Blog #9: Columbus

Columbus 
Columbus is a hero, right? He is why today (Columbus Day) is celebrated, in 1492 he sailed the ocean blue and very well may be the reason that we are all in America today, but is he all good? The children's books we all read growing up say he was, but whose point of view is it told from? Not the Indians who struggled to survive this encounter, but the Spaniards who thought Columbus was a hero. Columbus's "progress" just disguises genocide, saying that it was "necessary"  for such progress, the cruel subjugation and the ruthless exploitation. Columbus murdered, tortured, and drove people to suicide. His progress was at the expense of the Indians, making him to a greater extent a villain. Columbus said the natives were "willing to trade everything", but he did not return the kindness. Instead, all he could think about was slaves and gold, he continued by taking some of the Indians on his ship and insisting they show him where the gold was. Eventually, he forced them to find a quantity of gold each month, giving those who complied a copper token. Those that rebelled had their hands cut off and left to bleed to death. As soon as the gold ran out, Columbus forced the Indians onto encomiendas, large slave estates. He didn't just take the men, no, he took women and children for sex and labor too. The Indians were forced to work in mines, most of them died. Columbus didn't make "necessary progress" he changed a whole population into slaves. And in the end, what was it for? None of the European lands were able to keep hold on America. Columbus was a villain and if not for his heroic appearance in discovering the New World, Columbus Day would be a day to mourn the actions of a cruel, power-hungry spaniard.

Hernando Cortez also murdered man native in his quest to conquer Mexico  and, he too, was a Spanish conquistador. 

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