The Truth About Christopher Columbus
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"What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind, and this trade [in Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them." – Bartolomé de las Casas
Age Of Exploration
Christopher Columbus was not the first to discover the Americas, nor was he the first to realize that the earth is round. He was the first, however, in other exploits, namely genocide and the transatlantic slave trade. Doesn't sound familiar? Read on.
The Afro-Phoenicians are described as having sailed from Egypt to the coast of Mexico as early as 750 B.C. Though Columbus may not have been the first to discover the Americas, his exploits there marked a turning-point in European thought and conquest. Five factors made this new "Age of Exploration" possible:
- Advances in military technology. Around 1400, due to ongoing wars, European rulers began to improve their guns and refine their warfare strategies, prompting a European arms race. Nations with less military ability would now easily succumb to the European nations who chose to conquer them.
- The printing press. Increased information now allowed rulers to govern distant lands more easily. News of Columbus' findings traveled quickly back to the King and Queen of Spain.
- Winning esteem through wealth. The amassing of great wealth was now seen not just as something positive, but also as a way in which to dominate others and allow for their "salvation."
- Proselytizing religion. European Christianity believed that religion legitimatized conquest. They would land and say a few words (in an unfamiliar language) to get the inhabitants to convert to Christianity. If they were not instantly converted, the Europeans felt relieved of their religious duties, and free to do whatever they wanted with them.
- Disease. European strains of smallpox and the plague were transmitted to those they met in their travels, allowing for easier and faster domination of them.
"Tomorrow morning before we depart, I intend to land and see what can be found in the neighborhood." – Christopher Columbus
Discovery And Domination
In 1492, Columbus "discovered" the Americas when he landed in Haiti and several islands in the Caribbean. The Arawak Indians inhabited these islands, and at first Columbus described them as "very handsome," and went into great detail about their formidable wooden boats that could hold 40-45 men. In little time, though, and after noticing their gold nose rings, he got to the point: "I was very attentive to them, and strove to learn if they had any gold." In search of this gold, he sailed the next day around the island, ending with the ominous statement: "I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I pleased." On this first voyage, Columbus captured 20-25 Arawak slaves, who he then transported back to Spain.
For the second voyage to Haiti the following year (1493), Ferdinand and Isabella gave him the resources needed to subdue the population. When he returned to Haiti, Columbus demanded food, gold, and cotton thread, and was increasingly met with resistance. This resistance gave him the opportunity he needed to declare war on the Arawaks. According to Bartolomé de Las Casas, who was there with the Spanish, Columbus chose "200 foot soldiers and 20 cavalry, with many crossbows and small cannon, lances, and swords, and a still more terrible weapon against the Indians, in addition to the horses: this was 20 hunting dogs, who were turned loose and immediately tore the Indians apart."
The Spanish won the war, of course, for the Arawaks had only rudimentary weapons. As Columbus still could not find the gold he sought, and having to bring something back to Spain, he rounded up 1,000 Arawaks to be used as slaves. Five hundred of these he brought back to Spain, and the remaining 500 he gave to the Spanish then "governing" the island.
"These people are very unskilled in arms; with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished." – Christopher Columbus
Tribute System
Though now in control of the Arawak Indians and their island Haiti, Christopher Columbus still could not find the gold that he was sure was somewhere on the island. The Arawaks, I'm sure, were not very willing to tell him where it was. Therefore, he set up a "tribute system" which worked thus:
Every three months, each Haitian over 14 years of age would be required to pay Columbus with either 25 pounds in cotton or a large "hawk's bell" of gold dust (a lot of gold dust.) Once the slaves paid this, they would receive a metal token. This token was worn around their necks as a signal that they were home-free for another 3 months (during which time they saved up for their next token, of course.) Those who did not pay had both of their hands chopped off.
"Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise." – Christopher Columbus
Hispaniola - [get directions]is a major island in the Caribbean, [now] containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti
Genocide
Due to the tribute system, the Arawaks were forced to work in the mines instead of growing food in their fields, which led to generalized malnutrition. According to a letter written by Pedro de Cordoba to King Ferdinand, "As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. The women, exhausted by labor, have shunned conception and childbirth...Many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted. Others after delivery have killed their children with their own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery."
The initial Arawak population was estimated at 8,000,000. By 1516 only around 12,000 were still alive. By 1542, less than 200 remained. By 1555, the Arawaks were all gone.
