Columbus And Hispaniola Analysis

The author suggests that Columbus was a greedy, immoral man blinded by finding gold to pay debts and bring riches to Spain. When Columbus landed in the Bahamas, despite being greeted with hospitality by the Arawak Indians, decided he would manipulate them to his benefit. He observed that had no iron, horses or any weaponry that could stand up against the Spanish. Consequently, the natives were tied to the ship as captives, forced to lead Columbus to the fields of gold he believed to be out there. This lead him to Hispaniola which was where the first European military base in the Western Hemisphere was constructed. He ordered that gold was to be found and stored. Columbus then set sail back to Spain to boost about false claims of Hispaniola being abundant in resources which lead to more

The authors are not saying that Columbus didn't harm any natives, but they are saying that many Anti-Columbus groups exaggerate the extent of the killings. This includes pre-Columbus populations counts being way smaller than predicted before, ranging from 15 million to 4 million. This estimation of population size is largely due to the fact that the natives wrote no documentation, which is another point the authors make to back their claim. Studies also show that the Native Americans were evidently suffering from epidemics way before Columbus even arrived. In addition, the authors believe that large areas of the Southwest were abandoned before Columbus showed up due to reasons like warfare and lack of resources. Lastly, they blame tribe to tribe warfare for much of the deaths compared to conflict with Europeans. The authors of this article make a strong effort to remove Columbus from the list of mass murders and soften the perceived damage he did to the Native