The Conquest and Its Consequences

Columbus's Reckoning
[Columbus was] a figure in transition from the dying Middle Ages to the rising world of capitalism and science, blindly credulous and boldly questioning, a medieval mystic incongruously eager for gold and worldly honors.
The Conquest and Its Consequences
Discovery |
When is a discovery not a discovery? |
New World |
In what way was this “new world” really and “old world”? |
Explorer |
How could Columbus, Cortes, Lewis and Clark, et.al., be called explorers of lands, rivers, mountains, valleys, and territories occupied for centuries by nations of people? |
Wilderness |
What concepts were conveyed to the Europeans when the “virgin land” voyages perceived this land as a wild, uninhabited place? |
The West |
To whom was the West not west? To whom was this land north? South? East? |
Pagans/Infidels/ Cannibals/Hostile Primitive vs. Civilized |
In what way were these terms absolutely false about indigenous people? Which terms were used by the Europeans and why? Which terms have you seen in textbooks describing the people Columbus encountered? |
- How does terminology become important in conveying an historical, geographic, and political perspective in a text book?
- What perspectives were/are fostered by those who use these terms to define Columbus’s and the colonialists’ activity in the Americas? Whose perspectives are left out?
- What other terms would be more accurate in describing what Columbus and the colonialists did?

The Conquistadors
Language can be powerful. To give a new name to people or places is symbolically to exercise power and authority over them.
- Brainstorm a list of the names Columbus and the Europeans “gave” to the people they met. If you can, try to write the names the indigenous used for those same people and places.
- Discuss the way in which Columbus’s act of naming the indigenous people (Indians) and the land he encountered (West Indies, capes, mountains, ports, islands) was a powerful act on the part of the Europeans. How did it influence beliefs of ownership over these groups of people and this land for centuries?
- Research how indigenous people of the Americas today feel about being called “Indians.” What did they call themselves before Columbus arrived? How do they refer to themselves today? How might it alter our thinking if people could be called by names which they have chosen for themselves rather than names which are superimposed on them (e.g., the slaves being given names of their masters)?
- Talk about how this phenomenon works in your own life or experience. How are powerful images of you created by others, by history, or by society?
Invasion Timekeepers
One kind of specific timeline to construct as you read this chapter is a detailed summary of the events which occurred surrounding the four voyages of Columbus. As you develop this timeline, create a map of the Caribbean to track Columbus’s travels and the territories invaded by the Europeans.

It is well to remember, as an antidote to romantic sea tales written in warm libraries, that ships were then floating slums and floating sweat ships. The common fate of crew and officers gave a certain solidarity that would not have been found on land among such disparate men, but they were still masters and servants, and no nonsense. The captain was lord over life and death, and any man who evoked his displeasure could be lashed, locked in irons, keelhauled, or hanged. The food for the crew was vile—though on a normal voyage probably no worse than what they were used to on land. As for their quarters, there weren’t any. The men simply had to bunk down for the night wherever they could find a dry spot, which is not easy on a sailing boat; and those who had one change of dry clothes with them were the fortunate ones.
Strong Determination
Columbus with Ferdinand and Isabella
Somehow, he managed to get an audience at court in May, 1486. It is known that he spent time in a monastery near the castle; possibly he had the attention of church leaders who persuaded the king and queen to listen to his plans. “Even in that religious and bigoted age, Columbus stood out as a very fierce Catholic. When he discussed his westward voyage, he always dwelt on its religious aspects: to convert the Asian ‘heathens’ to Catholicism, and/or to use their gold for the reconquest of the Holy Land from the Moslems” (Koning, 35).
Success
The monarchs took the plan under advisement. While waiting for their answer, Columbus and his brother Bartolome petitioned the kings of Portugal, France, and England—in vain. After a long time with no response, the report from the royal advisors finally came: it cautioned that the westward-to-Asia plan appeared impossible to any learned person because the ocean was much wider than Columbus supposed. Isabella, however, held out a little hope to the discouraged dreamer. If Spain was victorious in the war with the Moors for Granada, Columbus could apply again.
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/medrenqueens/p/p_isabella_i.htm
October 11, 1492: Somewhere in the Western Part of the Ocean Sea
Clear skies, the moon a few days past full. Three ships from the port of Palos, in Spain, sailed before a brisk wind of about ten knots. The ships, the largest about the size of a tennis court, had been at sea for thirty-two days. In spite of fear and tension built up during the long journey, the crew felt a growing anticipating, for increasingly in the last few days had seen signs of land.
