'Historical accounts from 16th century show inhuman cruelty practices towards the native population of South America. Even just reading through history feels like a self-imposed torture. But knowing the true is required in order to have an objective understanding of what really happens during the conquests, when one culture assumes a divine right to oppress another.
During the Spanish conquest of Peru, the indigenous population went through hell to survive and maintain their traditions. The brutality and intolerance of the conquistadors, approved by the “papal bull” doctrine, knew no boundary and no mercy. I’ll give an example of what actually happened when boats of bandits arrived from Spain to discover the “New World.”
Columbus noted that the Taino Indians of the Dominican Republic were as happy as human beings can be, open to strangers, and eager to show their way of life and share it. Then his people burned the Indians alive in their huts. Being long separated from their own spiritual roots that go back to the Celtic and Druidic cultures of Europe, which were suppressed and eradicated by Christianity, they lost their humanity. The Spanish conquerors responded to the natives’ hospitality with inhuman cruelty. We learn it from the writing of Bartholomew de la Casas, who in 1609 recorded the crimes of the Spaniards: “They made gallows just high enough for the feet to nearly touch the ground, and by thirteens, in honor of our Redeemer and the Twelve Apostles, they put wood underneath, and with fire, they burned the Indians alive.’’
We learn about this and other inhuman cruelties from a book called A Short Account of The Destruction of the Indies, written by Bartolomé de Las Casas. A missionary that was driven by a deeply-rooted sense of justice and human principles, felt morally bound to record the crimes which have being carried out in the name of God. He recounts a story when a Taino chief Hatuey was tied to the stake but before the fire was lit, Hatuey was offered a spiritual reprieve by a Spanish priest by embracing Christianity. Hatuey responded with a question: ‘Are there people like you in heaven?’ he asked. When the priest reassured him that there were, Hatuey responded that he would prefer to go to hell, where he would not know such cruel men.
This unimaginable horror gets even harder to grasp when put into a historical context. The Nazis, for all the atrocities they committed, burned the corpses only after they had gassed people to death. This story alone puts a big question mark on the legitimacy of an organized religion and its alleged connection to a divine mind. But this is only one of countless genocidal stories in the bloody history of the conquest, which is full of cruelty and torture.'
Read more: Sacred Medicine - The Path To Unity
