Christopher Columbus and His Discoveries

Christopher Columbus quickly realized that the Taino were not as militarized as the Spaniards and quickly conquered them.

Taino indians were the indigenous group that lived in the Caribbean Islands that consisted of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Puerto Rico before Christopher Columbus arrived in the new world. Columbus’ conquest and founding of Puerto Rico resulted in the genocide of the Tainos. Due to this atrocity, right now there is only a small percentage of people on the island who are descendants of the Taino lineage.

The legacy of Christopher Columbus has been a divisive topic for many years. Indeed, according to Laurence Bergreen, the Columbian legacy has been divisive since the time of his voyages. In an excerpt from his book Columbus: The Four Voyages, Laurence Bergreen juxtaposes his extensive historical knowledge with a deep understanding of modern American culture to demonstrate that, for all his successes and failures, Columbus is significant as a reminder that we are all deeply complex and contradictory beings.

He first laid foot on Caribbean soil and encountered the Taino people, who densely inhabited the islands of Cuba, Trinidad, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico. Justified by El Requerimiento, Columbus and other conquerors seized entire lands originally owned by natives (Document 5). Following this, he put the natives to work on extremely dangerous silver mines. Mercury, a toxic element to humans, was used to extract silver from the earth. As a result of this, many workers got mercury poisoning. In an effort to prevent their children from working in the mines, many families would mutilate their offspring. Haciendas, which were essentially Spanish plantations, also caused death and destruction to the area. Natives were used as the main labor forces on them and were treated as slaves. The harsh working conditions combined with the ruthless hacienda owners led to the death of hundreds of thousands of natives. Any natives with an intent of rebellion against the Spanish conquistadors were burnt at the stake (Document 7). The deaths of natives grew exponentially as time passed. In the years following Columbus’ voyages to the Caribbean, the entire Taino group was

All throughout history, whether present or past, books are filled page to page with people we consider heroes, as well as villans. Some quick people that come to mind when thinking of the fall of their legacy lead me to people like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Andrew Jackson and Napoleon Bonaparte. No matter what the subject; whether it be considered history of a sport, US history or even some celebrities lives, there will always be the one who was a hero in the spotlight and then the real truth comes out. Herofication dates back to the times of the beginning of America where Christopher Columbus, the man who we celebrate on Columbus Day to the public eye today is seen in a positive light. Contrary to popular belief, Columbus wasn't the nicest

Before Cuba became a nation, Cuba was first a Spanish colony. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, claimed Cuba as a colony of Spain after he was sent by the Spanish monarchy to find a route to Asia, specifically Southeast Asia. Columbus enlisted the help of the native people in Cuba, known as the Taino, to find consequential resources on the island for Spain. The Tainos’ willingness to aid Columbus caused the native people to become enslaved under Spanish rule. Despite the encouragement from Hatuey, a Taino leader who tried warning fellow Taino the horrors of Spanish subjugation, uprisings to remove the Spanish failed. In 1570’s, the economic success of the farming industry fueled Spain to import Africans to work as slaves.

The "discovery" or infiltration of the island of Borinquen (or Puerto Rico as it was later renamed) in 1493 by Spain resulted in the decimation of the native Taino population. With the loss of an immediate source of cheap labor to work the fields for their sugar cane industry, they introduced African culture into the region by importing slaves to replace the Taino field workers. In addition to the introduction of African culture into Puerto Rico voluntary immigration brought

According to “Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline”, the Indian tribe quickly declined because it was already weakened by diseases and the mass murder was the principle cause of the genocide of the Tainos. (Tinker and Freeland 38). Christopher Columbus sped up disappearance of the Taino people by killing and bringing disease into the islands. He used cruel methods such as torture and rape to get what he wanted out of them and as a result of the first voyage to the Americans, was that “Seven and a half million human beings were subjected to murder, torture, oppression, slavery, and cultural dislocation, all of which exacerbated the continual onslaught of the diseases brought with the European invaders (Tinker and Freeland 36). Christopher Columbus was the initiator of Native American genocide. Columbus slaughtered Native people if they did not comply and banned Natives to access basic needs. Christopher Columbus was responsible for the continuing of violence and slavery that later prohibited food, water, medicine and the practice cultural rituals to the Taino natives (Tinker and Freeland 37). Columbus and his people took away many resources that helped Taino Natives

When Columbus arrived at Hispaniola, he ran into some people called the Taino. The Taino willingly traded them jewelry, animals, and supplies. Columbus thought to himself that they would make good slaves. Then he forced them into slavery. If the Taino did not cost left enough gold they would be punished. The way they were punished was brutal. The Taino would either get a limb cut off or even be worse

On his first voyage that was in 1492, Columbus settled on an unknown island after a rigorous 3-month journey. On his early day in the new world, he in declared six of the natives to be annexed, handwriting in his note that he conceive they would be good slave. Throughout the generations in the new world, Columbus preformed practice of mandatory labor in which Indians were put to trail for the consideration of benefit. Later, Columbus sent many of tranquil Taino “natives” from the point of Hispaniola to Spain to be dispose of. Many natives died on the way to Spain. Those who were left behind were compelled to explore for gold in mines and on farmstead. Within the sixty years after Columbus arrived, only a few of what may have been 250,000 Taino natives were left the

Columbus found a tribe of native people called the Taino. They willingly traded jewelry, animals, and supplies with the them. But instead of trading columbus took everything from them and enslaved them to find

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.

When Columbus first arrived he found the island populated by thousands of Taino Indians who made the mistake of showing Columbus gold nuggets in the river. This was all Spain needed to finance its crown. Differences between the Spaniards and the Taints began around two years later when Diego Salcedo was killed by the Indians. The Taino Indians revolt against the Spaniards was met with no success and many left the island or fled into the mountains where they began new lives.

They were the people who originally sent Columbus to colonize the land that the Tainos lived on. They told him that he was to go over and take over their lands. In document two, the king and queen say to Columbus, “Because you, Christopher Columbus, are going at our command with some of our ships and personnel to discover and acquire certain islands and mainland in the Ocean Sea, and it is hoped that, with the help of God, some of the islands and mainland in the Ocean Sea will be discovered and acquired by your command and expertise. In document 4, the king and queen said ” They also told him to collect taxes from them. They were supposed to wear a token as proof they paid it and if they were not wearing it, they were to be penalized.

Facing the fact that there was no more gold, the Spaniards looked to the rich land and soil for the next way that Puerto Rico could help the Kingdom of Spain. They raised cattle, and they planted staple crops, but sugarcane was the bread and butter so to speak. The only problem was that they could only trade with Spain for a long time and Spain grew their own sugarcane, too. But let’s not jump ahead of ourselves here. What was needed was a labor force to work these fields, and the Taino Indians were living in the Hinterlands. There was no way they were going to work those fields.