I think that Columbus is guilty of genocide. I believe this because in his own journal he wrote about how easy the natives do what they want them to, and how they would make good slaves “They have no weapons and are all naked without any skill in arms and are very cowardly so that a thousand would not challenge three,” says the journal for December 16th “… Thus they are useful to be commanded and to be made to labor and sow and to do everything else of which there is need and build towns and be taught to wear clothes and learn our customs.” I think Columbus along with the people who came with him were guilty of genocide.
I believe this because he followed the steps to commit genocide. First the group was already divided into colonists and natives. Then the Natives were dehumanized and treated like animals. “Then Columbus made a plan to capture the natives and send them to Europe to work as slaves. Next most of the Natives were slain either by the hands of their captors, their own hands, or from overwork, or they were captured as slaves. “The fugitives in the mountains were hunted down with hounds; if they escaped capture, they often died of disease or starvation. Thousands killed themselves by taking a poison made from cassava. Many parents killed their infants to spare them a living death under Spanish rule. In only two years, half the 250,000 Indians on the island were dead… it was the beginning of genocide for the native population. By 1548…not 500 Indians remained in Hispaniola” And finally today people deny that Columbus is guilty of Genocide. Saying that he was a great man who discovered the new world and neglect to say that he was also the starter of genocide against the whole Native American people.
Christopher Columbus started out to find a new sea route to India and took with him three ships the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. After about 5 weeks Land was sighted at 2 a.m. on October 12, 1492, by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana, Columbus claimed they discovered a new land, he named it San Salvador. The land had already been discovered and was inhabited by many Native people. The native people he encountered were the Lucayan, Taíno or Arawak. They were a peaceful people who weren't trying to hurt the Colonists. However the colonists didn't have the same intentions. In Columbus' journal he wrote about the natives. "It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion." Later in his journal he wrote, "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased." The Taínos were enslaved by the Spaniards and worked to death in the mines and plantations they established on Hispaniola. Columbus imposed a burdensome tribute on every Taíno, which if he failed to pay; he would suffer mutilation or execution. When Columbus was in “the new world” he did exploring near Cuba and Hispaniola. The Santa Maria ran aground and had to be abandoned. The local natives let Columbus leave some of his men behind. “Columbus left 39 men and founded the settlement of La Navidad in what is now present-day Haiti.” Later before returning to Spain Columbus decided that since the natives were so easy to control he'd take some back as slaves. “Columbus kidnapped some ten to twenty-five Indians and took them back with him. Only seven or eight of the Indians arrived in Spain alive, but they made quite an impression on Seville.” Columbus' voyage back may also have brought syphilis back from the New World.
Columbus left Spain a second time to find new territories and he had about 1,200 men to colonize the region. However this time when they returned the natives weren't as nice as they had been “One of the first skirmishes between native Americans and Europeans took place when Columbus's men rescued two boys who had just been castrated by their captors.” Columbus returned to Hispaniola, where he intended to visit Fuerte de la Navidad which was built during his first voyage, however it was found in ruins, destroyed by the native Taino people. By this time the natives and the colonists weren't getting along at all and Columbus even let one of his crewmembers rape a native girl on their journey back to Spain. “I turned into captivity a beautiful caribe woman … and while she was naked as their custom is, I felt desires of laying with her. I want to satisfy my desire but she didn't want and gave me such a treatment with her nails that I think it would be better to never begun…I take a rope and whipped her, … Finally we reached such an agreement that I can tell you she appeared to be trained in a whore school.” This is just one time that a native was raped but it probably happened many.
During Columbus' third journey back to America the Spanish settlers were angry at Columbus and thought they had been mislead about the riches of the new world. So he decided to take more of the native people as slaves to make more money. “An entry in his journal from September 1498 reads, "From here one might send, in the name of the Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold..." Indeed, as a fierce supporter of slavery, Columbus ultimately refused to baptize the native people of Hispaniola, since Catholic law forbade the enslavement of Christians.” Soon Columbus would also have to deal with rebel natives and settlers. “He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court.” He was then arrested for a period of time before going back on his forth and final journey.
Columbus made a fourth voyage in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. In January 1503 he established a garrison at the mouth of the Rio Belen. On April 6 one of the ships became stranded in the river. At the same time, the garrison was attacked, and the other ships were damaged. Columbus left for Hispaniola on April 16, heading north. For a year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica. They finally got off by “intimidating the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse for February 29, 1504… Help finally arrived, on June 29, 1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on November 7.”
