2007-08-29 08:42:08 · 9 answers · asked by navy15seal 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
his finding of the "New World" let to other Europeans coming and they all either enslaved, killed, or gave disease to the indigenous peoples.
They did enslave people during Columbus life and he knew it too, he just was not the one who did it, he just turned his eye and back to it, in those days slavery was "considered acceptable" and so he did not say anything.
I wonder where we would be today had we stayed hidden and away from the rest of the world. Would we have been found in the 40's and 50's such as a tribe they found in africa still living indiginous and the same as for the native Australians in the outback.
I wonder if we would have advanced much technologically or still be in Tee Pees and tribes. I am part Cherokee so I wonder what my life would have been life had the West not come here.
I am also part white so I have no anger or hatred, just curiosity.
He was not even the first to discover the new world, in fact it was either the Vikings or possibly the Chinese!!
2007-08-29 08:59:48 · answer #1 · answered by Legend Gates Shotokan Karate 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
This is actually a difficult one to answer. While it can be argued that Columbus was not personally responsible for the decimation of indigineous cultures, it is thought that his exploration of the new world brought about diseases which killed most of the native population.
"An estimated 85% of the Indian population was wiped out within 150 years of Columbus' arrival in America. This decimation was largely due to diseases such as smallpox, which were ... spread among American Indian populations"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
Additionally, his "discovery" encouraged further conquest, which led to the slavery and genocide of the indigenous peoples.
However, the only thing that Columbus was officially accused of during his lifetime was gross mismanagement of the expeditions.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/columbus.html
He died quietly in 1506, just 14 years after he landed in the Americas.
2007-08-29 09:09:11 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No one 'decimated' any culture. Decimation means the killing of every tenth person and was a punishment meted out to Roman legions which had offended in some way. Indigenous cultures were, in many cases, totally wiped out for the reasons stated in previous answers.
2007-08-29 10:33:34 · answer #3 · answered by rdenig_male 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
He didn't. The indigenous cultures, lacking resilience, technological progress, and other factors, as well as a low resistance to disease were overcome by the European nations. The decimation of native populations is something the Europeans had experiance with as it had happened to them a few times when steppe tribes, Rome, Islam, etc. had swept over them leaving behind a trail of blood and bodies. The difference is the European nations survived and either assimilated the invaders or kicked them out.
2007-08-29 08:56:53 · answer #4 · answered by chessale 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
he had Little or nothing directly to do with it........he did inform Spain of the New World just waiting for priests, soldiers and disease.....or as Jarred Diamond wrote in the most important unreadable book of the last ten years, Guns Germs and Steel
2007-08-29 08:50:04 · answer #5 · answered by yankee_sailor 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
How can Columbus be blamed for that?
2007-08-29 23:29:54 · answer #6 · answered by Mark A 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Mostly the people died from European diseases,all so out weapon ed,lies and trickery.
2007-08-29 08:51:38 · answer #7 · answered by Gloryana 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I was wondering the same question myself yesterday
2016-08-24 13:57:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
He didn't. That occured after his death.
2007-08-29 08:46:01 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