Compare And Contrast Christopher Columbus And Las Casas

When Christopher Columbus sailed to America he was happy and proud of himself because he was the first to discover the land which is now named america, and he was also happy because he found out that there were a lot of resources found on that land which he found was necessary to take and use. According to the document A “Day after day they looked for land;They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand” this shows that the purposely are trying to find land for them to dock and discover. Additionally according to the document A “Columbus sailed on to find some gold To bring back home, as he'd been told.He made the trip again and again,Trading gold to bring to Spain” this shows that he was there not just to discover land but to make riches too and

The reason of why Christopher Columbus arrived to the Indies was because he was looking for a new route to Asia but instead he found a New World full of new amazing stuff in it. After Columbus informed about the new world plans changed. The Queen and King from Spain now wanted to impose Christianity over Indians. Christopher assumed that they didn’t worship any god so he thought it would be easy to convert them. Columbus describes Indians bodies as strong and with beautiful features. Cristopher narrates how Indias would approach his ship on little canoes constructed with trunks of trees to exchange cotton, thread, parrots, darts, and other things for anything they had. Columbus was always looking for gold when they were exchanging goods. Columbus was planning to capture Indians and make them slaves under Spanish control. Europeans also found cinnamon and other spices in America instructed by indians. One can see how Europeans took advantage of Indians by taking their resources and land without paying a cent. This was because Indians consider land as a living thing “Mother Nature” and they couldn’t sell the land because according to them the land wasn’t owned by

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

Columbus and de la Casas make two very different observations of the new world. Columbus made many detailed descriptions in his letter to the King Ferdinand, who had financed his journey with the intentions of completing three very clear goals. The first, “to procure riches for the Spanish empire,” the second, “to find a new route to the East Indies,” and lastly, “to convert native peoples to Christianity (Casper et al., 4).” de la Casas had a much different intention than Columbus for why he journeyed to the new world. He traveled as a son of a poor merchant and observed all of the wrong doings that were happening to the native people. He later returned to Spain for the remainder of his life to write about all of the awful things that

Columbus noticed that some of these Indians had little golden ornaments in their noses and ears, This made him take some of the Arawak Indians that they help prisoner onto the ship and insisted they guide him to where they were the source of the gold was, this had lead him to sail to what is now Cuba then to Hispaniola.# There bits of gold were visible in the rivers. Columbus and his crew built a fort and left thirty-nine crew members there to collect gold and store all they would find.

Columbus has always been portrayed as an enlightened, peaceful explorer who “discovered” a new world, and became friends with the native people. Howard Zinn’s view on Columbus’s encounter with the natives is an entirely different perspective. Zinn describes Columbus as a man who is willing to torture and kill others to be able to accomplish what he wants; in this case he wanted to obtain gold and other resources to take back with him to Spain.

Christopher Columbus and Alvez Nunez Cabeza de Vaca were both explorers for Spain, but under different rulers and different times. The more famous, Christopher Columbus, came before de Vaca’s time. Columbus sailed a series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504 in search for a route to Asia which led accidentally to his discovery of new land inhabited with Indians. Christopher sailed under the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella for his journey to the “Indies,” whom he was loyal to by claiming everything in their name. De Vaca , followed in Christopher’s footsteps and journeyed to Hispanionola for Spain’s emperor, Charlves V, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Both, Columbus and de Vaca composed a series of letters addressing the

Christopher Columbus did not do a single good action in any of his four voyages in the late 1400's. Christopher Columbus was not the founder of the Americas we live in today because he did not discover it, even if he did there were already the natives who inhabited the land. It was just luck that he discovered the Americas, because he wasn’t even coming here, he got here because his ships went the wrong way and “Oh Surprise!” “We got something here to bring to Spain”

Christopher Columbus and Bartolome de la Casas are similar in most ways but have a major difference. They were both explorers of the New World and came to convert the natives into Catholics. The two explorers worked on the Spanish’s behalf. Columbus wrote accounts of the New World in his journal. La Casas wrote the Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. Both gave accounts of the native people they saw. Columbus’s journal entries aim to give a positive light on the Spanish and their relationship with the natives. La Casas’s Brief Account does the opposite. While this is true, both explores worked faithfully in favor of the Catholic Church, but they each held different beliefs on the treatment of natives as slaves.

The Europeans main goal revolved around the stability of power of the Spanish Crown. The Spanish Crown was focused on expanding their military so they needed resources such as gold to pay for the constantly increasing military budget. Columbus used this idea to help get resources such as, boats, men, food and weapons from the Spanish Crown. This is important because it describes the desperate need of gold that the Spaniards had which ultimately led to the gruesome acts they committed.

Other false ideas taught about Columbus deal with what is left out. His original motivation may have been to find another trade route to the Orient, but his real motivation, in subsequent expeditions to America, was money. By 1493 Columbus had planned to plunder Haiti, according to Michele de Cuneo, who had been on Columbus's first voyage. Columbus, himself, said to Ferdinand and Isabella that his motivation was gold, and " gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise" (Lies p34). Another side of Columbus

Christopher Columbus and Cabeza de Vaca were both well experienced explorers of the New World. They both traveled to the New World to find out what was out there and if what they would find, could help them and their country. In the narratives, “Letter of Discovery” by Christopher Columbus and Castaways by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, they exemplified the overall environment of the New World. Each explorer had quite the experience within the New World and interactions with the natives but they were not quite the same. Columbus’ journey consisted of learning about the new land and obtain resources to bring back to his country. Cabeza de Vaca also wanted to find resources and goods but mainly wanted to explore the land and try to understand if it was possible to create a society alongside the natives. As they went into the New World, they had found new discoveries but their purpose of the journey lead them down paths that would give off two different perspectives.

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

The native’s encountered by Columbus and those encountered by Cortes were similar in how they treated the newly arrived Spaniards. They were greatly different, though, in their religious beliefs. The Aztecs seemed to be a very religious group of people. In Cortes’ letter he says, “This great city contains a large number of temples, or houses, for their idols.” Cortes says that those in priesthood wear black and do not curl or comb their hair their entire time in priesthood. Cortes says, “I said everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries and draw then to a knowledge of our God.” The Aztecs would not convert though, showing the strength of their beliefs. In contrast, those Native Americans encountered by Christopher Columbus did not exemplify any religious beliefs or practices.

The journals of Christopher Columbus and Bartolome de Las Casas describe their opinions, attitudes, and actions toward the indigenous groups they both encountered while on their many voyages. Although their views were vastly incompatible, one could conclude both gentlemen had favorable intentions prior to their encounters with the Indians.