Open Veins of Latin America

Before the conquest, natives did not have many of the inventions that conquerors brought with them such as iron, plow, glass, gun powder or the wheel. It is believed the unequal development of both sides can explain the ease with which native civilizations succumbed. Natives had never seen anything like it before. Horses were seen as mythical creatures, and conquerors as gods with their pale skin and sharp tools.

“El desnivel de desarrollo de ambos mundos explica en gran medida la relativa facilidad con que sucumbieron las civilizaciones nativas.” Pg.33

Diseases are also considered to be one of the conqueror’s most powerful weapons without them even realizing it: Native’s bodies and immune systems were not adapted to the kind of diseases conqueror's carried with them leaving natives dead or unable to fight back. 

“Las bacterias y los virus fueron los aliados más eficaces. Los europeos traían consigo, como plagas bíblicas, la viruela y el tétanos, varias enfermedades pulmonares, intestinales y venéreas, el tracoma, el tifus, la lepra, la fiebre amarilla, las caries que pudrían las bocas” Pg. 35

Conqueors also took advantage of issues and grudges held against the cultures: Hernan Cortes alliance with the Tlaxcalans to vanish the Aztecs. Pg. 34

It was an era of invention. Discoveries and inventions were made each year thanks to the enlightenment so the discovery of America was just one more to be added to the list of things they discovered and invented that always benefited them in their growth, economy or knowledge. It was not the first time nor the last time that they knew about something and took advantage and/or exploited resources or people.


For Galeano, it is a win-lose situation, where he explains that world powers have triumphed because we have lost. When conquerors came, they took all the wealth and valuable resources they could through force and conquest, brainwashing natives through religion and/or fear to submit and obey. Whereas, nowadays Latin America continues to serve the countries they used to through diplomacy and economy.

Pasaron los siglos y América Latina perfeccionó sus funciones. Éste ya no es el reino de las maravillas donde la realidad derrotaba a la fábula y la imaginación era humillada por los trofeos de la conquista, los yacimientos de oro y las montañas de plata. Pero la región sigue trabajando de sirvienta. Continúa existiendo al servicio de las necesidades ajenas, como fuente y reserva del petróleo y el hierro, el cobre y la carne, las frutas y el café, las materias primas y los alimentos con destino a los países ricos que ganan, consumiéndolos, mucho más de lo que América Latina gana produciéndolos.