Christopher Columbus was not the man many tell him to be. As a society, we tend to look at all the great and glorious things he did, most notably discovering the Americas. Almost all of the time, however, we do not look at all the negatives, which there are arguably many more of. These include his harsh treatment of natives, thirst for wealth and the terrible acts he committed as governor of the Indies. Upon first reaching the natives, Columbus describes them as very friendly, extremely willing to trade all they had with the Spaniards. He states that they are very well built and of good stature, but that they did not have weapons to defend themselves with. In his journal he writes, “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make
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Because of this, his attitude and demeanor towards his crew and the natives were not in the slightest pleasant. This is shown even before they first land in the Americas. On October 12, 1492, a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to spot land. He shouted to alert everyone on his ship, the Pinta, who then alerted Columbus on the Santa Maria. The first to sight land was supposed to receive a lifetime pension from Ferdinand and Isabella, but Rodrigo never got this because Columbus said he had seen a distant light on the land earlier. This just goes to show that Columbus was willing to steal money that was rightfully his crewmembers, in order to further richen himself. Besides the fact that he would already receive 10 percent of all profits he brought back to Spain. In order to find gold, which was only scarcely available in the form of dust in streams throughout the island, Columbus forced the men to work in mines and in streams to gather as much gold as they could. This task was nearly impossible, and when they did not reach their quotas they were hung or burned. While the men were forced to work in horrific mining conditions for months at a time, the women were made to work the farms, a job that they were not accustomed to. So Columbus took these people, who had been left alone and prospered for centuries, and made them work
Because of this, his attitude and demeanor towards his crew and the natives were not in the slightest pleasant. This is shown even before they first land in the Americas. On October 12, 1492, a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to spot land. He shouted to alert everyone on his ship, the Pinta, who then alerted Columbus on the Santa Maria. The first to sight land was supposed to receive a lifetime pension from Ferdinand and Isabella, but Rodrigo never got this because Columbus said he had seen a distant light on the land earlier. This just goes to show that Columbus was willing to steal money that was rightfully his crewmembers, in order to further richen himself. Besides the fact that he would already receive 10 percent of all profits he brought back to Spain. In order to find gold, which was only scarcely available in the form of dust in streams throughout the island, Columbus forced the men to work in mines and in streams to gather as much gold as they could. This task was nearly impossible, and when they did not reach their quotas they were hung or burned. While the men were forced to work in horrific mining conditions for months at a time, the women were made to work the farms, a job that they were not accustomed to. So Columbus took these people, who had been left alone and prospered for centuries, and made them work