Quite funny, except that its in replacement of Columbus Day. Columbus never met the Aztecs. He also never stepped foot on American soil.
So, let’s learn about who the day was named after
“They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things… They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Columbus’ men were rapists and murderers
On Columbus’s first trip to the Caribbean, he later returned to Spain and left behind 39 men who went ahead and helped themselves to Native women. Upon his return, the men were all dead. With 1,200 more soldiers at his disposal, rape and pillaging became rampant as well as tolerated by Columbus.
This is supported by a reported close friend of Columbus, Michele de Cuneo who wrote the first disturbing account of a relation between himself and a Native female gift given to him by Columbus.
“While I was in the boat I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me, and with whom, having taken her into my cabin, she being naked according to their custom, I conceived desire to take pleasure. I wanted to put my desire into execution but she did not want it and treated me with her finger nails in such a manner that I wished I had never begun. But seeing that (to tell you the end of it all), I took a rope and thrashed her well, for which she raised such unheard of screams that you would not have believed your ears. Finally we came to an agreement in such manner that I can tell you that she seemed to have been brought up in a school of harlots.”
Several accounts of cruelty and murder include Spaniards testing the sharpness of blades on Native people by cutting them in half, beheading them in contests and throwing Natives into vats of boiling soap. There are also accounts of suckling infants being lifted from their mother’s breasts by Spaniards, only to be dashed headfirst into large rocks.
Bartolome De Las Casas, a former slave owner who became Bishop of Chiapas, described these exploits. “Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel,” he wrote. “My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write.”
Christopher Columbus enslaved Native people for gold
Because Columbus reported a plethora of Natives for slaves, rivers of gold and fertile pastures to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, Columbus was given 17 ships and more than 1,200 men on his next expedition. However, Columbus had to deliver. In the next few years, Columbus was desperate to fulfill those promises—hundreds of Native slaves died on their way back to Spain and gold was not as bountiful as expected.
Columbus forced the Natives to work in gold mines until exhaustion. Those who opposed were beheaded or had their ears cut off.
In the provinces of Cicao, all persons over 14 had to supply at least a thimble of gold dust every three months and were given copper necklaces as proof of their compliance. Those who did not fulfill their obligation had their hands cut off, which were tied around their necks while they bled to death—some 10,000 died handless.
In two years’ time, approximately 250,000 Indians in Haiti were dead. Many deaths included mass suicides or intentional poisonings or mothers killing their babies to avoid persecution.
According to Columbus, in a few years before his death, “Gold is the most precious of all commodities; gold constitutes treasure and he who possesses it has all he needs in the world, as also the means of rescuing souls from purgatory, and restoring them to the enjoyment of paradise.”
Columbus provided Native sex slaves to his men
In addition to putting the Natives to work as slaves in his gold mines, Columbus also sold sex slaves to his men—some as young as 9. Columbus and his men also raided villages for sex and sport.
In the year 1500, Columbus wrote: “A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.”
Columbus’ men used Native people as dog food
In the early years of Columbus’ conquests, there were butcher shops throughout the Caribbean where Indian bodies were sold as dog food. There was also a practice known as the montería infernal, the infernal chase, or manhunt, in which Indians were hunted by war-dogs.
These dogs—who also wore armor and had been fed human flesh, were a fierce match for the Indians. Live babies were also fed to these war dogs as sport, sometimes in front of horrified parents.
Christopher Columbus returned to Spain in shackles — but was pardoned
After a multitude of complaints against Columbus about his mismanagement of the island of Hispaniola, a royal commissioner arrested Columbus in 1500 and brought him back to Spain in chains.
Though he was stripped of his governor title, he was pardoned by King Ferdinand, who then subsidized a fourth voyage.
Sounds right up the alley people like Bikki. Immoral shitbags always flock to each other
Damn, some of those accounts are worse than I thought.
Columbus was and is still hated.
By some.
True, by some. The point still stands. We were not taught this stuff in school. History was definitely whitewashed (I mean the dictionary definition of that word.)
My opinion is that all historical figures have things we’d don’t agree with today. We can look at all Europeans and Indian cultures and African cultures etc. Columbus wasn’t without flaws but was heroic in many ways. He wanted to treat the native people well. Not everyone coming over here did.
Many Spanish explorers did bad things to the native people. And many of the Indians here had pretty despicable practices as well.
I’m fine with giving all angles and not pretending like the white explorers were all good. But I’m also not ok with going the extreme other direction and vilifying all of them either.
All of human history is full of one group of people warring and taking land from others. It’s not like the Europeans are unique in that aspect.
My opinion is that not all historical figures were child rapists.
All jokes aside, I do agree with your greater point, Indiana. Columbus is famous for doing something huge, even if he was an asshole about it.
But when it comes to not vilifying one side, videos like the ones bikki posted aren’t the exemplar of “fair and balanced.” You can expect some pushback on stuff like that.
Exactly the point! The more I learned about Columbus, the more I question why we still recognize this day as a holiday. That and the fact that he actually wasn’t the one who discovered America. He discovered the West Indies.
That’s just splitting hairs though. He discovered the Americas.
Um…what? Are you fucking retarded? He literally wrote a diary.
This is what he wrote of them
“They never refuse anything that is asked for. They even offer it themselves, and show so much love that they would give their very hearts.”
A few years later, 300,000 of them were dead. 98% of their population was gone. He wrote about sharpening his swords on the flesh and bones of the natives. They fed babies to dogs. He sold 9 yr olds into sexual slavery. I guess you’re used to that, being a Catholic.
Time and time again you show you’re a total piece of trash to the core of your soul
By the year 1550, 57 years before the founding of Jamestown, Spain had created an empire in the Americas. They achieved their goals through conquest, the same method employed by the Aztecs in creating their own empire. Spain triumphed by being a superior culture in a host of ways. The Spanish goals for the conquest of the Americas has often been distilled by historians as the driving force for “Gold, God, and Glory.” Moral judgment of the various actors must be interpretively derived by the era in which the events took place, not judged by contemporary standards.
To an extent that can be true, but not for basic human rights like feeding babies to dogs or sharpening your swords on the flesh of others you’ve enslaved. For example, even though certain practices were common int he past, individuals within those societies often recognized their immorality (i.e. abolitionists during the era of slavery) showing that moral disagreement existed in those eras as well, and moral crititque isn’t exclusively contemporary.
I am, however, not surprised that once again you’re attempting to justify the unjustifiable, taking the most immoral stance possible. It’s a lock with you in every situation, conversation and context.
Summarizing history in a single paragraph is impossible. In the conquest of Mexico, the superior culture prevailed. This is not to say unspeakable atrocities didn’t occur in the process. Unfortunately, peace upon earth is an incredible rarity, even today. Humans as a species are historically bellicose and the destruction of all humanity by its own hands is predictably imminent. Were aliens to arrive on our planet, how would humanity be judged?
Over the years, I have pondered whether salvation of humanity could ever be achieved, and my only alternative to saving the species from self destruction rests in technology of reinventing humans. A transition must occur wherein we transition from organic creatures to inorganic ones. Humans need to transformed into robots with Spock-like logical thinking. To this end, humans would be relieved of the burden of religion and be nearly immortal. War and barbarism would be distant memories.
Do you mean like him being arrested by the Spanish government, returned to Spain in chains, and stripped of his governorship?