“In 1492 Columbus sailed the open blue” Whenever I think of Christopher Columbus I think of two things. First, his actual un-anglicized name “Cristoforo Columbo” as that how I learned about him and secondly this video. I think about the woman staring at the camera, hurt in her eyes, saying “evil, pure evil” I cannot […]
Posted in Blogs, Week 2 | Tagged with 1492, Christopher Columbus, Native Americans, thoughts
Reading Columbus’ journals leaves me with a reinforced belief that Columbus may not be the villain of Euro-American history, but he played a very significant role as a villain. Although the reality that understanding does not time travel well, the things Columbus did were against the beliefs of his own God, the Church through Antonio de Montesino, Bartolomé de las Casas and the Spanish heads of state, including, albeit arguably, King Ferdinand II and his son King Charles V during that time period. Although the violence Columbus committed against the Natives of the Americas’ was horrific, it was far from surprising. The thing I found most surprising in these excerpts were the lack of the details of what he did to the peoples he had plans to “subjugate” as when the Lucayan peoples refused his orders or him stating “A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand”. Unfortunately, this seems to be in the further future of Christopher Columbus.
Read more:
In Defence of the Indians, Bartolomé de las Casas
Posted in Blogs, Week 2 | Tagged with Christopher Columbus, Columbus
