Columbus Case

In A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, there are many subjects brought up that could be found very shocking to people that have not yet heard about the truth of the discovery of America. Although I had heard about some of these facts before concerning Columbus, one of the most appalling things I saw in this article was that the first man to see land while on the voyage with Columbus was to receive a yearly payment as a reward, and although a man named Rodrigo spotted land first, Columbus apparently told everyone that he saw it first the night before. Despite being from a wealthy family and clearly more financially comfortable than the sailor, it was disconcerting to me to see that the "founder" of our land took the annuity anyway. It also surprised me to read that many of the Spaniards present in the Americas during this time would hurt the natives with their knives and things just for fun, or to test out their weapons on innocent people. While many children in American schools have been taught for so long that Columbus was a wonderful man who treated women and children with respect in such a male-dominated world, it was rather shocking to see the truth that Columbus forced his men to kidnap and rape the women and children of the early Americas just as he was. It was also never taught to us in earlier years of school that from the time Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 to the year 1650, every single one of the Arawak Indians and their descendants were killed or died due to the extreme conditions they were placed in and the diseases they were exposed to. Perhaps most alarming of all of this information is that Columbus was lying to the Europeans who had sent him on this trip the entire time, when he exaggerated and used his religious talk to convince his authorities that God had been telling him to do the things that he did. The information in this article is a great contrast to what schools have been teaching students about Columbus, as we have been taught that he was a great man and that he only did good things. Students have been under the impression for so long that Columbus Day is a day to celebrate the man that founded America and treated the natives with respect despite wanting to take their land, while in reality it is the false celebration of a man who killed more people than can be counted and recognized.