The First Voyage
First Reports from Columbus
Columbus' Log
For the first two weeks of the beginning of his voyage through the Bahamas to Cuba, only a third of the lines of description recorded in the log have anything to do with the natural phenomena around him. And some sights he seems not to have noticed at all. He mentions the nighttime sky in terms of navigation but never describes the sharp, glorious configurations of stars that must have been visible practically every night of his journey.
Wednesday, 17 October 1492, on "Long Island"
Columbus Point on Long Island
Monday, 3 December 1492, on Cuba
Taking Possession
Although he didn’t rhapsodize about the physical splendor at first, Columbus had no hesitation about taking possession of all he came across, no question about the possibility that someone else might already have a proprietary relationship with the landscape. Significantly, he assigned names to sixty-two physical features on the islands—capes, ports, mountains—as he possessed them for his king and queen, instead of asking whether or not they had names.
Later he succumbed to the natural beauty around him. In Cuba, toward the end of his journey, he came upon a large harbor which he named Puerto Santo. “As I went along the river,” he writes on November 27, “it was marvelous to see the forests and greenery, the very clear water, the birds, and the fine situation, and I almost did not want to leave this place. I told the men with me that, in order to make a report to the Sovereigns of the things they saw, a thousand tongues would not be sufficient to tell it, nor my hand to write it, for it looks like an enchanted land” (Fusion, 119).
25 December 1492: A Chief’s Kindness
On Christmas Day, 1492, an incident occurred that led to the establishment of the first settlement in the “new world.” Columbus had been sent a present from a leader, or cacique, named Guacanagari, a belt and mask with features of hammered gold, and a promise of “all that he had” if the Admiral would visit him.
On Christmas Eve, the Niña and the Santa Maria made their way along the coast. The entire crew, including the Admiral went to sleep, and the Santa Maria hit a coral reef a few miles from shore, was quickly stuck firmly, and broke up and sank as the sun arose. Columbus sent a messenger to Guacanagari to ask fro help. The cacique wept when he heard of the shipwreck.
The Cacique was unwearied in his attentions; his grief at the disaster was so manifest, and his attempts to divert [the sailors] from their trouble so delicately proffered, that finally hope returned to cheer them, and they thought upon their blessings.
The little Niña lay anchored off the village of Guarico, and at sunrise of the day after Christmas, the Cacique paid a visit of state to the Admiral, when Columbus was so pleased with his frank and manly bearing that he repeated his encomiums, declaring him preeminent in virtue.
While the king was on board, his Indian subjects swarmed in canoes around the caravel, holding out pieces of gold, and crying out, “Chug, chug!” intimating that they wished to barter the nuggets for hawks-bells, over which they went wild with joy. Seeing that such trifles brought in exchange great pieces of gold, Columbus was delighted, and at the sight of the pleasure expressed in his countenance, Guacanagari, quick to note the change, assured him that if gold was the object of his desires, he would direct him to a region where the very stones were golden, and where it was in such abundance that the people dwelling there held it in light esteem. This region he called Cibao, which Columbus construed to mean Cipango [Japan], so long the goal before him in his voyagings.
Of course, the chief’s promise, made out of a desire to please, was never fulfilled.
Frederick Ober, In the Wake of Columbus, 2224-225
http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/data/ark/KEEGAN07.ARKFirst Colony

How the First Skirmish Between the Indians and Christians Tool Place in Samana Bay on the Island of Espanola
The Indian who had visited the ship persuaded the others to lay down their bows and arrows and the large cudgels which they use as swords, for they have no iron. The Christians began to buy swords and arrows as the Admiral had instructed them to do, but after the Indians had sold two of their bows they disdainfully refused to sell any more; instead they ran toward the place where they had deposited their weapons, with the design of picking them up and also of getting cords with which to tie our men’s hands. But the Christians were prepared for their attack, and though only seven in number, fell upon the Indians with so much spirit that they gave one Indian a slash on the buttocks with a sword and wounded another in the breast with an arrow. Terrified by the valor of our men and the wounds inflicted by our arms, the Indians turned and fled, leaving behind most of their bows and arrows. Many would certainly have been killed had not the pilot of the caravel, who was in charge of the landing party, restrained our men.
