Thesis: What happened after Columbus arrived in Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic)? So many people still assume that Christopher Columbus was a hero, whether they know if that’s true or not. They think that he was a man that cannot be forgotten. What humans in the 21st century have forgotten is that Columbus was a nasty man. He was very cruel, especially after his arrival at Haiti, on December 5th 1492, with three ships, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria (“Taino Conquest” Latin American Studies). Of course, Columbus had always thought he had reached the East Indies in Asia, due to his underestimation of the size of the world’s vast seas. What he didn’t know was that there was no way he would reach Asia without a half dead and starving crew.
After Columbus arrived, the island where he had arrived was renamed to Hispaniola, since its shaped look like Spain. The island had almost a million inhabitants, as predicted by Bartolome de Las Casas (Raudzens, George "Hispaniola, 1492- 1514."), however, modern historians believe that the island only had about 300,000 inhabitants. Columbus and his fleet were greeted by Guacanagarix, one of the five caciques of Hispaniola. Caciques were the chiefs of tribes in the Bahamas at that time. On their first meet, the Tainos (the tribe that lived in the island) were shocked, and impressed at the same time to see horses and advanced technology regarding the Spanish weaponry. The Tainos did not see this “unknown race” as much of a threat, but Columbus thought differently to this (rather awkward) race. He thought the Tainos “looked like cowards and can be easily defeated and enslaved. ("The Wayfarer's Bookshop - Book Gallery.")” He also said, “They ought to make good and skilled fine ...
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... Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus." About.com Latin American History. About.com, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
5. Raudzens, George. "Hispaniola, 1492- 1514." Technology, Disease, and Colonial Conquests, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: Essays Reappraising the Guns and Germs Theories. Leiden: Brill, 2001. 39-41. Print.
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Show MoreOne question posed by the authors is “How did Columbus’s relationship with the Spanish crown change over time, and why?” In simple terms, Columbus’s relationship with the
This assignment examines the document entitled “Bartolomé de las Casas, from Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies.” Bartolomé de las Casas, who spent most of his time in the New World protecting the native people that lived there, authored the document in 1542. In this document Bartolome de Las Casas gives a detailed but horrific account of the atrocious behavior of the spaniards against the native people of the indies.He vividly describes the brutality brought on the natives by europeans all in the name of proclaiming and spreading Christianity.This document was originally intended for Charles I of Spain and one
Although Columbus was increasing the wealth and strength of Spain, he was “a catastrophe for the indigenous inhabitants of the lands” (Belasco 67). He had no remorse for the natives as he proceeded to establish plantations, enslave them, slaughter them, and create a new colony called Espanola on their lands. According to Schuman, Howard, Barry Schwartz, and Hannah d’Arcy, Christopher Columbus “deserves condemnation for having brought slavery, disease, and death...
Two conflicts during this time are seen as significant towards this battle between the interests of the Natives in the Americas. One of which was between two men: Bartolomé Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. Las Casas defends t...
The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with the horror of colonialism. In fact, the Dominican Republic became the “hub” for the colonization of the America’s, and acted as the stepping-stone for European colonizers into a vast, never before exploited goldmine for both natural and human resources. As Sagas and Inoa discuss, the island of Hispaniola, "became the center of the Spanish colonial enterprise in the New World. It was in Hispaniola where the first major contacts between Europeans and Amerindians took place, where the first exploitative economic activities in the New World were developed, where Europeans first established permanent settlements and colonial institutions, and where the stage was set for the colonization of the rest of the New World (Inoa pg. 1.)." Thus the groundwork was established for colonialism not only for the Dominican Republic, but for the entire hemisphere. According to Sagas and Inoa, colonization was inevitable because interaction with Europeans was predictable. They wrote, “[i]f Christopher Columbus had...
Bethell, Leslie. The Cambridge History of Latin America Vol. III. Cambridge University Press, London, England. 1985.
“When Worlds Collide the Untold Story of the Americas after Columbus.” Red Hill Productions. Pbs.org, 2010.Web. 30 April 2014.
Published in 1493, Luis Santangel received the embellished journal of Christopher Columbus as validation for the much-promised riches in the Indies. Centered around an era of power and conquest, Columbus tapered his writings and findings to pacify his Royal sponsors for the voyage. Santangel was also one such wealthy sponsor. Although the tone of the letter was vastly hyperbolic, Christopher Columbus still managed to document the labeling of the numerous islands and its topography. Yet even the size and measurement is a bit exaggerated as well referring to one island being twice as large as that of Great Britain and Scotland. Columbus did his best to acknowledge various “thousands upon thousands” in this letter with that of spiceries and gold mines with mountains in a “thousand shapes...full of trees of a thousand kinds” as well as deeming the exotic islands incomparable to any other islands that “there could be no believing without seeing” firsthand. Colu...
Many people know of the rhyme, “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492,” and as a result of his discoveries, he was considered a historic hero worthy of having a holiday dedicated to him. Little did he know at the time, however, that he would find a preexisting civilization built by the Taino Native Americans that he would catalyze the fall of – returning their initial friendliness with labor and suffering. The loss of the Taino population was the result of harsh conditions, disease, and exploitation under Spanish colonization.
Varner, John G. and Jeanette Varner., trans., ed. The Florida of the Inca. Austin: U of Texas P, 1951.
When Columbus first set foot in the New World, he believed that he had arrived in the islands just off the coast of Cipango, known today as China. Thinking this, he called the people that he met Indians, as they lived on the islands that he falsely believed were the Indies. The term Indian spread back to Europe, as did the term Indies, and to this day, Native Americans are known as Indians, and the Caribbean islands are referred to as the West Indies. The Indians populated a much greater area than Columbus could have imagined, covering the land of two Continents. The Native people of these lands, known already by a term in their languages that roughly meant "the people", were now thrown into one large group called Indians, which stretched nearly pole to pole.
In the article, “Columbus’s Legacy: Genocide in the America’s,” by David E. Stannard, the theme can be identified as contrary to popular belief that the millions of native peoples of the Americas that perished in the sixteenth century died not only from disease brought over by the Europeans, but also as a result of mass murder, as well as death due to working them to death.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
Cristóbal Colón landed on an unknown island in the Caribbean on October 10, 1492. He planted banners in the beach claiming the land for the Spanish throne. Colón’s perceptions and interactions with the indigenous people, the Taino, sparked the events that lead to the colonization of the Americas. Colón’s perceptions of the Taino were misinterpreted by him. His misconceptions about the Taino were built from a compilation of his own expectations, readings of other explorers, and strong religious influence in Western Europe. The Taino also misunderstood the Spanish as well. Their false beliefs about the Spanish were driven by their religious beliefs as well as their mythology. Through misunderstandings backed by the religions, physical appearances, and the histories of both the Taino and the Spanish, the Taino believed that the Spanish were god-like figures that fell from the sky, while the Taino were perceived by the Spanish as simplistic, uncultured natives, that would be easily converted to Christianity and used as servants (Wilson, Hispanola p. 48-49).1 To better comprehend these events one must look at the preceeding events in both the lives of the Taino and The Spanish.