Columbus' Adventures in Hispaniola

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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.
6. "Taino Conquest." Taino Conquest. Latin American Studies, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2013.
7. "Native Voices." Nlm.nih.gov. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
8. "Voyages of Christopher Columbus." ThinkQuest. Oracle Foundation, n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013.
9. "The Wayfarer's Bookshop - Book Gallery." The Wayfarer's Bookshop - Book Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
10. Deagan, Kathleen A., and José María. Cruxent. Columbus's Outpost among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493-1498. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 2002. Print.

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