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“Cocker has written a book on a broad subject, the kind that professional historians too rarely produce. . . . Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is a heroic attempt at an appreciation (or, really, depreciation) of the European invasion of lands outside Eurasia and the subjugation of their peoples in the last 500 years.”Alfred W. Crosby, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold
Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples
978-0-8021-3801-9 • $16.00 • Paperback • May 2001
The past five centuries have witnessed a shocking series of confrontations between European nations and millions of indigenous peoples—encounters that resonate strongly to this day. Focusing on four such collisions around the world, Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold illuminates the true global impact of imperialism.
Starting with the Spanish invasion of Mexico, Cocker shows how Hernando Cortés used political manipulation and outright deception to subdue the Aztecs in the sixteenth century. Nearly three hundred years later, in 1803, the British took possession of Tasmania and established a penal colony. Conflicts over white expansion developed into an all-out war that eventually led to a truce and relocation of the Aborigines, whose population dwindled quickly until no full-blooded tribesmen were left alive.
The next confrontation that Cocker explores is the Apaches resistance to American expansion. Constantly reneging on its promises, the U.S. government forced Apaches onto reservations, where they were ruthlessly exploited by corrupt business interests. In the 1880s, not long after the Apaches succumbed, German officials managed to establish control in South West Africa, manipulating local tribes and then brutally suppressing a series of revolts in an outburst of genocidal fury.
These encounters were often harrowing, and Cocker sustains a riveting narrative while simultaneously providing a new analysis that adds greatly to previous histories of imperialism. He brings to light the high rates of indigenous population decline, often underestimated by previous histories. Cocker also shows how the Europeans in each instance used similar rationalizations to justify their actions, providing a fascinating look at the psychology behind imperialism and its many atrocities. By comparing such geographically diverse encounters, he enables the reader to grasp the fundamental experiences and trends that underlay colonial expansion.
Even as he reveals this history of disturbing acts, however, Cocker resists the easy truths that Westerners were complete villains. He demonstrates, for example, that intertribal conflicts often led natives to support the Western forces against their enemies, and that many indigenous people carried out similarly brutal atrocities against their tribal enemies.
Cocker’s sense of balance makes his indictment of imperialism all the more persuasive; his book is a significant contribution to our understanding of the subject. This is narrative history in its most impressive form—engaging, accessible, and stimulating.