*********** Columbus: whats behind the fuss?  **********
                          from Workers Solidarity No 35
                                                 [1992]

THIS YEAR sees the celebrations of the 
'discovery' of America in 1492 by Columbus. 
The celebrations have generated some 
debate about the rights and wrongs of the 
events which followed the discovery. In 
Spain itself, Seville has seen riots as 
marches protesting at the celebration have 
been broken up by the police.

America was not discovered, it was already populated 
by many nations of people.  Some of them were 
composed of primitive communistic societies of hunter-
gathers.  It was these peoples that the European 
merchants first found and exploited to extermination.  
In Mexico and Peru two military empires were in 
existence, the Azetcs and the Inca's

A TIME AND A PLACE

America was 'discovered' at a time when Europe was 
entering a period of rapid change. The merchants 
were gaining more power and coming into conflict 
with their feudal rulers. It would take 200 years for 
the merchants to settle the conflict in the French 
revolution of 1788 but the seeds were growing. Part 
of this expansion of early capitalism was based on the 
search for the source of the spices and metals that 
international trade was based upon. The direct trade 
roots having been cut by the Turkish empire.  The 
"discovery's" of this period were driven by this 
historical process.

When Columbus reached the Caribbean in 1492 he 
had little interest in the new plants and animals of 
this land.  Instead he was confident that the Spanish 
crown could make the Arawaks and Caribs collect and 
give "what was needed".  He established a system by 
which the Arawaks were required to produce a certain 
quantity of gold every three months or have their 
hands cut off.  The survivors of this period were 
worked to death on the sugar plantations.

The empires on the American mainland also fell before 
the Spanish expansion.  The Aztecs at the time ruled 
over central Mexico but their empire was 
overstreched and full of internal divisions.  The 
ruling class was divided along religious lines but in an 
echo of the process occurring in Europe these was 
also conflict between the Empire and the merchant 
class. The Inca's ruled the length of the Andes, some 
5000 kms but they too were internally divided. By 
allying with the enemies of these two empires and 
making use of these internal divisions the Spanish 
were able to overthrow and enslave both nations with 
comparatively few men.

Both these empires were class societies whose 
development was halted by their destruction at the 
hands of the Spanish.  The suffered a similar fate to 
the primitive communist societies of the Caribbean.  
Within a single generation 80% of the Aztec 
population had been worked to death in the mines or 
on the land.  They had died of torture and because of 
the destruction of the infrastructure that had 
supported them.

Throughout this period the Catholic church was 
involved with the carnage,  Colombus himself  was 
deeply religious and the slogan of the conquistadors 
was "God, gold and glory".  Forced conversions were a 
policy of the time, commonly as a preliminary to 
execution.  One of the few to publicly argue against 
the brutal treatment of the Americans was a priest 
however he was rapidly shut up by the Vatican.  The 
church produced an ideology of conquest designed to 
provide moral right to the brutal oppression of the 
native people.

SPANISH GOLD

The wealth that was generated by the Spanish 
conquests was enormous.  This wealth and the trade 
it generated within Europe was the backbone around 
which capitalism was built.  As the native populations 
of the Americas were wiped out merchants made more 
profits by kidnapping Africans and selling them to the 
sugar plantations and mines of America as slaves.  
This along with the earlier barbarities required 
capitalism to develop a racist ideology as a 
justification for its brutality.  

The Colombus debate is important because it exposes 
the brutal basis on which capitalism was built.  There 
is however another argument that sees the pre-
Colombus societies as perfect societies which would 
have remained so were it not for European 
interference.  Could these societies have developed 
without going through all the horrors imposed on 
them by the European bosses?

History can not be re-played but we do know that 
these societies were already going through a process 
of change.  Both the Azetcs and Inca's were military 
empires based on conquest of other peoples.  The 
Aztecs also carried out ceremonial murders on a mass 
scale, in 1486 for instance 20,000 captives had their 
hearts cut out during a temple dedication.  They were 
societies with class and caste divisions.  Those peoples 
who still lived in primitive communist societies did so 
because these societies were not capable of 
generating any surplus for a minority to take. 

The 500th anniversary serves as a remainder of how 
barbaric capitalism as an economic system is.  It is not 
Colombus who should be celebrated but rather those 
millions of native Americans on whose lives modern 
society was built.  There is no finer monument that 
can be raised to them then the creation of a society 
based on satisfying need, not greed.

Joe Black 

