It is clear that from Columbus’ first two voyages he and his fellow explorers did not consider the natives living in this area to be equal to themselves. It is hard to tell why this is the case. How did they get this notion of superiority? Was it because the natives were not Christians?

One of the major reasons was that the Spanish had far superior technology and weapons at this time. They even write about how the natives have practically nothing to fight the Spanish with, and there was even one example that specifically stated that if the natives did attack them they would be hopeless due to their inferiority.

I also find it interesting that we always look back on Columbus with such negativity, and I did not really understand why. To start with I did not understand why everyone said he was the reason for mass enslavement and hundreds of years worth of genocide. He merely discovered this land. However, now I understand that it was his mindset, along with his other fellow explorers that had such a different view of the world. You can see their superiority complex by how they have such disregard for the natives and all they care about is colonizing the land, finding and stealing the gold, enslaving the populace, and proselytizing Christianity.

It would be interesting to see in this day and age how we would act if we discovered a new continent and came into contact with a new group of people that the rest of the world never met before. Would we act the same way? Or would we act differently?