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How Did Columbus Led To The Arawak Downfall

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When Columbus and his men originally landed on the Islands of the Bahamas the native Arawak people where of the first to greet them they even swam out to meet Columbus. The anxious Arawak people treated him and his men exceptionally well. The Arawaks adorned the men with with gifts of cotton amongst other goods. They were very peaceful, known for their hospitality, and traded their own goods with the sailors. Hospitality however, may not have been the best approach on the Arawak’s behalf. There are many reasons as to why Columbus led to the downfall of these people. First remember that Columbus was sent to the island on the behalf of Spain who was looking for gold, new land, and other goods (perhaps slaves). The Arawak people did not have much but made earing like jewelry out of …show more content…

Columbus then began to see the opportunities that would fallow from enslaving the Arawaks. With a greed for gold Columbus abducted some of the Arawak’s and left them with no choice but to sail with him to Cuba. In Cuba they found rivers laced with gold and because of Columbus’s reports back to Spain they soon set out on a second excursion but this time with more men and seventeen ships. Their mission this time was very clear, they wanted gold and slaves. Now with their base set up in Haiti they needed to fill the ships. Their answer to the unused ship space was the great slave raid. Columbus and his men gathered up fifteen hundred Arawak men, women, and children. Of the fifteen hundred Arawaks five hundred were chosen to be taken back as slaves. While on this journey two hundred Arawak people died and the three hundred remaining Arawaks where put up for sale. What I found to be most disbursing and probably most detrimental to the Arawak population was mass killings practiced amongst them selves. The Arawak people where faced with no other choice than to become slaves or kill themselves in order to save

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