Manifest Destiny (1845) is the idea that God meant for the US to have all of North America. Its roots go back to the 1600s to Puritan ideas of being God’s chosen people in a promised land, just like the Jews in the Bible.
Manifest Destiny makes US wars of naked conquest against Mexicans and Natives in the 1800s seem just, as the way it had to be.
John L. O’Sullivan coined the term in the July 1845 issue of the Democratic Review:
“Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploitation, settlement, contiguity, etc. … [Our claim] is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self-government entrusted to us.”
War with Mexico: the following April President Polk egged Mexico into war so that he could take California, New Mexico and all of what is now Texas.
The penny press, the cable news of its day, spread the cheap war cry of Manifest Destiny across the nation, making the war seem right and good.
Some opposed the war, like Lincoln, Grant, Horace Greeley and Thoreau. Frederick Douglass called it “disgraceful” and “cruel”.
Walt Whitman, on the other hand, bought into it:
“We pant to see our country and its rule far-reaching, only inasmuch as it will take off the shackles that prevent men the even chance of being happy and good … We have no ambition for the mere physical grandeur of this Republic.”
But it was about land, not about the happiness or freedom of Mexicans and Natives. They were thrown off their land, if not lynched, raped or massacred. The US had a chance to “liberate” all of Mexico but did not.
Senator John C. Calhoun opposed taking all of Mexico, in part because:
“[W]e have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race … Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race. The greatest misfortunes of Spanish America are to be traced to the fatal error of placing these colored races on an equality with the white race.”
It all boiled down to ethnic cleansing, what Hitler will later call Lebensraum.
Manifest Destiny thinking did not end with the war:
In 1870, the Cheyenne Daily Leader informed us:
“The rich and beautiful valleys of Wyoming are destined for the occupancy and sustenance of the Anglo-Saxon race. The wealth that for untold ages has lain hidden beneath the snow-capped summits of our mountains has been placed there by Providence …”
In 1878, Washakie, an Eastern Shoshone Indian, had a somewhat different view:
“The Great Spirit gave it to us, [and] there was room enough for all his tribes; all were happy in their freedom … We … sorry remnants of tribes once mighty, are cornered on little spots of the earth, all ours by right – cornered like guilty prisoners, and watched by men with guns who are more than anxious to kill us off.”
See also:
- Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014
- Both Native and Chicano authors see Manifest Destiny as part of the Anglo American framing of history:
- The Eagles: The Last Resort
- The whiteness of Laura Ingalls Wilder – shot through with Manifest Destiny thinking
- Aryanism
- Bhagat Singh Thind
- White American racism against Natives: 1600s – the roots of Manifest Destiny thinking
Been waiting for this post for a long time. 😛
It looks like the Transcontinental railroad was a major factor in whites taking the claims by Native Americans of the Western states.
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[…] Manifest Destiny (1845) is the idea that God meant for the US to have all of North America. Its roots go back to the 1600s to Puritan ideas of being God’s chosen people in a promised land, just like the Jews in the Bible.Manifest Destiny makes wars of naked conquest against Mexicans and Natives in the 1800s seem just, as the way it had to be.- Click through for more – […]
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[…] Manifest Destiny (1845) is the idea that God meant for the US to have all of North America. Its roots go back to the 1600s to Puritan ideas of being God’s chosen people in a promised land, just like the Jews in the Bible.Manifest Destiny makes wars of naked conquest against Mexicans and Natives in the 1800s seem just, as the way it had to be. – Click through for more – […]
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White or not, you still gotta feel a sense of deep down guilt @ what happened and the conditions in the majority of reservations. I still got a nice running vehicle, broadband internet, access to discount produce to make me healthier, and some rigged platforms for my physical exertions. And what do these people have?
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This is the epitome of “whiteness” and white privilege. Disgusting.
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First Americans in every sense of the word they were robbed of their land. This is pretty tragic, Senator John C. Calhoun was very racist in his disgusting statement. Washakie the Shoshone statement was very sad.
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Thank you So much Abagond for finally doing this post.
