Christopher Columbus And Spanish Settlers: Negatively Affected Native Americans

When Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, he thought he reached Asia. He has made himself believe that he has found the New World and that he was the first to inhabit the land. This was not the case as an Indian Tribe, the Arawaks, was swimming to their boats with excitement. As Columbus’s crew arrived on the shores, he was shocked from the Indians hospitality. Columbus was carrying iron swords as the tribes brought gifts, food and water.

The lives of Native Americans were impacted by the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1492, changing their lives forever. Spain would now rule a vast empire for the next 350 years structured on factors such as labor and exploitation of the Indian population. The conquistadors had aspirations of bringing about Catholicism to non-Christian areas, while extracting riches in the process. With many Spaniards going over seas to find riches, diseases followed them causing problems for New World natives due to their lack of immunities. With the trouble caused upon natives, individuals like Bartolomé de Las Casas attempted to bring awareness and a halt against the oppression of the Indians.

The lives of the Native Americans was negatively affected by the arrival of the Europeans as their populations were wiped out by disease introduced from European exploration and trade, as well as becoming oppressed by conquests and enslavement; however, the transatlantic trade that they participated in greatly benefited both worlds.

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

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

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.

Every October, people celebrate Columbus Day for the things that he did. For example, the Columbian Exchange. But also, the people are celebrating to a person that did many bad things. Christopher Columbus should be remembered negatively because he did many awful things to the Native Americas. Like rape, kill. torture, and other awful things.

“They were traumatized with several diseases (like chickenpox and measles, which were brought, by the settlers)”(Document-Impact of colonization on Native Americans). The natives bodies had never met these diseases before so they couldn’t fight off the illness, just Smallpox alone killed 24 million natives(Impact of Colonization on Native Americans”-Document). The Europeans later enslaved the natives to work on the farms or just to be a servant. Harsh treatment also contributed to the death of many Native Americans. There were many missions that were set up that were trying to convert native Americans over to Catholicism, but when the natives kept practicing their own religion they would get punished such as being whipped and harshly treated(DN-Life in the colonies).

Columbus’s voyages had profound effects on both Europeans and Native Americans in the years after Columbus’ discovery of the New World. The voyages led by Columbus introduced many new types of plants to Europe, African and Asia. These crops included potatoes, tomatoes, pineapples, corns… etc. This global transfer of crops and animals set a stage for globe’s economic development, and it was known as the Columbian Exchange. On the other hand, the contact between Europeans and Native Americans also had cons. The biggest issue by that time was probably the transmission of diseases. European who entered the New World brought deadly diseases with them. These diseases included measles, chicken pox, smallpox and mumps. Native Americans were not happy about it, because they had not developed any immunity to these diseases. As the result, many people died because the illness spread to the rest of the Americas. As for a religious point of view, the ways Europeans treated the Natives were different. Europeans could be split into two different groups: people who glorified and people who vilified the Natives. French were part of the group of people who glorified the Natives. Natives were seen as living in perfect harmony

Natives in the Caribbeans were completely eliminated by the Spanish in two decades(source 1). When the Spanish arrived in the caribbeans, they slaughtered the natives there within two generations with no good reason, this inhumane act upon individuals cannot be tolerated, even less celebrated. The Spanish tortured and punished natives Americans in horrible ways(source 2). They did this by cutting off their hands if they did not bring them what they have ordered, chiefs were roasted on fires and dogs were sent to prey on them. “Miserable native survivors started killing themselves by eating poisoned roots”(source 1), this was how horribly they were treated physically and mentally since they thought that their only option was suicide.Columbus has also brought destruction to the natives by bringing slavery to the Americas. This not only affected Natives but also U.S history, since the Spanish Explorers has also brought white dominance over African Americans(source 4), staining U.S culture in a horrific manner. As they brought slavery to the Americas, natives were transported to Europe to be used as slaves, many couldn’t resist and died in this manner. These are the ways in which columbus brought destruction over Native

Indians fourteen years or older were forced to collect gold to bring to Columbus and his crew. If they didn’t, they would have their hands cut off and would bleed to death. Whenever the Indians disagreed with Columbus or refused to trade, they were met with ferocity and cruelty from Columbus and his crew. In 1495, Columbus rounded up 1500 Native Americans to be sold as slaves. Most of the slaves were put into pens, while 500 of the best specimens were loaded onto ships. The Indians soon resorted to suicide to escape the atrocity of the European invaders. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards. Within two years of Columbus’s arrival in the New World, 125,000 Native Americans on Haiti were dead. The Spaniards treated the Indians like animals, and rode on their backs or were carried in hammocks if they did not feel like walking. In my opinion, the atrocities that Columbus and his crew committed against the Indians are comparable to the crimes Adolf Hitler committed against the Jews during the holocaust in World War

Christopher Columbus affected the natives in many positive ways, such as geography, political, and economics.

One of the biggest impacts of European exploration was that of disease. Native Americans and their rich culture thrived during the pre-colonial era. Smallpox was among the most common viral disease that wiped out entire populations of Native Americans. When elders and leaders of tribes would die of disease, traditions and ceremonies to be lost with them. The unique languages in native cultures died with the villages that came into contact with European disease.

Historically the treatment of Native Americans has been highly problematic, especially throughout the colonization of the New World. Although, when colonising some Europeans took a merciful and sympathetic approach to the Native Americans, generally the treatment towards the indigenous people was not humane. Not only did the Native Americans die at the hand of the settlers, they also died from diseases that had been brought to the new world by explorers for which they had no immunity. In some cases diseases such as smallpox wiped out entire tribes. Together, the introduction of diseases and the actions of the European settlers had devastating effects on the Native Americans.