After reading the text assigned to us, I couldn’t help but become interested in the story of Christopher Columbus. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I was reading it on Columbus Day, or because I was always interested in the certain ambiguities of his story. In particular, I never truly understood what caused the demise of Christopher Columbus. So I decided to do some more research using various websites and write a short summary of the events regarding his imprisonment and disaccreditation.
According to buzzle.com, the tensions between Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Crown escalated in 1500. Many people, including investors in the voyage, settlers of the New World, and especially Native Americans, were very unhappy with Christopher Columbus’ performance as the governor of Hispaniola.
Most new settlers justified their trip to the New World in the hopes of finding wealth, primarily in the form of gold. Initially wealth was acquired by simply taking it from the Native Americans, however after time this method came to an end due to the limited amount of jewelry possessed by the Native Americans. The only other way of finding gold was via the traditional methods of extracting it from the rivers, a very time consuming and laborious act. The settlers of Hispaniola were expecting easy riches in the New World, spending long hours working in the rivers was not in their plans.
The other group of people who were unhappy with Columbus was the investors in his voyages. Every voyage taken to the New World was seen as a very risky investment by the Spanish government. It is easy to see how the investors were disappointed and upset when their return on investment proved to be much less than expected. This isn’t difficult to understand and can be seen in modern-day society. When people make an investment in a new enterprise they expect to see results, when results are less than expected they look for someone to blame. In this case, Christopher Columbus was the most logical individual to assign blame to.
Perhaps the most important, but most likely the least influential, factor was the maltreatment of the Native Americans. Perhaps “maltreatment” is too soft of an euphemism for the genocide that was enacted upon Hispaniola. This is somewhat of a sensitive subject since Columbus is often perceived as a hero, the Great Explorer. However, there seems to be overwhelming evidence, including letters from Columbus to the Spanish Crown, indicting himself in the torture, forced labor, slavery, and extermination of Native Americans, in particular the Arawaks. I am not sure how big of an influence the maltreatment of Native Americans played into the removal of Columbus from his position of power. It seems that at the time nobody really cared about “primitive people”.
The King and Queen of Spain agreed that Christopher Columbus was a great explorer, however they both doubted his governing abilities, and perhaps had a moral conflict with the genocide. In 1500 Christopher Columbus requested help from the Spanish government with governing Hispaniola. This request was exactly what the Spanish Crown has been waiting for, it gave them a chance to replace Columbus altogether. The Spanish Crown sent a commissioner named Francisco de Bobadilla to “help” Columbus govern the New World. However, it was most likely discussed that if the new commissioner felt the need to, he had the authority to imprison Columbus and send him back to Spain.
The new commissioner arrived in Hispaniola while Columbus was away, giving the disgruntled settlers an opportunity to further complain about Columbus’ mistreatment of human rights. Upon Columbus’ return, him and his brothers were chained and sent back to Spain as prisoners. Columbus was imprisoned upon the allegations of hiding gold from the Spanish Crown and for planning to make him and his brothers “lords of the islands”. Upon arriving in Spain they were jailed for six weeks before King Ferdinand gave them an audience.
Upon his release Christopher Columbus was pardoned, and even allowed to make another voyage to the New World. However, the Spanish Crown made it explicitly clear that Christopher Columbus was not to govern in the New World ever again.
Modern historians believe that the Spanish Crown used Columbus as a scapegoat for their overall failings in the New World. I don’t think the Hispaniola genocide played a large role in their decision, as I stated earlier, in those days, and even in contemporary society, the nobility doesn’t care much for indigenous people. To me it seems that Columbus was removed from power at the point at which he ceased to be useful to the Spanish Crown. Columbus was an explorer, not a governor, and perhaps with pressure from their nobility, the King and Queen of Spain felt it was time to replace him for somebody more adapt for governing, somebody who could return a profit.
Christopher Columbus
After reading the text assigned to us, I couldn’t help but become interested in the story of Christopher Columbus. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I was reading it on Columbus Day, or because I was always interested in the certain ambiguities of his story. In particular, I never truly understood what caused the demise of Christopher Columbus. So I decided to do some more research using various websites and write a short summary of the events regarding his imprisonment and disaccreditation.
According to buzzle.com, the tensions between Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Crown escalated in 1500. Many people, including investors in the voyage, settlers of the New World, and especially Native Americans, were very unhappy with Christopher Columbus’ performance as the governor of Hispaniola.
Most new settlers justified their trip to the New World in the hopes of finding wealth, primarily in the form of gold. Initially wealth was acquired by simply taking it from the Native Americans, however after time this method came to an end due to the limited amount of jewelry possessed by the Native Americans. The only other way of finding gold was via the traditional methods of extracting it from the rivers, a very time consuming and laborious act. The settlers of Hispaniola were expecting easy riches in the New World, spending long hours working in the rivers was not in their plans.
The other group of people who were unhappy with Columbus was the investors in his voyages. Every voyage taken to the New World was seen as a very risky investment by the Spanish government. It is easy to see how the investors were disappointed and upset when their return on investment proved to be much less than expected. This isn’t difficult to understand and can be seen in modern-day society. When people make an investment in a new enterprise they expect to see results, when results are less than expected they look for someone to blame. In this case, Christopher Columbus was the most logical individual to assign blame to.
Perhaps the most important, but most likely the least influential, factor was the maltreatment of the Native Americans. Perhaps “maltreatment” is too soft of an euphemism for the genocide that was enacted upon Hispaniola. This is somewhat of a sensitive subject since Columbus is often perceived as a hero, the Great Explorer. However, there seems to be overwhelming evidence, including letters from Columbus to the Spanish Crown, indicting himself in the torture, forced labor, slavery, and extermination of Native Americans, in particular the Arawaks. I am not sure how big of an influence the maltreatment of Native Americans played into the removal of Columbus from his position of power. It seems that at the time nobody really cared about “primitive people”.
The King and Queen of Spain agreed that Christopher Columbus was a great explorer, however they both doubted his governing abilities, and perhaps had a moral conflict with the genocide. In 1500 Christopher Columbus requested help from the Spanish government with governing Hispaniola. This request was exactly what the Spanish Crown has been waiting for, it gave them a chance to replace Columbus altogether. The Spanish Crown sent a commissioner named Francisco de Bobadilla to “help” Columbus govern the New World. However, it was most likely discussed that if the new commissioner felt the need to, he had the authority to imprison Columbus and send him back to Spain.
The new commissioner arrived in Hispaniola while Columbus was away, giving the disgruntled settlers an opportunity to further complain about Columbus’ mistreatment of human rights. Upon Columbus’ return, him and his brothers were chained and sent back to Spain as prisoners. Columbus was imprisoned upon the allegations of hiding gold from the Spanish Crown and for planning to make him and his brothers “lords of the islands”. Upon arriving in Spain they were jailed for six weeks before King Ferdinand gave them an audience.
Upon his release Christopher Columbus was pardoned, and even allowed to make another voyage to the New World. However, the Spanish Crown made it explicitly clear that Christopher Columbus was not to govern in the New World ever again.
Modern historians believe that the Spanish Crown used Columbus as a scapegoat for their overall failings in the New World. I don’t think the Hispaniola genocide played a large role in their decision, as I stated earlier, in those days, and even in contemporary society, the nobility doesn’t care much for indigenous people. To me it seems that Columbus was removed from power at the point at which he ceased to be useful to the Spanish Crown. Columbus was an explorer, not a governor, and perhaps with pressure from their nobility, the King and Queen of Spain felt it was time to replace him for somebody more adapt for governing, somebody who could return a profit.