Though Christopher Columbus is a celebrated historical figure who enjoys his own national holiday in the United States, further analysis of his character and expeditions reveals that he is not a hero. Instead, he was a man of low moral character who selfishly exploited the generous nature of the native people he encounterd and set a precedent for the treatment of Native Americans for future European conquistadors and settlers. The fact that Columbus took underserved credit for seeing the New World first, and accepted the 10,000 maravedis per year for life as a result, is an immediate indicator of his low moral standard. However, his reputation comes under serious question when one examines his interactions with the Arawak Indians. The Arawaks greeted Columbus and his men bearing food and gifts; sadly, these gestures served only to wet the appetite of the greedy explorer. He took several prisoners hoping that they would lead him to deposits of gold. This began Columbus' tyrade of violence, murder, and imprisonment of the Arawaks. Dragged from their homes, hundreds of the New World's indigenous people were sent overseas to be slaves in Spain or else employed on brutal Caribbean encomiendas and in mines. Suicide rate among the Arawak people was high and population declined exponentially. This blatent disregard for basic human rights would be repeated by the expeditions of Cortes and Pizarro in Central and South America as well as by the constituents of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other British settlements. Columbus' reputation hides these unconvenient truths.
No comments:
Post a Comment