I get so sick and tired of listening to Americans whine about “illegal immigrants” and “immigrants taking our jobs”….
This country was founded on “illegal immigration” of the white Anglo settlers and the US government, not the other way around.
Another reason that gets bypassed all the time in history: Much of the USAs “Manifest Destiny” was driven by Slavery, as well as racism and greed.
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and just to add some Flesh to the Manifest Destiny narrative and how slavery became an issue:
The 1st “black” president in North America, Vicente Guerrero (mixed African/Native/Spanish), had formalized banned slavery in Mexican Republic in 1829 (except for Texas)
(The original decree/idea was made in 1810, with the start of the Independence War from Spain by Miguel Hidalgo)
In the Mexican constitution, ALL men were created Equal (unlike the US Constitution with it’s bullsh’t fractions and exclusions) and this, was something the white Anglo US government could not tolerate
because in Mexican, any escaped black US slave that made it to Mexican territory, became free men
and Mexico refused to return escaped black slaves back to the USA.– Mexico continued to do this, even when they lost Texas, and their other northern territory.
When Texas became independent of Mexico, then slavery became legal in Texas. The more Mexico pushed back, the more “hawkish” the US government became.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/mexico-welcomed-fugitive-slaves-and-african-american-job-seekers/2383
“The Mexican Federal Law of July 13, 1824, clearly favored and promoted the emancipation of slaves. Mexico had even stipulated that it was prepared to compensate North American owners of fugitive slaves. Determined instead to have things their way, Anglos began to press for an extradition treaty which would require Mexico to return fugitive slaves.
From 1825 until the end of the Civil War in 1865, Mexican authorities continuously thwarted attempts by slave-holding Texas settlers to conclude fugitive slave extradition treaties between the two parties.
During this period of extremely tense relations between the two governments, Mexico consistently repudiated and forbade the institution of slavery in its territory, while U.S. officials and Texas slave-owners continuously sought ways to circumvent Mexican law.”
The fact that Mexicans were protecting and assisting black people to escape US slavery was also a major factor and reason why the US government went to war with Mexico (1846-1848)
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Rudyard Kipling – White Man’s Burden
Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden”
“Take up the White Man’s burden–
Send forth the best ye breed–
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild–
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another’s profit
And work another’s gain.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
The savage wars of peace–
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Take up the White Man’s burden–
No iron rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper–
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go, make them with your living
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man’s burden,
And reap his old reward–
The blame of those ye better
The hate of those ye guard–
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:–
“Why brought ye us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden–
Ye dare not stoop to less–
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloak your weariness.
By all ye will or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent sullen peoples
Shall weigh your God and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden!
Have done with childish days–
The lightly-proffered laurel,
The easy ungrudged praise:
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers.”
Thomas, Jane, and Rudyard Kipling. Victorian Literature, 1830-1900. N.p.: Bloomsbury, 1994. pp. 1092-93. Print.
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[…] Manifest Destiny (1845) is the idea that God meant for the US to have all of North America. Its roots go back to the 1600s to Puritan ideas of being God’s chosen people in a promised land, just like the Jews in the Bible.Manifest Destiny makes wars of naked conquest against Mexicans and Natives in the 1800s seem just, as the way it had to be. – Click through for more – […]
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White guilt is destroying the U.S. So we are giving back the country, starting with the Southwest, to the Mexicans, the descendants of Aztec butchers. It is coming full circle. Will the Southwest be a better place to live because of it? Nope.
We now focus on individual rights instead of the big picture of preserving civilization. So we miss the forest for the trees.
Every great empire has its end, and moral degenerecy is usually a signal that it is not far away. Another manifest destiny unveils itself. Prepare your children for the time of troubles. But don’t blame Abagond. He is just the messenger of these wicked times, when the people of this age bow down to the triune idols of equalism, moral relativism and hedonism.
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@ Biff
That is part of the self-serving, racist thinking that went into Manifest Destiny: that Whites are so much better than everyone else that they do not have to respect the rights of others – they can just take what they want.