Thus, the crime of genocide began with our very own Christopher Columbus. He completely exterminated an entire race of 8,000,000 people–and that's only counting one of the cultures he decimated. "Haiti under the Spanish is one of the primary instances of genocide in all human history." – Dr. James W. Loewen
"After having dispatched a meal, I went ashore, and found no habitation save a single house, and that without an occupant; we had no doubt that the people had fled in terror at our approach, as the house was completely furnished." – Christopher Columbus
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Columbus wasn't just into subjugating and decimating; he was also interested in the sexual aspect of slavery. According to a letter written by Michele de Cuneo, before his first voyage had even reached Haiti in 1492, "Columbus was rewarding his lieutenants with native women to rape." Columbus wrote in 1500: "A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand." This is not exactly the character of Christopher Columbus that was portrayed in public school.
Aside from sexual slavery, there existed, of course, the aspect of using slavery for profit. When there were no more Arawaks to mine his gold for him–for they no longer existed–Columbus systematically depleted the Bahamas of their peoples for this task. Tens of thousands of slaves from the Bahamas were transported to Haiti, leaving the islands behind deserted. Peter Martyr reported in 1516: "Packed in below deck, with hatchways closed to prevent their escape, so many slaves died on the trip that a ship without a compass, chart, or guide, but only following the trail of dead Indians who had been thrown from the ships could find its way from the Bahamas to Hispaniola."
After the new batch of slaves died, Columbus depleted Puerto Rico, and then Cuba. When they had all succumbed, he turned his eyes to Africa, thus establishing the transatlantic slave trade and the concept of "race." Through his exploits in Haiti, Columbus lead the way for other European nations to begin seeking wealth through domination, conquest, and slavery. In essence, Columbus changed the world, and we recognize this in one way or another by delineating history as being either pre- or post-Columbian.
"Columbus' government was characterized by a form of tyranny. Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place. Now one can understand why he was sacked and we can see that there were good reasons for doing so. The monarchs wanted someone who did not give them problems. Columbus did not solve problems, he created them." – Francisco de Bobadilla
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Columbus Day
The second Monday of each October, The United States of America celebrates "Columbus Day" with a public holiday and parades. Grade school kids write about how wonderful he was, and high school students write reports proclaiming his brilliance and enduring courage. He is virtually made into a sort of God, carefully placed upon a pedestal of complete ignorance.
Many college students who take history classes, and many indigenous peoples, in contrast, opt to protest the holiday in respect for the countless nations decimated by Columbus. As George P. Horse Capture writes, "No sensible Indian person can celebrate the arrival of Columbus." Nor, I should add, can any sensible person who knows anything of his history.
"The worshipful biographical vignettes of Columbus in our textbooks serve to indoctrinate students into a mindless endorsement of colonialism that is strikingly inappropriate in today's post-colonial era." – Dr. James W. Loewen
"Here was a man lived long ago,
Who dreamed a special dream –
Christopher Columbus,
Christopher Columbus,
Christopher Columbus,
Dreamed a special dream."
– Nursery rhyme
Sources
Copyright © 2012 Faceless39. All rights reserved.
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Hi Jambo87.. I totally agree. I think it's a little odd that we "celebrate" Columbus with a public holiday. I'm not really sure how that came about, but whoever chose the holiday certainly didn't know a thing about the man. The Vikings were there before him, and many other explorers. His name stuck because Europe was finally open to the "age of exploration" -- in other words, he just got lucky. As for American public schools, having been through the system myself, I don't think I learned a thing the whole time. Everything I know I learned on my own. The system needs desperately to be scrapped and started over again!
Yeah, the education in this country does need revamping, but I feel like most people don't give a damn if they know anything anyway.
At the college level, I know so many business majors who are just doing it for the prospect of wealth, rather than wanting to know everything they can about business. (Sorry to pick on them, just an example).
You're right Jambo87; most people don't give a damn if they know anything (isn't that what the internet's for?) :) But that doesn't mean the rest of us should have to suffer because the world's populated by a bunch of idiots. Or, wait, maybe that is exactly what it means lol.
At the college level, I know so many dental students who are doing it for recognition and wealth. It's not just sad, but scary. Education used to be fun, but somehow now it's just a means by which to get money.
I still read books, I still keep an active mind--and I still question the government's intentions in dumbing-down our society!
This is a wonderful article! The research is extensive, and very appreciated. It is so weird to me how history books seldom teach the real history, or history from more than one point of view. You did a VERY good job with this article, and I am glad to have read it! Thanks!
It's surprising to me that Columbus is so revered in the United States. I have read both of the history books you list here, and strongly recommend them to anyone who seeks to know the truth of our history and government. You did an excellent job bringing the facts to life in a short and easily read article. Thank you Faceless39 for exposing these truths to a larger audience. And I do not celebrate Columbus day. To do so would be to support the lowest level of humanity. Thank you.
I just started reading Howard Zinn's book and I'm loving it. This hub brought my attention to it, thanks!
I think this was a very helpful article and I'm rather disgusted that this isn't what they teach us in schools. I agree that everything that I've learned I learned on my own.
