Did Columbus trade slaves and commit genocide

[teamventure]

Their trying to say the same thing about other famous explorers like Cook and Gama...

Its all rubbish... These guys were explorers, they weren't involved in the slave trade that happened after them...
The English and Portuguese were much bigger slave traders than the Spanish, they had no territory in Africa...

Columbus is the most over rated explorer ever... Did he find America? I guess he did but he never claimed it.
His mission was to reach India
In his first voyage he claimed he reached Japan
In his second voyage he claimed he reached China
And in the third voyage he claimed he reached India
He had absolutely no idea where in the world he was and which natives he was engaging

Yes, I remember learning some of this in childhood while schools still taught history.
He sailed thinking he reached India when he found the Americas hence calling natives Indians.

 

[Wrangler]

I came on here to get a balanced answer. Was Columbus a really bad dude? Why or why not?

Columbus is on Intelliquest's Biographies of the World's 100 Greatest People. He was once considered by the Catholic Church for sainthood for bringing Christianity to half the Earth! Goes to show the power of revisionist history for you to ask if he was a bad dude.

I could say a lot more about this subject but one point I want to make is the motivation for his voyage to India. A couple of generations before, the trade route to India established by Marco Polo was closed/made too costly & dangerous due to the conquest of the Christian capital, Constantinople by the Muslims.

Columbus voyage was delayed for several years as the Spanish crown was pre-occupied defeating the Muslim invaders (Moors) into Spain over the previous 4 centuries.

Columbus is the victim of revisionist history, not judged by historical standards but Cultural Marxist standards. The funny thing is the Islam world enslaves more people today and throughout history than any other ideology and enslaved over 1 MILLION Europeans, far more than Europeans ever enslaved anyone. Yet, Cultural Marxists use slavery AS THOUGH it is only done by White people against non-White people. Pure fiction.

You are asking this question as Columbus Day approaches. In reading a book about George Washington, it was pointed out that he was the 1st man honored with a holiday besides Columbus and our Lord. Think of it! In the 18th century, the 1st man Americans honored with a holiday, besides our Savior was Columbus. Do you think their standards were the same by which you ask the question?

 

[JohnPaul]

First, Christobal Colon (Columbus) was an explorer and adventurer hoping to find a westward route to India, to make trade simpler and more profitable. He wasn't a slave trader, but did bring captive natives back to Spain, possibly introducing a potential source of slaves. All expedition was motivated by profit, not just some desire to advance knowledge.
Second, there is some speculation that Colon was of Italian Jewish descent and that his voyages were in part a search for safe haven for the Jews of the diaspora. He sailed on his first voyage in 1492, the same year as the Spanish "expulsion ", when the 800 year "reconquista" was declared won and non Catholics were ordered out of the country. Many Jews became catholic in name only to avoid persecution by the religious authority under the Spanish Inquisition (the conversos), and some of these took the first opportunity to distance themselves from the religious authority.
During the Spanish civil war, many churches were burnt to the ground, and with them birth and historical records, so a large portion of Spanish history was simply destroyed and beyond the reach of researchers and historians. Those who are deeply offended by the history of slavery tend to vilify everyone associated with its history except the natives involved in selling captured neighboring tribesman into slavery as profit from their warfare. You don't hear much about the Moroccan slave traders, the role of the Ottoman empire in the slave trade, or that of the Moors.
The current social justice movement is primarily concerned with the western colonial powers and their role in slavery and indigenous exploitation, not the history of slavery as a whole (which spans all of history as part of the spoils of war,)

Hernan Cortez is more well known as a conquistador and adventurer that did wage war against the indigenous peoples of central America for profit. The poorly educated might simply lump Columbus together with Cortez, Pizarro, and the other government sponsored conquistadors, because he made their conquests a possibility through his "discoveries." That's a bit like blaming Albert Einstein for the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Historically, the conquistadors were responsible for more death through disease than through warfare, by introducing viruses that were new to the "New world" like syphilis and acne vulgaris (common acne was originally a plague that took many lives, but left the surviving population with natural immunities.) Angry liberals are less concerned with facts than feelings and so we have new and distorted perceptions of history.

You forget to mention he learned his navigational skills by the masters of the sea, the Portuguese and that he first went to Portugal for the ships to sail on his new routeto get spices from India, but Portugal turned him down so he went to the Queen of Spain and got permission and the three ships to sail.

I believe by Christopher Columbus sailing to the new world, spread Christianity amongst the natives, though it also killed a lot of them off because the natives were not immune to disease that the Europeans brought with them, like the common cold and such.

I don't believe his intentions were to capture slaves or kill off the natives, but their lack of immunity to diseases from the European Continent wiped out a lot of Indians, I do believe the natives were exploited and made to work for Columbus for Gold and other valuables.

If it were not for Columbus someone else would've have discovered the new world and would've done the same, like the old saying goes you can't stop progress.

Columbus never step foot on the North American continent, I believe and have read that Leif Erickson stepped foot first in North America and the Columbus discovered what he named the Island of Hispaniola which is modern day Haiti and The Dominican Republic.

 

[michaelvpardo]

You forget to mention he learned his navigational skills by the masters of the sea, the Portuguese and that he first went to Portugal for the ships to sail on his new routeto get spices from India, but Portugal turned him down so he went to the Queen of Spain and got permission and the three ships to sail.

I believe by Christopher Columbus sailing to the new world, spread Christianity amongst the natives, though it also killed a lot of them off because the natives were not immune to disease that the Europeans brought with them, like the common cold and such.

I don't believe his intentions were to capture slaves or kill off the natives, but their lack of immunity to diseases from the European Continent wiped out a lot of Indians, I do believe the natives were exploited and made to work for Columbus for Gold and other valuables.

If it were not for Columbus someone else would've have discovered the new world and would've done the same, like the old saying goes you can't stop progress.

Columbus never step foot on the North American continent, I believe and have read that Leif Erickson stepped foot first in North America and the Columbus discovered what he named the Island of Hispaniola which is modern day Haiti and The Dominican Republic.

Some people are adventurers, some entrepreneurial and both sorts tend to love the freedom to pursue their interests. If Columbus was either Jewish or a "converso", he might have had larger reasons for his exploration, but short of a journal or other personal notes, we can only guess.
When Christians come to understand the relationship between having a piece of lumbar in your eye and the spiritual condition behind self righteousness, we'll see less retroactive judgments against the frail heroes of the past.

 

[Mantis]

I honestly could care less. It seems like everyone has to have a problem with everything. It’s not enough to hate your fellow man, they now have to hate people that are long dead.

 

[JohnPaul]

I honestly could care less. It seems like everyone has to have a problem with everything. It’s not enough to hate your fellow man, they now have to hate people that are long dead.

I hate no one, I love all my brothers and sisters in God and Christ, I'm not point the finger and espousing hate as many on here are.