Discovering the Americas

1. Discovering the Americas Shame on Columbus

2. Warm Up • Who was Christopher Columbus? • What did he do?

3. Setting the stage • Spain had recently become unified, similar to France and England. • The population mostly consisted of poor peasants who worked for the nobility which were only 2% of the population but owned 95% of the land. (sound familiar?) • Spain linked itself to the Catholic Church and then drove out all the Jews and Moors. The Spanish Inquisition ("(Keep Feeling) Fascination" by The Human League) - YouTube • Spain wanted GOLD. They believed there was gold in Asia and wanted to set out to find it. However, they could not do it by land and had to do it by sea. • They were in need of a sailor and Columbus was their man for the job. • Columbus was promised 10% percent of profits of what he found, governorship of new land, and a new title Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

4. Columbus’ Credentials • Merchant’s clerk in Genoa, Italy • Part time weaver • Expert Sailor • On his first expedition in 1492, he took 3 ships, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. • Santa Maria was the largest of the 3 but also the slowest. Columbus estimated Asia to be much closer than it actually was and his estimate was thousands of miles off. He would never had made it to Asia with the ships he had. • The Americas were 1/4th the distance to Asia which was very fortunate for Columbus. • The first person to spot land would receive a yearly pension of 10,000 maravedis. A sailor named Rodrigo spotted a beach on an island in the Bahamas but Columbus said he saw it the night before which meant he received the pension. (shame on Columbus)

5. Meeting the neighbors • When Columbus and the crew land, they are greeted by Arawaks. • The Arawaks lived in village communities, grew corn, yams, and cassava. • They could spin and weave cloth. • They wore gold in their ears which creates enormous problems for them. • Why?

6. Finders Keepers • Columbus kidnapped some of the Arawaks and demanded they take him to the gold. He believed there were fields of gold waiting for him. • There wasn’t gold like he imagined, only tiny bits. • He reported back to the king and queen that there were tons of gold and the natives make great slaves. Spain sent 17 ships this time with the mission to get gold and slaves. • The ships began to island hop but news spread of the Spaniards intentions. Natives would run and hide making it difficult for the Spanish to capture them. • One slave raid captured 1,500 men, women, and children. Of that total, there were 500 of the best chosen. These 500 were taken back to Spain but 200 died on the voyage. • Most slaves died in captivity which meant that slaves were not as prosperous as Columbus had thought.

7. Paying Bills • Columbus had promised ships full of gold and he was set on doing that. • Since selling slaves was not as lucrative as he thought, he decided to use them on the islands to gather gold. • In Haiti, all people over the age of 14 had to gather a certain amount of gold per 3 months. Once they met their quota, they were given a copper token to wear around their necks which ensured their safety. If you did not meet your quota, then your hand was chopped off and you bled to death. • Arawaks began to have mass suicides by using cassava poison. Infants were killed in order to save them from the Spaniards. • Once the Spanish realize there is no gold, they take the slaves to work on large estates known as encomiendas. They are worked to death and die by the thousands. • By 1650 there are no original Arawaks or their descendants.

10. Every man and woman, every boy or girl of fourteen or older, in the province of Cibao ... had to collect gold for the Spaniards. As their measure, the Spaniards used ... hawks’ bells. ... Every three months, every [Taíno] had to bring to one of the forts a hawks’ bell filled with gold dust. The chiefs had to bring in about ten times that amount. In the other provinces of Hispaniola, twenty-five pounds of spun cotton took the place of gold. Copper tokens were manufactured, and when a [Taíno] had brought his or her tribute to an armed post, he or she received such a token, stamped with the month, to be hung around the neck. With that they were safe for another three months while collecting more gold.

11. Whoever was caught without a token was killed by having his or her hands cut off ... There were no gold fields, and thus, once the [Taínos] had handed in whatever they still had in gold ornaments, their only hope was to work all day in the streams, washing out gold dust from the pebbles. It was an impossible task, but those Taínos who tried to flee into the mountains were systematically hunted down with dogs and killed, to set an example for the others to keep trying. ... During those two years of the administration of the brothers Columbus, an estimated one half of the entire population of Hispaniola was killed or killed themselves. The estimates run from one hundred and twenty-five thousand to one-half million.

12. Columbus T-Chart How he is usually portrayed. What actually happened.