Columbus Blog #8

Christopher Columbus. Inspirational explorer or greedy fame hunter? Most likely the greedy fame hunter. While most people in the United States think that Columbus is  an inspirational person, who defied the common logic that the world was flat and sailed to a distant world. Firstly, the Ancient Greeks had figured out that the world was sphericaly shaped in the third century B.C., meaning that people had already discovered Columbus' great "discovery" seventeen hundred years before he set sail. Second, Leif Erikson had already discovered the North American continent well before Columbus, almost 500 years in fact. And thirdly and most importantly, the autrucities that Columbus and his men commited once landing in the new world, while highly overlooked, is a stain on Latin American culture that cannot be erased. First look at his encounter with the Taino Indians in his first encounter with the native people in the New World. The Taino were peaceful people, virtually defenseless and little military power. They proved almost too easy for Columbus and his men, being almost wiped out soon after the arrival of Columbus. Five hundred of them were captured and sent back to Europe, as part of the blunders that were sent back to Queen Isabella in Spain. Columbus states in his own journal that “They [Indians] have no weapons and are all naked without any skill in arms and are very cowardly so that a thousand would not challenge three,...Thus they are useful to be commanded and to be made to labor and sow and to do everything else of which there is need and build towns and be taught to wear clothes and learn our customs.” This shows that Columbus was not going to the New World for a peaceful exploration of the area or to prove that the world was round, but to exploit the native people of the area for their labor, wealth, and livelihood. Columbus does not deserve a day in his honor, and people should remember the millions of native people that lost their lives as result of his fateful landing.