Christopher Columbus : A False Narrative For Americans

Christopher Columbus was manipulative. My final piece of evidence, from Document 2 says that "They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." This shows the mindset of a conniving man because he exploited the Native Americans in order to get what he wanted which was gold. This was a selfish reason that resulted in the pain of so many Native

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

While trying to adapt Native Americans to European customs, Columbus and his followers took advantage of the Indians. The Spanish burned the Natives sacred objects and would not allow them to practice their own religions. They also abused the Natives, enslaving them, taking land from them, and raping their women. Because of the conquistadors quest for gold and other riches,

Koing states, “I am not going to assert that this was all Columbus’ fault. Although there was no systematic slavery within Europe at that time, enslavement of darker races had been considered a matter of course from the first contact with them… Spaniards from that time on become more cruel than any of the

Columbus’s big plan for Hispaniola since the beginning was to take advantage of the natives and take their land, and the gold he believed was located there. He built the first fort in the Western Hemisphere, and left some of his men to find and store gold there. Columbus had to ask for a little more help from their majesties, he convinced them by saying he would take them “as much gold as they need ... and as many slaves as they ask” (Zinn,6 ) Columbus’s plans affected the natives, in many ways; first of all they were going to lose their land, and also they were going to be taken captive for slave labor.

Also Columbus took this poor people as slaves. He made them adore his God. Also made them worked for him without any payment, maybe just for some food. He took some of them with him to Spain to show the kings what he had done, while the others were digging gold, making money for Columbus, his people and his country. And what did they get out of that hard work? Nothing! They didn’t got anything out of the good

In 1492, Italian cartographer and explorer, Christopher Columbus, set off on a mission from Spain in order to find a quicker, alternative route to Asia. With him, Columbus brought eighty-seven men and three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María, to sail across the large and vast Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately for Columbus, a new route to Asia was never discovered by Spain that year because he had arrived in the Caribbean, which was found in North America. Thinking that he had just entered the Indies, he started to call the people of this land, “Indians”. These Indians were actually Native Americans who had lived on these lands for thousands of years prior. Immediately, letters from Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain were sent by boat back to Europe and soon Columbus was seen as the man who helped create a bridge of prosperous trading and riches between Europe and “Asia”.1 While this discovery proved that Columbus was a hero-like figure to Spain, it’s what he did within the new land that actually makes him one of the biggest villains to ever set foot on Earth. But what classifies this explorer as a villain? Columbus captured thousands of natives, many of which were sent back to Spain to live and work as slaves. Along with that, Columbus also forced the Christian religion onto them, spread diseases that killed thousands of lives, and used violence as a means of persuasion and control.2 Corrupted by his pursuit of riches,

To begin with, Christopher Columbus should be vilified for converting Native Americans to slaves. In the diary of Columbus, Columbus wrote about his intentions to turn Native Americans into “good and intelligent servants”. Columbus turned his intentions into a reality when he brought Native Americans to Europe as servants. As well as bringing slaves back to Spain, Columbus was an active involver in the slave trafficking network between America and Europe, thus becoming the “first slave trader in the Americas”. Slavery, the cruel practice that blighted the Americas for centuries, was heavily used by Columbus. By founding the American slave industry and kidnapping several slaves back home with him, Columbus showed that he did not value the Native Americans, as he treated them as objects rather than humans. If

When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, he has little regard to their way of life. He showed no remorse for taking the indigenous population and killing, and enslaving them. Christopher Columbus writes, “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want” (Doc. 2). Christopher Columbus and his men enslaved the natives and made them do the tedious works they did not want to do. We also see the side of a historian who writes, “But our work was to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy” (Doc.7).The men deliberately went there to kill the population that already existed.

Children are often only taught that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America. Though, only part of this is true, they aren’t taught about the awful man that Columbus was and the fact that he did not discover America. History should judge Columbus’ actions as they were. He was a cruel treasure seeker who focused only on enriching himself and would do anything to enrich and please the King and Queen.

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.

Columbus had a negative view of the Native Americans. He viewed them as people who could be easily manipulated. Columbus wrote

Everyone knows the saying Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. However, there is a lot more to Christopher Columbus than what everyone was taught in elementary school through high school. Columbus is thought to be a hero, but just being classified as a hero is a fallacy. Several works including Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies and The Lies my Teacher Told Me have been published about the real Christopher Columbus and his legacy.

According to Dr. Dominic Selwood, a former criminal barrister, novelist and a historian, Christopher Columbus’ expedition started a brutal slave trade of American Indians and four centuries of genocide which almost lead to their extinction.

When Christopher Columbus returned, he was terribly ill. He wrote to the King and Queen about enslaving the natives, especially the Caribs. Even though the King and Queen refused to let him enslave the natives, he took 1600 Arawak’s as slaves. He sent 560 of them back to Spain. Half of the natives died, and the remaining natives were shipped right back and released.