Some say the blame lay with that fellow Homo Sapiens Sapiens; after all, he'd wiped out the peaceful Neanderthals from history with a blow to the head. Maybe no crime was committed; it was just nature running its course.

For others, it was all God’s fault. He allowed enough evil in humans, just so he could punish them later.

Those who rejected God meddling in worldly affairs invented science. So that in the future they could build kitchen appliances and nuclear bombs.

Humanity had free-will. He alone would decide who was meant to die.

That is why a group known as “the others” was invented.

Immanuel Kant and David Hume, the inventors of reason, also discovered that whites possessed a higher sensibility, blacks were at least trainable as servants, that Indians were sly but incapable of abstract thought, and American natives were lazy, dispassionate, ignorant and ineffectual.

Rosa Parks, is an icon of resistance in the struggle of the African-Americans in the USA for equality. Her refusal in 1955 to give up her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Humanity wanted to make its own history; and to do this had to produce food, clothing and shelter. A division of labour ensued. Some made those things, while others wrote history. After much misery new ages dawned. Some put up with it, others basked in the sun.

Once a new age dawned, the next beckoned. This was the condition for God's allowing humanity to make its own history. Europeans attained the age of the rifle, and to get to the age of gold-and-silver, they wiped out those who had not made it to the age of the rifle. Hernando Cortes destroyed the Aztec Empire, and Francesco Pizarro destroyed the Incas. This was called “The Age of Discovery.”

What the discovered was that the South American empires and African natives were defenseless against guns. They figured out the extent “we” could tyrannize “the others.” They saw it was a lot. In the early 1500s, before Columbus, Mexico had 25 million inhabitants. In a hundred years, it was down to a million. When the world’s population was around 400 million, the attrition rate during “The Age of Discovery” perpetrated by Europeans in South America was 70 million. This includes children and adults fed alive to dogs.

The greatest explorer, Christopher Columbus, described the local people thus, “They are all of a good size and stature, and handsomely formed. (…) They should be good servants.” He wrote in his journal: “I was very attentive to them, and stroved to learn if they had any gold… These islands are all extremely verdant and fertile ... and probably contain many things of which I am ignorant, not inclining to stay here, but visit other islands in search of gold.”

So he did. There was gold. They killed the natives, stole their gold.

Click here if you are wondering what the declaration (requerimiento) read out by European conquerors to the local population in order to supposedly create some form of legal basis to their conquests was about; and here to find out more about the story of this document. A summary: You either obey and convert to our religion, or, in the name of the Lord, we will make you suffer!

In the 1500s, the Belgian engraver Theodorus De Bry showed how and what had been discovered, and his engravings were seen throughout Europe. But the blood-soaked plunder was still known as “the discoveries,” since they had been financed by European investors, enabling the founding of the free market economy.

Thus it was possible for 6 or 7-year old children in England to work in factories from dawn to dusk, instead of loitering in the streets. Slave traders would complain of revolts: “It is terrible because we cannot fire on them, since each man is worth at least 1000 francs.” At a later stage, humanity would produce a make of car named after the civilisation it had destroyed.

The Aztek model of Pontiac. What were they thinking, of one wonders about the choice of name. Chief Pontiac was an Indian chief from the Ottawa tribe who showed significant resistance against the white invasion. This company must have a fixation with massacres.

During its adventure spanning thousands of years, humanity often asked itself the meaning of life.

But somehow it failed to understand the order in which it lived.

Just when the riddle was about to be solved, something called progress popped up and nobody had any spare time.

While the conqueror’s weapon was the rifle, the Industrial Revolution's was the steam engine. Until now, humanity had groped around in the dark, wasting time. So, if only some were maimed in factories or crawled around in dark tunnels, others could enjoy traveling on trains, or going to war with steam boats. Coal was needed.

The white man considered all slaves alike. The method of branding the logo of the boss on to the skin of the slaves with a hot iron was developed. Economy advances with such innovations and the progress of humanity is thus ensured.

If you could force people on the other side of the world into mines at gunpoint, then why not do the same in your own country? Well, many didn't have guns or money. Humanity used reason to progress. First it came up with the idea of sending every poor child over the age of five underground. Not only could the brats shuffle up and down the narrow tunnels with ease, they could also be paid less than grown-ups.

It was reason which sent poor families and their children down the mines, and religion which consoled those who remained above, by singing hymns for the victims of the dark. That way, they could go back down the next day. And they did. This was how, by throwing people in one end, and getting coal out the other, mining became an industry.

Let us now hear it from Frankie Laine: Sixteen Tons