Preview

What Is The Difference Between Columbus And Native Americans

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
607 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is The Difference Between Columbus And Native Americans
Columbus noticed that the Native Americans were well formed in their physical features: handsome bodies, good faces, and coarse hair. He also noted that they used body and face paint.
Some would use it only on their eyes, while others would coat their entire body in it. In comparison to Europeans, they had wider faces and foreheads and flatter stomachs. Columbus concluded that "they were a people very poor in everything" because the Native Americans would "go around as naked as their mother bore", something to which the Europeans were not accustom. 2. Columbus assumed that the Indians were friendly during their first encounters because of the various items they had brought with them that the Indians had desired. After describing the
Indian gentleness and kindness, he
…show more content…
The Indians brought them gifts and treated them like gods as if they were a gift from the heavens. The form of communication was mainly the exchange of goods. This was the only thing constant between Columbus and his crew and the tribes they visited.
Llewellyn !2
3. As far as Columbus could tell, the Indians were under the impression that Columbus and his men had come from the heavens. This was made evident as the Indians would feed and supply water to the crew and would swim out to the ship if Columbus or his people didn't feel like going ashore. This dedication the Native Americans placed on maintaining these foreigners happy was an indication they thought of them as more than just common guests. In addition one man called out to his people to "come see the men who came from the heavens", making it abundantly clear they believed Columbus and his men came from a higher power.
4. When Columbus and his crew first met the Indians, they began to trade goods with each other.
The Indians immediately became hooked with trade, trading for anything on which they could get their hands. In addition, the Indians also thought of Columbus and his men as godly

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Native Americans had been all throughout the United States in early history, keeping to themselves living their lives. Americans believed the Indians to be savage and not worth the life they lived and some thought they should be exterminated, however, there were those who had compassion that believed that the Indians should be converted to Christianity and then everything would be fine (23). Native Americans showed as much willingness as white people to participate in the market economy (48). The Indians figured out different ways to communicate with the whites so that they would be able to trade and barter with them effectively (27).…

    • 2200 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the moment Columbus was greeted by the natives, he immediately lost all respect towards them. Their nude bodies were defined as a lack of knowledge, skill, and religion (DeWitt). Columbus wanted to spread the word of Christianity among the Native Americans and at the same time he saw a source of easy profit by enslaving the Indians. Not once did it come to Columbus mind that these lands were not his to take but rather began to rename these islands when he sailed back home he had the entitlement of being “the founder”. During his first voyage, Columbus did not do anything incriminating against the Native Americans because he simply analyzed their culture. When he sailed back to Spain, he returned with many new items as well with kidnapped…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Columbus’s voyage to get gold and spice lef to America in which he was very warmly welcomed by the Taino…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    From the aspect of the native Americans that Columbus “discovered,” his arrival started the destruction of the native peoples (Gray 1). This natural world he discovered would soon be corrupted by the European invasion of the New World. What Columbus mistook for ignorance from the indigenous was actually just a different, unpretentious way of living in which the natives were quite comfortable. “’They were well fed and well housed, without poverty or serious disease. They enjoyed considerable leisure… and expressed themselves artistically…They lived in general harmony and peace without greed or covetousness or theft’” (4). From the evidence we can collect, it seems as if the natives were not without fault as the prelapsarian myth suggests, but they were content before Columbus and probably would have lived in prosperity completely satisfied without Columbus (4). It needs to be well understood that Columbus is a historical figure, not a historical…

    • 2522 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The natives once greeting the new comers to their island were very polite. Some of the natives thought of Columbus as a messenger from god, a savior. Soon enough Columbus would realize this and take advantage. He sought to take over all remaining money and recourses from the Native Americans. But not only did he have to take away all of there personal items he had to take their faith. Beyond all of the wealth, Columbus decided to convert all natives into Catholicism. In fact it had turned out to be Columbus’s plan from the beginning. On the day of arrival on October 12, 1492 he wrote, “They should all be good servants…I our lord being pleased, will take hence at the time of my departure” As clearly shown Columbus had a cruel and dictator like mind to turn all natives into his servants or…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hist 17A Class Discussions

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A1: Both Columbus’ “Columbus Describes His First Encounter with “Indians”” and Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s “A Conquistador Arrives in Mexico” were thought-provoking reads. What I learned was that Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Spanish Conquistador under Hernan Cortes) and Christopher Columbus (Italian Explorer under Spanish King Ferdinand II) had very different viewpoints of the Native Americans. Christopher Columbus’ main goal was to lead the Spanish Crown to the East via a quick route, but when he found the Caribbean, he wanted to find riches for Spain & spread Christianity, while Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s main goal was to claim lands for Spain under Cortes. Columbus saw the Native Americans culture as “they brought us parrots and cotton in thread balls and javelins and many other things, and they traded them to us…a people very poor in everything. All of them go around naked as their mothers bore them…..They have no iron… (20). ” On the other hand, Bernal Diaz del Castillo saw Native Americans’ culture as, “… it was all so wonderful that I do not know how to describe this first glimpse of things never heard of, seen or dreamed of before …(24).” Christopher Columbus, being Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s predecessor, laid the foundation of Spain’s dominance in the Americas.…

