How Did Christopher Columbus Use And Abuse Of Power

Power has been around since the beginning of time, no matter what a person's beliefs are. And as long as there has been power there has also been people to misuse and abuse that power, that is given to them by the people. These people “give” the power because they are convinced that this person is going to make a difference and do something to help the greater good, the community. In reality there are people who do what they say and promise and actually help, but then there are those who make false promises and abuse what people have given to them. Christopher Columbus is known as the man who discovered the Americas and in honor of this, on October eight of every year people all around the world celebrate Columbus day. Children in elementary

schools are taught that Christopher Columbus is a national hero. But was he really that hero that everyone thanks for “discovering” the Americas? The cold truth is no he wasn’t, he was leader who became corrupt, arrogant, greedy, and a murderer.
Christopher Columbus was an italian explorer and a ship captain who had an idea. At that time Europeans were eager to find a sea route from Europe to Asia. He believed it would be faster and easier to sail west across the Atlantic Ocean (he also believed the world was much smaller than it really was), than by sailing around Africa and into the Indian Ocean. Columbus wanted to prove his theory, so in the early 1480s he began to look for a sponsor to provide financial aid and in return the sponsor would claim the discovered land. Many times he attempted to sell his ideas to Portugal, but didn’t succeed because they thought his estimate of the measurements of the Earth were too small and not so long after Bartolome Días (a Portuguese navigator) had already discovered a route in 1488. He then proposed his idea to Queen Isabella of Spain who he had met in 1486. She accepted the idea and signed an agreement in April 1492, even though they too believed his measurement of the world were off. They agreed that Spain would sponsor the trip, pay him for his discoveries, and he would govern the discovered land, but the land would be claimed as Spain’s. Between 1492 and 1504 Columbus made four voyages to the Caribbean and South America. On the third of August of 1492, Columbus set sail in search of the sea route from Europe to Asia. The crew and he believed to have proved that his theory was right once they see signs of land, but they were wrong. On October 11th, when they arrived he and his crew assumes that they are either in Asia or India and they encounter these they called “Indians” because of their dark skin. The native people told Columbus about a longer island south of where they were located (present day Cuba) and he thought that maybe it was part of Japan or China. So, he spent a month sailing along the coast of Cuba in search for gold, but shipwrecked a larger island.
Furthermore, the island reminded him very much of Spain so he named the island, “Hispaniola” (present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

Along the coast of Hispaniola he came across a young chief who wore gold ornaments, that he traded with Columbus for goods. Columbus kept sailing across the coast, lured by gold. He came across another chief, but this chief was much richer and had more power. That chief and his people were invited aboard the Santa Maria to celebrate the discovery of Hispaniola. After the party was over, they all fell asleep and the Santa Maria crashed. They had hit a coral reef and the ship was destroyed, but they were able to remove the goods aboard the ship with the help of a local tribe. Columbus made the best of the moment and founded that cite (a Haitian village called Limonaid - Bord-De-Mer) as the first European settlement in the New World. He named the settlement La Navidad, in honor of it being Christmas. A few weeks later he returned to Spain and left twenty one men under the command of Columbus’ mistress’ cousin (Diego de Harana) to watch over the settlement. He returned to Spain to prove he was right; he took gold and other valuables. Once Spain saw and heard of his discoveries, she once again, provided support for a second voyage. He was supplied with seventeen ships and over one thousand colonist were to accompany him. In November 1493, he and the colonist arrive to La Navidad. La Navidad did not look like what Columbus had left, it was in

ruins and dead Spaniard bodies were everywhere. No one knew what happened because everyone was dead, some believed that the Spaniards were too demanding leading to the natives to turn on them (which lead to war) or that the Spaniards fought among themselves and all died. Due to the fact that they didn’t know what had occurred, they abandoned La Navidad and created Isabela near a small bay. The structure of Isabela was based off of Spain; there was a church and a government building located in the center of the settlement, then the homes of the settlers surrounding them. Columbus still stuck with the idea of searching for gold because he believed it would improve Spain, secure his position and give him power. So, four days after settling he sent an officer to look for gold in mountains and while Alonso de Ojeda (the officer) Columbus explored islands nearby. During that time something occured which made Columbus realize he wasn’t in the Indies. He then made all of this men swear to an oath that they were not sailing on the coast of an island but on the mainland of Asia.
When Columbus returned to Isabela in late September of 1494, he realized that tension had grown between the Natives and the Spaniards.

The colonist were taking and forcing the Natives to be slaves, they stole from them, they raped, and they beat them. “The Admiral found the island in a pitiful state, with most of the Christians commiting innumerable outrages for which they were mortally hated by the Indians, who refused to obey them.”, Fernando (Columbus’ son) later wrote. The Native people began to realize that the arrival of the Spanish was going to be the end them, so they began to organize armies and work together to drive the Spanish out of Hispaniola. Columbus didn’t like this and he took drastic measures to make sure no one could drive him and his people out. He and his brother (Batholomeo) attacked the tribes in March of 1495. The Spanish had 220 soldiers with full armor, horses, weapons (European) and 20 dogs. They defeated the Natives of Hispaniola. Eventually, the Natives were gone, killed by that hand the diseases of the settlers. The Spaniards brought many diseases that were unknown to the natives. Hispaniolas bad news was beginning to arrive to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Very little gold was making its way to Spain, the colonist were complaining, and little to none of the Natives had been converted to Christianity. Columbus was then forced to return to Spain to explain what was occuring. In 1496. The king and queen began to doubt Columbus and

his capability to govern Hispaniola. Over the course of two years, Columbus spent his time trying to prove to the monarch that he can rule of Hispaniola. To show and prove he had changed he wore the clothing of a Franciscan Friar and by wearing this he wanted to show the he was “regretful”and to show humility. Eventually the king and queen allowed Columbus to return to Hispaniola with a small group of people and supplies (they set sail in May of 1498). During that third voyage he left his brother in charge of Isabela and sailed to the coast of venezuela. While he was gone his brother moved the settlement to the south side of an island called Santo Domingo. In August of 1498, Columbus arrived to Santo Domingo and tried to govern the island. He wasn’t able to govern Santo Domingo and the colonist began to complain. Then in 1499, the big gold strike occured. The gold they found were in small quantities because it required a lot of labor to remove the gold. The Spaniards didn’t have enough people to work, so once again they began to force the Natives into slavery. Death and sickness was rapidly spreading. Most colonist were dying