2. US History - Columbus discovers America (1492) — Transcript

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1. 0:00All
2. 0:01right, that brings us to our second
3. 0:02event in US history. Columbus discovers
4. 0:05America in the year 1492.
5. 0:08Uh for this event as well, there are
6. 0:09four things we would like to discuss.
7. 0:11Firstly, we want to uh take a look at
8. 0:13the title of this event because it is
9. 0:15incorrect. Uh secondly, we want to
10. 0:17discuss some basics. This is stuff that
11. 0:19you probably already know from your
12. 0:20history classes. Thirdly, we um want to
13. 0:24draw your attention to what happened to
14. 0:26the natives after Columbus landed um in
15. 0:29the Americas. Uh spoiler alert, it's not
16. 0:33good. Um and then finally, fourthly, we
17. 0:36want to take a look at um Columbus's
18. 0:39influence on today's society because as
19. 0:42opposed to the Vikings who just left
20. 0:44after a generation or two and did not
21. 0:46really leave anything behind, uh
22. 0:48Columbus definitely still has a large
23. 0:50impact on today's society in America.
24. 0:53All right, first things first. Like I
25. 0:55said, the title Columbus discovers
26. 0:58America. I don't think you can claim
27. 1:00that you discover something if for
28. 1:03literal millennia there were people
29. 1:05there who fully well have discovered
30. 1:07this already. So discovers is not the
31. 1:10right verb. I think more correctly we
32. 1:13should go with um colonizes because
33. 1:16that's what he was doing. Um, it's also
34. 1:19incorrect to say that he discovers or
35. 1:21even colonizes America, um, as Americans
36. 1:24tend to claim to this day because
37. 1:26Columbus never once set foot on what is
38. 1:28known today as US soil. Uh, instead what
39. 1:31he discovered/colonizes
40. 1:34and colonizes is an island in the
41. 1:36Bahamas called San Salvador or rather
42. 1:38that he renames San Salvador. Okay, so
43. 1:42that was all I wanted to point out about
44. 1:44the title. Moving on then to some
45. 1:46basics. Again, that's stuff that you
46. 1:47probably already know. Uh this is
47. 1:50Columbus, Christopher Columbus. He's an
48. 1:53Italian native who works for the Spanish
49. 1:56queen called Isabella. Uh Isabella has
50. 1:59tasked him with uh finding a new route
51. 2:01to uh India/China.
52. 2:04Um because this route that they had
53. 2:07before was very long and also it had
54. 2:10been cut off uh by the Ottoman Empire
55. 2:12for any non-Christians. So, not only is
56. 2:15it long, it's also just not available
57. 2:17anymore. So, it's less than ideal. If
58. 2:20you were to take a look at um this world
59. 2:23map, if you wanted to sail from uh Spain
60. 2:27to India today, this is kind of how you
61. 2:30would go about it. Uh it's a 7,000 km
62. 2:34journey. And believe it or not, this is
63. 2:36the short version of this route because
64. 2:39uh you could take a shortcut to the Suez
65. 2:41Canal. However, in 1492, there was no
66. 2:44such canal. Uh, so this was not an
67. 2:47option to them and they had to take the
68. 2:48long way around, meaning they had to
69. 2:50sail all around Africa to reach India,
70. 2:52which took about 20,000 kilometers and
71. 2:55which would take you right to this area
72. 2:58right here. Uh, the waters around Cape
73. 3:01Good Hope, which are notoriously
74. 3:03treacherous for sailors. So, a lot of
75. 3:04ships simply didn't even make it to um
76. 3:08India. So the Spanish queen decided,
77. 3:11okay, yeah, but what if we go around?
78. 3:12What if we take the other way? Um, today
79. 3:15we know that that is a bad idea because
80. 3:17that route is in fact uh even longer. It
81. 3:20would take you 33,000 km. Um, also
82. 3:24through a bunch of treacherous waters,
83. 3:25but in their defense, they did not know
84. 3:27that. So on the 3rd of August of 1492,
85. 3:32Columbus took his ship to Santa Maria
86. 3:34and decided, "All right, let's go." Um
87. 3:36about two months later he reaches the
88. 3:39land. Um and in his mind he's like okay
89. 3:42great we made it. India check score. Um
90. 3:46this what he reached is not India as we
91. 3:49know. Uh it is and you can see this
92. 3:52little black dot appear here. Uh an
93. 3:54island in the Bahamas which again he
94. 3:56renamed San Salvador. So this is where
95. 3:58his journey ends and this part is never
96. 4:02completed.
