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Product Description
The past five centuries have witnessed a shocking series of confrontations between European nations and millions of indigenous peoples, and these cultural encounters still resonate strongly to this day. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is an essential book for understanding the true impact of imperialism. Beautifully and passionately written, it provides a judicious and exhaustively researched indictment of European exploitation. Focusing on four collisions between Europeans and indigenous cultures--the conquest of Mexico, the British onslaught on the Tasmanian Aborigines, the uprooting of the Apaches, and the German campaign against the tribes of Southwest Africa--Mark Cocker illuminates the fundamental experiences that underlay the colonial experience around the globe. Beyond making a persuasive--and balanced--case against colonialism, Cocker also sustains a riveting, often harrowing story. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is narrative history in its most impressive form--engaging, accessible, and thought provoking.
Amazon.com Review
This account of the brutalities of European colonialism concentrates on four episodes--the destruction of the Aztecs, the exterminations of the Tasmanians and the Herero, and the cowing of the Apache. Starting with the general statement that the expansion of European Christian civilization has been at the expense of tribal peoples throughout the world, who were seen as either objects for exploitation or study or as simply surplus, Mark Cocker argues that the pattern was set by the encounter with the Aztecs--Spaniards hot from the reconquista were not in the mood to be tolerant of blood-sacrificing cannibals, no matter how urbane and sophisticated. Poorer peoples such as the Tasmanians and the Herero he sees as simply victims; only the Apache made the whole process so costly that they became heroes to their conquerors. Some of this is special pleading; Cocker neglects the role of disease and sometimes talks as if Europeans were uniquely bad--compared to, say, Genghis Khan?--and his concentration on selected case studies ignores the issues raised by more complex cases such as India or the Maori. Nonetheless, it is a terrifying indictment of atrocities all the worse for the sanctimonious efficiency with which they were carried out. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk
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