Ladies and Gentleman of the court, today we are here to present to you our case of the genocide of our people, the Tainos. Christopher Columbus sailed to Hispaniola and slaughtered all our people until only 200 remained. Due to differing cultures, we did not understand Columbus’s intentions and therefore were unable to fight back. Even if we had further defended ourselves, Columbus and his men had advanced weapons and techniques that would defeat any undeveloped and timid tribe. Thus, we had no chance of survival against the highly established Spaniards. Frankly, there is no argument in which we could be proven guilty simply based on the events that occurred in which our people were taken control of, forced to work as slaves, and murdered.
When it comes to racism in history there is a variety of innocent nations and races that unfortunately had to go through many inhuman and disturbing situations. The surfing of these nations and races were uncalled for and just brought pain and sorrow too these nations. Although there is a verity of nations and races that had to go through this depressing and difficult time one nation stands out from the rest. The one nation that stands out from the rest are the Native Americans. The Native Americans stand out from the rest when it comes to racism because they were seen as less of a human in the eyes of Christopher Columbus and his men, the Native Americans were forced to accept a life style they were not accustom to and as well as they
There has been a heated discussion about changing columbus day to native peoples day. This argument for getting rid of columbus day is flawed and quite hypocritical. This group Is claiming we should get rid of columbus day due to the fact he killed and enslaved the native people of the nations he visited. Christopher columbus and his men did kill and enslave the native people but, that was normal for that time period. Also how could Christopher columbus kill so many with less than 200 men? The answer is simple, he joined the ongoing tribal warfare that was taking place at the time. The tribes there already had mass graves, slaughtered and enslaved each other. This didn’t just start when columbus came around, the aztecs were
Though the main problem was the King and Queen of Spain, we cannot blame them entirely as well. In this case, it may not have been a human that caused the crime. It is true that Columbus’s men did the killing, and the King and Queen of Spain did give out the orders that forced Columbus to get more gold, but what caused them to think like this, what caused them to go on a plunder for gold and not worry about being the Tainos. The system of empire is to blame for all this. The European society of that time told them that mankind had to have property in order to feel secure and dominant. The more property someone owned, the more powerful the person. In order to get more wealth, Columbus’s men forced the Tainos into slavery, and justifying themselves
I am no guilty of the millions of man being to work as slaves or being killed because they aren’t working hard enough. All we did was give the money for the journey all we wanted back was to have Christianly spread and riches from the journey. The killing was Columbus and his man, Columbus ordering his men to kill them if they didn't have gold. Columbus man could have said no to this along with other priest so why didn't they. We could have stopped them but this whole idea with Columbus's. With that, all we did was funded the journey, therefore we are not guilty to killing all those men. Columbus and his man are the ones who did this, killing so many people that didn't do anything to them. Having people 14 and older to work for them is just
On September 8, 2000, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) made a formal apology for the their participation in ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of the Indigenous Nations of the Western Territories of the Unites States.2 From forced relocation to obscure lands and forced assimilation into the white man’s view of the world, the BIA previously set out to ‘destroy all things Indian’.3 Through the colonization of Turtle Island (North America), the American Federal policy set out to eliminate in part or as a whole, the Indigenous populations.4 The attitudes of the colonists were intentionally detrimental and the process is naturally exterminatory.5 The process of colonization was often exemplified by violent confrontations, deliberate massacres, and in some cases, total annihilations of a people.6 The culture of conquest was developed and practiced by Europeans well before they landed on Turtle Island as the practice was developed, and perfected well before the fifteenth century.7 Taking land and imposing values and ways of life on the social landscape created a conflictual relationship with the Indigenous peoples and forced a new way of life that ultimately destroyed those that previously existed there.8 Modern Europe
The unjust history of America contains the many Native American genocides executed throughout the 1790s-1920s over
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,
Across the history of genocide, conflicting ideologies was one of the top driving forces of why a certain group of people were targeted and wiped out. When Columbus and other conquistadors ventured into the New World in search of land to colonize and people to convert to Christianity, they saw the natives as barbaric and uncivilized, people who needed to be educated about the ways of God. In Columbus’s journal, he explicitly said that since the natives seem to have no religion, it would be easy to convert them to Christianity and to properly educate them of the “correctness” of European ways and the “wrongs” of native ways. The natives seem to believe in a God and know that there is a heaven, so Columbus was convinced that “if the work was
Upon Columbus’s arrival, approximately 30 million Native Americans populated North America. Since then, 90 to 95% have been wiped out. Throughout the 1700’s, a number of wars broke out between Native Americans and whites. A population of 200 million people inhabiting the Americas found themselves subject to the will of foreigners who happened to have relatively lighter skin tones than them. The barbaric subjugation of indigenous peoples by whites is illustrative of the impact
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
This section highlights that history has created a false narrative depicting the natives as a victimized people, which they were to some extent but only in the fashion that they did not possess the same technology for warfare, immunity of communal diseases transmitted, and they were not anticipating combat. All other factors considered, the natives stood to be a potential threat. In regards to knowledge obtained by Spaniards prior to arrival and knowledge gained from observation, it would be remiss had they not prepared for battle. This argument is not to be misconstrued in approving their actions; I do recognize colonization as an evil for both the reasons employed and its damaging effects, but rather to change the narrative surrounding that of the native people. While they did experience a tragedy, I feel that it is erroneous to write them into history as being incompetent resulting from their
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
For more than 300 years, since the days of Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Government, an attempt of genocide of the Native American Indian has existed. From mass brutal murders and destruction by Spanish and American armies, to self-annihilation through suicide, homicide, and alcohol induced deaths brought about because of failed internal colonialism and white racial framing. Early Explores used Indigenous inhabitants upon first arriving to the America’s to survive the New World and once they adapted, internal colonialism began with attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity, repressing their values and way of life, forcing them into slavery, and nearly exterminating an entire culture from existence.
The people on the island had no clue what a sword was so they would cut themselves when they would touch the blade. Christopher Columbus thought it was going to be easy if needed to fight with them. They had no way of protecting themselves. He and his men ended up killing these poor people little by little. Even when they tried to help them out by directing them to find gold or help them when they got hurt. On his trip when he arrived in Hispaniola the Taino people living on the island welcomed and were gentle with him and his men. When Columbus left the island he left forty of his men and those men raped and fought the Tainos after they helped them out.2 On his second trip Columbus set up a permanent colony and again his men raped, stole gold ornaments and food that provoked war with the Tainos. The Spanish killed tens of thousands out of population and the ones who did survive the Spanish ended up chopping off their hands if they did not provide their allotment.3 At the end the Spanish wiped out the islands either by killing the people or they left to surrounding countries.
Marijuana has always been said to be dangerous to our bodies by the government and the media. Is it bad for us or is it just another way for the government and media to control us? Is it harmful to our body? Does it really help people that have terminal or debilitating diseases? These are just some of the questions that we have asked about marijuana. One of the main questions asked is marijuana worth being legalized for medical benefits when it can be abused as a recreational drug instead of medical use? It is very upsetting knowing that medical marijuana can help so many people and benefit in so many ways but is not available to the people that need it.