Christopher Columbus Letter To The King And Queen Analysis

Between the Narrative

History repeats itself, at least that is the way the cliché goes; this phrase is significantly truer than we realize. There is a document where Christopher Columbus writes about his first encounters with the Indigenous people in the Caribbean. He praises the King and Queen for helping him conduct this mission. Further, he describes the people he came across as “innocent”, filled with lovingness, and inclined to the servitude of “your Highness”. Columbus also brings attention to the King and Queen that the Native people can be made Christians. Another observation Columbus came to write about was of all the beautiful land that was amidst them ready to be cropped. Lastly, he ends his letter to the King and Queen by shining a light to the

By speaking of the innocent natives first then mentioning the land he sets up an invisible correlation implying that these people can be put to

work on this land under The Crown. Columbus’ letter can be interpreted as the Crown’s return on investment. Once Christopher Columbus sways the King and Queen, they will further support his ventures into the Americas.
What Columbus does while in this new land was capture as many people that can fit in his ship to sell as slaves. Because Columbus had limited amounts of ships he could not take as many natives as he would have preferred and this could be an indication to why he wrote his letter the way he wrote it. Ultimately having the support of the crown worked in his favor to exploit the land and its people. Columbus’ discovery of this new land led to the Columbian
Exchange where animals, plants, and humans were “products” of the New World and transported to the Old World. Another product he came across was gold something he seems to leave out of this document. The way Columbus took advantage of the native people was brutal not only by enslaving them but by colonialism which essentially is a takeover. They killed mass amounts