Letter To The Treasurer Of The Court Of Spain By Christopher Columbus

Throughout grade school I was taught that Christopher Columbus was our hero because he discovered the Americas, but as I grew up I learned that is not the case. Columbus traveled to America having his own beliefs, which were then forced upon the indigenous people of the land. Even though some history books portray Columbus’s voyage as positive, the native people did not actually welcome him on their land. When reporting back to Spain, he created a biased “picture” of the newly conquered land based on his own perceptions by making it seem like the people welcomed him there. Columbus’s “Letter to the Treasurer of the Court of Spain” is used to prove that the traveler can distort their travel writing when reflecting on the history of their travels

His letter was written with a motive behind it; he wanted Spain to provide more money for another trip back. Columbus used a positive tone throughout the letter only speaking of the good of the land, never mentioning the lack of certain resources such as gold. Columbus also glorified the relationship between him and the people of the land, falsifying the reality of occurrences happening during his stay. His praised perspective of the new world would ultimately lead Spain to fund another trip. One of the first positive details Columbus states in his letter is, “There I found very many islands, inhabited by numberless people, all of which I took possession without opposition.” Through this statement, he claims that he effortlessly took over the land without encountering any hardships. Therefore, this means the people of the land, the Indians, willingly gave up their land according to Columbus’s letter and his perception. Due to the Indian’s lack of resources and opposition, Columbus was able to take over the land. The main resource they lacked was Iron since they did not have any source of it available to them. Due to the absence of the resource, they lacked familiar weaponry to Columbus and his men. Instead the Indians carried spearheads made of dry word that were sharpened to a daggering point. Because they were not carrying powerful guns,

The truth is that Columbus did not travel purely to discover new land, he traveled with the motive to find gold and along the way caused a mass genocide of the indigenous people. Loewen’s approach on this issue is primarily focused on the American history textbooks. The textbooks left out the vulgar details of how Columbus discovered America, all creating an image that he is a “hero.” Loewen claims, “Textbooks want to magnify Columbus as a great hero, a ‘man of vision, energy, resourcefulness, and courage,” (59). How is it that someone who used other humans for sex, trade, and labor, and punished them if they did not comply, is classified as a hero? Columbus’s conquest can be seen from two different point of views as Loewen points out, it first can be seen as an amazing feat of courage and imagination. Another view is that it was a bloody atrocity that is actually classified as a mass genocide (Loewen 70). I along with others who are educated on the factual accounts of Columbus’s conquest can testify that the way he took over America was anything but a feat of courage. Columbus did not have courage; he was a selfish person who practically killed the Arawak Indians. We do not see Hitler as our hero, so why do people celebrate Columbus on the famous holiday he is honored for?