![]() They should be good servants.” The Indigenous peoples were soon forced into slavery and punished with the loss of a limb or death if they didn’t collect enough gold. “They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces,” Columbus wrote in his diary. A friendly group, they willingly traded jewelry, animals, and supplies with the sailors. When Columbus first set foot on Hispaniola (what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he encountered a population of Indigenous peoples called the Taino. He enslaved and mutilated Indigenous peoples What Was Christopher Columbus’ Heritage?.Columbus might indeed have had noble intentions when he sailed west, but his agreement with Spain suggests his intentions were far from selfless. It also stated that Columbus could keep 10 percent of any “merchandise, whether pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects” that he “acquired” within the new territory. ![]() His contract with the monarchs, called The Capitulations of Santa Fe, named Columbus the admiral, viceroy, and governor of any land he discovered. ![]() He had struck a lucrative deal with the SpanishĬolumbus stood to gain significant wealth and power from his voyage, terms he negotiated with King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain. Contrary to the popular myth, Columbus didn’t set out to prove that the world was round, but rather that it was possible to sail around it, a voyage the explorer drastically underestimated. In fact, it was an idea that had been established by the ancient Greeks in the 5 th century BCE. Many already believed the world was roundīy 1492, most educated Europeans already believed the earth was round. Beginning at the age of 41, he defied naysayers across Europe and led four voyages across an uncharted ocean in wooden sailing ships that weren’t designed to take on the punishing waters of the Atlantic. He didn’t reached Asia as planned, but you can’t discount the sheer will required to make his journey. ( Leif Eriksson is the first European believed to have sailed to North America, having reached Canada 500 years before Columbus set sail to the west.) While he did reach the coasts of what today are Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, as well as explore the Central and South American coasts, he never unfurled a Spanish flag in North America. In fact, October 12 marks the day of his arrival to the Bahamas. Columbus never discovered America but his voyage was no less courageousĮven if you were to overlook the not-so-minor fact that millions of people were already living in the Americas in 1492, the fact is that Columbus never set foot on the shores of North America.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |