"Radio Voice Italia: Christopher Columbus University" is an online podcast narrated by Robert Petrone, Esq., a civil rights author and attorney, and local Philadelphia expert on Christopher Columbus. Below are bullet points to one of his episodes. If you want to hear more on the topic please click on the Episode ## link provided to listen to his podcast.
The following notes are from Episode 38
Debunking Columbus as a genocidal murderer.
Accusations of Columbus murdering natives or committing genocide are vague and never provide specific instances or acts.
Look at each voyage
Voyage 1: Columbus showed love for the Tainos he met and had an alliance with Chief Guacanagari of Hispaniola. Columbus never spoke badly of the Tainos. No one was ever harmed or killed or subjected to genocide.
The murder and genocide was being conducted by the Carib tribe against the Tainos. Caribs would kill and eat Tainos, castrating their boys, raping their women and girls and then eating their babies. Europeans were horrified by this.
Columbus and Guacanagari made a treaty. Columbus would leave a settlement behind while he returned to Spain and in return Spain would protect the Tainos from the Caribs.
Voyage 2: On his return to the New World Columbus set out for the Carib islands which had never been mapped. Dr Diego Chanca on of the surgeons on this voyage wrote, "By the goodness of God and thanks to the admiral's skill and knowledge we had reached the carib islands as directly as if we had been following a known and familiar course." [Not bad for someone who was "lost at sea" as many ignorant detractors like to ridicule.]
Columbus freed the Taino women and boys held captive by the Caribs.
By the 15th century the Carib marauders had wiped out many tribes.
Columbus saw his Navidad settlement had been destroyed and all Spaniards killed.
Guacanagari explained what happened, and that even his own Taino people had been attacked and captured by the Caribs. Guacanagari and Columbus formed an alliance went out to capture Carib chief Caonabo, brokered a peace treaty with the Carib and sent Caonabo to Spain to stand trial for his crimes. Doesn't sound like the actions of a murderer.
Columbus built fort Santo Thomas on Sabao to keep that island at peace. Columbus warded off any potential hostiles by having them march "in military formation as if going to war, fully armed, with trumpets sounding" Columbus did not want a repeat of what happened to the Navidad settlement at the hands of the Carib marauders. [Notice no orders were given to go kill or enslave the Carib people. Columbus tried to intimidate the Caribs into peace by SHOWING force, not USING force.]
Tainos and Columbus continued to live in peace.
When Columbus landed on Jamaice the inhabitants attacked Columbus. Columbus, [who came with a fleet of 17 ships and 1,200 men] retreated instead of engaging in the attack. "Not out of fear of the Indians but out of reluctance to break friendly relations with the indians." The inhabitants attacked AGAIN, but Columbus defused the conflict with no fatalities.
After this account Jamaican islanders and Spaniards bartered peacefully. One inhabitant even begged to travel back to Spain with Columbus.
While peace was being established between Tainos and Columbus, hatred was brewing amongst the Spanish hidlagos because Columbus was preventing them from enslaving the Indians.
On Columbus' voyage back to Spain, Columbus took Tainos whom the hidalgos had enslaved against his orders so Columbus could have them liberated by the crown and church.
Voyage 3: Columbus finds the South American continent which Columbus thinks is main land Asia.
24 Carib canoe men attack Columbus unprovoked off the shores of Trinidad. Columbus [the murderer that he is] deescalated the situation by giving the Carib chief a coat.
Columbus returns to Hispaniola to find that Fransisco Roldan caused a lot of trouble during Columbus absence, including stealing, sacking the settlement of Isabella, inciting revolts against Columbus' brother, Giacomo, whom Columbus had appointed as governor, and more.
The Spanish hidalgos had gone wild. They had revolted 5 times because they disrespected taking orders from a Genoan foreigner and his brothers.
Hidlagos sent letters to the crown complaining about Columbus handling of the settlement. Columbus sent letters to the crown complaining about the hidalgos' actions. The Crown sends Bobadilla (himself a hidalgo) to investigate what is going on.
Bobadilla arrests Columbus and has him return to Spain in chains because of his treatment to the hidalgos. This is when tyranny began to rule the land. Many Tainos were enslaved and raped under Bobadilla's rule. De las Casas quotes Bobadilla telling his men, "Take as many advantages as you can since you don't know how long this will last."
Once Columbus presented his case to the crown, his chains were removed, all charges were dismissed, Bobadilla was deposed from office for his treachery, murder, and genocide, and all titles were restored to Columbus.
Columbus did not want to be governor any longer due to the troubles the hidalgos gave him, so the crown appointed Nicolas Ovando (who was just as bad, if not worst, than Bobadilla)
Voyage 4: Columbus was told by the crown not to go to Hispaniola. Just go and explore new territory. He explores more of South and Central America.
During his sailing he encounters a terrible storm off the coast of Jamaica that causes him to run his ships aground. He ask Ovando for assistance and to be rescued but Ovando does not want Columbus to return to Hispaniola and see the atrocities being committed there.
During that entire year that he was stranded in Jamaica he prevented his men from leaving the stranded ships in fear they would molest the women of Jamaica. His men mutinied twice and Columbus quelled both mutinies.
More details and stories can be heard on this podcast. In conclusion one can clearly see Columbus avoided bloodshed whenever he could. He is not the murdering genocidal maniac that Marxist and ignorant revisionists claim he is.
In the end Columbus gave his reports on how Ovando was mistreating the tribal peoples and successfully petitioned the crown to issue a royal decree that “all the Indians of Hispaniola were to be left free, not subject to servitude, unmolested, and unharmed and allowed to live like freemen under law just like any other in the kingdom of Castile.”
[We should celebrate Columbus for his civil rights activism.]
Post the documents or links from Spain so people can read , even if in Spanish, the truth.