Zinn Chapter 1

All my life I grew up being taught that Christopher
Columbus was an amazing man and an even better explorer. He
was the man who believed the world was round and not flat. He
was the man who discovered the America we live in today.
However, after reading Columbus, the Indians, and Human
Progress by Howard Zinn my opinion of this so called hero has
somewhat changed. Christopher Columbus is not the legendary
man I learned about growing up but a man who’s greed of gold
caused him to end the existence of a peaceful Arawak tribe.

Thirty-three days after leaving Spain’s shores and
sailing east, Columbus and his thirty-nine men began to see
signs of land. With flocks of birds above them and twigs and
branches in the water beneath them they discovered land in the
early morning of October 12. As Columbus and his men anxiously
approached the shore they noticed they weren’t the only ones on
the land. They were approached by the Arawak Indian tribe who
graciously swam out to greet the Europeans. The Arawak Indians
were a peaceful tribe who lived in villages just off the coast
of the Caribbean water. Columbus not only noticed the lack of
protection they had but also the gold they wore hanging from
their ears. This caused the Spaniard to take capture some of
the Arawak in search for more of the gold. The Europeans went
from island to island in search for gold. Reporting back to
Spain, Columbus promised gold and slaves in return for
investment in more ships and more men. Columbus’ greed for
gold grew as he and his men began to take prisoners and killed
those who disobeyed. The Europeans began to run out of gold
fields and ran into empty villages as they searched for riches
and slaves. In a desperate move in order to fill the ships
with something instead of gold, Columbus captured 1500 Arawak
men, women, and children. As time went on a majority of the
1500 died of disease and harsh living conditions. In a panic
move, Columbus ordered the remaining slaves an impossible task.
They were to gather as much gold around them as they could even
though the remaining gold was nothing but bits and dust. The
Arawaks tried to resist, instead they faced the Europeans who
had horses, armor, and muskets compared to the Indians bow and
arrows. In result of the defeat, many died due to suicides in
order to save themselves from the Europeans. When realizing
there was no gold left to be discovered the remaining Arawak
Indians were used for labor. Thousands died due to the working
environment. By the 1600s there were no signs of the Arawaks
or their original descendents left on the Caribbean island.

I believe Howard Zinn did a magnificent job in the way
he wrote this piece on the early Americas. I really liked the
way Zinn put direct quotes in the story form the characters in
the story. It really gave me a feel for what the mind set was
for someone like Christopher Columbus and his voyage across the
ocean to this unknown land leading to his greed for gold. It
also put an emphasis on how different the Europeans were from
the Arawak Indians and the way they responded to one another.
I got a lot out of reading this story by Howard Zinn.

I like stories that make me sit there and ponder about what I
had just read. It really brings me down to earth in a way that
it is hard to believe how inhuman the Europeans were to the
Indians who were here before them. It makes me sad to think
how violent Columbus and his men were to the Arawak Indians who
lived life so peacefully and caused them no harm. How greedy
can we be? Even in today’s world we are surrounded by riches
and driven to have the best of the best. Yet are we that
greedy to kill someone for what we so desperately want? I
would like to believe we are not which brings me to believe
that Christopher Columbus is not the man I thought he was but a
man who’s greed of gold caused him to end the existence of a
peaceful Arawak tribe.