I love my country. But really the history books make it seem like christopher columbus was a hero. NO ....he enslaved, captured and worked those poor natives for gold.
He didn't discover America he invaded America. Great article by the way truthful
GREAT Hub !!!!
I am right there with you !!!
In San Francisco they have dubbed that holiday Indigenous Peoples Day
Oh and another thing ...how could he have discovered America, if there was a thriving civilization here. Not to mention , he thought he was in India
Cristobal Colon AKA Christopher Columbus. He was returned to Spain in chains When it was learned how abusive he was. I think it's the Bee gees that have a song and part of the lyrics are "living in a world of fools" There is a movie staring Richard Geer and one of the characters says, "all the citizens want to do is .... their wives, watch football and eat pizza. Yes, the masses don't want to know antything but what the television guides them to.
Thanks to all who have had kind words for me here. This article took a lot of work and reading, bookmarking, underlining, and editing to get right. It's always nice to hear back that this is appreciated.
I'm glad as well to see such an overwhelming support for this information. Thank you!
I disagree with many of the premises used in this article. Columbus established the first bridge of communication between the two continents. This uncontended fact alone deserves all the glory he has been credited with. Without this connection, America as we know it would not exist, and Europe, and the world in general, would be a very different place. There was no 'discovery', but real discovery. Please note that I do not condone any racism or cruel wrongdoing whatsoever on his side, for which I believe he should be judged harshly by serious historians based on the existing evidence. I do applaud his Discovery of a New World.
"without this connection, America as we know it would not exist". Is that such a bad thing considering how we know it? Great hub writer. I always knew something was fishy. ;)
This was a tragedy of great magnitude, but the term "genocide" is both anachronistic and wrongly applied in that, with a few gruesome exceptions, the European transmission of disease was not deliberate. As William McNeill points out in Plagues and Peoples, Europeans themselves probably contracted the bubonic plague in the fourteenth century as a result of contagion from the Mongols of Central Asia-some twenty-five million (one third of the population) died, and the plague recurred on the continent for the next three hundred years. Multicultural advocates do not call this "genocide."
So why did European attitudes toward the Indian, initially so favorable, subsequently change? The reason given by the explorers themselves is that Columbus and those who followed him came into sudden, unexpected, and gruesome contact with the customary practices of some other Indian tribes. They were appalled at the magnitude of cannibalism and human sacrifice.
On his second voyage Columbus was horrified to discover that a number of the sailors he left behind had been killed and possibly eaten by the cannibalistic Arawaks.
Indeed the Aztecs on a regular basis consumed human flesh in a stew with peppers and tomatoes, and children were regarded as a particular delicacy. Cannibalism was prevalent among the Aztecs, Guarani, Iroquois, Caribs, and several other tribes.
Multicultural textbooks, committed to a contemporary version of the noble savage portrait, cannot acknowledge historical facts that would embarrass the morality tale of white invaders despoiling the elysian harmony of the Americans. Seeking to avoid an acknowledgment of Western cultural superiority, relativism ends up denying the possibility of truth.
The charge of genocide is largely sustained by figures showing the precipitous decline of the Indian population. Undoubtedly the Indians perished in great numbers but the vast majority of Indian casualties occurred not as a result of hard labor or deliberate destruction but because of contagious diseases that the Europeans transmitted to the Indians.
The spread of infection and unhealthy patterns of behavior was also reciprocal. From the Indians the Europeans contracted syphilis. The Indians also taught the white man about tobacco and cocaine, which would extract an incalculable human toll over the next several centuries. The Europeans, for their part, gave the Indians measles and smallpox.
The reason advocates of multiculturalism charge Columbus with genocide is that they need to explain how small groups of Europeans were able to defeat overwhelming numbers of Indians, capsize their mighty native empires, and seize their land. Hernan Cortes rode into Mexico with around five hundred men, sixteen horses, and a few dozen long-barrel guns. The Aztec force that he faced numbered more than a million. When Gonzalo Pizarro confronted the Inca he had three ships, 150 men, one cannon, and thirty horses. The Incas had several hundred thousand troops ruling over a population of several million. Yet the Aztecs and the Incas were routed.
The Indians were defeated and massacred because they encountered a Spanish civilization that was superior both in the sophistication of its arms and its ideas. Even today, Vargas Llosa argues, the principles of the West continue to shape the modern world, and "the nations that reject those values are anachronisms condemned to various versions of despotism
Long before Columbus, Indian tribes raided each other's land and preyed on the possessions and persons of more vulnerable groups. What distinguished Western colonialism was neither occupation nor brutality but a countervailing philosophy of rights that is unique in human history.
Pope Paul III, proclaimed in his bull Sublimis Deus in 1537: "Indians and all other people who may later be discovered by the Christians are by no means to be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, even though they be outside the faith of Jesus Christ; nor should they be in any way enslaved; should the contrary happen it shall be null and of no effect. Indians and other peoples should be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ by preaching the word of God and by the example of good and holy living."
At its deepest level, multiculturalism represents a denial of all Western claims to truth. Barbara Johnson, identifies the multicultural project with "the deconstruction of the foundational ideals of Western civilization." To do it, activists draw heavily on such leftist movements as Marxist deconstructionism.
Cultural relativism-the presumed equality of all cultures-is the intellectual foundation of contemporary multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is based on the relativist assumption that since all cultures are inherently equal, differences of power, wealth, and achievement between them are most likely due to oppression.
Columbus has metamorphosed from a grand crusader into a genocidal maniac and a precursor to Hitler. American Indians are now beyond reproach, canonized as moral and ecological saints. All of this is nothing but multiculturalist pap.
Genocide implies that Columbus, with malice and aforethought, foresaw and wanted millions of Indians to die. There is absolutely zero evidence that this is true. The charge of genocide is totally false and comes from sheer hatred of Western Civilization—the best brightest hope for humankind.
Columbus OH discarded a huge statue of Christopher Columbus that had been installed on Columbus Community College Campus. Discarded because of the controversies and growing negative evidence (letters cited in above article) surrounding his exploration of the West Indies and for its huge size that brought additional comments about the inhumanities discovered, the statue has been passed among several other places and lies somewhere in storage, according to news reports of summer '11. I am glad it is gone.
I can't understand why there are still so many people that cling to the "old" version of Columbus' story when it's been established for quite some time now that he was a horrible person. I live in New Haven, CT, where the headquarters of the Knight of Columbus is located. Why does that group insist on venerating this maniac???!!! Everywhere you turn in my town there is some reminder of Columbus and it's disgusting! If Italians need a historical figure to be proud of and to honor with a holiday why not choose Leonardo, Michelangelo or even Marconi?
When the Europeans came here this continent was pristine, as it had been for the thousands of years of being inhabited by real people. You could drink the water from rivers, the air was pure, animal populations thrived, and the humans managed the land in a sustainable way. Look at it now. James Watkins should try really hard to extricate his head from between his buttocks. Columbus WAS a genocidal maniac. He suffered from that white man disease of thinking himself superior because of his race and culture (much like Mr Watkins - who sounds like a Nazi to me). As to disease decimating the Indians by accident, it is well known that diseases were deliberately given through infected blankets. Europeans themselves were a plague to this continent.
To James A Watkins -- I will respectfully disagree. My article is *thoroughly* sourced and documented. There's nothing wrong with your thoughts--I respect them and you're entitled to them. But if you want to talk history, I've got the sources, the quotes, the books, and the PhD authors to back up my version of events. I'm not sure who is going to back up your version of events.
A great review on an inmportant man in history. I really enjoyed reading it. Voted up.
Thank you for this eye opening article. I am shocked and disgusted by the real history of this celebrated scum of human existance. To think that I along with my family celebrated this "man" is stomach turning and I will forever seek forgiveness from those that suffered, died, and that were enslaved.
Thanks again for taking the effort to put this together for all to read and learn.
Thanks for reading and commenting. It really is amazing what passes for history these days. Glad I could shed some light on an interesting and important character in history!
your info was really helpful to me and hope you make more writing about it i enjoy it alot thanks
I was reading an article a few months back that went to great lengths trying to prove that America was founded on the Christian religion. That's a bunch of bull, but anyways the author in so many words stated that if we deny America's Christian heritage, then we might as well deny all that Christopher Columbus stood for. I laughed lol! It just goes to show that Christians are only concerned about one thing... power and wealth. Good Article!
Very well done article. Even as a child, I didn't think Christopher Columbus was to be lauded as a hero. He invaded another's land and I couldn't ever condone his part in slavery. The fairy tale is nice, but, sorry, not one of his fans.
I learned about the "real" Columbus in college, and though I wasn't surprised, I was shocked at the details. Kind of makes you wonder what else our government has "changed" in our school textbooks, and in history.
Thanks for the great comments.
jambo87 22 months ago
I'm right there with you. Columbus Day should be a memorial for the dead and enslaved, not the glorification of a genocidal imbecile. The Greek's estimated the circumference of the globe rather accurately well before Columbus' time. But the ignorant Columbus chose to make his own guess and those famous three ships would have been nothing more than a sad tale of foolishness had he not been lucky and ran into Hispaniola. I have never heard of the Phoenicians reaching America - interesting. Nonetheless, the Vikings were there before Columbus too.
I hate that American school children are raised to revere this squalid man.