The voyage of Christopher Columbus is very important to us today. It continues to be a very controversial subject as he was the first explorer to have lasting impacts on the America’s and their societies. We first learnt that Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas and then we are informed about the impacts that this had on indigenous groups in the America’s. It is important to keep in mind the death that followed him but also that we are here today as a result of him beginning this relationship.

His journey sparked the true beginning of trade, exportation, and colonization in the Americas. He is known for the beginning of the slave trade but he would have liked his accomplishments to be known for the spread of Christian Religion.

Going into this weeks readings, I had a perspective on Columbus formed. I formed this perspective as what I had been taught and heard about is the lasting harm he had on this society. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading his accounts in his personal journal. To me, reading his journal made him feel more human, less of the cold blooded murderer that I thought him out to be. I was very intrigued by his descriptions of his voyage to the Americas, the scenes he painted for us readers was very interesting. It is hard to imagine the difficulty of the voyage was for all these men, this seemed to be an accurate description of the journey by boat.

While reading this journal, it stood out very blatantly that Columbus completely had all faith that he was doing something good for himself, his country, and these people.  He saw them as objects and not as fellow human beings.

Guaman Poma de Ayala extracts from The First New Chronicle and Good Government was focus primarily on the greed, shed of blood, and the spread of christianity. These men were driven by gold and the riches that awaited them, this led to large conflict and as a result the Indians were murdered and some spaniards died as well.

It is difficult to not feel resentment and have a negative view towards these men, who showed no compassion but reading these two different texts was extremely informative and made these series of events in fact, more real. This was an important part of history and every side of this story should be analyzed.