by Janet Grischy

Created on: October 03, 2008

Columbus did not discover a new world. There were already cultures there, as everyone now knows. The Inca, The Maya, the Mississippians, and plenty of other high civilizations already inhabited the continents and islands Columbus
found.

He did not discover that the world was round. The Hellenes knew this basic truth, their mathematicians explored it. Eratosthenes figured out the circumference of the earth with only a 1% error about 17 centuries before. (His measurement was much more accurate than the one Columbus

believed.) This knowledge was lost, to a degree, during the middle ages, but educated people knew: navigators, cartographers, and advisors to kings knew. Columbus
had attended the navigation school of Prince Henry of Portugal
at the age of 14. Besides, Leif Erickson had already been to the new world, as Columbus
may have learned as a sailor on a voyage to Iceland.

Columbus did not bring light to the dark minds of the western hemisphere. A Christian himself, it was part of his mandate to bring Christianity to the natives he found. On the island of Hispaniola
(modern Dominican Republic
and Haiti) at least, he refused. It was illegal to enslave Christians by the laws of Spain. Therefore, Columbus refused to baptize the inhabitants of Hispaniola in order that they could be transported back to Europe and sold as slaves. Later in life, an ailing Columbus
apparently believed he heard voices of the saints. He often wore the habit of a Franciscan monk. Was this penance, or the action of a brain disease? It's impossible to know.

Though he was a candidate for sainthood in 1866, he was not canonized. Judging from his actions, he did what he did for money, for fame, and to increase the standing and power of his family. On his third voyage he was sent back to Spain
in chains, because of a chorus of complaints about him. In Spain
many testified against him. Though he was released from prison, and commanded ships on further voyages to the Americas, he was never again allowed to govern.

By any standard, his treatment of the Taino Indians was subhuman. He cannot have seen them as human beings. They were robbed, enslaved, mutilated and murdered. The salable were shipped to Europe
to be slaves, and many died of disease on the way. For the rest, the Spaniards demanded that they bring gold. There was almost no gold on Hispaniola. The people were told that if they brought no gold, nor spun cotton as a substitute, they would have their hands cut off and be left to bleed to death. So they fled. The invaders hunted them down and killed them. The Taino engaged in mass suicide, even killing their own children to save them from the Spaniards. When Columbus arrived on
Hispaniola, there may have been 250,000 Taino. In 1550, only a few hundred remained.

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