Zinn’s A People’s History… pp. 1 – 18 discuss the events surrounding Columbus’ voyage: the need for a new route to Asian, his movements in the Caribbean and amongst its natives in his search for gold, and the eradication of tens and hundreds of thousands of natives. He writes about Columbus’ delivery of vast amounts of slaves to the Spanish monarchy, with slaves being sent to Europe or forced to labor in New World mines and plantations. Zinn further recount the historical writings of Bartolomé de las Casas, who commented on native culture, as well as chronicling and questioning the necessity of the harsh, brutal conditions that the conquering Spanish subjected the natives to. Zinn then claims that the easy casualness with which contemporary historians ignore or disregard historical atrocities as necessary for the advancement of humanity does a disservice …show more content…
He writes that Columbus’ actions set a precedent for how Europeans would later treat natives, citing Cortés and Pizarro’s conquests and violent interactions between English colonists and Indians. The passage details how English colonists used any justification to support their decision to kill Indians and take their lands. Zinn recounts how warfare and disease reduced the native population by over 90%. Zinn ends by questioning if any progress achieved by these conflicts would be acceptable to those who wouldn’t benefit from it. Schweikart and Allen’s A Patriot’s History… chapter 1 explain the motivations and advancements that precipitated European colonialism. S&A wrote about Portugal’s colonization and circumnavigation of Africa, Spanish and French movements in America and how these explorations resulted in the colonization of different parts of the