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    [online]. [Accessed 24th October 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/btt/columbus/native_peoples.shtml> http://www.wlcsd.org/Loonlake.cfm?subpage=1432988 http://allaboutexplorers.com/explorers/pizarro/ Lawyer: As you can see Christopher Columbus has shown that the treatment towards the natives was normal since Cortes had done the same thing and that the fact it was for valuables like gold and wealth and power and to be respected by the people around him and that these actions towards the natives were also because it was normal just because they wanted the natives the respect their God so all this would be normal in that time of era.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    With gold in his ships Cortes contributed to the Spanish economy. Another person who used the same tactic as Columbus and Cortes was Pizzaro. Bondholders and stockholders were the ones that paid for his expeditions. It was in Peru where Pizzaro searched for gold and slaves. He helped the growth of a money economy, this was beginning a new system of business, politics and culture. These three men helped Spaniards to progress by bringing gold and slaves from their expeditions. Although all of the gold that they gained weren’t simply handed to them. The Indians did not willing choose to become slaves. Blood was spilled by the conquistadors. The Arawaks were separated from their families and forced into slavery so that Columbus can get his gold. Columbus killed by the thousands when he was on the search for the gold mine’s location. These Indians were peaceful people but were drove to a depressive path which led to their deaths and as described by Las Casas, a young priest who accompanied Columbus and witnessed how they treated Indians, “... In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work and children died from lack of milk… and in a short time this land which was…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Iroquois Indian Exchange

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When Christopher Columbus first set foot upon the New World and began trading with the natives he incorrectly dubbed "Indians", he had no idea that his bartering would eventually lead to immense contact between the Native Americans and Europeans. Cultural and economic influences flowed both ways in this exchange of societies between Native Americans and both the French and British.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Europe was a continent emerging from the darkness of the Middle Ages. The people had endured a long period of war, disease, and general strife. Europe was emerging from the Middle Ages with a new sense of confidence and self-worth. Europe’s achievements, however, led to ever increasing confidence. Christopher Columbus’s “The Journal of Christopher Columbus” documents his actions taken in the Americas as well as insight into his thoughts at the time. When Christopher Columbus came into contact with the Native Americans, he would unknowingly perpetuate a European attitude of superiority. Even out of kindness, Christopher Columbus believed that the Native Americans were like…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    From their nakedness, Columbus inferred the native people to be an inferior race. Columbus wrote of the Indians he encountered, "They all go around as naked as their mothers bore them; and also the women." However, he noted that "they could easily be commanded and made to work, to sow and to do whatever might be needed, to build towns and be taught to wear clothes and adopt our ways." Although Columbus also wrote that "they are the best people in the world and above all the gentlest," his record of the first encounter between Europeans and New World Indians was filled with accounts of enslavement, murder, and rape.…

    • 4781 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    the girl with peral earring

    • 7737 Words
    • 31 Pages

    A: one early and subsequent motive that drove Columbus to oppress indigenous peoples was that in return for bringing back gold and spices Columbus was promised 10 percent of the profits, governorship over new-found lands, and the fame that would go with the title: Admiral of the Ocean Sea. So he oppressed the Indian people thinking they knew where the gold was, because gold was a sign of…

    • 7737 Words
    • 31 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Columbus returned to the Spanish court, he brought news of interest in good trade. According to Columbus’s journal, he states, “They ought to make good slaves.” He believed this because of their quick intelligence. As well as his thoughts of slavery, he also believed they could easily become Christians, as he did not see a religion of their own. Columbus forced natives to work for profits, sending thousands of Taino peoples to Spain to be sold into further slavery.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In his 1492 voyage to the Americas, Columbus came across Native Americans that inhabited the lands he intended to exploit for wealth. However, Columbus not only exploited the natives land but the Native Americas as well in his greedy quest for wealth. According to Zinn, the Spanish exploited the Native Americans and in a documented account, the Native Americans and people of color (Haitians) were taken off their lands and displayed like cattle for sale in Spain to be sold for sex and…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    They would trade their goods with other native tribes. Native Americans hoped to incorporate Europeans into this system. For a while, natives did trade skins and hides, receiving wampum, sacred blue and white shell beads, in exchange from the settlers. “Exchange is meant not only the trading of material goods but also exchanges across community lines of marriage partners, resources, labor, ideas, techniques and religious practices.” Natives generously shared their belongings, supplies, food, and the skills necessary for survival in the New World with the settlers. In exchange, settlers gave Natives disease, death and robbed them of their…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays