[Marius3188]

History ping!

Funny, I thought Columbus was a saint. Jeez, they were all angels back in the day.

[Pietro]

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.

[Polybius]

Funny, I thought Columbus was a saint.

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.

[Antoninus]

Boy is this out of context. The sorts of punishments mentioned here were actually somewhat mild for this time period.

Anyone know what the "peaceful" natives used to do with prisoners captured in war?

[x_plus_one]

Read James Michener's CARRIBEAN. It's fun and very informative. Columbus held show executions of his own men to inspire fear and trembling and obediance. He murdered indigenous populations at will for fun and profit.

Aside from this, it was a given that any Spanish viceroy or governor in charge of a Carribean island would spend years in jail upon recall by the King of Spain. Everything was the spoils system and top dogs had to enrich themselves adequately to payoff the powers that be so that they could reduce jail time back home.

This is why the spanish system of government is so corrupt yet today. The english system was poorer but concentrated on building social infrastructure - not pillaging indigenous locals for silver and gold for personal enrichment.