The excerpt from A People’s History of the United States or more specifically the chapter, “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress. The chapter told of the mistreatment of America’s Natives by the Renaissance era of Europeans. Also of an author and former priest Bartolome de las Casas view on the matter. When the ships Santa Maria, Nina ,and Pinta arrived at the Bahama Islands, the Arawaks were nothing but generous to the Spaniards. The Spaniards and Christopher Columbus took advantage of it, they took the Arawaks by force in order to make them “servants.” They believed the Arawaks to be ignorant ,but learned they would fight back, although they were killed. The Spaniards thought of them as disposable objects, knifing them by twenties, riding the Arawaks like animals, and even having the Arawaks fan them with leaves. The Spaniards, “grew more conceited every day,” and the outcome was mass suicide of Arawaks. The way Hernando Cortes and his group handled the Aztecs was the same. Based on false peace. The Aztecs believed Cortes to be Quetzalcoatl, a demi-god who died three centuries before. Cortes played the part tricking and manipulating the Aztecs for their gold. He turned the Aztecs against each other, he surrounded them and shot them down with arrows. He also brought back disease, killing the Aztec civilization. Bartolome de las Casas knew the cruelty the Europeans have done. He defended the Native Americans insisting the Europeans use black slaves instead, believing them to be stronger. Although he later regretted the encouragement of using the Africans as slaves,
