Thoughts on Columbus

As a child I sang a song in elementary school about Columbus' discovery of the New World. The catch was that "somebody was already there." While initially Columbus had a more neutral position in society, even sometimes positive, by the time I reached middle school my perception of him and his actions was entirely negative.

Columbus' journal poses an interesting nuance. While he seems rather forgiving, kind, and well tempered I knew that in his later journeys he would create the grounds for the Taino extinction. In the context of knowing his later impacts on native culture and life, I found his attitudes to be disingenuous towards the Native people he interacted with. Let alone the capture of six individuals points to a sort of objectification of human life, as those people became disposable in his quest. We also know that in many native cultures, like the Aztec, although they interacted with Cortes later and not Columbus, they viewed the Spanish as gods or magical forces. This attitude would allow the Spanish to easily exploit them and claim the natives were eager and complicit.

While I simply view Columbus as a villain, I do understand the importance of contextualizing his pursuits in the time period. Motivated by the ideas of expansionism, royalty, and especially religion there was a certain belief that his exploration was a right and a duty. Understandings of different races, cultures, and religions were largely muted. Instead uniformity and nationalism motivated expansion.