If in a hundred years China is a better place than the US, would that give China the right to take over, say, the western half of the US? I think not.
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@ Allen Shaw
I did a post on white man’s burden:
and on White paternalism more generally:
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@ Linda
Good for Mexico! The irony is that the US was wrapping itself in talk of spreading liberty. You see that in both the O’Sullivan and Whitman quotes – and countered by Washakie’s. “Liberty”, then as now, mainly meant liberty for White men.
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@ Kiwi
Something I find strange is that I have never heard one of them talk about a future US with an Asian American ruling class and talk about it like it was a good thing – even though that follows naturally from their thinking. Instead of imagining a golden age of “Asian paternalism”, they imagine White paternalism with Asians, at best, as faithful junior partners. Which tells me that they do not believe this IQ stuff deep down, that, as with crime statistics, they are just using it to make their irrational White racism seem rational.
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The symbol of the angelic white woman known as Columbia is definitely an indication that this is all about white supremacy and white paternalism. I am certainly learning this was a white agenda to reign of non whites in this case Mexicans and First Nation People.
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*over* ^^^^
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http://godisimaginary.com/
http://www.evilbible.com/Impossible.htm
afrocentrism
criqtues racism and white culture but not religion nor important aspects of contemporary racism
focus on archiac cultures and history
antiracism
criqtues racism and white culture but not religion
focuses on contempory and historical racism but not religion
should critique religion
atheism
criqtues religion but not racism
should critique racism
guess I’m .oooo something percent of our species………
if true
99.999…. of you are wrong.
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Kiwi:
Wow, you’re right. And spot on analogy. The Dark Ages were kinda cool.
All this anti-Chinese/Asian stuff misses the mark with respect to me. Maybe you forget that I moved out of the U.S. long ago and had kids with an Asian woman. I would also guess that my kids are more likely to have Asian spouses, meaning any descendants I have are likely to be majority Asian.
Asians, at least East Asians, can maintain civilization. That said, the thinking and mentalities between whites and Asians tend to be different, and I think some part of this may be genetic. Whites tend to be more civic minded and concerned for idealism, which can be positive in many ways (they came in and tried to stop the Africans from committing cannibalism, the Aztecs from their human sacrifices and the Chinese from their foot-binding–they send charity to Africa). However, it can also be a source of weakness, as you can see by looking at what is happening to white governed countries, where it is considered to be morally wrong to think about the long-term affects of immigration of non-whites (and, for example, the effects of overpopulation in Africa driven by their handouts and interference). Asians tend to be very practical (the Chinese help Africa only in so much as they can make deals to exploit resources there), and so they have not been suckered by politically correct post-modern thinking.
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Linda,
I get so sick and tired of listening to Americans whine about “illegal immigrants” and “immigrants taking our jobs”….
I agree. One would think that (white) North Americans would realize how hypocritical that statement is. Because, hey, they are all immigrants in this sense/descendants of immigrants. Even worse, because today’s immigrants are not really working towards destroying the Native population.
I mean, I’m not saying any white person is guilty of this genocide themselves, nor am I saying that they should all “move back to Europe”. I understand US/Canada is their home, the only home they have, and I know they are not personally responsible for the atrocities. But that’s the thing- not being able to acknowledge what’s going on and not being able to understand that you have privilege in the system is what’s making it wrong.
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Kiwi:
“Yes, we can thank your supposedly high IQ Anglo barbarian ancestors for destroying Roman civilization”
The point is that when Roman civilization fell it was already incredibly weak and decadent. In any case, the Anglos/Germanic tribes didn’t go in and physically displace the Romans/Italians.
“Except that you would throw a fit of rage if the Chinese conquered America and justified that with their supposedly higher IQs.”
Eh, the U.S. is already controlled by a group that has higher average IQs than the Chinese. Anyway, I would actually prefer a Chinese gov’t over the one we currently have in the U.S.
