Ever wonder what Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was thinking as he set out to the Americas, in the name of the Catholic Pope and the King and the Queen of Spain, as he was about to kill or convert as many Native Americans as possible? Here’s a clip straight from what he wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella:
“Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes who love the holy Christian faith, and the propagation of it, and who are enemies to the sect of Mohammed and to all idolatries and heresies, resolved to send me, Cristobal Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes, and the cities and lands, and their disposition, with a view that they might be converted to our holy faith; and ordered that I should not go by land to the eastward, as had been customary, but that I should go by way of the west, whither up to this day we do not know for certain that any one has gone.
Thus, after having turned out all the Jews from all your kingdoms and lordships, in the same month of January, your Highnesses gave orders to me that with a sufficient fleet I should got to the said parts of India…”
What I find most interesting here is that Columbus thought he was about to go to India, and when he got there it was his plan to convert Muslims en masse. Instead, the Spanish Empire never got around to that little task. Instead, it got busy looting all it could from the Americas. Now, most people in North and South America are Christian, so it’s not like the trip was a total bust. But, imagine for a moment, if instead of arriving in the Americas, Columbus had landed in the Indies as he expected. And imagine that the Church and the Spaniards were successful in killing or converting the Muslims.
It’s only a thought, but who knows, maybe we wouldn’t have half the problems we do nowadays with the Muslims.
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