After years of hearing stories of the Old and New world encounter, and Cristobal Colón and his men’s exchange with the Taínos, I came to the conclusion that Colón and his men were racists, abusers and murderers who justified every single action with religious purposes. Nonetheless, after reading part of Todorov’s book, I have come further this conclusion; the Spaniards were also hypocrites.
The argument surged after discussing aspects of the book with Mimi, and bringing it up in the small group discussion with my peers. I argued the opposite of what Todorov did in page 9 with the saying “Despite all this, greed is not Columbus’ true motive; but he himself would prefer the rough garment of a monk.” The first chapters talk about how religious Colón was; how we would write to the pope, never set sail on Sundays (p.10), name the vessels and islands after saints, etc., but this was all a scam, and his men, the Crown, and the priests were in on it too. To this, I offer three claims, the first being a question to Colón’s definition of greed. Todorov says that Colón himself would prefer the rough garment of a monk than the golden materials he could have gotten in the islands, but if this were true, why would Colón propose his plan before numerous crowns hoping to be financially sponsored by at least one when he could have become a monk in the first place and spread Christianity throughout Spain? Greed does not necessarily have to be materialistic, which is Colón’s case. He desired recognition, and his men, the wealth. Colon’s voyage had a very large margin of error, along with entitling his men, most of whom were prisoners, to endure terrible weather conditions, interceptions to their ships, diseases, and even death while abroad. Not even the most selfless of people would have endured all of the previously mentioned to “spread Christianity.” Secondly, on page 9 Todorov argues that “The profits which ‘should be’ found there interest Columbus only secondarily: what counts are the ‘lands’ and their discovery.” By this we see that Colón’s initial stance about wanting to spread Christianity fall not to first or second, but to third or even lower place. Todorov argues that Colón values the land more than the riches, but Colón rarely stepped foot in the lands he came upon. He always stayed aboard and had his men disembark and discover, repeating this throughout all of his voyages. Was Colón really as selfless as Todorov pictures him to be? If he had been, he would have put more enthusiasm in touring the lands, getting to know the people and definitely the bare minimum effort when attempting to understand the Taíno culture and their language. Thirdly, the hypocrisy of the priest is evidenced in the last paragraph of page 56. “History, in this case transcribed by Jesuit Tovar, goes so far as to describe Montezuma, on the eye of his death, as ready to convert to Christianity; but as a final mockery, the Spanish priest, busy amassing gold, does not find the time.” Now even the priest, whose vows reflect the spread and honor of Christianity as the main goal, has prioritized wealth and riches over religion, even when it meant complying with the goal of spreading Christianity, given that it was the civilization’s leader who was willing to convert. Unusual boast, as all pose, but nonetheless, hypocritical.
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