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Dec 6, 1492
Christopher Columbus sets out to discover "India"
The year that is often regarded as marking the birth of Western modernity was one symbolized by the expulsion of internal Others and the beginning of the conquest and pillage of those beyond the Christian, ‘civilized’ world. -
Dec 6, 1550
Valladolid Debate
The duality (good and evil) [in Columbus'perception of the "Indian" Other] was played out ina famous dispute [known as the Vallodolid Debate]in 16th-century Spain between Bartolome de LasCasas and Juan Gines de Sepulveda, both of whomhad been involved in the settlements in the Indies.The dispute attempted to establish which ofColumbus’s conceptions was correct. The centralpoint at issue concerned the Indians’ possession of reason and thus their status as humans. -
Abel Tasman noticed Aboriginal fires in southeast Tasmania
The Dutch sailor Abel Tasman sights land, calls it Anthony Van Diemen's Land. -
From 1832 the surviving 200 or so Aborigines were transported to an open air prison at a place called Wybalenna, on Flinders Island in Bass Strait.
The camp at Wybalenna was known as Point Civilization or Civilization Point. The ostensible purpose of removing the Tasmanians to Flinders Island was twofold: to protect them from settler violence and to "civilize them." -
Truganini died and the myth of Aboriginal extinction began
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German flag first raised in south-western Africa in recognition of the Reich's protection of Luderitz's private empire.
The land became known as the Protectorate of German Southwest Africa. -
Berlin Conference
In October 1884, in Bismark's own villa on Wilhelm Strasse, Bismark hosted what became known as the Berlin Conference. At the conference, Germany’s right to exploit her new empire in Africa was recognised by the powers of Europe and the United States. Fourteen million Africans had (in theory at least) become the colonial subjects of Germany – although almost none of them had any idea that this seismic event had even taken place. -
The camp at Shark Island was first set up
The camp at Shark Island was first set up in June 1904 and was first utilized in early 1905 when a group of Herero were sent there. -
General Von Trotha reads his Extermination Order to his troops at Osombo zo Windimbe
"...Within the German borders every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I will no longer accept women and children, I will drive them back to their people or I will let them be shot at. These are my words to the Herero people...." -
The death camp on Shark Island was finally closed
