Page 41 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2012

The Real Legacy of Christopher Columbus The Real Legacy of Christopher Columbus WARNING: Do Not Read This If You Want To Go On Thinking Of Columbus As Some Big Hero Christopher Columbus’s real legacy isn’t Columbus Day. It isn’t even the wonderful city of Columbus, Ohio. No. In discovering a New World, Christopher Columbus sounded the death knell for an old one. Here’s what they left out of those elementary school historical lessons. THE OLD WORLD MEETS THE NEW The Arawak people of the Bahama Islands were minding their own business on October 12, 1492, when a big strange-looking boat approached one of their idyllic beaches. The men who got off the boat were impressive: They looked like gods with their shinny metal clothing and white skins. And even though the leader spoke harshly and pulled out a dangerous- looking long metal thing, the Arawak went out of their way to treat their visitors with kindness. The presented the stranger with parrots, balls of cotton, spears, and lots of other expressions of good will. Their captain, Christopher Columbus, was quick to take note of this extraordinary kindness. After recording in his log how generous the natives were, he went on to say, “With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” MAN WITH A MISSION Columbus was looking for gold. So when he noticed that most of the natives wore tiny gold ornaments in their ears, he took some of them by force (the natives, not the ornaments) and brought them to his ship. He demanded to be led to the gold, The Arawak led him to Hispaniola, where he left 39 crew members who were supposed to find the gold. Then he took more Indian prisoners and returned to Spain to report to Ferdinand and Isabella that he had reached Asia where he’d found, “great mines of gold and other metals.” WRONG, WRONG, WRONG that gold. He had to repay his investors. He the fate of an old one. For thousands of years the He was wrong, of course, on all counts. returned to South America and, on the island of natives of the Americas had lived in relative But his report was encouraging enough to get a Haiti, ordered all persons 14 years of age or peace and harmony. The real legacy of second expedition underway - this time with 17 older to collect a minimum quantity of gold Christopher Columbus is that he sounded the ships and more than 1,200 men. The avowed every three months. Those who failed had their death knell for that way of life. intention of this voyage was to get as many hands cut off and bled to death. This, despite the slaves and as much gold as humanly possible. fact that the only gold around was in the form of A NOTE FROM ROB McCONNELL dust on the edges of streams. This is just another example of how SERVES THEM RIGHT twisted and filled with lies and inconsistencies On reaching Hispaniola, Columbus I’LL TAKE CASSAVA that the history being taught to children really learned that his 39 crewman had been killed by The natives who tried to escape were is. the natives after taking women and children as hunted down with dogs and killed. Mass Christopher Columbus was a the creator slaves for sex and labor. Columbus was further suicides took place across the islands; hundreds of the transatlantic slave trade, responsible for incensed when he found that there was very of natives took cassava poison rather than fall the death of thousands, and yet, history has little gold here. Knowing that he had to show into Spanish hands (or in Columbus’s case. painted him out to be a hero. some dividend for the expensive expedition, he Italian). The Arawak, who Columbus had first Remember ‘X’ Zone Nation, the Vikings sent men out on successive wave of slave raids. encountered, killed their infants to spare them and the Irish Monks were in the Americas long Five hundred natives were carried back to from the inhumanity of the Spaniards. before Columbus ever arrived. Spain: 200 died en route. For The ‘X’ Zone Radio/TV Show and GOODBYE, OLD WORD The ‘X’ Chronicles Newspaper, and REL-MAR OOH, HE’S A TOUGHIE In unwittingly discovering a New McConnell Media Company, I am Rob But Columbus was still intent on finding World, Christopher Columbus thus also sealed McConnell. []