Columbus’s Genocide

Columbus’s Genocide:

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            Although Columbus demonstrated great qualities and was one of the most important figures of history, his story should be viewed from all angles. The discovery of America was one of the most important events in history, but as Kenneth Davis puts it, “Few eras in American history are shrouded in as much myth and mystery as the long period covering America’s discovery and settlement” (3).  Most books about Columbus paint an overly dramatic and heroic picture of him.  Historian Samuel Eliot Morrison, in his book Christopher Columbus, Mariner, writes:

He had his flaws and his defects, but they were largely defects of the qualities that made him great—his Indomitable will, his superb faith in God and his own mission as the Christ-bearer to lands beyond the seas, his stubborn persistence despite neglect, poverty and discouragement.  But there was no flaw, no dark side to the most outstanding and essential of all his qualities—his seamanship. (qtd. in Zinn 8)

This assessment of Columbus may be accurate, however, it omits and downplays very important details.  There is never any word of the atrocities and genocide of the Indians anywhere near a history textbook. 

            Another very important detail left out of textbooks is anything about Bartholomew De Las Casas.  Las Casas transcribed Columbus’s journal and wrote his own History of the Indies (Zinn 5).  In this multi-volume work, Las Casas describes the indigenous people with high admiration (Sanderlin 35). Las Casas also tells a first hand account of the treatment of the Indians by Columbus and the Spaniards:

Endless Testimonies… prove the mild and pacific temperament of the natives… But our work was so exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle and destroy; small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and then… The admiral, it is true was blind as those who came after him, and he was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the Indians… (qtd. in Zinn 6).

An account of history such as this should not be kept out of history books.  Around that time there were few observers on hand and historians should use every source they can find (Davis 4).

            There are many historians who do not agree with the revisionist view of Columbus.  Many people believe that Columbus should be glorified as a hero.  As Michael Berliner puts it, “The critics do not want to bestow such honor, because their real goal is to denigrate the values of Western civilization and to glorify primitivism” (Ayn Rand Institute).  As a critic of the way Columbus is remembered and celebrated, I do not agree with this accusation.  The problem with the way we teach about Columbus is the same problem with most of our history.  History is written by the conquerors, and rarely are there any accounts of the conquered.  It is more important to view history from every angle possible than to use historical figures, such as Columbus, to enhance nationalism. 

           

Other historians who may recognize the devastation that Columbus and the Spaniards caused, try to give them justification.  In the history textbook, The American Promise, the author tells the reader to view Columbus through the standards of his time and to disregard the importance of his treatment of the Indians (Roark 27).  Yet surely Columbus and others of his time knew that murder was wrong (Yewell 12).  To understand the present is the main reason to study history.  If we look at history only through the eyes of the past we are doomed to repeat its mistakes.  Emphasizing the heroics of Columbus and those who came after him and to downplay their genocide, serves to justify what was done (Zinn 9).