” but it’s not okay for East Asians to immigrate into “white” countries despite their supposedly higher IQs. ”
I have no problem with a limited number of East Asians in the U.S. In comparison to the total U.S. population, it’s pretty low right now. The Chinese, Koreans and Japanese would probably also be open to low amounts of immigration of whites (though they don’t really grant citizenship easily), but would they ever let the situation get to be where the dominant ethnic group in the country will become a minority? No way, they are smarter than that. You have been in the U.S. too long and have started to lose your common sense… an unfortunate effect of the daily propaganda you are forced to consume.
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they came in and tried to stop the Africans from committing cannibalism, the Aztecs from their human sacrifices and the Chinese from their foot-binding–they send charity to Africa
And yet, they still performed things such as burning people alive at the stake and they subjected their women to wearing organ-crushing corsets.
Not to mention they were fans of kidnapping people and making slaves out of them or performing genocides on native populations.
PS- The whole cannibalism thing is largely a myth. While it existed in certain places, it was never practiced on a level that colonial stories want you to think. Plus, let’s not forget that Europe (=whites) has its own share of cannibal history.
An interesting tidbit: during the transatlantic slave trade, in certain communities in Africa there was a strong belief that the Europeans take all those people on ships to eat them. So yes, Europeans were thought to be cannibals.
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lol at this whole thing about white settlers having higher IQs. As if we don’t know that most of whites who settled in the “new world” were European rejects and lowest of the low. There was no brain drain back then; whoever ended up in the “new world” was the one Europe deemed as “inferior”.
Now, I don’t necessarily agree with this view, mainly because it’s important to understand how European class systems worked. Basically, if you weren’t born into a certain type of class, you could die, you were considered inferior, you had a low chance in live. I don’t think these people were in any way inferior to the well to do Europeans. However, if we want to follow the twisted “settler superiority” logic, this is what we’ll have to take into account.
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Wow first Biff is in Hawaii somewhere now he’s married to an Asian woman and has kids with here blah blah blah. It’s amazing how this guy shifts life stories every so often. The Pat Buchanan of these discussions.
On side note, you guys gotta learn to chill it and take a break. I personally don’t ever want to meet anybody on these blogs ever unless they cool down. It’s time to compare what you personally have in your life compared to others. If you can’t appreciate what you already have and chill just a bit I dunno man…. Take it easy guys.
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This same idea still carries on, as we can see in various foreign wars in which USA is the Good and everybody else is either help or enemies and Bad. This idea is the root of the way of thinking that americans have a God given right to basically do what ever they want where ever they want in the name of “freedom”, “democracy” and “God”.
It also explains why so many americans are so blind to the evils of their country. After all, it was meant to be and the USA is a beacon of hope and liberty in the world as God wanted etc.
From the genocide of the natives, the destruction of cultures and religions across the continent, to the present day wars in Middle East, there is a clear line of thinking. USA has a God given mandate to do as it sees fit to whom ever.
The revolutionary thinking that was, perhaps, in the founding of USA, just vanished under this “new truth” about the nation and the words of the founding fathers became forgotten.
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In 1878, Washakie, an Eastern Shoshone Indian, had a somewhat different view:
“The Great Spirit gave it to us, [and] there was room enough for all his tribes; all were happy in their freedom … We … sorry remnants of tribes once mighty, are cornered on little spots of the earth, all ours by right – cornered like guilty prisoners, and watched by men with guns who are more than anxious to kill us off.”
More than that O great Washakie. The “men with guns” dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. Some of them now want to nuke Iran, Iraq and Syria despite the mayhem, bloodshed, and chaos they have already caused there and in Libya, Somalia, the Chagos Archipelago aka Diego Garcia etc etc etc. In the past 150 years they have plundered and occupied and colonised almost everywhere outside their own territories.
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@Kiwi
but.. but.. but… the jews control everything boo hoo boo hoo… LOL.. Biff is 1 fishy shady dipstick.
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@Kiwi Biff & Abagond
I believe the Aztecs conquered the Wahacans of the region who have been in the area much longer. Watch Bizarre Foods America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAlR7wx2ZMA
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Unlike most of white American history that is mentioned on this blog, I did learn something about Manifest Destiny in school. “Manifest Destiny” embodied the spirit of the nation and I think that painting of the goddess of Colombia bringing the white man to conquer the continent was even in one of my history textbooks.
