Genocide in the New World
The arrival of Columbus in the New World ushered in an unprecedented era of wanton destruction, slaughter and abuse in the name of Christian enlightenment.
Posted by Henry Ramsey | Last updated: Mar 25, 2013
From a European perspective, the Spanish arrival in the New World was a great and marvelous thing that promised untold riches, exploitable resources, adventures for the bold and, later, for settlers, an escape from the old, familiar constants of religious persecution and poverty in Europe.
For the largely peaceful, content and happy inhabitants of the New World, it was the beginning of the end of life as they knew it.
When Columbus first encountered the Caribbean natives, he wrote in his log book of his surprise at how peaceful, naive and seemingly incapable of dishonesty they were. For worthless trinkets or sometimes nothing at all, the natives would cheerfully hand over whatever possessions were asked for, including gold jewelry. Later, anything desired by the Spaniards would simply be taken. Their ignorance of weapons such as swords was evident when some natives, while examining Columbus' sword, cut themselves on it.
It was this very naivety in "the ways of the world" that would prove to be their undoing and would set Columbus' mind to thinking of exploiting and enslaving the native peoples of the New World. How unfortunate for the natives that some of them wore gold jewelry when Columbus first landed. The sight of this gold inflamed the greed of the Spaniards and would soon lead to untold suffering as the natives were forced to work in gold mines.
There was no mistake that on the first day of their arrival, when the Spanish royal standard and banners were planted in the ground during a lofty speech claiming the land for the Spanish sovereigns, Columbus was there as a conqueror. As a rule, conquerors do what is in their own interest and do not concern themselves with what is in the interests of those they have conquered--who, far more often than not, are relegated to the status of a lower human order.
Was Columbus an evil man? Not by 15th-century European standards. He was a devout Christian, persistent in his endeavors and fully loyal to the Spanish crown --three attributes that were needed at the start of the New World era-- but by today's standards he was amazingly indifferent, callous and cruel toward the natives of the New World.
On his first day in the New World, Columbus wasted no time in showing what he was about when he had six natives seized, believing they would make good "servants." Their names of course are not recorded, but these were undoubtedly the first of many millions of slaves made miserable in the New World.
It has been estimated that perhaps 100,000,000 people lived in the Western Hemisphere when Columbus arrived, and within a mere hundred years, the population would decline by 70% or more. In some cases local populations declined much more rapidly or became virtually extinct within a few years--especially where they had repeated or continual contact with their new overlords. On the island of Española, for example, where much of the forced mining was done, there were two million who perished-- having succumbed to diseases brought by the Spaniards, or from being underfed and overworked in the gold mines as well as being murdered outright. By 1535, the island was virtually devoid of natives, after which African slaves would be brought over to work the mines. Throughout the regions that the Spaniards controlled, there would soon be a greatly declining birth rate as well as an increase in depression and suicide.
Writing 49 years after the New World "discovery" (in fact, Vikings, Africans and even British fishermen were said to have visited much sooner), the Dominican priest Bartoleme de Las Casas recorded that on the island of Hispaniola the population went from an estimated 3 million to 200. He reported similar depopulations on Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
While it is true that at the time of the first voyage, Columbus made an attempt to prevent his men from stealing from the natives or otherwise taking advantage of them, it can mainly be seen as an attempt to gain the needed initial cooperation of the natives. It would become standard practice for Columbus later to regularly have natives kidnapped wherever he sailed so that they could be used as interpreters or as sex slaves for his men. The gloves would come completely off by the second voyage, when many more ships and armed troops arrived to subjugate their new colonies. Pillaging, raping and slaughtering became the norm in the decades that followed. As the Spaniards swept further inland, the natives stood no chance against musket fire, armored men with pikes on horseback and their "dogs of war" trained to run down and maim or kill fleeing natives.
One of the few natives to actively resist the Spaniards was Hatuey, a Taíno chief on the island of Hispaniola. When the Spaniards neared, he fled to Cuba with 400 of his people and there carried out a guerilla-style resistance to the Spaniards. After three months, Hatuey was betrayed and captured and put on a stake to be burned to death.
Before the torch was applied, a priest asked Hatney to embrace Christ so that he would go to Heaven. Hatney asked the priest whether there would be Spaniards in Heaven, to which the priest answered that there were many. Hatuey replied that in that case he would prefer not to go to Heaven, and wanted nothing to do with a God who allowed such cruelty as he had witnessed.
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