Reading through Christopher’s entries, how the world looked like to him, his point of view on the natives, it was shocking to read through. I’ve always known a brief history of what had happened after he arrived, his diary entries bring a clear idea to how bias and Christopher Columbus was. Upon arrival as the natives come up to him and his crew, Christopher’s first few thoughts were associated with negative connotation such as how they appeared “to be very poor people in all respects,” (94). Reading through his however, Christopher describes his journey and his interactions with very little truth, almost “sugarcoating” behind what had happened.
Through these passages, it seems like he had left out a lot of the terror, pain, and loss that had occurred as he was in the islands. As he sees the natives for the first time one of his thoughts were that “they must be good servants, and intelligent, for I see that they can quickly repeat everything said to them.” (94) Columbus did enslave a lot of natives, and they were treated with violence and brutality, but in these passages Columbus writes his thoughts as though he is doing a good thing for the natives, that he’s helping them. As he mentions how the natives in page 94, he says that through “Gods will” he will “take six of them” with him “for Your Majesties.”
Clearly, you can’t just “take six of them” for someone else’s needs. He though doesn’t describe how the natives must have reacted through this, it’s dehumanizing. Another example is when he mentioned religion, though he doesn’t know if the natives do or do not have a religion, he immediately assumed they don’t since they “appear” to him “that they have no religion” and claims to covert them to Christianity.
There is so much that had happened when Columbus landed on those Islands that he doesn’t fully mention, though perhaps in his mind he was doing certain actions for a good cause, in the end his actions were from his bias, selfishness, and his desires for gold.
- Were there people from Christopher’s crew that rebelled against him for his actions?
- What would have happened if the natives immediately approached Columbus with violence?
- When was the truth of the violence and brutality of the natives officially published for the world to know?
I think your second question about what would have happened if the Natives were hostile towards Columbus is super interesting because I never really considered that outcome. On one hand I want to say if they immediately attacked Columbus and his men when they landed ashore they would’ve probably won and sent them back to Spain (if not killing all of them). But then on the other hand, I’m sure the King and Queen would’ve sent a fleet back to the islands in retribution, and the indigenous population would’ve been wiped out completely as well. And the whole narrative of the indigenous people as innocent and pure would also be destroyed so I’m curious as to how historians would’ve described them if those events actually did occur. But I’m not sure, how do you feel about it?
I think you’re absolutely right in describing Columbus’ attitude towards the natives as “dehumanizing”. He seemingly approaches them as though they were objects.
It was quite shocking to read how emotionlessly he wrote about taking the Natives back with him as well as how he wrote as if he know everything there was to know about their lifestyle, culture and religion. He dismissed the notion that these people could have longstanding traditions without giving it a single thought.