I feel like I remember learning about who Columbus was sometime in kindergarten or first grade, I must have been only like six or seven years old at the time. I can’t recall very many exact details but I feel like my teacher didn’t give us many visceral details, which was probably for the better. It may have been more productive to at least tell us that his “discovery” of this new world had caused a lot of problems and that Columbus wasn’t a good guy in history. I don’t think my teacher did anything to put Columbus in a bad light, I think for a long time Columbus was held as an idol in history to some. This week’s readings have definitely better informed me about how bad Columbus was to the natives and how he thought about them as novelties. I knew for a while that Columbus didn’t exactly have the best intentions, something that I was not told of at a younger age, but these texts have expanded my understanding of exactly their thought process. “These people are very simple as regards the use of arms, as your Highnesses will .sec from the seven that I caused to be taken, to bring home and learn our language and return; unless your Highnesses should order them all to be brought to Castile, or to be kept as captives” (The American Yawp Reader). This quote from the Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492 shows that Columbus thought of the natives as just lost people who could be brought back to their homeland to be converted. That being one of the better outcomes unfortunately, as it also shows somewhere to be kept as captives and to be “made to do what is required of them”. This would include exploiting them for resources such as spices and gold, this highlights the economic motivation behind European exploration and colonization of America. Columbus justifies his actions by portraying indigenous people as being in need of guidance, believing that they lacked the necessities that the Europeans needed. Colonialism and its effects on native communities and their cultures will last for a long time because of these beliefs and customs.