Europeans governments and businessmen stopped at nothing to ensure their economic success, they committed genocide plus ethnocide. The main reason Europe hurried to the new land was for resources and land which is money. Money was the center to the madness. In every battle between the natives and the settlers they were fighting over something and that something is money to the settlers. Profit is the settlers motive for the destruction of the Native communities.
Columbus was the beginning to the madness that went on in the discovery and settling on the new lands. He came to the new land funded by Spain. Spain at this tie was a country that needed money so funding this expedition was a solution to their problem. Columbus promised to bring back gold and spices to pay off the expenses plus more, which would help Spain's problems. Unfortunately arriving at the Americas Columbus discovered that his predictions of gold and spices were wrong and there was less then he had thought there would be. He became desperate he overpowered the natives making them slaves for he needed money to bring back to Spain and the natives were the quickest way to get it. Columbus's future relied on Spain's profit of the expedition he was promised 10%
Columbus had promised investors money which would be those slaves. To many died so Columbus was forced to make another promise. He promised the Spain investors gold. This led to a more brutal and strict life for the natives. They were forced to supply Columbus with even more gold now for Columbus needed money and the natives were his workers who would get him that. From this point the money frenzy made it worse on the natives as time went on. After a while it was clear that there was no more gold left. Thought money was still needed so the Indians were taken for slave labor and put on huge estates. They were worked like animals at a ferocious pace right to their death. By the year 1515 there were fifty thousand Indians left, by 1550 there were 500 left. Over 40,000 thousands Indians were worked to their death for Europe's profit. In 1650 reports say that there were none of the original Arawaks on the slave islands left. Columbus and his men had accomplished killing a community that had lived on those islands for thousands of years.
of what he brought back and leadership of many of the new land. What he supplied for Spain was also benefiting him in a large way. He forced every native to supply him with a certain amount of gold over a short amount of time, like a tax. Doing this he became the first European to take control and treat the natives poorly he began a state of mind
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