Posted on 08/09/2006 5:44:39 AM PDT by Marius3188
Christopher Columbus, the man credited with discovering the Americas, was a greedy and vindictive tyrant who saved some of his most violent punishments for his own followers, according to a document uncovered by Spanish historians.
As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on the first Spanish colony in the Americas, in what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic. Punishments included cutting off people's ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery.
"Columbus' government was characterised by a form of tyranny," Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian who has seen the document, told journalists.
One man caught stealing corn had his nose and ears cut off, was placed in shackles and was then auctioned off as a slave. A woman who dared to suggest that Columbus was of lowly birth was punished by his brother Bartolomé, who had also travelled to the Caribbean. She was stripped naked and paraded around the colony on the back of a mule.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
History ping!
Funny, I thought Columbus was a saint. Jeez, they were all angels back in the day.
Sounds like Columbus implemented Sharia.
I'm surprised he had time in his busy schedule of destroying indigenous peoples to mess with his own peeps.
If your going to be a tyrant, might as well pick the Caribbean. The beach, sun, drinks.
I'd hate to see how pissed off he would have been in a Russian winter.
That wasn't Columbus, you knothead, that was Clinton...
Did Mary Mapes have anything to do with this "document"? 'Cause, I'm pretty sure they didn't have MS Word back in the 1500s.
This is the Guardian. Any more reliable source?
Columbus quit drinking.
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It made him mean.
Spain's gift to the world is certainly not governance.
Love poetry, perhaps.
Columbus was an Italian who's history was written by vindictive Spaniards. It was in their, the Spaniards, intersts to discredit Columbus in the eyes of the Spanish monarchs.
A couple more:
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=312952&sid=FTP
http://www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?i=2225&c=slavery&h=Christopher+Columbus+tortured+slaves%2C+say+official+historical+documents
Good thing he was an Italian or a Catalan. Or they would be blaming, US?
Talk about short memories. Why is it that people think Democracy has been in practice forever when in reality its use is only some 230 years old. Assuming this is all true about Columbus, it does not come as a surprise. That is simply the way things were then.
Not according to Francisco de Bobadilla, the Spanish judge who was sent to the island of Hispaniola by Ferdinand and Isabella, at Columbus' own request, to investigate charges of misconduct brought by Spanish colonists against Columbus.
It did not take long for de Bobadilla to have Columbus imprisoned and shipped back to Spain in chains.
Did dan rather just find this docuement on Columbus' PC?
More fake but accurate?
Spain's gift to the world was driving the last of the Moors off the European continent. Ironically, it was Ferdinand and Isabella who did it..........
"Bartolomé ordered that her tongue be cut out," said Ms Varela. "Christopher congratulated him for defending the family."
Catholic 1500 = Muslim 2006. So what's the news?
No updates from the Guardian on the long-awaited Islamic Reformation? ;)
The treatment of women is NOT NEWS.
Aztecs and Mayans ~ not sure the Inca did the heart thing. They did other stuff.
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