History shows that Columbus was not a hero

This month we went south to the Dominican Republic for some sun and R&R. I couldn’t help but research the history of the country and the role it played in the Spanish conquest of the new world.

We made one of those tourist trips to the capital city of Santo Domingo and got the official line from our guide. As far as the people of the DR are concerned, Christopher Columbus was the great national hero who discovered and founded their country.

After landing in the Bahamas, Chris headed south and landed on the north shore of the island of Hispaniola, which today contains the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

He encountered the Taino Indians, who were members of the Arawak nation. They established a colony, which was short-lived due to disease and attacks from the Taino.

The Taino had a well-organized social structure and lived a good life with food from the sea and fruits and vegetables they cultivated on their subsistence land. All this would change for them and all other original peoples of the Americas.

In 1496, Diego Columbus, Chris’s younger brother, founded the city of Santo Domingo on the south side of the island. This was the first city in the new world and it had the first cathedral, hospital and university. Meanwhile the Taino were being wiped out by European disease, slavery or by their own hands as they committed suicide.

Our guide couched it in terms that Columbus “encouraged” the Taino to work in the sugar cane fields. The Spanish developed gold mines and sugar plantations and enslaved the Taino, who were not used to such cruelty and died of exhaustion.

The result was that the Spanish were forced to import slaves from Africa (our guide referred to the Africans as workers).

Our tour bus pulled into the lighthouse, a grossly oversized monument that contains the remains of Christopher Columbus. We went to look and inside the structure viewed a mausoleum that purportedly contains the remains of the genocidal murderer who “discovered the new world.”

I asked the security guard if I could relieve myself on the tombstone. He said no. He didn’t smile or make any other comment. Apparently, my request must have been a common one.

So, we continued to the old part of the city that went back to the 15th century. There are statues of Christopher Columbus all over the place, including one that stands in the centre of the city square. It depicts Columbus standing triumphantly while a Taino Indian grovels at his feet, depicting their love and dedication to the great man. It was disgusting.

This is the great national myth of the Dominican Republic: their founder was a great man and the Indians were thankful for being discovered.

By 1508, only 60,000 Taino Indians were still alive on the island. In 1517, the Taino attacked the Spanish colonists and were joined by African slaves. The Taino Indians conducted a guerrilla war against the Spanish, hiding out in the mountains and joining forces with runaway slaves known as maroons.

The war continued until 1533 and the Spanish were forced to negotiate a peace treaty granting land and freedom to the Taino. Today, many people in the Dominican Republic carry the genetic material of the Taino, who live on within the population.

For years, Santo Domingo was the gateway to the new world. Military leaders organized expeditions into the new lands. Cortez lived in Santo Domingo and planned the conquest of Mexico. Also, Pizzaro planned the conquest of Peru and used the island as his staging ground.

It’s hard to believe, but within 50 years after Columbus’s voyage of discovery, the Spanish had conquered Mexico, Central America and all South America except Brazil, which was claimed by Portugal.

The conquest of the Americas was led by plagues followed by mass killings by the Spanish conquistadors. Nation after nation would succumb to European diseases; the actual military action from the Spanish came after the population was too weak to fight back.

It was the greatest genocide in the world’s history. In the end, the Europeans overran this new land.

But it wasn’t virgin territory — the land was a widow.