Wenyuan Ma

History 7A
Professor Felix
6/23/2016
Document Interpretation 1: The Clash of Cultures
Total 20 Observations:
Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal
1. During reading and watching the videos in lecture, I noticed that the impact
of Columbus voyage actually was negative. Before I thought Columbus is so
famous nowadays because he contributed a lot on the development of the
world in a good way at his time. However, as what described in Extracts
from Journal, what his voyage brought to the native people, living in those
explored places, was virtual extermination, and transatlantic slave trade.
(Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal)
2. As what I understood before, I thought the purpose of Columbus voyage was
to find the Indian place. However, there was another important goal for this
famous voyage which is to find gold. As what described in Extracts from
Journal, Columbus paid much attention on the people they met to see
whether they had any gold and also asked the people whether they knew
anywhere had gold. (Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts
from Journal)
3. The people of Columbus had been treated as people from heavens. As what
described in Extracts from Journal, when they arrived a land with two or
three villages on 14 October, the native people there believed Columbus
came from heavens and represented God, so they treated the people with
Columbus really well and gave them a lot of food and goods. This tells me
that the Christian religion had already existed in many different places in the
world at that time. (Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts
from Journal)
Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage
4. In the first of Columbus voyage, he arrived several islands and he named
those places separately as San Salvador, Santa Maria de Concepcion,
Fernandina, Isabella, Juana and so on. All these names came from
Spanish Kings, Queens or other sponsors names. (Columbus Letter to King
Ferdinand First Voyage)
5. I dont know before that Columbus found any gold or mines in his first
voyage. But actually, he found many spices, gold and other metals on the
land where he named as Espanola. Also, on this land, there were many
plants, flowers, mountains and plenty of rivers to support their water source.
(Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage)
6. The personality of the native people living in Espanola was totally new to
me. As the description in the letter, the people on Espanola possessed many

good materials and plants, but they didnt really use these good sources
because they were marvelously timorous. They were afraid of using any
advanced tools. Also they were afraid of the people with Columbus. However,
after Columbus got their trust, they were willing to share all the stuff they had
with anyone, even the people with Columbus. From that, we can see the
native people on Espanola was very gentle and warmhearted. (Columbus
Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage)
7. As what I knew before, Columbus group was not the first people who found
the India land. But in the Letter, Columbus described that the native people in
India land believed that Columbus group was from heavens because they
never saw any clothed people or any ships before. This proved to me that
Columbus didnt arrive the India land but another land that hadnt been
discovered by anyone. (Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage)
8. The unity in the lands where Columbus believed as India has surprised me a
lot. As what Columbus described in the letter that the native people living on
those lands were similar on the appearance, manners and also language.
They were like a family and they could communicate with each other easily.
This was really hard to achieve at that time since all the lands were isolated
without any globally knowing and study. I think it also was the reason why
Columbus felt curious. (Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage)
9. During reading, I notice that Columbus left many men, arms, artillery and
provisions on the land of Espanola so that the men there could try their
best to govern the native people there and get the land where had many
mines of gold and other materials. Also, Columbus made a good friendship
with the king on that land so that it made the government on that land much
easier. (Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage)
10. The characters that Columbus found on the land called Carib really
shocked me. As what Columbus described in the letter, the native people
there were very aggressive and always ate peoples body. The women there
never did any feminine working, but used all the arms they had to defense
themselves. This culture was totally different from Spanishs at that time
even nowadays. (Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand First Voyage)
The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account
11.The way how the Spaniards treated the native people on the Island Hispaniola
really made me feel sorry. I thought the Christians was always good and
gentle in their history. However, when the Spaniards first arrived the Island
Hispaniola, they took all the women and children away from their families and
forced them to work for Christians. Christians wasted many food and sources
on the land and their violence and damage made the native people realized
that the Spaniards were not people from the heavens, but the takers. (The
Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account)
12.The Spaniards showed their cruelty after the Indians resistance. The Indians
tried to fight with the Spaniards and let them go back to where they came
from. However, the Indians arms were too weak to fight with the Spaniards.
The Spaniards started to kill all the people and destroy all the valley and

towns they went. They were too cruel to be called Christians. They even
didnt spare any women, children or babies. They were more like evils instead
of Christians to me. All these readings made me feel so angry to the
Spaniards and so sorry to the Indians. (The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief
Account)
13.The Spaniards not only killed many Indians on the land, but also took all the
sources on the land away from the native people. They took away all the gold
and other materials they found and killed all the people. (The Devastation of
the Indies: A Brief Account)
14.After the war, the Christians didnt stop their cruelty on this land. They killed
all the people and only left some boy and women. They forced the lives to be
their slaves. Also they didnt allow men and women to together. Men needed
to dig gold for Christians and women needed to hoe the lands till death. (The
Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account)
15.It is ironic that the Spaniards believed the way they treated the Indians was
because they wanted to bring the Christianity to them, but actually their
actions with violence and force made them more evil and cruel to the Indians.
(The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account)
16.There were some native Indian people who helped the Spaniards survive on
the land, but after surviving, the Spaniards killed all of them without any
doubts. I think, the Spaniards were extremely wanting to control the lands
and get all the golds and materials on this land to make themselves rich.
Therefore, they lost their humanity. They didnt care whether those Indian
people helped them or not and killed them all. (The Devastation of the Indies:
A Brief Account)
17.Not only the native people, the native Kings on the land helped the Spaniards
to find the gold as well. However, after the Spaniards found the gold, they
killed the Kings. (The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account)
18.In the Extracts from Journal, we can see that although Columbus forced the
native people to do something when he arrived some new places, he still
lived peacefully on the lands with the native people and even made friends
with them. However, in the The Devastation of the Indies, the cruelty of the
Spaniards made a strong contrast with Columbus. (Medieval Sourcebook:
Christopher Columbus: Extracts from Journal, The Devastation of the Indies: A
Brief Account)
19.In the letter, Columbus described that he didnt find any monsters in the
lands of Indie. However, after the Spaniards landed, they killed most Indian
people. The population of the Indians dropped from a million people to only
400. The Spaniards used many oppressive ways to force them to work for
them and follow their religions and culture. I believe, Columbus brought a
monster the Spaniards to the peaceful land of Indie. (Columbus Letter to
King Ferdinand First Voyage, The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account)
Columbus Contract
20.Before reading, I thought that although Columbus was the leader who made
the voyage, the power should still be controlled by the King and Queen of
Spanish. However, from Columbus Contract we can see that, the King and

Queen of Spanish gave the largest power to Columbus to control and govern
the land he found in his voyage. (Columbus Contract)
Summary of Take Away:
The part I remember most in the reading is The Devastation of the Indies: A
Brief Account because it vividly showed me how cruelty the Spaniards were after
they landed on the Indie. Before they landed, the native Indians believed that they
were from heavens and treated the people with Columbus really well. However,
after the Spaniards landed, they used violence to force the Indians to work for them
and also didnt allow them to resist. After the Indians tried to banish the Spaniards
away from their lands, the Spaniards launched massacres. They killed all the people
included pregnant women, children and even babies. They took all the gold and
other materials on the land from the Indians. After war, they forced the remaining to
be their slaves. The men were forced to dig gold for them and the women were
forced to hoe the lands. The Indians lost their free wills at all. I wont forget how evil
all these Spaniards were and how they called themselves as Christians. Although
the voyage of Columbus actually improved the development and the connection
between the whole world, what he brought to the native Indians were disasters and
tragedy.