Christopher Columbus, a sailor who served King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the rulers of Spain, took off on a journey to find Asia. However, by mistake, he actually sailed the great seas and “discovered” an island of Hispaniola, America. This feat created a gateway for other races to colonise and live in the newly “discovered” land. In reality though, the land had already been explored by and inhabited by the Tainos people, a peaceful tribe that never believed in private property. A tribe that was very giving and inviting, they “exhibited great love towards all others in preference to themselves”. Columbus and his men, when they “discovered” the already used land, slaughtered natives, playing cruel games with them as if they were wild beasts. …show more content…
On paragraph 3 of Document C, “The Great Disease Migration’, is shows how “By the time Columbus set sail, the people of the Old World held the distinction of being thoroughly diseased. By domesticating pigs, horses, sheep and cattle, they had infected themselves with a wide array of pathogens. And through centuries of war, exploration and city-building, they had kept those agents in constant circulation. Virtually any European who crossed the Atlantic during the 16th century had battled such illnesses as smallpox and measles during childhood and emerged fully immune.” Columbus and his men, along with the Old World, had been in contact with many diseases and became immune. However, the indigenous people have been in solitude when it comes to sickness. On paragraph 4 of the same document, it says “ By contrast, the people of the Americas had spent thousands of years in biological isolation. Their own distant ancestors had migrated from the Old World, crossing the Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska . But they traveled in bands of several hundred at most. The microbes that cause measles, smallpox and other ‘crowd type’ diseases require pools of several million people to sustain themselves. By the time Columbus arrived, groups like the Aztecs and Maya of Central America and Peru’s Incas had built cities large enough to sustain major epidemics.” This demonstrates how the people of the Americas had no contact with many diseases, unlike the old World. Therefore, the clash between the two worlds caused a biological warfare, with millions of the indigenous people perishing. Thanks to Columbus and his men, millions died from the epidemic, defenseless and completely helpless. That is why Christopher Columbus should be considered a villain for his “discovery” on the