Recent academic research suggests that between 1492-1610 an estimated 60 million people were killed by European conquest (or introduced illnesses) throughout North, Central and South America – leading to a mini-ice-age in the early 1800s experienced throughout Western Europe (where the snowy scenes on Victorian Xmas cards originates – with children happily skating on a frozen River Thames) – as so many villages, towns and cities were recaptured by thick forests and foliage, etc, as the Native American (Indigenous) populations died away and nature reclaimed their extensive (and once ‘cultivated’) living-spaces!
CAHOKIA – The First City In North America
I am often asked for an example of a North American ‘city’ produced by non-Europeans by incredulous European students – enquiring minds – previously filled-up with all kinds of ‘Eurocentric’ and academically ‘incorrect’ nonsense! The myth is that only ‘Europeans’ were able to build and live within major cities – a lie that serves as the justifying basis for ALL European colonial activity – regardless of its destructive nature. The racist assumption that underlies this inverted thinking is that the victims of this vicious European colonial expansion (glibly referred to as ‘globalisation’ by the bourgeoisie responsible for it) deserve everything they got because they were (and still ‘are’) spiritually, psychologically and physically inferior! Not only do I beg to differ – but I usually opt for the above example of ‘Cahokia’ as it is located in Mississippi – a shocking fact which stuns most unsuspecting students as this is a subject generally ignored by the US (and European) academic systems. When it was at its peak (around 1000-1100 CE) ‘Cahokia’ had a population comparable at the time to that of London.
US academics who do dare to dabble in this area often try to date its decline and disappearance to a convenient ‘1350 CE’ – or just prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1492 CE – whilst others state that it was probably contact with Europeans that put an end to it. The usual dualistic paradigm perpetuated is that these non-European architects who (were expert in engineering) – were also ‘savage’ in religion (a recurring theme in Protestant and Catholic-led European colonialism) – and consequently destroyed themselves through their own inherent ‘evilness’ and ‘stupidity’! This is premised upon apparent archaeological evidence of what might be a small number of human ‘sacrifices’ dating to around 900 CE – but many old cultures practiced this activity including Celts, Vikings, the Chinese, Indians and many other ethnic and religious groups (including Christians) around the world. The Protestant and Catholic Christians, for instance, used to ritualistically ‘burn’ one another throughout Europe as an ‘offering’ to their respective interpretation of the same Abrahamic god! Of course, this was when these two ‘Unorthodox’ Churches were not busy torturing or burning the Pagan populations of the countries they had occupied!
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 