[Abood]

The article is more than a week old, but the topic most certainly isn't.

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On Monday, Oct. 13, schoolteachers across the nation should find the courage to speak the truth about the man who sailed the ocean blue in 1492.

Trying to explain to youngsters how this country came to be is surely no easy task.

How can you sugarcoat telling a fourth-grader that Columbus did not “discover” the “new" world — that he more accurately opened the door to conquering it?

How do you explain to a fifth-grader that the only measurable blood spilled in Columbus’ encounter was that of indigenous Caribbean islanders?

Can you even use the word “genocide” in a sixth-grade classroom?

There was a time in this country once when celebrating the feats of Columbus and his successors was less complicated. Only a generation ago, students did not learn the full extent of Columbus’ impact on the peoples who inhabited this continent.

But let’s set the historical record straight.

Hundreds of thousands of indigenous Taino Indians were raped, murdered, and forced into brutal slavery as a result of Columbus’ conquest. Much of the Taino population fell to new diseases such as smallpox. Extinction is all that remains of the Taino today.

Those who like to honor Columbus would have us believe that bringing up the darker side of the explorer is an attempt to blow the man’s memory off course.

But these facts of genocide and land theft are not part of a revisionist, false history. In his own words spelled, out in his personal diary, Columbus acknowledged his scheme to subjugate the Taino Indians: “I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”

Columbus’ men rounded up 1,500 people and selected 500 as slaves to be shipped off to Spain. Two hundred died en route. This did not deter Columbus, who, according to historian Howard Zinn, later wrote: “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.”

Some defenders of Columbus fall back on the rationale that he was just a man of his time, with the prejudices that prevailed. But one of Columbus’ own contemporaries, Bartoleme de las Casas, a Spanish colonist turned priest, spent his last years trying to wash the indigenous blood from his hands by calling for an end to the slave trade.

This year many teachers may stress tolerance of opposing views as they try to bring a broader and more balanced view of Columbus’ legacy into the classroom. But a lesson plan on tolerance won’t do.

Putting an end to the hero worship of Columbus begins with telling the truth: Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 not to explore, but to conquer with domination, brutality and — yes — genocide.

TowardFreedom.com

[Thunderhawk]

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 not to explore, but to conquer with domination, brutality and — yes — genocide.

Why must it be either or?
I believe Columbus did explore - not wholly unknown, the Portugese had knowledge of South America already. He also wanted to conquer and was willing to be brutal about it. I do not see the two aspects as being seperate.

As for the intentional genocide, I question that. I believe he was willing to slaughter to get what he wanted, but if one looks at the quote:

“I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”

it would appear he has a desire to govern them. Probably not for the nicest intentions, but governing them implies that there must be some alive.

Though, I perfer to have the quote in its original language and have additional translations.

[Dr House]

I dunno how classes are taught in the States, but I most certainly did learn about Spain's bloody legacy in the Americas.

I don't think I learned about it in detail till high school, however.

[Frank_Carbonni]

Meh. All countries and cultures sugarcoat their national "heroes" and demonize their national villains. The Muslim world doesn't harp about Mohammad's massacres and use of slaves, Native Americans don't like to dwell on the fact that many of their own ancestors were extremely warlike and slaughtered other Natives with as much zeal as any white man, Attila the Hun is a national hero in Hungary, Ghengis Kahn is a hero in Mongolia, and so on.

Not saying it is right, but it's not like white Westerners are the only people to lionize a scumbag or someone who at least had some major moral lapses.

[Oxymoron]

To make an omellete you break a few eggs, and perhaps the kids should learn the reality of the world, and that empire is not an evil word.

[QatzelOk]

The Muslim world doesn't harp about Mohammad's massacres and use of slaves

Maybe because they don't really exist. On the other hand, Orientalism certainly does.

Or maybe part of the reason is because - for Moslems - the text is more important than the writer. And this text/reality divide is more blatant in the Quran than in the other Abrahamic documents where this Plato's cave cognitive fracture is left unexplored (unlike the Americas).

[Einherjar]

Columbus was a peculiar individual. He was a keen believer in the Second Coming and imagined he had a big part to play by converting the Orientals.

Having said that, there does seem to be immense exaggeration in the Anglo-American world with regards to the exploits of Spanish imperialism. A quick glance at current things show that Indians and associated cultures still persist in Latin America, as opposed, ironically enough, to their Northern counterparts.

What should be particularly significant for modern anti-imperialists is that most of the harm done to natives occured in areas without royal and ecclesiastical control.

Many royal officials and priests started denouncing and reporting the abuses and atrocities and, in 1542, The New Laws were enacted in defense of Indian rights. These laws forbade any kind of slavery and forced labor, allowed ownership of land by the Indians, and stated that the Church had no authority over non-Christian natives. They also forbade the establishment of new encomiendas and reduced the size of existing ones. Predictably enough, this led to the Rebellion of the Encomenderos in 1544 and the laws had to be replaced with a weaker version.

The entire history of the Spanish Empire can be summarised as an endless struggle between the Imperialist Spanish state and the Populist Colonies. Anti-imperialist humanists wrongly attribute to Empire that which should actually be attributed to populist free enterprise.

[Rojik of the Arctic]

The world populated by humans has always been a violent place. Right does make might and the greatness of Empires are fertilised with the blood and bones of others. You would find it almost impossible to think of any great state or great (adventurer/military) man from history who didn't have the blood of innocents on his hands. Not completely impossible but it wouldn't be easy. Columbus was just a product of his times.

[Nattering Nabob]

What culture actually teaches the "truth" about their history?

[QatzelOk]

What culture actually teaches the "truth" about their history?

Cultures might not teach true history. But individuals are capable of transcending the bias of their cultures in - at least - their motivation.

Obviously, the powers that be control education and media to the point where our modern culture is sometimes incapable of knowing the truth, but at least history can be taught with the best of intentions. Which means NOT in a culturally biased way.

The earth has no time to waste on situated histories of chosen subgroups of superhumans.