Derek Safnuk The American Holocaust September 30/2014

The greatest achievements of mankind have never come without sacrifice; often these hardships come at a cost greater than one could conceivably accept. The atrocities that occurred in the New World at the hands of the Spanish explorers were horrifying, however it is certain that these acts of aggression were justifiable when considering the conditions which the explorers came from, their homeland was being demolished by crushing famine, the cities were in a state of perpetual violence caused by lack of resources and increasing spread of disease, meanwhile the upper class was pushing the explorers to bring home gold and riches with the promise of a secure future if success was found. Spain in at the time of New World exploration was starving, as stated in the article the rich had as much food as they wished to gorge themselves on. Meanwhile the entire remainder of the population lived in fear of never eating another meal. Slight fluctuations in prices of food could lead to numerous deaths among those people whom barely were able to afford goods when they were less expensive. As an explorer having an opportunity in the new world to bring up ones standing in life could mean the difference between starvation and infinite abundance. Desperation drives people to extreme actions and can make them dangerous to themselves and those around them. This is exactly what happened in Spain as disease and hunger drove citizens to attack one another. Wild tactics such as dropping a brick on a passer by's head from a second story window and then rifling through their possessions as they lay unconscious on the ground were mentioned as commonplace in the article. As people coming from a civilization that had such frequent personal