The System of the Empire's Defense

The System of the Empire, is not to be blamed, for the genocide of the Tainos. It is absurd, if not completely illogical, to point your finger at a system -- a subjective way of life, for the mistreatment and murder of thousands, perhaps even millions, of Taino Indians. In other words, you cannot find something that is basically nonexistent, guilty of murder. The only reason I am here on trial today, is because I was conjured to be; I am a mere idea that is created to take the fall for the crimes of men.

I am a "system that values property over people"; but that is all I am, a system. Without followers, there would be no system to follow. These people decided to follow the system at their own will. I have never used, and is incapable of using physical force to make these people follow the system. Columbus was a "follower" of the system because he wanted to be one, so was Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Some may argue that the European system saw only white Christians as full human beings, and that life in this system approved of violence against foreigners, and non-Christians; but were there Europeans that saw non-white Christians as full human beings, and disapproved of violence against foreigners? Yes, indeed there was.

Like the Spaniard priests Antonio de Montesinos, and Bartolome de las Cases; they spoke out against slavery, and saw the mistreatment of the native americans as inhumane. They valued the lives of the Indians over properties. They lived in a society which "supposedly" followed the system, yet, they themselves didn't, which meant others needn't have to as well. It is Colombus himself who decided to commit the act of murder [by commanding his crew to kill and enslave the Tainos], at his own will. The System of the Empire didn't make him give those orders, it is simply there as an excuse for him to do so. If people like the priests previously mentioned didn't see the need for violence and enslavement of non-Christians, so could have others.