From Four of History: The The Human RightsRights Challenge in the Philippine Security Sector From FourNodes Strands of History: Human Challenge in the Philippine Security Sector merchants of Italy as conduits for Europe. Their ships initially became the main targets of Dum Diversas. Portugal and Spain were able to amass wealth quickly by interdicting ships laden with commodities and wealth off the coast of North Africa. As a result, they were able to finance their ventures in building powerful navies for exploration and conquests. Britain and the Netherlands followed this example, waylaying Spanish treasure ships during their wars of succession and religious wars with each other. • Genocide in the Americas. The genocidal conquest and implementation of the encomienda system, a brutal form of slavery, caused the death of 80 percent of the population of North, Central and South America in just a span of 50 years. These deaths were directly attributed to atrocities and European diseases which 26 26 were fatal to indigenous peoples in the absence of biological immunity. Conquistadores raped and infected indigenous women with European diseases and returned them to cramped slave camps where they in turn contaminated the overworked and malnourished slaves. 35% of the population under Spanish control perished in the first 30 years of Spanish occupation in Luzon and the Visayas, census records show. • Racism and religious intolerance and discrimination became rampant during this period. European colonizers debated whether non-Christians had souls or were sub-humans. Indigenous peoples were often portrayed as savages and cannibals. This was hypocritical, considering that during the middle ages, many specialty medicinal stores that sold dried parts of organs and medicinal powder from crushed Egyptian mummies for the “cure” of many human diseases were operating in Europe. • The forced addiction of tens of millions of Chinese by Britain. The forced dumping of British opium in the Chinese market was accomplished after British naval bombardment of China’s coastal cities. It forced Chinese authorities to allow entry of the destructive commodity, targeting its 300 million population. These military actions known as the two Opium Wars resulted in the annexation of Hong Kong and signing of unequal treaties. This led to China’s “Century of Humiliation”. Being a non-Christian nation, China was fair game for Dum Diversas.