Is Columbus the perfect representative of America today?

[jobycom]

Columbus invaded a foreign land with no provocation. The land he invaded had inferior weaponry and no real chance to fight back. He killed or enslaved 5,000,000 in his first three years on one island (Hispanola). He had no respect for the rights of non-whites or non-males, bragging about enslaving nine and ten year old girls so his men could have sex with them.

While outwardly he was a fanatic supporter of his own religion, forcing others to obey it, in reality he had little concern for the souls of his conquered. Since his faith farbade enslaving anyone who converted to his religion, he dissuaded conversion, since it cut into his propfits, and even came up with a convoluted legal reason why victims who converted to Christianity could still be enslaved. His concern was obviously more about money than religion, and he raped the world he invaded for every cent he could find, enslaving hundreds of thousands to mine Haiti for gold, which he considered his, and shipped back to Spain, his master. There he was honored as a hero (contrary to what he history books say), and given the hereditary title Admiral of the Seas, which his descendants still bore centuries later. He died (again contrary to history books) rich, famous, and proud that he had discovered a new world, although his journals reveal a troubled conscience, as his writing often spoke of Apocolypse and the evils of mankind.

Bush of course would find Columbus a kindred spirit. Pretending to be a fanatic devotee of a religion whose rules he breaks continuously, Bush has so far invaded two nations on the thinnest of pretexts. Neither nation had any ability to fight back. While his reasons were ostensibly for self-defense with strong religious overtones, he immediately lost interest in finding either person he supposedly invaded to defend us from. His interests were obviously monetary, since his first actions in both lands were to secure the oil (gold) supply. His masters (big energy instead of Spain) have rewarded him well so far, and will no doubt allow him to retire wealthy.

A couple of differences-- Columbus had to do a lot of the dirty work himself, personally killing or maiming, as well as raping and enslaving. Bush makes others do it for him. And Columbus was often in genuine danger of losing his life in a shipwreck or through battle-- Bush is a coward who wouldn't risk a paper cut. (I almost said that Columbus sailed to an unknown land, but history casts much doubt on that. There were plenty of ships sailing west in his day. The Irish seem to have known about the lands over the sea at the time of Columbus, and there were older legends Columbus would have known of, being a sailor. Also, it was typical procedure for ships to keep major discoveries secret so they could keep the profits for themselves, and there is evidence that others had reached the Americas or very close to them in the years before Columbus sailed. It's quite likely that Columbus knew pretty much what was there and how to get there, and took three ships more to conquer than to explore.)

But all in all, Columbus may be the perfect ideal for the Bush administration to hold up. A perfect symbol of white male supremacy and world dominance with complete disregard for the lives of "others" would be harder to find.

[9215]

1. Do you have any links to back any of this up ?

Columbus enslaved 5,000,000? Whew! I'd like to see the evidence on that.

[jobycom]

2. Population of Hispanola

Declined from an estimated 8,000,000 to 3,000,000 by 1496. Due to war, disease, famine (caused by the enslavement of the original inhabitants which disrupted their farming infrastructure.) Notes: Benjamin Keen, "Black Legend," The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, 1991; Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradies, 1990. Both based on original letters and documents of Columbus himself and of his crew, and a census by Bartholemew Columbus, (C's brother and appointed governor of the Island.)

Everything I've said is well documented, mostly based on Columbus's own journals and letters, and the writings of his crew and those who came to the island within the first few years of it's "discovery."

All of the stuff taught in schools, from the goofball idea that Columbus thought the world was flat, to his attempts to save the Indians' soul, to his believing he had landed in Asia, are mostly based upon later accounts and often just upon 19th century storytelling of the George-Washington-cherry-tree variety, not on original source documents.

[Zorra]

3. Well, he'd make a perfect

neocon. The PNAC and American Enterprise Institute would love to have him with his credentials.