Monday, October 08, 2007
(10:59 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Columbus Day
Today is the day that we celebrate the first step in the process that led to mass death that depopulated an entire continent, as well as the infamous "Triangular Trade" that gave birth to the cruelest and most large-scale form of slavery the world has ever seen. Special credit goes to the abject filth of the European continent in the early modern period, which allowed our brave forebears to breed diseases the likes of which had never been seen, and to Spain, which inadvertantly shot itself in the foot by flooding the European market with cheap gold and thereby became a perpetual also-ran in world politics. Seldom have the vagaries of the human immune system, a virulently expansionist form of Christianity, and a misunderstanding of basic economic principles combined to create such uniformly destructive results for all involved.Happy Columbus Day, everyone!
