HISTORY
Africans Discovered
America Around 1291 BC,
Not Columbus?
But unknowing to Columbus, the Spaniards
he left behind began to enslave the Taino
women for domestic work.
T
his suppression of the owners of the island, after several months, led to armed con-
flict with the Taino’s, who destroyed the temporary settlement, killing the Spaniards.
Upon returning to Spain on the second ship, La Niña, with a little gold, parrots, spic-
es, and Taino captives, Columbus convinced the Spanish Monarchy of the need for
a rapid second voyage. He received a great deal of fanfare in Spain. He was cheered
and followed everywhere he went. After all, he was the” Admiral of the ocean sea”
and governor-general of the new lands which he had discovered. But in reality,
Columbus did not bring anything in the way of gold or other valuable items like he
had promised, and he did not find a shorter route to the East Indies. However, he did display some
indigenous Taino people who were forcibly bought to the Monarchy with a few trinkets of gold.
He was very persuasive in convincing the Spanish monarchy to finance the second voyage of
discovery and colonization. This was done with the blessing of Pope Alexander VI in the Treaty
of Tordesillas on June 7, 1494, which assigns spheres of influence in the Americas to Portugal and
Spain. When he left the Canary’s Islands on October 13, 1493, Columbus’s second voyage of con-
quest was furnished with a huge fleet of 17 ships, domesticated animals, with over 1,000 colonists
together with six priests, attack dogs, and canons. Notably, from an African historic perspective,
this was the beginning of chattel slavery and colonialism in the continent.
When Columbus and his fleet arrived in His-
paniola in the late November of that year, the
found the fort of La Navidad destroyed with no
survivors. Immediately, they built other forti-
fied places, which included a city, founded on
January 2, and named La Isabella in honor of
the Queen of Spain. On February 2, 1494, Anto-
nio de Torres left La Isabella with 12 ships, some
64| Colossium . June 2019
gold, spices, parrots, and Taino captives (most
of whom died on the sea). He also returned to
Spain with the bad news about Navidad and
some complaints about Columbus’s methods of
governance. Meanwhile, Columbus managed
to find a small source of gold on Hispaniola. He
would force the natives to work in gold mines as
slaves until they died of exhaustion.