Here's some classic pro-Columbus propaganda from god knows when. Really pisses me off. I noticed a few inconsistencies.
First off, this claims that white people had "learned how to build houses," while Native Americans only lived in "huts." What?
And second, everybody in 1492 knew the world was round. That had been a proven fact since the ancient world, and as far as we can tell, nobody ever truly believed that the world was flat. The reason why nobody would fund Columbus' journey is because they thought his calculations for the size of the earth were wrong, and he'd starve to death before he reached India. And they were right. If he hadn't hit the Americas, that's exactly what would've happened.
The video did get one thing right, the Indians were extremely friendly. They swam out to meet Columbus' ships when he arrived. Columbus wrote they "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone..." Columbus repaid their kindness by kidnapping and killing them. At 4:20 it shows the Indians waving to Columbus in a friendly goodbye, but I'm not sure they would've been that happy to see Columbus kidnapping their friends and family, convinced they would lead him to gold. At Hispaniola, two Indians were stabbed to death when they refused to trade as many bows and arrows as Columbus wanted. When Columbus set sail for Spain again, his prisoners froze to death on his ships.
This video neglected to mention that Columbus' only goals were acquiring slaves and gold, and "discovery" was the last thing on his mind. They didn't show the Europeans taking women and children as slaves, and forcing them into sex and labor. They didn't show the mass suicides by the Arawaks once they realized that resistance would only mean certain death. They didn't show the Arawak mothers drowning their infants to save them from the Spaniards' brutality. They didn't show Columbus saying, "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." They didn't mention that within two years of Columbus' "discovery," half of Haiti's 250,000 inhabitants were dead.
America was not a "new" world, and it was not "discovered." It had millions of people in it before the Spanish arrived to slaughter, enslave, and rape everyone. It was just as populous as Europe, and a thousand times more cultured. They treated their women with respect, valued their opinions in government, and allowed them to separate from their partners if they chose. They had democratic governments centuries before the United States was founded. They had a society that valued kindness, and encouraged taking care of one another, a sort of proto-socialism. Christopher Columbus set the foundations for the American slave trade, the most brutal system of slavery that has ever existed. The brutal and horrendous racism that resulted bleeds the nation to this day. Columbus apologists, by claiming that it's "progress" to commit genocide against some of the most advanced cultures that have ever appeared on earth, are no better than the Spaniards who put them to the sword.
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