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Reading the first source was a rehash of some research I had done in the past on my own. Growing up in the United States, Columbus Day was a holiday more important for its long weekend potential than its historical significance, but it nonetheless has always disturbed me how casually my friends and family accepted the whitewashed mythology surrounding the notorious Genoese navigator. Reading his account, which contains numerous falsehoods regarding the mineral wealth of Hispaniola and how open the native population was to “conversion to the Holy Faith”, I was reminded how his misrepresentations led to a mad rush of would-be conquistadors to begin searching for riches whose brutality would characterize the Spanish colonial regime in Latin America. Also, in the statement regarding the Arawak’s willingness to convert, he mentions how that would be better accomplished “by love than by coercion”, which is ironic in light of how he almost immediately enslaved the natives upon his return in order to search for the fabled goldfields. Beyond the immediate particulars of Columbus’ brutal governorship of Hispaniola, ending when a ship arrived with orders to bring him back to Spain in chains, his exaggerations and promises of easily claimed gold inspired the massive population of fighting men in the newly formed Spanish kingdom to carve a bloody swathe through the islands of the Caribbean and ultimately the mainland of the Americas.

The second source, the account by Guaman Poma, was interesting from the beginning with its system of dating by the reigns of European monarchs and popes. To me this undermines the early colonial notion of indigenous people being incapable of engaging with Western society because he clearly understands the concept of kingship and being the top of a religious hierarchy. Within his own Inca cultural context, they have a rich state tradition with a sovereign who leads both the religious hierarchy and the secular government. Towards the end, he describes an important historical scene: the meeting of two well-established social traditions, both attempting to be diplomatic and cordial, with each party beginning by flattering the other’s apparent power. But once the Spanish issue an ultimatum to worship no god but theirs, Atagualpa must refuse. Incan emperors were said to be descendants of the sun gods, so to renounce those gods would be political suicide. It’s tantamount in absurdity to insisting that the Pope convert and being affronted when he refuses. The ensuing battle at Cajamarca is used alongside the conquest of the Aztec Empire in many historical narratives as a demonstration of European superiority in martial encounters even with large, settled Mesoamerican states. I see both more as demonstrations of the shortsighted barbarism that undergirds the conquistador mindset, making unreasonable demands for submission and reacting with righteous indignation to the respectful dismissal of their own presumptuous behaviour. This is a constant through-line in the story of European encounters across the New World, an inflated sense of European self-importance met with graciousness and generosity on the part of their indigenous hosts that ultimately led to the latter’s undoing.

1st source: https://last100.arts.ubc.ca/files/2014/09/cummins_columbus2.pdf
2nd source: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dfrye/guaman.htm