Student Question
How did Columbus's early interactions with Indians influence later Spanish-Indian relations?
Quick answer:
Columbus's early interactions with Native Americans set a precedent for future Spanish-Indian relations, marked by exploitation, disease, and cultural imposition. His actions included using natives for labor, attempting to convert them, and taking them to Spain as curiosities. These interactions led to the widespread devastation of native populations due to disease and violence, influencing Spain's approach to using natives as labor and justifying conquest through Christianization. This laid the groundwork for a long history of Spanish oppression in the Americas.
Well, Christopher Columbus arriving in the New World certainly set a precedent of disease and genocide, and contributed to the formation of the Black Legend that spread from tribe to tribe across the continents: When the Europeans arrive, the world is ending.
The introduction of small pox and other diseases to a native population that was defenseless against them led to 90% of them being dead within a generation or less. This pattern would be repeated time and time again until the final conquest of native tribes in the late 19th century. While it was not part of Columbus' plan or anything, his experience and what happened after he arrived would be seen again and again when other contacts were made.
I don't know that it is fair to blame it on Columbus, because I think things would have played out the same way no matter what.
But Columbus's...
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first interactions with the Indians involved using them as labor, trying to convert them, and taking them as souvenirs home to Spain.
To me, this set the stage for what Spain would do. It would see the Indians as a source of labor (use them as serfs, essentially, on encomiendas). It would use the idea of Christianizing them as a major reason for conquest. And it would see them as sort of curiosities that were not exactly as human and worthy of respect as white people.
How did Columbus' early interactions with Indians influence later Spanish-Indian relations?
Columbus reports that the Indians are open about sharing their resources. He in turn is forceful with them, looking for the riches of their lands, especially gold. When he could not find the riches he had promised his benefactors, he had to provide them with some measure to pay them for sponsoring his voyage. He promised them that he could provide as much gold and slaves as they wanted.
Sponsoring a second voyage, much larger than the first, Columbus is sent with 17 ships to retrieve the gold and take many slaves back to his benefactors. Still believing that there was untold riches in gold, the Spaniards sent ships armed with weapons and horses.
The Spainards were vicious towards the Indians, using as their source of information Columbus's logs. There was a systematic massacre of the Indians, in 1515 there were 50,000, by 1550 there were 500.
"The self-assurance and sense of manifest destiny dominant in nineteenth century celebrations of Columbus have given way to painful self-examination of European crimes in the New World, of mistreatment, enslavement, and massacre of Native Americans."