LE
Mr. Lee
Dual US History
28 August 2014 Christopher Columbus is best known for being the first person to discover America but what most people don’t know is that he didn’t discover America first and wasn’t as kind as people portrayed him to be. The actual first European to discover America was a Viking, Leif Ericson, he founded a Norse village nearly 500 years before Columbus even set sail. Columbus also showed his immatureness when on board his ship a sailor named Rodrigo was the first to sight the land ahead but Columbus took credit for it and received 10,000 maravedis for life. The tides turned a little on him though when this newly discovered land ended up being an island in the Bahamas and not the Indies like Columbus expected.
When Columbus set foot on the new land he met the Arawaks, who were natives on the island and had never seen anything like these Europeans before. The Arawaks were amazed by them and acted with hospitality by giving the Europeans many of their goods. Although Columbus was thankful for their kindness he was too caught up in thinking about their well-built features and perfect fit for a slave. Like he said in his journal, “They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Columbus used the natives as slaves to guide him to the gold he told his king and queen he would bring back home. He also used the natives as a way to persuade the king and queen to send more funding and boats in