![]() ![]() ![]() This set into motion a trend of European travelers to the Americas to seek out such riches in gold and silver, forcing the natives to pay tribute, and eventually exhausting the lands of their precious metals. He also returned to Spain with gold, which King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella used to pay the sailors. Author Isabelle Allende, who said her copy of Galeano's book was one of the few items with which she fled Chile in 1973 after the military coup of Augusto Pinochet, called Open Veins of Latin America, 'a mixture of meticulous detail, political conviction, poetic flair, and good storytelling.' Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. He and his men proceeded to kill 200 Indians and brought back 500 enslaved Indians to Spain. ![]() In his logbook, he notes of gold possession that “he who has it does as he wills in the world” (30).Ĭolumbus first landed in modern-day Haiti, which he named Espanola at the time, and described the Indians he met there as peaceable as they “knew nothing of swords” (29). ![]() He also was looking for gold, knowing the currency and power of the precious metal. He intended to find spices such as pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon, all used for preserving meat. Columbus was seeking Asia, motivated by the writings of Marco Polo detailing the Kubla Khan’s accounts of Japan’s riches. In 1492, Portuguese explorer Christopher Columbus accidentally arrived in the Americas through commission by the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. ![]()
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