Saturday, August 13, 2005

Columbus, Havidad and real History

When Columbua discovered the Bahamas and established the first military fort in Hispanola (now Haiti in the Dominican Republic) he thought he'd discovered a chain of islands off the coast of China. The Arawak natives on Hispanola numbered anywhere from less than a million to nearly eight million (depending on the historian you read) but, by 1508--a mere thirteen years later-- the Arawak nation no longer existed. He'd managed to wipe out the whole population by shipping hundreds of Arawaks back to the Puritanical Europeans for slaves, slaughtering thousands more, and working the rest to death as farm labor. Ironically he named his fort 'Havidad', the Spanish word for Christmas. Some present.

3 Comments:

Blogger mojoala said...

Spainards have always had a high degree of bloodlust, why do you think they still continue the bull fights and the running of the bulls?

6:09 AM  
Blogger Abeni said...

Bet he thought he did the Arawaks a favour.Thanks for dropping by my site

1:24 PM  
Blogger porchwise said...

Can't argue that point, mojo. I've been to the bull fights in Spain and it is a real gory mess and the fans in the stands get as maniacal as our football fans do.

8:00 AM  

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