The Admiral was not displeased by this incident; for he was convinced these were the Caribs whom the other Indians feared so greatly, or if not Caribs, at least their neighbors. Their appearance, arms and actions showed them to be a daring and courageous people. The Admiral hoped that when the islanders learned what seven Spaniards had done against 55 ferocious Indians, they would feel more respect for the men left behind the town of Navidad and would not dare annoy them.
The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son, 88-90
After just two bows were sold, the Indians turned and ran back to the cover of the trees where they kept their remaining weapons and, so the sailors assumed, “prepared…to attack the Christians and capture them.” When they came toward the Spaniards again brandishing ropes—almost certainly meaning to trade these rather than give up their precious bows—the sailors panicked and, “being prepared as always the Admiral advised them to be,” attacked the Indians with swords and halberds, gave one “a great slash on the buttocks,” and shot another in the breast with a crossbow. The Tainos grabbed their fallen comrades and fled in fright, and the sailors would have chased them and “killed many of them” but for the pilot in charge of the party, who somehow “prevented it.”
It may fairly be called the first pitched battle between Europeans and Indians in the “new world”—the first display of the armed power, and the will to use it, of the white invaders.
Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise, 120-121
CaptivesColumbus had kidnapped citizens of the island villages he visited, realizing what good servants these gentle, agreeable people could become.
In one harbor, “five young Indian men came aboard for a last visit, and in return for their trust, Columbus held them captive. He wanted to train them as interpreters, he said. Then he sent a boat ashore to kidnap seven women and three boys. Seeing this, the husbands and fathers of some of the victims begged to be taken along with them, rather than suffer the pain of separation. Columbus kindly agreed. A little later two of the young men escaped. The others? All would die before the fleet reached Spain” (Meltzer, 99).
Although he captured a total of thirty-one islanders, the number he actually took with him isn’t known. Six survived the difficult voyage, especially difficult for inhabitants of a tropical climate who had never experienced cold weather, and were centerpieces of Columbus’s triumphant entry first into Portugal and then into Spain.
1493: Reaction
Engraving by Simon Grynaeus and Johann Huttich depicting Natives as cruel, bloodthirsty aggressors
Historians hardly knew what to make of the stories Columbus brought back from his first voyage. In an early interpretation, Peter Martyr focused on the riches of the land and the strangeness of the people:
A certain Christopher Columbus…followed the western sun from the Gades, with three ships furnished him by my sovereigns and proceeded to the Antipodes, about five thousand miles.
He ascertained that the land [he visited] produced naturally gold, cotton, spices in form like cinnamon and smooth like pepper, trees of scarlet dyes, the juices of which make a bluish-grey color, and many other things most precious to us, small samples of which things he bought away.
The island has many kings, but naked, as indeed all are of both sexes. This people, wholly content by nature, naked as they are, feed only on such nourishment as comes from trees, with a kind of bread made of roots. Notwithstanding, they are fond of government, and owing to this desire they wage wars against each other, with bows and with pikes burned into very sharp points. The King who is conquered is considered to be subject to the conqueror.
And the principles of Meum and Tuum [mine and thine] has a part in their lives as it has among us; and so the things belonging to luxury and the accumulation of money are sought by them, a thing you would hardly think necessary for naked people.
Peter Martyr of Anghara in John Boyd Thacker, Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains, 58
Later, however, Martyr’s views changed somewhat, and he described Cuba as a veritable Utopia:
It is certain, that among them, the land is as common as the sun and water: and the Mine and Thine (the seeds of all mischief) have no place with them. They are content with so little, that in so large a country, they have rather superfluity than scarceness. So that…they seem to live in the golden world, without toil, living in open gardens, not entrenched with dikes, divided with hedges, or defended with walls. They deal truly one with another, without laws, without books, and without Judges. They take him for an evil and mischievous man who takes pleasure in doing hurt to others.
Peter Martyr, quoted in Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise, 199
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09740a.htm
Responses in Europe
Illustration by Léry depicting Natives
After hearing about the first voyage, other writers followed the lead of Columbus in describing the “new world.” In the words of Peter Martyr, an early historian, writing after a later journey, “This people are astonished at the sound of our trumpets and drums, stupefied by the thunder of our cannon, speechless at the prancing, running, and trappings of our horses; perplexed at the sight of everything belonging to us. They stand in open-mouthed astonishment. They think our people have come from heaven” (29 December 1494, letter in Thacher, 70).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Martyr_d%27Anghiera