97. 4:04So he got there. Now what um the third
98. 4:09thing I wanted to discuss as we
99. 4:10mentioned was what happened to the
100. 4:11people that were already there, the
101. 4:13native Americans living there. They are
102. 4:17um known as the Tyino Indians.
103. 4:21Um and their lives were about to get
104. 4:24truly horribly absolutely miserable for
105. 4:26centuries to come. Um when it comes to
106. 4:29these um tyino there are a few options
107. 4:32and none of them are good. Uh the first
108. 4:34most common option would be they get
109. 4:36sick and they die. Um and again you've
110. 4:39heard this before in your history
111. 4:40classes. Why is that? These uh natives
112. 4:44did not have the immune system built up
113. 4:46against European diseases like smallox
114. 4:49plague typhoid tuberculosis.
115. 4:53So they had no defense against them and
116. 4:56they died in very very large numbers
117. 4:58from these diseases. Um I once got the
118. 5:01question from a student how come Native
119. 5:04American diseases did not kill Europeans
120. 5:06in the same numbers because there were
121. 5:08simply less of them um not of these
122. 5:10natives but of these diseases um their
123. 5:14tribes lived
124. 5:16further away from each other. there were
125. 5:18less um or there were fewer larger
126. 5:20cities. So there just wasn't that much
127. 5:22contact in between tribes. So um
128. 5:26pandemicy diseases just did not have a
129. 5:29chance to spread throughout the
130. 5:30continent as the European diseases had.
131. 5:32Uh one example of a disease that came
132. 5:35from um the Americas rather than from
133. 5:37Europe is syphilis though. So that is um
134. 5:41a inherently American disease let's say.
135. 5:44All right. So that's your first option.
136. 5:46you get sick and you die. Um,
137. 5:50believe it or not, that is the best
138. 5:53option out there for you. Um, another
139. 5:56option would be mass suicides. There are
140. 5:59stories of entire villages collectively
141. 6:02throwing them themselves off of cliffs
142. 6:06um because they knew that nothing good
143. 6:08would come from having these Spanish men
144. 6:11invading their territory. So, they just
145. 6:14didn't see any other way out than
146. 6:16collectively killing themselves. Um,
147. 6:19again, those are kind of the lucky ones.
148. 6:23Um, why is that? Because
149. 6:27all of the other options are pretty much
150. 6:29slavery. So, Columbus needed men, women,
151. 6:33children, etc. to work for him. So, um,
152. 6:37you would be put into slavery.
153. 6:39Within slavery sadly there are three
154. 6:43separate categories. Um the first
155. 6:45category would be able-bodied men. Uh
156. 6:49that means people men who can work who
157. 6:52are healthy who have bodies that are
158. 6:54able to um sustain hard labor. Um those
159. 7:00men were put into uh gold mines because
160. 7:04this expedition was rather expensive.
161. 7:06Queen Isabella had spent a lot of money
162. 7:08on it. So Columbus was um telling her
163. 7:12that he was going to make it all back
164. 7:13because on these islands he had
165. 7:15discovered large deposits of gold in
166. 7:18gold mines. Um that wasn't really true.
167. 7:22There was some gold, but there
168. 7:24definitely wasn't that much gold or as
169. 7:26much gold as he had lied to about um had
170. 7:30lied about to Queen Isabella. Um so
171. 7:33there wasn't nearly as much gold as he
172. 7:35had told her. um that would seem like a
173. 7:38him problem, but he very quickly turned
174. 7:40it into a natives problem because he
175. 7:43would simply uh put quota on them saying
176. 7:46that um okay, you're going into this
177. 7:49gold mine. I demand that you come back
178. 7:51with this much gold. The fact that that
179. 7:54gold wasn't there that then, like I
180. 7:55said, it was a them problem.
181. 7:58um if you could not make this quarter of
182. 8:00gold, he well not he his men um would
183. 8:04chop off natives' hands um string them
184. 8:08up with rope the hands and then put the
185. 8:11hands around these people's necks like
186. 8:14almost a weird necklace. Um, and you'd
187. 8:16have to walk around with your uh own
188. 8:19chopped off hands uh as a necklace until
189. 8:23you bled to death because nobody was
190. 8:25allowed to take care of your wounds. So
191. 8:28that's option one, men who can work,
192. 8:30able-bodied men. Um, it does not get
193. 8:34better from here. The second category
194. 8:36would be not so able-bodied men. So the
195. 8:39old, the sick, um, children and ugly
196. 8:43women.
