King George II of Britain called for the destruction of all native Americans. Should the Royal Family apologise?

 

King George II

They say that there was nobody more pious than Pizarro the Spanish conquistador, but his arrival in South America, proved to be disastrous for the Inca Empire.

The arrival of British colonisers in the antipodes, in the 18th century, was also disastrous for the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Tasmania. Did we discover Australia or conquer it?

What these colonisers wouldn't have realised at the time, is that they brought diseases with them to these places like the common cold, chicken pox and measles, which the indigenous people had no immunity to. There were also reports of colonisers deliberately seeking to spread diseases like smallpox on blankets that they traded with the Indians, in order to wipe them out. But this wouldn't have been really necessary, as they were likely to become infected by having contact with Europeans.

The native Indians of north America were often in conflict with one another over resources and territory, even though there was really no concept of private property. Many tribes lived an itinerant lifestyle in search of better resources and moved from place to place. Some native Indians were more violent than others and not all of them were particularly hostile to the white man to begin with.

Columbus described the natives that he encountered in 1493 as "fearful and timid... guileless and honest."  He called the inhabitants 'Indians' because he thought he'd found a new route the East, "the Indies" (Asia). He also thought these people could be easily conquered.

The native Americans who encountered the colonists in Jamestown, were curious about their facial hair and how they seemed to walk unsteady on their feet because they still had sea legs after the long voyage. They were also interested in their metal tools and equipment, which they didn't have.

The white people who settled in Appalachia, probably wouldn't have survived had it not been for the help they received from the native American Indians. The Cherokees taught them how to hunt, fish and farm, their new environment and taught them about medicinal plants.

Yet from 1830 to 1838, over 100,000 Native Americans from various tribes were uprooted from their homes and dispersed across the United States. The natives Indians called it the Trail of Tears as many tens of thousands of Indians died on the journey. In the 18th century, King George II of England, called for the destruction of all native American people.

To this day, the ethnic cleansing and genocide of native Americans, is still a touchy subject. The release of the film Soldier Blue in the early 1970s, was controversial because it depicted a massacre of an Indian tribe and the brutal sadism of American soldiers. The commanding officer tells his troops to kill everybody including the children, as nits grow into lice.