An Analysis Of Christopher Columbus's Mistreatment Of Native Americans

Columbus, Spanish settlers, and English settlers directly impacted the Native Americans and Africans. First, Columbus impacted the Native Americans he met when he travelled back and forth to the Indies, between the times 1492 and 1504. Columbus travelled to the Indies to find and govern land, and to also make money. Doing so, Columbus severely punished Indians for not hitting harsh quotas of gold, he sold them into slavery, and he, his crew, and other Spanish settlers unintentionally brought infectious diseases. Because of this, the Native Americans suffered forced labor and great casualties, thus extremely altering their lifestyles. Second, English settlers began to affect the Native Americans when they arrived to Virginia in 1607. When the

The letter Christopher Columbus wrote back to Spain to report his findings in the New World sparked intrigued me and sparked my imagination. Why I have been so absorbed in this letter I can not explain. This letter is supposed to be about describing an unknown land, a land that has not been seen by anyone besides the natives, but it seems that there is more to it than that. Columbus is known in elementary schools as the man who found the New World, and is regarded as a hero. To the contrary, historians who have done more research on Columbus say that he was driven by fame and fortune and that he was tyrannical in his ways with the indigenous peoples of the places that he came to find. I feel that the contradictory tones Columbus uses

Dinesh D'Souza wrote a well-written article over “ The Crimes of Christopher Columbus.” He represents the idea that it is more important for students to learn about many cultures rather than focus on only the western culture. He used many quotes throughout his essay, as well as using Christopher Columbus as his prime example.

Columbus never even walked on what we now call the United States of America. Where ever he did land, he was motivated only by his own greed. Columbus came for the gold, spices, and slaves. In his diary, he mentioned gold 75 times just in the first two weeks, alone (Katz 13). Indians who weren’t able to find gold, were punished by having their hands cut off. Most slaves died en route to Spain. Many Indian females were taken as sex slaves, some as young as nine and ten years old. Columbus forced cooperation from the Indians by disfiguring them and using them as examples. Even worse, he used hunting dogs to tear the Indians apart. Many natives committed suicide, and murdered their own children to save them from such a horrible life. Those who survived the voyage were worked to death. Still, another huge portion of these Indians died from disease brought over by Columbus and his

According to Meredith, Columbus had said that the Arawak Indians willingly traded everything that they owned and that they seemed a poor people.# He later states in his log to make himself appear humble that he gave gifts to one particular man, a red cap, a string of glass beads, and two hawks’ bells which were together worth less than 3 cents.#

All my life, I have been hearing about Christopher Columbus. Since little, first, my family talking about him, then in school learning about him. I really thought he was a hero. The way they teach you about him in grammar school or middle school makes you think he really is a hero. But later on, doing research on him, looking for what he really did, where did he came from etc. I realize that he is not a hero. There are many reasons why people think he is good as well there are many reasons why they think he is bad. Personally I think Columbus is a villain, he did a lot of bad things that most people don’t know a bout. However if they know them, it would make them think a little bit deeper if Columbus is the Hero

Samuel Eliot Morison- A Harvard historian, most distinguished writer on Columbus, the author of a multivolume biography Christopher Columbus, Mariner, and was himself a sailor, retraced Columbus 's route across the Atlantic and tells about the enslavement and the mass genocide of the natives

Zinn argues that the perspective of indigenous people should not be omitted and argues that their perspectives are as significant as any other. He provides insight and perspectives of the Indians to describe how the heinous acts of the Europeans were unjustified. He also discusses that the Europeans had a continual motive of exploring during that time which was to increase the power/authority of the Spanish Crown by whatever means necessary, usually leading to violent wars.

It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory

This is when Christopher Columbus used their weaknesses and his search for gold to his advantage. He took some of the Arawak people as prisoners to guide him to where they got the gold. After finding the area where the gold was located, Columbus decided to make promises to the Majesties about bringing back more gold and more slaves. On his second expedition to find gold and slaves, Columbus took fifteen hundred Arawak men, women, children and enslaved them; then proceeded to pick five hundred of the best Arawak people on ship. Of those five hundred people, three hundred died on ship.

In the article Hello Columbus: America was No Paradise in 1492, by Robert Royal, Royal argued that Native Americans, along with Columbus, are portrayed wrongly in society today, from schools to media.

Columbus's arrogance and exploitation regarding slavery began on his second voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella had ordered that the natives be treated kindly. In opposition to this order, Columbus began exporting slaves in great numbers in 1494. It was because he was not making any real profit elsewhere on the island that he decided to exploit the one source of income--people--he had in abundance (Fernandez-Armesto 107). When word reached him that the crown did not want him sending more slaves, Columbus ignored it. He was desperate to make his expeditions profitable enough for Ferdinand and Isabella's continued support. Evidently he was not reprimanded because thousands of Indians were exported. By the time they reached Spain, usually a third of them were dead. Bartolome de las Casas wrote that one Spaniard had told him they did not need a compass to find their way back to Spain; they could simply follow the bodies of floating Indians who had been tossed overboard when they died (17). It is horrible to consider that the exportation of these natives resulted

They were willing to trade everything they owned. They were will built, with good bodies and handsome features. They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want”. In this quote, Dr. Zinn gives what he believed to be another motivation of Columbus, which was the motivation to make the Indians into slaves for monetary gain. Dr. Zinn believed this to be the motivation of what he termed the “Europe of the Renaissance”. Dr Zinn states; “theses traits, speaking of the Arawak, did not stand in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for the money that marketed Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus.

Don’t get things confused, just as Columbus used slaves for his personal advantages, Bartolome de la Casas would also use slaves to profit the labor in his land, which I find very hypocritical. Good thing, when he got an insight of the cruelty going on, it made his heart change and the viewpoint of slaves. Bartolome de la Casa wrote about the treatment of the indians by the spaniards, he also attempted to set off his criticism to King Ferdinand. A quick insight list of what he wrote about, as

There are many technology that would had help Christopher Columbus with his journey to Asia, however the main three are the global positioning system, the Concorde, and a submarine, therefore the main three technology would had help Christopher Columbus with his journey to Asia are global positioning system, the Concorde, and a submarine.