Columbus wrote:
“As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts. The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold? He had persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance an expedition to the lands, the wealth, he expected would be on the other side of the Atlantic—the Indies and Asia, gold and spices”. 1
5.6
Servants
“Yes this was how Columbus saw the Indians – not as hosts, but as “servants,” to “do whatever we want.”
And what did Columbus want? This is not hard to determine. In the first two weeks of journal entries, there is one word that recurs seventy-five times: GOLD.
Contrary to the belief columbus went to America to convert the natives to christianity. “Yes He was concerned about God. But more about Gold.” “…his men spent most of their time erecting crosses. But also over the island they built gallows – 340 of them by the year 1500. in his quest for gold… He ordered the natives to find a certain amount of gold and if they did not meet their quota, their arms were hacked off. The others were to learn from this and deliver the gold”
Slavery
When Columbus couldn’t find enough gold to “impress his King and Queen and his spanish financiers” he moved on to slavery.
In his journal of 1498 he wrote. “From here one might send in the name of the Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold…” 1.
Columbus, by his own admission far from delivering civilization to America, found civilization and proceeded to destroy it. Both recent and ancient history is littered with such deception. The tyrant the war lord and the robber baron are held up as saviours of civilization and the history of people is forgotten. The same exclusion carries throughout the culture of our society and allows the misrepresentation of history to serve ideologies. Rather than our history representing, good or bad, the people who have lived it.