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Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. Christopher Columbus, dirtbag. Sebastian del Piombo It's somewhat old hat at this point to point out that Christopher Columbus — in whose name children are off school and mail isn't delivered today — was a homicidal tyrant who initiated the two greatest crimes in the history of the Western Hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade, and the American Indian genocide. Bergreen, 4 Columbus forced Indians to collect gold for him or else die Columbus ordered every Indian over 14 to give a large quantity of gold to the Spanish, on pain of death.
Antonio Lara While paling in comparison to his crimes against Caribs and Taino Indians, Columbus's rule over Spanish settlers was also brutal. Bergreen continues: He even ordered the ears and nose cut off one miscreant, who was also whipped, shackled, and banished from the island. Next Up In The Latest. Delivered Fridays. Thanks for signing up! Check your inbox for a welcome email. Email required. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice and European users agree to the data transfer policy.
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Animals need infrastructure, too By Ben Goldfarb. No scholarship is free of political and cultural biases, but serious scholars resist them. Columbus was not the gem of the ocean, the flawless hero of so many earlier hagiographies.
In the process of reevaluating Columbus in this age of complete disdain for heroes, we are presented with another mythical figure, one of the most destructive villains in history who landed on a mythical land, a kind of earthly paradise, uncorrupted until The problem is congenital to history.
Usually, the destruction of myths is done through the creation of other myths. Stephan Thernstrom , an historian at Harvard, rightfully said that the descriptions of the European conquest of the Americas in black-and-white terms are no more reliable than Stalinist histories of the U.
And so, there is simply no basis for seeing the clash between the Indians and the invading Europeans in stark good and evil terms — the peaceful innocents versus the murderous and avaricious Spaniards. However, the population drop of the American natives by at least one-third and perhaps by as much as 90 per cent after the arrival of the Europeans cannot be attributed to their mass murdering, even though the Europeans did inflict a high number of cruelties and deaths.
The decimation of the American population caused by the lack of immunity to diseases that the Europeans unknowingly brought with them — smallpox, typhoid fever, mumps, measles and whooping cough — although a terrible tragedy, it was not genocide. We should assess, however, to what extent the demographic catastrophe which befell early Latin America was an act of genuine tragedy caused by wickedness or by human failing or by a form of fate.
It cannot be disputed that the colonial experience was a disaster for the natives. However, we should recognize that we know about the cruelties and atrocities suffered by the natives because of the sixteenth century Spanish passion for justice; conquistadores who violated well-established principles of morality and justice for those times were condemned by moralists and punished in the courts. Among the many myths also being created is the way in which slavery was introduced by Columbus and his successors in this continent.
Unquestionably, at that time slavery was a universal institution, though not of the same kind and intensity everywhere, and when Europeans reached the West Coast of Africa in the fifteenth century, they purchased slaves from already existing slave trading networks.
In fact, when Columbus reached this shore he met natives who were enslaved by their neighbor population. The writings of Bartolome Las Casas expressed in the most radical form a Christian condemnation of the treatment of the Indians by the Europeans. Las Casas was absolutely convinced of the incompatibility between conquest and evangelization; he appealed to Scripture, the Fathers and Thomas Aquinas to maintain that one must never commit evil for the sake of an ensuing good; he held that Christ never authorized anyone to force the pagans to accept his preaching.
Only persuasion by word and especially by good example could bear lasting fruit. The cultural, relativistic perspectives in use today make possible a better understanding of the significance of the encounter of the cultures of the two worlds.
Each year, Christopher Columbus seems to be resurrected and spark the never ending debate: greatest explorer or indigenous destroyer? He was only a teenager when he began his first maritime expedition on a merchant ship where he remained until when the ship was attacked by Privateers. As the boat sank, Columbus floated to the Portuguese shore where he started to design his plan for western domination.
On Aug. Textbooks frequently credit Columbus with a glory not reasonably accepted as he only managed to find the Bahamas, not the continental U. When he first arrived in Hispaniola, he was faced with the large indigenous population of the Taino peoples.
These natives were kind to the travelers and freely traded jewelry, animals and food. They do not carry arms or know them … They should be good servants.
Columbus forced the Tainos into slavery and punished them grotesquely if disobeyed, even resulting to murder as punishment. The spread of European disease and brutality such as public executions, floggings and rape of Taino women further show the barbarity of Columbus and his men.
Columbus set sail for the new world and brought about with him a new era of truth and lies. Despite his revolutionary discovery, we cannot forget the brutality and tragedy that Columbus and his men inflicted upon the indigenous people.
His words and actions toward the Taino only reflected his sole intentions of economic gain— not knowledge or peace— regardless of any pre-existing societies and basic human rights.
Through his lust for money and glory, he managed to destroy the centuries old culture of the indigenous Americans. Recent interviews with CNN delve into the reasons for the change. Society still struggles in regards to the view of Columbus: hero or villain? The truth, however, is that history cannot be simplified into such blackness and whiteness.
We cannot negate his contributions to the world, such as knowledge of the Western Hemisphere and expansive knowledge of new cultures, farming techniques and technologies. His discoveries changed the world forever and the entire course of history. Yet, at the same time, he should never be regarded as a hero. His treatment of humans was undeniably atrocious and should never be forgotten.
Maddie is a second-year Tiger Times staff member at Texas High and opinion section editor. She often overthinks, takes things way too seriously, and is Is marching band a sport?
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