More from historian Stark on the history of the West

I feel like I have to preface these blogs with a defense of all the time I'm spending on Rodney Stark's book How the West Won.  You probably understand by now that my purpose has been to let Stark demolish the unfair attacks made against the West and Christianity in particular. Many historians have a worldview that encourages them to smear Christianity and the West, with the result that many today don't know the true story of all the goodness brought by the West to the world. Thanks to leftists like Obama and many others, we are told of only our sins (and, heaven knows, there are many). But they fail to inform us of all the good that has come to the world through Christians. So here goes the next installment of my review of this important book.

In chapter 10 Stark talks about exploration taken on by the West. Because Europeans now had ships and navigational technology, they were able to sail out to secure a sea route to Asia. The Portuguese, Spanish, and English accomplished some amazing explorations. Stark points out that the three decades from 1490 through 1520 changed the world. This age of discovery ushered in conquest and colonization – and the dawn of modernity.

The next section of Stark's book How the West Won is called "The Dawn of Modernity." It deals with the years 1500-1750. Chapter 11 discusses  conquests and colonies in the New World. Unfortunately, one of the results of this age of exploration was the resumption of slavery by Europeans. However, Stark points out that this did not introduce slavery in the Western Hemisphere because in pre-Colombian times indigenous societies already practiced slavery, from the Incas in the South to the Indians of the Pacific Northwest. The author states that this is a sad story, but that it has been accompanied by a great deal of misrepresentation, exaggeration, and what he calls "plain foolishness" that has been added during the past century.

It's pretty obvious, but Stark has to point out that the Spanish succeeded in the invasion and conquest of Mexico because of the brutality of the Aztecs. Every year they sacrificed tens of thousands of men, women, and children seized from subordinated tribes, so it was no surprise that local natives joined the Spanish in their attack on the Aztecs. Stark says many modern textbooks claim that stories of Aztec sacrifices were falsehoods told to justify Spanish imperialism. But archaeology in has verified human sacrifices were conducted in more than 80 different places in the Aztec capital and in hundreds of other ceremonial centers.