Would Things Have Changed?

Oh, Columbus…Where to begin? So the first question is whether it is fair to blame Columbus for what transpired after the discovery of the Americas. Quite frankly, no it is not. While Columbus was kind of an ass in dealing with the native population, it is not like anyone else would have been better. Columbus was a man driven by religion, power, and—partially--greed. Many men in power shared these characteristics at the time. In retrospect, the way Columbus dealt with the native population was quite horrible, but during that era, it wasn’t considered nearly as horrible. The majority of people would have looked at the natives as savages and acted similarly, if not worse, than good Ol’ Columbus had.

However, the second question is much different. If Columbus had acted differently, things would have drastically changed. Had Columbus acted in accordance with more contemporary standards in dealing with native populations, the future of the Americas would be immeasurable different. The most significant factor in the way Columbus treated the natives derived from his perspective of them; Columbus saw the indigenous as less than human—almost as animals. Had Columbus viewed the natives as humans, their treatment would have been completely different. Whether to say it would have been better or worse is impossible. For all we know, the Spanish could have been more threatened by a civil entity’s existence on the land and crushed them more ruthlessly than before. However, if Columbus had initially seen the American-Indians as human beings, it is unquestionable to say things would not have been the same.