Stolen countries and continents.

When the Europeans invaded America.(1)

I've written this article because Haïti is very much in the picture since januari 12, after the Earth quake.
This is the island where it all began......

Christoffer Columbus is said to be the first to discover the Americas. He thought he'd rounded the world and came to India, that's why he called the 'natives': Indians. This mistake was never corrected, nor was the date when he actually found the mainland of America.( not in 1492). Most of us know this history from the movie screen, told to us by Hollywood: John Wayne, the hero, killing the 'enemies', the Indians portrayed as animals, scalping the white while they were protecting their land from the foreign invaders from overseas. Columbus may be proclaimed the first European to step on American soil, he certainly wasn't the last. He brought the Spaniards. ( the Portuguese and British were not interested in his search for new territory).

He was given the Royal (Spanish) promise of 10% of the land he conquered !!!!!, He would be the Governor of the new territories 

Chris' 1st trip, he didn't reach the mainland...

The 'Originals' had no idea what was happening to them. They thought the new visitors were the long promised Gods from overseas.. As a matter of fact, he didn't find America yet, he first landed on the Bahama's, sailed to Cuba ( which he thought was Japan ) . Then he landed on Hispañola ( Haïti/Dom. Rep), now he was sure he had reached India..

Columbus lost his ship the Santa Maria on christmas day 1492,

Replica of the Sta. Maria.

...from the remainders the first settlement was built: La Navidad.
The 'Indians' made the mistake to show their gold and other minerals.
That's why he left 40 men behind on te island, to search for gold while he returned to Europe with the 2 remaining ships. The first settlement was a fact.

Within a year he returned to Hispañola with 17 ships and 1500 !! men. During this trip ( he came out a little south) he discovered Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico.

2nd trip

But the settlement La Navidad was no more, nor were is men. There must have been a conflict between the Natives and the 40 Spaniards, they were all dead..He started a war against the 'Indians' but it took him almost a year to find the gold mines. Most of the Taíno's were killed, the ones still alive became slaves in their own mines, not for long however, they died due to diseases that were imported from Europe....The Spaniards needed workers, that's why they started to bring cheap labourers from Africa. (to work on the cane fields, later also on the cotton fields .....that started around 1510.)
In the meantime a new settlement was built: Santo Domingo.
When Columbus returned to Spain again , he took a different route back and found Jamaica !
But he came back for a 3rd time in '98. This time he travelled more south and hit the mainland of South-America ( finally).

The 3rd trip where he finally hits mainland.

Back at his 'headquarters' at Hispañola he had to deal with mutiny and hate. All natives were killed. Columbus was arrested and ended up in jail in Spain for his dismanagement, not for long though, after 6 weeks he was released, and sent to the West for a 4th time. Hé, was the goose with the golden eggs, right...

The 4th trip

He left Europe in 1502. This time he wanted to find 'street Malaka' ( Marco Polo wrote about that), a passage between Malaïsia and Sumatra. Well, he came to Panama, there was no canal a that time so he couldn't find the passage, hehehehe....

What he found, were hostile 'Indians', and during the fights with these people his ships were severe damaged and he got pretty ill at that time, tropical fever hit him and he even was in coma for some time. On his way to Hispañola he shipwrecked and stranded in Jamaica. He sent 2 of his man to row all the way to Hispañola by cano. One way or another they made it, but it took a year before Christoffer was 'rescued' in 1504 and he returned to Europe the next year. He died in 1506.
At school we learned Columbus was a hero. But there are different stories. A former friend of Columbus, Bartolome de las Casas, firmly protested against his genocide. The American historian Howard Zinn even called him a conquistador.

In May 2006 an international conference was hold in Genua, following Columbus '500th anniversary day, The Columbus Simancas-document presented by the Spanish scholar Consuelo Varela revealed a copy of the lost document from 1500, written by the Spanish envoy Francisco Bobadilla about the Columbus' atrocities at Hispañola. The contents hit like a bomb, the black legend, (as the atrocities of the Spaniards in their colonies were called), gained truth quality...

The catholic majesties Ferdinand and Isabel are hold responsible for having this document hidden in a secret archive.............

A new continent was found, with gold and oil. A rush to the West from the European countries, Spain, Portugal, England, France and The Netherlands.

They created The Wild West, a cowboy country with guns and horses...( and dead Indians )

TBC.