What was not really taught was how it was achieved. New immigrants (ie, those from Europe), blacks, Native Americans, Mexicans, Chinese/Japanese/Filipinos either contributed to Manifest Destiny (or White man’s providence), or they impeded it. It was taught from that point of view.
And if they impeded it, what happened? Well, they were conquered!
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“Mira,
lol at this whole thing about white settlers having higher IQs. As if we don’t know that most of whites who settled in the “new world” were European rejects and lowest of the low. There was no brain drain back then; whoever ended up in the “new world” was the one Europe deemed as “inferior”.
Linda says,
Thank you, Mira. I mentioned that to another 2 white American posters here, and they almost had a mental meltdown!
I don’t understand why these white race realists and other white American posters don’t get that this country (USA) was a dumping ground for England and Europe —
so that the British/European upper white class and governments could get rid of their white lower class and criminals– these people barely survived past the age of 50, much less had high IQs.
The new colony needed work horses and mules and it was the white lower class Europeans who fit that bill initially because the Native Americans were not willing to be the white man’s slaves (especially the Natives who already had dealings with the Spaniards and knew what was going on.)
Ignorance may be bliss but willfully closing one’s eyes, so that the ghosts go away, is unacceptable… history is, what it is
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Linda,
Exactly. Look, I hate classism and I do have a huge respect for working class people. It was tough for them. If you were born in a working class family, you were basically stuck, and you didn’t have any prospect in life,mainly because of the system that treated you as inferior. It’s not surprising that they felt rejected and wanted to seek opportunities elsewhere.
That being said, a) they weren’t any sort of elite, they were Europe’s lowest of the low. Not by choice (they never had any opportunities to get education, etc.) but still lowest of the low and whoever Europe saw as inferior. This sort of elitist looking exists in Europe to this day. “Of course Americans are stupid, they are made of Europe’s rejects, uneducated masses and lowest of the low”. Again, not the sentiment I share (because it was hardly your fault if you could not get education in a system that sees you inferior because of your class), but it’s important to put this into perspective. The new world was built by Europe’s rejects, = whoever Europe (whites) saw as inferior and lowest of the low.
b) people who ended up in the new world knew what systematic discrimination means, because they were discriminated on an institutionalized basis for their whole life. The class system in Europe, particularly in England, was brutal. You simply didn’t have any chance to improve your condition; you were seen as inferior, criminal, unworthy, etc. So what happens when these people crossed the ocean and settled in a land that gave them opportunities to show what they’ve got, without a system of oppression in place? They were quick to take this chance and start oppressing the others based on other criteria. Obviously, being deemed inferior based on class was wrong and we must abolish that, but being deemed inferior based on race, ethnicity or religion is totally ok and normal.
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Oh, and one note on American exceptionalism (not sure if there’s a post about that; it would be an interesting one).
One thing Americans need to understand (and others, too, but it seems USians are the ones who tend to forget it): every single nation/group has its own exceptionalism myth. They all see themselves as superior and exceptional. At least I don’t know any group that doesn’t have this myth (there may be some, but I don’t know about them, and I know of plenty because I’m an anthropologist).
What I mean is, every nation/group thinks its exceptional – and usually in the exactly the same way America thinks it is. They all (or most of them) promote themselves as the best place to live and a place of freedom. Yes, even the systems we see as oppressive will usually promote the idea of freedom (the catch is that freedom is not universal but can be defined any way you want). Most of them praise themselves for being unique, exceptional, chosen by God, with the best system there is and with unique blend of admirable human qualities of its citizens.
This sort of thinking is normal, and part of the official propaganda. Of course you want your citizens to buy that they are exceptional and living in the best place on Earth full of freedom – sure you don’t want to tell them about problems and the bad stuff and make them rebel.