197. 8:45Um that category served as dog food for
198. 8:49Columbus's dogs. Um
199. 8:53in Columbus's diaries it is well
200. 8:56described that um he enjoys feeding
201. 9:00babies to dogs in front of their parents
202. 9:03so they can see that first before they
203. 9:05themselves are thrown to the dogs. There
204. 9:08are also stories of um his men using
205. 9:11this category. So sick men, ugly women,
206. 9:15and children that are not old enough to
207. 9:17work yet um to test whether their knives
208. 9:20are sharp enough. So these are bottom of
209. 9:23the barrel people. Um the third category
210. 9:27um are attractive women. And sadly, you
211. 9:30can probably kind of see where this is
212. 9:32going. Um they were used as gifts among
213. 9:37Columbus's men. So if somebody did
214. 9:39something good um you would be awarded
215. 9:43um a woman for you to enjoy raping. Um
216. 9:48there are stories and this is truly
217. 9:50quite graphic and upsetting. Uh there
218. 9:52are stories of these uh women being
219. 9:54raped to death. Um
220. 9:58which is weird because rape is an awful
221. 10:00crime but it doesn't necessarily lead to
222. 10:02you dying. So how did they do that? Um
223. 10:05if the women struggled or fought back,
224. 10:08then they would um push their knees to
225. 10:11the side with such force that their
226. 10:14pelvis is fractured and they would then
227. 10:17just leave them there. Um if your pelvis
228. 10:19fractures, there's no way that you could
229. 10:21walk. Um so they would just leave them
230. 10:24there to starve to death or to die of
231. 10:26thirst.
232. 10:29Um,
233. 10:31I've gotten the question quite often
234. 10:33like, "How come they didn't revolt? Were
235. 10:35there no revolts? Um, did they never try
236. 10:39to end this this terrible regime?" Um,
237. 10:43yes, they did. Um, and that would seem
238. 10:46logical because Columbus sailed over
239. 10:49there with uh three ships, his own and
240. 10:51two more. Uh, so they are heavily
241. 10:53outnumbered by the natives. But then
242. 10:56again, uh the natives are heavily
243. 10:58outgunned. Um
244. 11:02they don't have any uh firearms, which
245. 11:05means that whatever revolt that they
246. 11:08organized is heavily put down with
247. 11:11firepower. Um
248. 11:14also the thing is when uh a group
249. 11:17revolted, uh Columbus would make sure
250. 11:20that the others knew what was going to
251. 11:22happen to them if they also revolted. um
252. 11:25by um putting the corpses of the people
253. 11:30that revolted uh on sticks. So impaling
254. 11:32them with sticks and then parading their
255. 11:35corpses down the street. Um in the end,
256. 11:38I have some numbers for you. Uh the
257. 11:40indigenous population was estimated to
258. 11:43be uh between three and four million
259. 11:46people just before Columbus arrived. um
260. 11:49about a decade later there were 60,000
261. 11:53left and about a century after the
262. 11:56Spanish had started to invade uh the
263. 11:58Americas there were 500 tino Indians
264. 12:01left. So those numbers again uh between
265. 12:053 to 4 million in 1492
266. 12:08down to about 60,000 10 years later and
267. 12:14down to 500 um after a 100 years of um
268. 12:19Spanish rule in the Americas.
269. 12:24All right. Um so
270. 12:36so that just leaves our fourth and final
271. 12:38point uh with regards to Columbus which
272. 12:40was um what is the influence that
273. 12:43Columbus landing in the Bahamas still
274. 12:45has on today's society in the United
275. 12:47States. Um, yeah,
276. 12:50I think we can all conclude from the
277. 12:52previous uh explanation that Columbus
278. 12:55was an absolutely
279. 12:58atrocious, horrible human being. Um,
280. 13:01despite that, in the United States,
281. 13:03there's a federal holiday celebrating
282. 13:05the man and his achievement. Uh, because
283. 13:07every October 12th, it is Columbus Day
284. 13:10in the United States. Um, this is a
285. 13:13holiday that's especially popular among
286. 13:15Italian-Americans because Columbus was
287. 13:17himself an Italian, so it's become sort
288. 13:19of their um, national holiday, I guess.
