How Did Columbus Cause The Genocide In The Caribbean

The story of Columbus is one that is often stretched, pulled and molded to the author’s will to show how they personally feel about Columbus; I am no exception to this rule. I believe that Columbus was a terrible individual for the crimes he committed against the native people of the Caribbean, those including the torturing of these people and the erasure of a whole culture/the mass genocide of these people. In Howard Zinn’s reading we actually learned how terrible Columbus, his men and his methods to have control the natives actually were. Columbus had promised to the king and queen of Spain to bring back gold and slaves, so to comply with the demand for gold he made the natives search for the gold, but he used harsh methods. If the natives did not find the required amount of gold Columbus would have his men cut off their hands, and let them bleed to death. We can just see how inhumane Columbus was and …show more content…
We all know that Columbus “discovered” the americas but we’re not all aware of how he committed mass genocide. In the Howard Zinn reading it’s said that there was 125,000 natives murdered only 2 years after Columbus’s arrival to the Haiti that being about half of the total population on the total island. As time progressed the native population dwindled, by 1515 the native population was about 50,000 and it only got worse. By 1550 it was estimated to be only 500 natives total and by 1650 it was reported that none of the original natives or their descendants were left. Because of Columbus the elimination of a whole group of people and their descendants was accomplished in less than 200 years, because of this what remnants of their culture do we have? Do we know any of their traditions or customs? Probably not. So yeah columbus was able to introduce Europe to the americas, but he was also able to erase a whole group of the face of the