The Atrocities Of Christopher Columbus

1646 Words7 Pages
Gino Pantangco 12/13/11 US History The Atrocities of Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus is well known for discovering the New World and is seen as a hero of medieval exploration by many scholars today. However, what many text books fail to mention is the fact that he was a genocidal maniac who set in motion what would become probably the worst case of genocide imposed on one nation of human beings by another. Obsessed with finding a sea route to Asia and the Far East, Columbus set out on his ‘Enterprise of the Indies’ in 1492, backed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. However, instead of finding a route to the rich trade in the East, Columbus and his crew discovered the New World, and soon set about subjugating and murdering the local population and removing the vast wealth from the land. A small colony was established in Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and The Dominican Republic) consisting of thirty-nine of his crew, the rest returned to Spain with Columbus along with gold, spices and natives taken as slaves to be given as gifts for his royal patrons. The following year, he led a second expedition comprising of seventeen large ships and one and half thousand new colonists, arriving in the Americas a month later. By the time he got back to Hispaniola, his men there had been slaughtered by the locals and a second colony was founded. Columbus punished the local tribe, known as the Taino, severely. He enslaved many and executed many more; according to Ward Churchill, former professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, by 1496, the population had been reduced from as many as eight million to around three million. On his third expedition, he explored the region before returning to Hispaniola in 1498 where he had left his brothers in charge, Diego and
Open Document