Portuguese sailors had found a water
route around Africa to the East Indies to
use as trade routes for spices
Spain wanted a share
of the Asian spice
trade so…
Columbus planned to reach the
East Indies by sailing west across
the Atlantic Ocean
Columbus had actually reached the
West Indies (islands off the coast
of North and South America
Columbus explored the
islands for almost 3
months before returning
to Spain to report his
success
Author
• Columbus
– Italian sea captain, explorer/adventurer
– Christian
• Bartolome de Las Casas
– His father sailed with
Columbus on the first voyage,
he came later and edited
Columbus’s journal
Place and Time
• Caribbean islands (modern day
Cuba/Bahamas)
• 1492
Prior Knowledge
• Europeans searching for a new westward
sea route to “Spice Islands” in India/Asia
Audience
• Himself (journal), the King and Queen of
Spain who financed the trip, others
interested in exploration
Reason
• To keep track of daily events, future
reference for other explorers
• Convince the King and Queen that the
journey was worth the $$ so they’d
finance additional missions
1st Close Reading of the Journal
• Highlight main ideas
• Circle vocabulary you need to
define/review
• “Talk to the text” in the margin (main
ideas, question you have, key terms,
connections you make)
• BE READY TO SHARE “MAIN IDEA”
(Question 1) with team tomorrow
The Main Idea
• Columbus describes “first contact” with
Native Peoples of the Caribbean and
hopes to convince King and Queen of the
value of what he has found
Practicing with TDA
• Use the document to find EVIDENCE (in
the form of a quote) to support your
answer
• Make sure the EVIDENCE you are
choosing is directly quoted from the
source (not the introduction or your own
paraphrasing)
EXAMPLE:
Statement: At first, Columbus hoped to
gain the trust and friendship of the natives
by giving gifts.
Evidence: On October 12th 1492, Columbus
describes “because I knew that they were a
people who could better be freed and
converted to our Holy Faith by love than by
force, [I] gave to some of them red caps
and to others glass beads..”
Significance
• Illustrates the cultural differences of
Europeans and Native Americans
• Illustrates European feelings of
SUPERIORITY over Native peoples
• We can learn more about the motives and
feelings of Europeans in the new world
• We don’t see the Native American
perspective
2nd voyage (1493-1496)
3RD voyage (1498-1500)
Columbus made three
more voyages ,
exploring and
conquering the
Caribbean, Central
America and parts of
South America
4TH voyage (1502-1504)
Columbus and the Spanish in
the Caribbean…the later trips
• Gold and slave raids dominate Spanish policy in
the Caribbean – natives had gold quota to fill every
three months…or else 
• Resistance by natives did happen,
but Spanish armor, muskets, swords,
horses…etc. overpowered them
• Within 5 years, half the population
of the Caribbean had been killed
• Within 30 years of Columbus’s arrival between 80-90%
had been killed from violence and disease
Bartolome de las Casas …
Husbands and wives were together only once
every eight or ten months and when they met
they were so exhausted and depressed on
both sides...they ceased to procreate. As for
the newly born, they died early because their
mothers, overworked and famished, had no
milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while
I was in Cuba, 7,000 children died in three
months. Some mothers even drowned their
babies from sheer desperation...In this way,
husbands died in the mines, wives died at
work, and children died from a lack of
milk...and in a short time this land which was
so great, so powerful and fertile...was
depopulated...my eyes have seen these acts
so foreign to human nature, and now I
tremble as I write...
- Bartolome de Las Casas from “Short Account
of the Destruction of the Indies”
So who is to blame for the
destruction of the Caribbean
peoples?
YOU DECIDE!
DEFENDANTS:
• Columbus
• Columbus’s men
• King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
• The Tainos (tribes of Caribbean)
• The System of Empire
• Each of these defendants is charged with murder:
The murder of the Taino people in the years following 1492
In your group you must:
– A – Defend yourself against the murder charge POINT/COUNTERPOINT
– B – Explain who you think is guilty and why
– Percentage guilt will be assigned (EX: Columbus 50% guilty, King and Queen 50% guilty)
Point – Charge against you
Counter-point – your defense
Counterpoint
Point
1. King and Queen financed
Columbus’s mission
1. Just because we paid for it
doesn’t mean we should take the
blame for what happened while he
was there. What if a parent pays
for a child’s ticket into a movie and
they misbehave while watching, is
this the parent’s fault?
And the verdict is…
Reflection:
Who do you think was guilty and why?
- Percentage guilt can be assigned!
- Was anyone entirely not guilty? Why?
- How did you weigh responsibility between
the “bosses” and the men they hired?
Columbus and the Caribbean…today
• How are the people of the Caribbean
represented in popular culture?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6o_MM
02vAA
• How do we honor/remember Columbus
today?
• Do we need to change this?
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/p
olitics/2014/10/13/dnt-seattle-changes-