The Truth of Christopher Columbus: hero to be celebrated or historical antagonist?
Columbus day. An American holiday, widely established throughout the country on October 12 of 1971, but first celebrated as far back as 1792. The goal of this holiday was to commemorate the arrival of Christopher to the New World, to honor his accomplishments and what they set into motion. However, it is possible that in focusing on the positives the explorers actions brought down the line, many forget the calamity his actions brought and the truth of his character. With his arrival in 1492, Columbus set in motion the decimation of the Native American people and this so called ‘hero’ was also father of the slave trade. Christopher Columbus is just another one of the pale-skinned, murderous oppressors that history paints as a champion of the people and for his crimes he should be remembered as such.
Image taken by aori mkey
The genocide on the Native American people led to brutality and illness executing 90% of the indigenous populace, roughly 55 million individuals. Currently, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives make up only 1.7% of the US population.These events would not have occurred if not for Columbus’ “exaggerated report and promises”. During his initial expedition he sent word to the king and queen of Spain at the time asking for further assistance, in return he promised them "as much gold as they need ... and as many slaves as they ask" from his next voyage. He was then given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men in order to most efficiently amass slaves and gold. The Europeans went from island to island taking Natives as captives and in 1495 Columbus and his men “went on a great slave raid, rounded up fifteen hundred Arawak men, women, and children, put them in pens guarded by Spaniards and dogs, then picked the five hundred best specimens to load onto ships. Of those five hundred, two hundred died en route”. Columbus himself later wrote in his journal: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." The dilemma here is that many of the people they had enslaved died within captivity, too many. Desperate and scrambling, Columbus needed gold to make good on his promises and he needed it fast so, of course, he forged a plan to force the Native people to collect gold for him. He even made sure to give a work inducing incentive, their lives. The Europeans “ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.” This quote shows how in his franticness, Columbus esteemed gold more than blameless human lives, and afterward, continued to torment those same innocent people when he didn't have as much gold as he needed. Columbus was cruel and tyrannical and had no knowledge of the land so he was forcing them to look for sums of gold that weren't there to begin with. Howard Zinn writes “The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they [the Native people] fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed”. Columbus cared not for the lives of these people, his priority was gold and he would do anything to get it. Therefore, him and his men went forth subjecting the Native peoples to atrocious horrors. Bartolomé de Las Casas, one of the primary chroniclers of Columbus’s crimes wrote of what occured, “[The Europeans] dismember, slay, perturb, afflict, torment, and destroy the Indians by all manner of cruelty new and divers and most singular manners such as never before seen or read of heard of..because the Indians did not give him a coffer filled with gold, . . . they killed an infinite number of souls, and cut off the hands and noses of countless women and men, and others they threw to the savage dogs, who ate them and tore them to pieces.” So all this gory, senseless killing and for gold? Power? Favor from the Spanish rulers? Exactly that actually. From the words of Las Casas: “The cause for which the Christians have slain and destroyed so many and such infinite numbers of souls, has been simply to get, as their ultimate end, the Indians’ gold of them, and to stuff themselves with riches in a very few days, and to raise themselves to high estates --”. All of this horror had been for selfish reasons. There was no necessity or desperation for this gold that required Columbus and other Europeans that followed after him to treat the Indigenous in such a way. There was only greed.
While its true that slavery existed prior to Columbus’ arrival, it was him who turned it into a worldwide enterprise and made it the basis for the New World's financial framework. Many recognize him as a symbol of true American patriotism, placing him along the likes of the founding fathers, “Incidentally, in conjunction with these facts, it would also be quite fair to label Columbus as one of the “founding fathers” of the trans-Atlantic slave trade”. During this time the Spanish utilized slaves in the Canary Islands, and the Portuguese rehearsed subjection. There are a few signs Columbus had, at one point, been associated with the slave exchange on the African coast. Initially, his goal was simply to take back some of the natives to show to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella however, Columbus paid much attention to the docile nature of the Indegionus people and he began to envision how well the Natives would fare as slaves and how much money he could gain from selling them. After his first meetings with the Native Americans he describes the people as “friendly” and unassuming he later noted: “It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants”. So during his second voyage, in 1493, Columbus ordered natives to be rounded up and returned to Spain to be sold and in the early months of 1494, several dozen slaves arrived in Spain. Columbus had planned for them to be sold and the resulting money used to buy cattle and supplies to be shipped to the New World. Though King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella did not like his plan, “They ordered the trade stopped until the matter could be discussed in detail”. However, that was of no concern to the rapacious explorer, “..Columbus continued to ship slaves to Spain. About 1,600 were rounded up in 1495 on the island of Hispaniola. About 550 were put in chains for the voyage to Spain. The others were offered to crew members as personal slaves.”. The King and Queen seemed uncertain about slavery but soon authorized the sale of slaves, then later changing their minds again and after "consult[ing] with lawyers, theologians, and specialists in canon law to see whether they [slaves] can be sold in good conscience" the royal couple then ordered the Indian slaves in Spain freed and banned future sales, until 1503. After two years, the use of African slaves began in the New World, establishing the frameworks for a severe, barbaric system that was to last for centuries.
Nevertheless, champions of Columbus, such as Victor Davis Hanson, will most likely argue that though people like to criticize Columbus we would not be living the privileged lives that we have without him “discovering” America. Though it is true that, whether intentional or not, Columbus’ discovery did lead to us living the way we are allowed to in this country, there is no way to know if someone else could have “discovered” America. And while doing so may have found a way to do it without beginning the Native American Genocide or the transatlantic Slave trade, thus leaving the world with an better overall outcome. Additionally, it is because of the oppressive systems that this country was built on that America as a whole struggles so much and why there is such a discrepancy between most minorities and those who the outline of this country was formatted for. The point was also recently presented by former state senator John Pica that “Columbus’ importance is still evident in our society, with many municipalities and cities named after him, and that his significance shouldn’t be lost despite the explorer’s racist and violent treatment of nonwhites”. Here the speaker attempts to make the point that Columbus shouldn’t lose his accolades because he was racist and violent. But it is blatantly obvious that this is exactly why he should lose his accolades. This statement simply proves how tolerant America is of racism. The speaker says “despite the explorer’s racist and violent treatment of nonwhites”. This way of speaking makes it seem as though he committed some miniscule crime instead of the given facts; Columbus’ arrival caused two of the most vile crimes throughout the entire existence of the Western Hemisphere; the Native American Genocide and the Atlantic Slave Trade. This is not a man America ought to commend each year.
Indeed it is true that Columbus’ discovery is worth something and it is worthless to spend our time condemning him over and over as America should have done in the past. It is now a bit too late for that. From this point forward there is much to do, the first caurse of action being that people need to accept the truth of what he did as an unnecessary genocide and not some “ deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress” as is often done with histories atrocities. Next, there is a need for this country to switch gears and focus on prioritizing time to solving problems that have been festering for centuries. Instead of focusing on Columbus, who is long gone and will continue to face the proper treatment for his actions wherever he went, America needs to utilize this holiday to learn and honor Native American people and commemorate their histories and cultures. To solve the disparity in how Indigenous people are treated on their own land and learn to better respect that [stolen] land. Aside from using his story to learn from historical catastrophe: “How should Christopher Columbus be remembered”? Truthfully, he shouldn't be remembered at all.
