 World 7 Myths and Atrocities of Christopher Columbus That Will Make You Cringe
Columbus sailed the ocean blue, so goes the elementary school rhyme. But Columbus also committed numerous crimes against humanity that we never learned about in school. This coming Monday, whenever you see a status update or tweet mentioning Columbus Day, share this article in response. On the anniversary of Columbus’ landing, it’s important for everyone to remember that Christopher Columbus was one of the most evil men to ever walk the earth, and that the myths propagated about him were completely wrong.
1. Columbus never once reached the mainland US. Christopher Columbus never discovered America. The closest he got was Cuba, on his first voyage. Even on his second, third, and fourth voyages, Columbus reached Central America and the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), but it wasn’t until April of 1513 when Europeans first set foot on the mainland US, when Juan Ponce de Leon sailed to Florida from Puerto Rico.
2. Columbus misrepresented the natives who rescued him as cannibals. Upon his arrival to the Bahamas, Christopher Columbus wrecked the Santa Maria. The native population worked for hours to rescue the crew and their cargo. Despite the natives’ kindness, Columbus’ mind immediately went to how profitable enslaving the native population would be. In his journal, Columbus wrote,“…With fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them.”Despite the natives’ kindness and hospitality, Columbus later described the indigenous population as cannibals,
3. Columbus’ sailors were rapists and murderers. On Columbus’ second voyage, he was accompanied by 1,200 men, who viewed the native population as theirs to exploit.Â
4. Columbus massacred over 250,000 natives for gold. Columbus could only justify his multiple voyages across the Atlantic Ocean by assuring King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that the newly-discovered lands were rich with gold. So on his subsequent voyages, Columbus was pressured to deliver. The native populations were quickly enslaved and forced to mine at least a thimbleful of gold every three months.
5. Columbus sold children into sex slavery. Death and Taxes called Columbus “the pimp of the New World.”“A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid,” Columbus wrote.
6. Columbus fed natives to dogs. …Columbus and his men: using dogs to hunt natives instead of foxes. This hellish sport was referred to as the monteria infernal… Natives were even pitted against these dogs in barbaric, gladiator-style death matches. A native would be armed with nothing but a stick and stripped naked, and colonists would entertain themselves by watching the dogs maul the natives by decapitating them with their jaws.Â
7. Columbus was brought back to Spain as a prisoner, but was immediately pardoned. News of the atrocities committed by Columbus and his men along with his mismanagement of the island’s resources created enough outrage that in 1500, he was stripped of his official title as governor of Hispaniola and ordered back to Spain in chains. But King Ferdinand liked Columbus so much that he not only pardoned him, but funded Columbus’ 4th voyage.
In just 8 years, Christopher Columbus managed to begin the eradication of an entire indigenous population, put the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade into motion, and establish precedent for centuries of raping and pillaging by other European colonists. Rather than observing Columbus Day this coming Monday, take after Seattle, Washington; Richmond, California; Lawrence, Kansas, and other cities and observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead.
