Yes, the history of colonialism is deeply marked by atrocities and systematic violence against people of color. European colonial powers (and later other imperial powers) often engaged in acts that we would today classify as genocide, ethnic cleansing, enslavement, and mass exploitation.

This is not a question of isolated incidents, but rather of foundational, systemic practices used to conquer, control, and extract wealth from colonized regions. Here are some key examples and patterns:

1. The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery

· Scale & Atrocity: Between the 16th and 19th centuries, approximately 12-15 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas. Millions died in the brutal Middle Passage. This was a system of industrialized kidnapping, torture, and dehumanization explicitly based on race.
· Purpose: To provide free labor for plantations and mines in the Americas, generating immense wealth for European and American empires.

2. Genocide in the Americas

· The Caribbean (Taíno, etc.): Upon Columbus’s arrival, the indigenous population of the Caribbean was virtually annihilated within a few decades through a combination of extreme violence, enslavement, and introduced diseases.
· North America: The colonization of the present-day United States and Canada involved centuries of warfare, forced removal (e.g., the Trail of Tears), broken treaties, and deliberate policies to destroy food sources (e.g., buffalo). While disease caused the largest demographic collapse, colonial policies were often explicitly aimed at eradication or removal.
· South America: The Spanish conquests of empires like the Aztec and Inca involved massive slaughter. Later, the brutal system of forced labor in silver mines (like Potosí) and plantations caused countless deaths.

3. “Scramble for Africa” and Brutal Extraction

· Congo Free State (King Leopold II of Belgium): Not a state colony but the king’s private property. Under his rule (1885-1908), a regime of terror was instituted to extract rubber and ivory. Millions of Congolese died from murder, mutilation (hands were cut off as quotas), starvation, and disease. Estimates range from 5 to 10 million deaths.
· German South-West Africa (Namibia): The Herero and Nama genocide (1904-1908) is considered the 20th century’s first genocide. After an anti-colonial uprising, German forces drove tens of thousands into the Omaheke Desert to die of thirst, and established concentration camps. An estimated 65,000 Herero (80% of the population) and 10,000 Nama (50%) were killed.

4. Famines Caused by Colonial Policy

· Ireland (1840s): While the Irish were not people of color, the Great Famine is a stark example of how colonial policy can exacerbate disaster. Food was exported from Ireland while millions starved.
· India under British Rule: Multiple major famines (e.g., Bengal Famine of 1770, Great Famine of 1876-78, Bengal Famine of 1943) were severely worsened by British economic policies of resource extraction, export mandates, and indifference. Economic historian Mike Davis argues in Late Victorian Holocausts that 30-60 million people died in avoidable famines in India, China, and Brazil under the high colonial era of the late 19th century, exacerbated by colonial policies and ideology.

5. Settler Colonialism and Displacement

· Australia: The British colonization led to frontier wars, massacres, and policies that devastated Aboriginal populations. The forced removal of Indigenous children (the “Stolen Generations”) continued into the 20th century.
· Algeria: French colonization involved the seizure of land, violent suppression of resistance, and a systematic effort to dismantle Algerian culture and society.

Important Nuances and Context:

· Disease: Epidemics of smallpox, measles, and influenza were often the primary cause of demographic collapse in the Americas and Oceania. While not always intentional, colonists sometimes used disease as a biological weapon (e.g., giving smallpox-infected blankets). More critically, the catastrophic population loss from disease was then used to justify colonial expansion into “empty land.”
· Ideology: These atrocities were often justified by racist ideologies—the Doctrine of Discovery, “scientific” racism, the “civilizing mission” (mission civilisatrice), and “White Man’s Burden”—which framed non-white peoples as inferior, savage, and in need of subjugation or eradication.
· System vs. Event: Colonial violence was not just a series of battles or massacres. It was a system built on forced labor (slavery, indentureship), land theft, cultural destruction (banning languages and religions), and legal inequality. This systemic violence caused profound, long-term damage that continues in the form of global inequality and intergenerational trauma.
· Legacy: The borders, economic structures, and social hierarchies created during colonialism continue to shape politics, conflict, and poverty in former colonies today.

In summary, the annihilation and extreme suffering of people of color was not a side effect but a central feature of the colonial project. Acknowledging this history is essential for understanding contemporary global inequalities, racial dynamics, and the demands for reparations, restitution, and decolonization that persist today.