virgin soil epidemics or black legend - tim de wit
TRANSCRIPT
Virgin Soil-Epidemics or Black
Legend?Is it time for a more
balanced explanation for the causes of the Great Dying in the Americas?
The Black Legend• Bartolomé de las Casas
(1484-1566): Spanish cruelties caused the depopulation of the Amerindians
• Lewis Cass (1782-1866): European influences were to blame, albeit in an indirect manner
Virgin Soil-theory• After 1966: Crosby,
McNeill and Diamond• Indians lacked
natural resistance to European diseases Virgin Soil
• European cruelties played their part, but disease caused most of the decline
Problems with Virgin Soil• Risk of suggesting the
biological inferiority of Indians Francis Jennings
• Risk of denying European responsibility for the depopulation
• Massimo Livi-Bacci: European influences should not be overlooked
The Return of the Black Legend?
• Richard H. Steckel: Indians did not live in a disease-free society
• Massimo Livi-Bacci: The Indians would have gotten immune after the first disease-waves
• The Spanish participated in policies which caused the Indian populations to decrease
Conclusion• Disease and ill-treatment walked
hand-in-hand in the depopulation of the Americas
• An initial wave of diseases caused the initial depopulation, which were worsened by the European treatment of the Indians afterwards
• Both the Black Legend and the Virgin Soil-theory should be nuanced