CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS MOCKED NATIVES FOR SHARING

In this clip, Cat Lantigua (@lajefacat on TikTok), author of ‘Build It and They Will Come: A Guide to Architecting Intentional Community,’ examines a famous extract from Christopher Columbus’ journal.

Often glorified by Western historians as a daring explorer, Columbus left a dark legacy in the Americas, beginning with his first encounter in 1492 with the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean Sea.

Columbus’s disdain for the Arawak people of the Bahamas is palpable in his journal entries. He observed their openness and generosity with a mix of condescension and opportunism, noting how easily they shared their possessions and hospitality. Columbus frequently mocked the natives’ simplicity and lack of guile. He described them as ‘naïve’ and ‘artless,’ incapable of understanding European notions of property and possession. This demeaning attitude famously appears in his 12 October 1492 entry, where he marvelled at their willingness to trade valuable items for trinkets. To Columbus, their openness was not a sign of an advanced, communal society but rather that of their potential to be dominated and exploited.

Columbus’s Eurocentric worldview made it impossible for him to recognise the Arawaks’ sophisticated social system. Consequently, his reports back to Spain helped build a narrative of European superiority that fuelled slavery and colonisation.

Given Columbus’s legacy of exploitation and the tragic impact on indigenous populations, how should we re-evaluate and teach his place in history?