Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples

by Mark Cocker

The past five centuries have witnessed a shocking series of confrontations between European nations and millions of indigenous peoples, and these cultural encounters still resonate strongly to this day. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is an essential book for understanding the true impact of imperialism. Beautifully and passionately written, it provides a judicious and exhaustively researched indictment of European exploitation. Focusing on four collisions between Europeans and indigenous cultures--the conquest of Mexico, the British onslaught on the Tasmanian Aborigines, the uprooting of the Apaches, and the German campaign against the tribes of Southwest Africa--Mark Cocker illuminates the fundamental experiences that underlay the colonial experience around the globe. Beyond making a persuasive--and balanced--case against colonialism, Cocker also sustains a riveting, often harrowing story. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is narrative history in its most impressive form--engaging, accessible, and thought provoking.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Indigenous, Australia, Race, Politics

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold" is an eye-opening book about European colonisation of the rest of the world. Mark Cocker has done an excellent job in researching and comparing the genocide and exploitation of Tribal peoples in Mexico, Tasmania, the USA and South West Africa. This is the history which should be taught in all schools, not the watered down white-washing of our history which is currently taught. Cocker tells the true story of the Spanish conquest of South and Central American tribes and civilisations, the absolute plunder of their mineral wealth, and the destruction of their culture, including language, writing and religion. He describes the British colonisers hunting the Tasmanian Aborigines down to the last "full-blood" Truganini, and her rape and debasement. The third chapter tells of the ongoing war of the American settlers against the Apache, the broken treaties, massacres, displacement, the use of disease as a weapon, as well as guns, and the mindless slaughter of their food-source, the Bison. Cocker leaves the biggest, cruelest massacres of the South West Africans till last. The Belgian and German slaughter and disfigurement (hand removal) of the Africans actually outnumbers the slaughter of European Jews in the Holocaust. It's almost like these armies practised genocide in Africa, to commit later on their own citizens. 'Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold' demonstrates all the evil of capitalism, colonialism and racism, in times and places when the Colonists got away with Mass Murder, and still bathe in the riches it bought them. It should be required reading at High Schools everywhere.

[Steven Hawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I found the comparative nature of Cocker’s argument convincing and well developed. This book is much more of a work of public history than I am currently used to reading however I did find the segment on the Spaniards in Mexico fascinating to read and will most likely use his bibliography for that section as a jumping off point for dissertation research.

[Noura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even if you can't read the whole book, get it out of the library and read the introduction. The summary of Europe's encounter with other peoples is devastating. It is critical that we really understand this history b/c it has so many repercussions today. The one serious flaw that i found was that in the chapter on the Comanches of the American's southwest, the author seems to get into the mode of "here is an atrocity committed by the Indians" and "here is one by the US Govt/Army" as if they were on the same scale or that somehow they "balance out". I'm not denying "bad things" happened on both sides, but to make it seems like they equal out or make they both "equally guilty" in unjust and disgraceful.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was actually a very good source of material for historical atrocities. Colonization is trash.

"White America now seems to declare war on the whole world of nature"

On German Colonization of South West Africa, that in turn actually critiques current yt supremacist ideology.

"The refusal to renegotiate their image of the African helps explain much about the nature of the German campaign. It sheds light on the obsessive search for excuses and scapegoats: anything that enabled the a priori version of Africa to remain intact; anything that released them from any painful self-examination. It helps account for the persistence in a military policy that was completely disproportionate either to the military threat or to the economic value of the colony itself. For to have allowed the Negro to prevail would have undermined Germany's entire imperial adventure. Finally, it helps clarify why the Germans refused to discriminate hostile from ‘friendly' African, Herero from Damara. Better to get rid of them all than to engage in any complicated sifting of their own black stereotypes."

[Sean Meade · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome survey of conquest; the good, the bad, and definitely the ugly.

[Jennifer Sigman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book, and one that should be read by high school and college students. It rips the lid off of the nonsense of "American Exceptionalism", and paints the European conquerors in the colors they deserve. The book is detailed, well researched, and accessible.

[Arne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read.