Alright, you bunch of goofballs, I see it is once again that time of year where I have to educate you all once again as to the real story of Cristobal Columbo, AKA Christopher Columbus. The modern story of Christopher Columbus as it is told, the story of genocide and what not, comes entirely for Howard Zinn, who on top of being a huge Liberal is a massive and well documented liar. Zinn's entire account of the Columbus tale not only incorrectly claims that Columbus was responsible for committing genoicide on the Taino and exterminating them from the earth (despite the fact that they still exist all across South America today) but tells the story that this was the only tribe that Columbus encountered. This is not true. Columbus dealt with at least 3 tribes of Natives in Haiti, the Arawaks, the Taino and the Carib. The Carib and the Taino were the ones dealt with the most, as the Taino where seen by Columbus and his men as wealthy and properous, and the Carib constantly attacked them and more than likely engaged in Cannibalism. Early on in their interactions Columbus and his men essentially served as muscle for the Taino as they fought against the Carib, and the absolutely enslaved natives and put them to work in the mines. The natives they enslaved were Carib and Arawaks captured in fights against the Taino. The claim that he and his men killed millions of people is beyond preposterous. He never had more than a few hundred soldiers, if that, with him at any given time. Secondly, Columbus had a Priest with him during his second voyage and afterward named Bartolome De Las Casas. De Las Casas was one of the main witnesses against Columbus when he was eventually put on trial later in his life for the very same crimes that Zinn is accusing him of today. One of the main pieces of evidence against him was a "secret" journal that De Las Casas had taken of Columbus' that he sent back to Spain along with other reports on the situation in Haiti about the crfimes Columbus was allegedly committing. This Journal was the basis for much almost all of Zinn's work. Just a slight problem though. The journal was written in beautiful hand writing, in gramatically perfect Latin and Greek. Columbus, however was an unducated peasant who could barely write legibly in Italian or Spanish, the only two languages that he spoke. Columbus was exonerated for the crimes that he is still accused of to this day by people like Zinn WHILE HE WAS STILL ALIVE IN THE LATE 1400S.
Now, let's address the silly "He got lost going to India" line of thinking. This is just as absurd. Columbus grew up in Genoa, at the time the single most important port city in the world. He was a cartographer's assistant at 14, during a time when maps where used as currency. He would have grown up making maps from around the world, and had access to all of the knowledge within. By his mid 20s he was at sea and his late 20s the capitan of his own ship that had made at least 2 trips to Iceland, the place that just so happens to be the home of Lief Erickson. People don't seem to realize that amongst seafareing peoples the fact that there was land far away to the West was a commonly accepted fact for roughly 500 years by the time Columbus came around. What Columbus did was con Spain into agreeing to name him the Duke of any previously undiscovered lands that he may encounter on his way West with rights to profits from trade and title to descend through his hiers for ever. The rest is history. That's the real story of Columbus, glad I could be of help.
