Examples Of Christopher Columbus's Treatment Of Native Americans

The Treatment of the Native Americans by the Spaniards In the late 1400s, Christopher Columbus planned to find a quicker, straightforward route to Asia, and in 1492, he believed he found that route; however, Columbus’ efforts to find Asia failed, instead he found the North American lands, which seemed to be much more promising than Asia would have ever proved to be. Columbus spent the next several months charting and exploring the lands and creating relationships with the natives. At the beginning, these Spanish and Native relations were healthy in the eyes of the Natives. The Natives gave riches to the Spaniards all on their own will and even considered that they were some higher form of power, a deity of sorts. While this relationship was

When Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, he opened a new world that no one had previously discovered. Naturally, when two different groups of people meet, for instance the Spanish and the Indians, one of two things are going to happen: they will make friends with each other or they will try and get what they want out of the other group. The Spanish travelers chose to use violence and death to get what they wanted. Out of the three Spanish leaders that we learned about, Columbus was definitely the most violent. When Columbus set foot on the Island in the Caribbean, he wanted nothing to stand in his way of finding riches to bring back to Ferdinand and Elizabeth. According to mit.edu, “He (Columbus) promptly instituted policies of slavery and systematic extermination against the native Taino population. Columbus’s programs reduced Taino numbers from as many as eight million at the outset of his regime to about three million in 1496.” Columbus had several ways to “exterminate” as many native Indians as he could. One example is that he would have every Taino over the age of fourteen work to produce a small amount of gold, and if he or she did not, they would get their hands cut off and left to bleed to death. “It is entirely likely that upwards of 10,000 Indians were killed in this fashion alone” (MIT). Columbus would even order his men to roast Indians over a fire and slice up their

With the resources found, they saw an opportunity for monetary gain, which lead to the Spanish to become greedy for power and wealth. Their greed for wealth and power lead the Spanish to treat the Native Americans with brutality and oppression through terroristic threatening. They made the Native Americans become slaves and work on their sugar plantation, pearl diving, and mining for silver and gold. Not only did the Spanish put the Natives through slavery, but did not hesitate to put to death any of the Native Americans who defended themselves. The Spanish did not have mercy on the Native Americans, even though people like Bartolome de las Casas tried to speak in favor of the Native