44 An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
processes of wealth accumulation and the power that came with
it, but the ideology behind gold fever mobilized settlers to cross the
Atlantic to an unknown fate. Subj ugating entire societies and civili
zations, enslaving whole countries, and slaughtering people village
by village did not seem too high a price to pay, nor did it appear
inhumane. The systems of colonization were modern and rational,
but its ideological basis was madness.