For example: 'The cruelty of the Spaniards [in the New World]," Kamen concludes, "was incontrovertible; it was pitiless, barbaric and never brought under control by the colonial regime." When, for instance, 15 colonists in the Yucatan were killed by the Maya in 1546, the Spaniards retaliated with the enslavement of 2,000 men, the hanging of their women, and the burning of six native priests.'
By extension then the US deserved 9/11 for their past slavery. Well played, OBL.
When it comes to initial European colonization of the Americas, particularly from Iberia, both sides tend to be demonized and dehumanized to fit narrative and biases of the individual.
Tarring all Native Americans for the actions of a select ruling elite would be like blaming ordinary 1940s French, Spanish, Italians, (the victims in other words) citizens etc… for the actions of Hitler and the Nazi army under his command; utterly stupid and blatantly racist. And some of the wildest claims to be honest are virtually impossible to verify and reek of seeking justification for atrocities committed in attempt to assuage European conscience, similar to what happened to Jews in Europe.
In that same vein it’s hardly fathomable that a few hundred Europeans slaughtered tens of thousands of people. It doesn’t surprise me though that some Iberians don’t mind this and like to propagate this sort of version of events given that that they themselves were actually properly conquered and enslaved by Muslims for almost a millennium. The role reversal would’ve done wonders for their dignity and self-esteem after hundreds of years under the rule of a foreign power and at last gave them something to beat their chest about.
Early European colonization was more akin to a civil war with subjugated Native American groups rising up at the arrival of Europeans. Due to the isolation of ‘New World’ inhabitants, eventually tens (if not thousands) of thousands of Native Americans (including Native American allies) succumbed to diseases commonly found across Europe, Africa and Asia (Old World). This turn of events, more than the sword, allowed for Iberian culture along with Europeans and mixed race individuals to gradually take prominence across Latin American in the subsequent decades and centuries.
The annihilation of pure bred Native Americans had little to do with superior technology of their adversaries, just the misfortune of being disconnected from the rest of world for so long and their immune system being more biologically vulnerable to foreign diseases.
Even though Africans were less ‘technologically’ advanced than the ruling Native American empires, many African languages, cultures and tradition are still fairly widespread today. Africans were subjugated but never experienced an accidental biological genocide that struck the Americas hence why most African nations to this day remain predominantly black.