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Christopher Columbus Cristoffa Corombo Cristóbal Colón | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Columbus from after his death | |
| Born | 1451 Genoa, Republic of Genoa |
| Died | 20 May 1506 Valladolid, Castile |
| Known for | Beginning the invasion of the Americas |
Christopher Columbus was a Genoese sailor who began the European colonization of the Americas and genocide of its indigenous peoples.
Genocide of indigenous peoples
Columbus sailed from Spain to what is now the Bahamas in 1492 with support from the Spanish monarchy. He enslaved the Arawak people in the Bahamas and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and forced them to mine gold. If they could not find enough gold, he cut their hands off. Columbus sent about 5,000 enslaved Arawaks to Europe. When the gold supply ran out, the Spanish began a system of plantation slavery. From 1492 to 1516, the Arawak population dropped from eight million to 12,000. The Spanish had completely wiped out the Arawaks in Hispaniola by 1555.[1]
References
- ↑ "The real legacy of Christopher Columbus: slavery and genocide" (2014-07-03). Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2022-05-25. Retrieved 2022-08-28.