rituals of human sacrifices were pointed out as barbaric and therefore was one of the arguments justifying the "Conquest."

Answer 4

If no excuses were available do you think they would have refrained from conquest? Your point is not well made. People have many reasons for conquest; they just give people like you the cheap rationalizations.

PS You can put every bodies answer " thumbs down ", but that will not change the truth, or get you your preconceived answer. On the other hand, there are some point whores on YA who will say anything for 10 points. Perhaps one of them will come along for you.

Answer 5

No they came to the americas for Gold and riches and brought with them the one thing that destroyed more information and culture than any other force priests that did not know anything but their dumb out look that every thing was heathen and must be destroyed we lost history and knowledge of thousands of years because of the church

Answer 6

Pretty much.  They thought they were superior to us Native people because they were Christian.  

And Karen, if you're Native and buy what you just said, man are you slow.  If you're not Native, you're slow anyway.

Answer 7

The high school kid answered it very nicely.  I used to be very upset about the white man coming into America and taking over the native's land.  Now that I am a Christian, I see that it was a way to bring Christianity to the New World.  That is way more important to mankind.

Answer 8

No Yoli. The main excuse was an obnoxious abuse of the Holy Bible for their own greed and larceny. It involved Royalty and wealthy bankers on a large scale.

Actually they could have invaded Africa, the Mayans, as well as the Aztecs because;..............."they wanted more mango's and banana's for their soups".

Any excuse is as good as another for those kind of people darlin.

Answer 9

We'd have found another reason if not for this. Fact is, we really didn't care for them very much to begin with, and they were in our way.

Being a pain is good enough reason.

Answer 10

It is always amazing how even very clear questions can be misunderstood just because people don't take time to read carefully.

It seems to me that ALL answers above are missing the point. They are digressions about the motivations of the European conquest. But the question here is whether or not the practice of human sacrifice has been AN excuse (not ALL the possible excuses vs. real motivations: we would need a book only for listing them) to invade some cultures.

The simple answer is: YES.

One of our most extensive sources of information about the Aztecs and Incas are the two studies of William Prescott, "History of the Conquest of Mexico" and "The conquest of Peru". They are interesting because written in mid-1800, a period when the Europeans were still unable to fully admit the atrocities committed in the so-called New World and hence still searching for excuses.

The practice of human sacrifice (with the addition of ritual cannibalism in the Aztecs), is widely used throughout the entire Prescott's work, if not to justify, at least to relieve the responsibility of the Spaniards. This benevolence towards Europeans looks surprising today, but that's the way history was written only a little more than a century ago.

Even with these flaws, the Prescott books are wonderful reading. They can be downloaded for free at Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/...

Answer 11

The main reasons for the conquest of the Mesoameric, was not Christianity, but gold... A lot of gold... So they just plainly plunder the native from their golden ressources by force.

Only few missionaries have come aboard the conquistador boats, as opposed to cannons and soldiers (even horses).

So the spain mercantilism was put forward as a race against other european nations to gain Asia and become richer than the others... Spain become the richest very fast, but spend its money in France instead than on its own economy, which was going to doom them...

Answer 12

No, they were trying to (a) bring Christianity to the

"heathens" (b) trying to find a market and workforce for their new factory-produced goods (c) they believed in Social Darwinism, that is, stronger countries survive (d) they were looking for raw materials for their goods.

Answer 13

Fact number one: The various tribes in Africa were fighting and enslaving each other long before European traders came to that area. Secondly: the Mayans and Aztecs did practice human sacrifice and while several Conquistidors did come with the idea of gold there were many who honestly did seek to teach Christianity to the various tribes. The fact that the Aztecs held a number of tribe in a loose slavery so that they could harvest sacrificial victims from them caused these tribes to turn to the Spanish for help.