The thing is, USA is not unique in this aspect. Most of them do it, and, funnily enough, most of them have the same rhetoric and list the same reason why they are exceptional. This is something that we should all keep in mind (and again, USians often forget about the fact that most of the other countries have the same rhetoric).
I lived in a socialist (“communist”) country, which was a system US saw as oppressive, and yet, we were full of stories about how free our people are (unlike the westerners, who are slaves to capitalism and have no freedom), and how happy we should be because we live in socialism, which treats people as equals and allows anybody to be free and unleash their potential, and blah blah blah blah blah. Same shit I see in the whole “America is the best” propaganda.
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I dunno if anyone else observed this, but it’s funny how white people try their damnest to assert themselves into everything nonwhite, especially when it comes to culture. However, when we move in into their world, they don’t want anything to do with us. If we move into a white neighborhood, they get scared and, some of them, move out. White people want to move into everything, but they don’t want nonwhites to move into their world, unless you think, talk and act like them.
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This conversation is based on the thought that intelligence is the bases of power. Perhaps it may be; however I believe that a closer look at the past world history the might of the armed forces have been the main reason most nations have held power.
Europe sent the children of their ruling classes to the Americas; United States was under England until the rebellion led by some pretty smart citizens, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and many others of high intelligence. During the beginning of this nation only White “property owners” could vote. That left the majority of individuals unable to vote. White property owners usually ended up being educated at a higher level of education.
The United States government today maintains a powerful Armed Force, which selectively picks the best of all of its citizens to be its leaders.
Intelligence is measured by one group of individuals using what they consider to be the most valuable things a person should know. If you can’t read, no one knows what your intelligence level really is. When we meet individual from China, we are meeting those individuals who have been selected to leave their country. If you would go to China you would find the same levels of mental ability that exist all over the world.
When you look back thru history various nations at one time or another has had power. If it had been possible to understand the Africans we would realize that they have had civilization in that continent, which were as advanced as any other at some time.
It was the circumstances of time, who had the most destructive weapons that determined who did what to whom.
At one time the Chinese had the largest navy in the world. They travel all of the way to the tip of Africa and maybe even further. Because of the superstition of one of their leaders, they burned all of their ships and withdrew from the world.
The Romans “wasted” themselves and then in a foolish decision they attacked the barbarians of Northern Europe. We are now living the way we are living as a result of that massive error.
As Black’s in this nation move forward they will gain the identical power those others of equal intelligence. Not as a group but as individuals. Those individuals who choose to not participate in the system will be left behind. There will be plenty of poor White, Blacks, Asians, Indians or any other means of separating individuals, however out of that group of individuals there will be a constant flow of willing individuals who are desirous of putting the extra effort into their life.
Those that succeed will not be the many, those who wish to wait for something to happen will be the many and they will always be with us.
“The poor will be with us always”! Seems to me I have read that somewhere!
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@ Pumpkin
That sounds like “Guns, Germs and Steel”:
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Intelligence had nothing to do with the conquest of Americas. They key factors for the success of the white european conquest was very simple: No rules and Private enterprises.
There were no rules of war concerning any native people or their cultures or religions. Anything and everything could be done and was done to win. All the tricks, betrayals, weapons and means were applied. In the late 1800’s they were still paying scalp rewards. Apache scalps were priced from warrior down to an infant. This was in 1880’s in USA.
And this leads into the second aspect of the success: it was all for profit. If you could conquer any native lands or towns or cities, you migh get rich. Gold was the main attraction. Many of these conquering troops and forces were not the armies of the rulers but private companies and their mercenaries. If and when they got themselves into too much trouble, the rulers sent in their regular troops. Once the privateers had done the dirty work, rulers sent in their troops and officials to rule that area/land.
Just think about the Opium war. Chinese emperor was so fed up with the opium epidemic in China that he forbade that trade. Opium trade was the main income source for the brittish East Indian Company, a private corporation. They attacked China with gun boats. That was a drug war in big scale. Similar event would be mexican drug cartels coming up the Potomac and shoot at the White House and Capitol.
That is how the west won the world and it seems that the old habits are still alive and well in some parts of the world.
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