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 ...
Yeah - Dan Rather.
LOL, no, It happened in a little farming community in NM.
Ouch! They had a different interpretation of cruel and unusual punishment that we do apparently.
Victorian twaddle. There were no "Dark Ages", and "Spain" (which didn't exist in 720 AD) was no more advanced than any number of other European kingdoms. Charles Martel was grandfather to Charlemagne, who united Western Europe and was crowned Emperor 80 years later. The "dark ages" are nothing more than an invention of Victorian historians romanticizing about the fall of Rome.
Frankenreich, et al, were so decrepit in those times that it really wasn't worthwhile for the Moslems to try to rehabilitate the place.
Consequently they escorted Moslem converts from the area back to Spain where it was sunny, warm and civilized.
The county of Wallonia is split into two segments.
Reuters?
In the document uncovered by Spanish Historians:
It seems old Chris is the only guy in history who gets worse press than Dubya.
The story has been updated substantially since Durant's time. For one thing folks have begun recognizing and discounting the English propaganda against the Franco/Hispanic hidalgos who were guiding the re-settlement of the Americas.
Discounting, of course, the first English government installed in the New World (at Jamestown) that ended up with nearly every settler poisoned in an homosexual flavored intrigue of the worst sort.
Spain, to say the least, has been around a very long time ~ Trajan, the Roman Emperor, was a Spaniard.
Now, what was it you were saying about "The Dark Ages"? I'd suggest you go find out how many books were published in Western Europe from 538 AD to about 1066 AD ~ get back to us when you find some eh!
That was the Aztecs, wasn't it? As far as I know, although the Inca's and Mayas practiced a form of human sacrifice by burying groups of people alive with their deceased royalty, they didn't do the really brutal stuff that you are suggesting. I could be wrong, so if you have any information which can enlighten me, I will be happy to read it.
If you'd tried to do that to the Inca he'd had you chopped into little pieces.
See #20 .
"...leaky thatch roofs..."
Quality thatch roofs do not leak. Today one is likely to find better thatch work in Natal/Zululand than in Central America but even in Europe there are some who keep the almost-lost art alive.
So you think the Mohammedans just turned around at Tours of their own accord...a unique theory...completely faggy and perverted but different.
Part of the problem may be that the number of participants was exaggerated on both sides, with the Franks claiming Rahman had 80,000 cavalry, and that they, themselves only lost 1,500 infantry (out of a mere 15,000 men at arms in the entirity of the Frankish domains).
Although the Moslem army was far from being a small raiding party, it's most likely both armies suffered such heavy losses that no further combat was possible the remainder of the year (since October in Europe does mark the beginning of Fall.)
By the time Spring came, most of the Moslem converts had left France, or been robbed and slaughtered by Pagan soldiers in Martel's command.
Since Rahmen had been killed, disputes over succession, ownership of lands, use of castles, and so forth would probably consume Moslem interests in Spain for most of the next decade.
With no reason to go back to France (besides the place being exceptionally nasty in that period), the Moslems simply did not return.
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