"In 1889, Belgian businessman Maurice Maitre kidnapped a family of Selk'nam people from Chile, whom he took in chains to be exhibited in Europe like animals. Of the 11, two died on the trip. In Paris, they were presented behind bars as alleged cannibals; every afternoon the public threw raw horse meat at them. They were kept dirty, so that they had the appearance of savages. Given the inhumane conditions of the exhibition, the Missionary Society began demanding the family's release. So Maitre took them to Brussels, where they were imprisoned and then deported to England. From there the family embarked for Tierra del Fuego. Of the 11, six made it home according to Chilean authorities."
Photo by Adolfo Kwasny
"In 1889, Belgian Maurice Maitre kidnapped a family of Selk'nam people, whom he took in chains to be exhibited in Europe like animals. Of the 11, two died on the trip. In Paris, they were presented behind bars as alleged cannibals; every afternoon the public threw raw horse meat at them. They were kept dirty, so that they had the appearance of savages. Given the inhumane conditions of the exhibition, the Missionary Society began demanding the family's release. So Maitre took them to Brussels, where they were imprisoned and then deported to England. From there the family embarked for Tierra del Fuego. Of the 11, six made it home according to Chilean authorities."
"In 1889, the pitiful businessman Maurice Maitre, with the permission of the Chilean government, took eleven Selk'nam to Paris by force to exhibit them in the human zoos of the World's Fair. Of the 11 people he captured, 2 died on the way there. They were put in cages and given horse meat to eat. A missionary society protested their condition and he ended up canceling the tour to England, and instead took them to Belgium. Two more died on the way there. In Belgium, they were jailed for being immigrants by the police. When they finally returned to Tierra del Fuego, only six remained."
The directory of the Oriental School of Montevideo thought a nearly extinct race would spark the interest of French scientists and the public,[6] and so four of the prisoners were sold to a Frenchman called François De Curel. They were named Senacua Sénaqué, a medicine man; Vaimaca-Pirú Sira, a warrior; and a young couple, Laureano Tacuavé Martínez and María Micaëla Guyunusa, who was pregnant at the time. All four were taken to Paris in 1833, where they were exhibited to the public in a human zoo. The display was not a success and they all soon died in France, including the newborn daughter of Sira and Guyunusa, and adopted by Tacuavé.
There really were no good guys during the colonial years. Everyone was doing it.
Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Britain, Sweden, Denmark, China. Hell even the Latin American countries where giving it a go.
Belgium seemed to have took it up a notch with there treatment of natives however nobody was innocent during that time.
Once Chile and Argentina finally conquered the south, they began bringing in European settlers to get industry such as ranching and wool going, and that process included exterminating the Selk'nam who lived there.
Germans doing the worst of the worst in the 30s and 40s, many of the opposing powers really got away with some heinous things, since it is just overshadowed by the biggest industrial murder in history. Belgians (or Leopold to be exact) with their genocide in Congo and human zoos, the Netherlands with their brutal occupation war in Indonesia (interestingly only after they just experienced a bad occupation themself), the Soviets with being antisemitic imperialistic asshats (just not as bad as Germany), the British with their crimes in India (and other parts of the world), the US Americans with the Genocide of NA native's (even though the worst part of that one was already 100 years old at the time). Always pays off to never be the worst.
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