If It Weren't For
Columbus - The NINTH Most Important Person in History
The
ANNOTICO Report
It was 500 years ago today, Christopher Columbus gathered around him his two
sons, one of his brothers, some seafaring comrades and his seven servants and
gave himself over to the last rites of the Catholic Church, knowing he was
about to die. At the age of 55, the man who had changed the world more than any
other European, before or since, departed it.
However, he had NO idea of the magnitude of what he had achieved in his
lifetime or of the enduring legacy he would leave behind.
Those who Defame
The List is 1. Mohammed, 2. Isaac Newton, 3. Jesus
Christ, 4. Buddha. 5. Confucius, 6.
14.
Please NOTE the company that
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IF IT WEREN'T FOR COLUMBUS
The admiral knew he was a conqueror, even if the
magnitude of his discovery was lost on most of his contemporaries.
By Kirkpatrick Sale
Kirkpatrick Sale is the author of 12 books, including "The Conquest of
Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy," republished by
May 20, 2006
IT WAS 500 years ago today, in a small house in Valladolid, Spain, that the man
known then as Cristobal Colon (and to us today as
Christopher Columbus) gathered around him his two sons, one of his brothers,
some seafaring comrades and his seven servants and gave himself over to the
last rites of the Catholic Church, knowing he was about to die. At the age of
55, the man who had changed the world more than any other European, before or
since, departed it.
But he always had trouble convincing the rest of the world, including the
sovereigns for whom he sailed. That was in large part because he had made a
mess of governing the Spanish colony on Hispaniola (now the Dominican
Republic), and had ended the third voyage back in Spain, in shackles and in
disgrace, accused of misrule and dereliction of duty for ruthlessly trying, and
failing, to put down a rebellion of colonists and Taino
Indians. No one was paying him much mind by then.
[RAA:
He was criticized for being Ruthless, which he never was. That was the Military
and Church that were Ruthless!!!!]
And the magnitude of his discovery was lost on most of his contemporaries, and
it was 10 years before there was any mention of his death.
Indeed, the scope of the admiral's achievement was slow to dawn on the world.
The initial discovery of western islands in 1492 was made known to
None of that, however, excuses historians in the five centuries since
What tommyrot. At least ! by
the time of the third voyage,
But if his contemporaries, and negligent historians, paid scant attention to
what
It was the conquest of the islands of the
It was this that allowed them to create mighty colonial systems across the two
continents, and eventually throughout the world, settling millions of their
citizens and imposing European culture and customs on the greatest part of
humanity for the next half a millennium.
It was this that created the underpinnings of the most successful civilization
since the Romans ? and by far
the richest and most advanced the world has ever known.
But we should understand that the character of that civilization has been
shaped by the values and beliefs that were at the heart of European society in
the late 15th century and were borne across the ocean by
This legacy naturally celebrates conquest of peoples and their environments, and
it values the material fruits of that conquest above all else, essentially
heedless of the consequences of this violence, including death, disease,
despoliation and degradation. It prizes the means of colonialism and
imperialism, attendant with racism and xenophobia, and has a righteous sense
that its creeds and convictions, being superior to all others, may be given to
or imposed on other perhaps lesser peoples of the world.
This legacy, that ...(
[And just as it would sheer Insanity to assess the responsibility of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki to Enrico Fermi, it is similar Lunacy to attribute any Colonialistic or Imperialistic transgressions that occurred
in the Western Hemisphere, to COLUMBUS merely BECAUSE of his Discovery, (and
CERTAINLY NOT after his Last voyage was completed, and CERTAINLY Not after his
DEATH!!!!!!!]
[Those who Defame
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/
opinion/la-oe-sale20may20,1,5463921.story
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