289. 13:24Um, on October 12th, you can send one
290. 13:27another postcards to celebrate Columbus.
291. 13:30For example, happy Columbus Day. Let us
292. 13:32uh, thank Columbus for discovering
293. 13:34America and blessing the world with one
294. 13:36of the most powerful countries. Um, we
295. 13:39all have a Columbus within ourselves. We
296. 13:41just need to find him and be successful.
297. 13:45Uh, or even let's explore moments of fun
298. 13:47on this Columbus Day. Happy Columbus Day
299. 13:49everybody. Um,
300. 13:53I don't think it's very difficult to
301. 13:54imagine that this holiday is not exactly
302. 13:57popular with the indigenous population
303. 14:00of the United States. Um over the years
304. 14:03it had become more and more
305. 14:04controversial and protests keep erupting
306. 14:07uh on the day itself. Here you could see
307. 14:09a group of um Native Americans and their
308. 14:11supporters with uh blacks that read, for
309. 14:14example, Columbus Day celebrates
310. 14:16genocide or American question mark. Oh
311. 14:18yeah, what what tribe are you from
312. 14:20exactly? Um this is another one where
313. 14:23they march around saying that this is
314. 14:25stolen land. Um and another one uh that
315. 14:29states that Europeans have been illegal
316. 14:31in the United States since 1492, which
317. 14:34again is not completely untrue. Um
318. 14:38this these protests came to a head in
319. 14:41the year uh 2020 uh after George Floyd
320. 14:44died. The country um erupted into mass
321. 14:47protests. Anyway, um a lot of statues
322. 14:51were uh destroyed. Among those many
323. 14:54Columbus statues, for example, uh this
324. 14:57one in Miami 2020 with like a literal
325. 14:59reference to George Floyd. Um on the
326. 15:02pedestal, you can see that the face and
327. 15:04hands of this Columbus statue have been
328. 15:07um painted in red to symbolize the
329. 15:10bloodshed. Um this statue of Columbus
330. 15:13was beheaded in Boston also in the year
331. 15:152020. Um, and then this is a picture
332. 15:19from Indianapolis, also in the year
333. 15:212020, where a Columbus statue was taken
334. 15:24from its pedestal and people uh
335. 15:26destroyed it by kicking it and going to
336. 15:30town on it. So, Columbus not that
337. 15:33popular anymore
338. 15:35since more and more Americans are
339. 15:36figuring out that Columbus is not a
340. 15:39person that should be celebrated. Um
341. 15:41some states um have after the 2020 riots
342. 15:46started to replace Columbus Day by
343. 15:49something called Indigenous People's
344. 15:51Day. So Native American tribe day. Um
345. 15:55here you can see a sorry um a map of the
346. 15:59states that have considered uh making
347. 16:01this change. So that means they go from
348. 16:03uh this type of spectacle
349. 16:06um to this type of uh festivities. The
350. 16:10first three pictures show you uh how
351. 16:12Americans like dressing up as Columbus.
352. 16:14I remind you that this is a person that
353. 16:18uh used babies as dog food and yet
354. 16:22people like parading down the streets in
355. 16:25Columbus um costumes. Um the last two
356. 16:28pictures you see are uh examples of
357. 16:31celebrating indigenous peoples day where
358. 16:34um Americans that live in tribes or that
359. 16:36have ancestry in Native American u
360. 16:38culture
361. 16:40um celebrate their heritage and um
362. 16:43educate others on what that heritage is
363. 16:47exactly. Um this was evolving in the
364. 16:51right direction when in uh 2021 Biden
365. 16:54was the first president to officially
366. 16:56recognize this indigenous people's day
367. 16:58saying we honor indigenous people's
368. 17:00strength, courage and resilience. Um
369. 17:03however he is no longer the president
370. 17:05and President Trump in 2025 said the
371. 17:09following. I will not recognize
372. 17:11indigenous people's day and will bring
373. 17:12Columbus Day back from the ashes because
374. 17:14the radical left is eradicating our
375. 17:16history and I won't allow it. Can I
376. 17:19please point out the irony of this white
377. 17:23man uh screaming about eradicating uh
378. 17:27his history to bunches of Native
379. 17:30Americans. All right, that was it for
380. 17:32Columbus colonizing uh San Salvador in
381. 17:35the Bahamas in 1492.