Christopher columbus british

CSX is the present permutation of a company that used slave labor to lay railroad tracks. Fleet Boston is a bank that was founded by a slave trader.

It insists that African Americans be compensated for centuries of forced labor and discrimination. These historical conditions created the economic disparity faced by African Americans in the U. It is not only specific companies that owe reparations; the U. Slave labor built the White House. For nearly years, the U. Genocide and slavery in the name of capitalist accumulation was practiced in the Americas and the rest of the colonized world.

Columbus and those like him are heroes to the capitalists. They understand that the cruelty and exploitation that marked the colonization of the Americas benefited them. Although legal chattel slavery no longer exists in the Americas, capitalist exploitation of poor and oppressed people continues to this day.

This is the legacy of Christopher Columbus. For that reason, the masses of people who suffer exploitation have no reason to celebrate on Columbus Day. Touchstone, NY, Harper Collins, NY, Storming the gates Women fight back! Revolution manifesto Imperialism in the 21st century Climate solutions beyond capitalism Party Documents. Sign in. Log into your account. Password recovery. Recover your password. Forgot your password? Get help. Liberation School. Opening the continent to slavery Columbus was the first European slave trader in the Americas.

A brutal legacy Columbus and his followers massacred an entire people. Slavery fueled capitalist profits When it became clear that Indians were dying out too quickly to be useful laborers, settlers turned to the transatlantic slave trade.

The revolutionary origins of Memorial Day and its political hijacking. Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa and finally to Venice. He was rejected each time. Their focus was on a war with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected Columbus. The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, for they kept Columbus on a retainer. Columbus continued to lobby the royal court, and soon the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition.

On October 12, , after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in the present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain. There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors, exchanging glass beads, cotton balls, parrots and spears.

The Europeans also noticed bits of gold the natives wore for adornment. Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba which he thought was mainland China and Hispaniola now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Columbus thought might be Japan and meeting with the leaders of the native population. During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola.

With the help of some islanders, Columbus' men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de la Navidad "Christmas Town" with lumber from the ship. Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain in , Columbus gave a glowing, somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court.

In , Columbus took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred. Spurning the wishes of the local queen, who found slavery offensive, Columbus established a forced labor policy over the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would prove to be profitable.

His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population. Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Diego to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands further convincing himself he had discovered the outer islands of China.

It wasn't until his third voyage that Columbus actually reached the mainland, exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. Unfortunately, conditions at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point of near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus' claims of riches and complaining about the poor management of his brothers.

The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and, for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages. After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on what would be his last voyage in , traveling along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the captain and his sailors on the island of Cuba. Eventually, however, the general populace resumed its historic interest in the mysterious east, and adventurers and merchants began to rekindle ancient Greek and Roman rumours of eastern lands. When Europe ventured a look in that direction, it saw a great new empire, one with which the Church hoped to forge links, and which offered rich trading opportunities.

Until the rise of the Mongol Empire roughly to travelling in Asia had been so dangerous that most explorers either turned back or never returned at all. In the 13th century, however, the Mongols - under powerful khans - unified Asia, and gave to that continent a peace it had never previously known. It is no accident, then, that the century of Mongolian supremacy coincides with the first great era of modern European exploration. Some time around , two Venetian merchants, the brothers Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, embarked on an eastward journey that ultimately made contact with the fabled empire of the Mongol Khan China.

This first contact led to one of the greatest adventures of all time, that of Niccolo's son, Marco Polo, who made a famous voyage of discovery to China. The new bourgeoisie liked what they heard from Marco Polo on his return, essentially because of the prospect of trade with the east. Here begins the period of greatest activity in the history of exploration, at the start of a new era, the modern world. The Age of Discovery witnessed unimaginable achievements.

Europeans discovered two continents previously unknown to them, rounded a third one, mapped a new ocean and made contact with new civilisations. So great, in fact, was the flood of information being sent back home, that the European mind seemed at times unable to assimilate all of it. It was the rise of the European national monarchies, with their profound political and dynastic influence, that most helped to encourage the new spirit of adventure. To a 15th-century explorer, royal sponsorship was a necessity, not a luxury.

Who else but a monarch could conduct diplomatic relations, colonise land and create an ultramarine government? It was no coincidence that the Age of Discovery occurred at the same time as the appearance of the first truly national governments in western Europe.

In addition to royal backing, however, any successful commercial enterprise also needed the support of the bourgeoisie. The Portuguese were a united nation throughout the 15th century - while Spain was still fighting the Muslims - so was in a position to look beyond its own shores a full century or more earlier than its neighbour. This small, Atlantic coastal kingdom thus got a head start on the competition, and soon learned that maritime trade was more profitable than anyone had imagined.

Already at the time of Prince Henry 'the Navigator' , the Portuguese were extending exploration down the west coast of Africa in hopes of finding passage to the east around the tip of Africa. This enterprise reinforced the lesson that a strong political and military base was needed from which to sustain new explorations. It was well known that the reigning monarch at the time of Columbus, King John II, who had come to power in , was committed to discovering a direct sea route to the Indian Ocean and the Far East.

And Prince Henry's unfulfilled dream of circumnavigating Africa was also one of King John's passions. It was with this knowledge that Columbus, having moved to Portugal from the place of his birth, decided to seek royal patronage in Portugal. He had been devising a plan for many years to reach the Indies in the east by travelling west - he called this his 'Enterprise of the Indies' - and Portugal would have seemed the natural country to support him.

Despite this, however, and despite his many personal connections with Portugal, Columbus was not granted the royal patronage he sought. According to tradition the request was denied on the ground that it was too expensive, that Columbus was only a 'visionary' and was wrong about distances and measurements, and that such a plan was contrary to Portugal's commitment to finding an eastward route to Asia by travelling around Africa.

As backing from royal courts in Portugal - and also France and England - fell through, Columbus took his young son and moved to Spain in His intention now was to approach the Spanish monarchs with his Enterprise of the Indies. In , with his Portuguese rival Bartolomeu Dias having finally made the voyage down the coast of Africa and around its southern tip, Columbus made his approach. Queen Isabella was doubtful about his idea of reaching eastern markets by travelling westwards, although intrigued by them.

But the time was not right for her to sanction a voyage of discovery - the recapture of Granada from the Muslims was the focus of her attention.