Columbus on Trial

Today, we finished the trial! We got through King Ferdinand, System of Empire and The Tainos. I will be focusing today on King Ferdinand and System of Empire. 

King Ferdinand’s Attorney told us that all the King wanted was money. He didn’t intend for someone to bring back slaves or rape women. He told us Ferdinand told Columbus to treat them humanely and put his trust and money behind him. He didn’t want a war or a genocide. “Wanting money and wanting a genocide are very different things.”

King Ferdinand said that he never told Columbus to do anything. He blames Columbus and everything was Columbus’ actions, not his. 

System of Empire’s attorney told us about how Columbus was the one committed the genocide. King Ferdinand and Columbus’ Men are guilty by association.

System of Empire talked to us about how it cannot possibly be guilty because it is simply just a system that has been manipulated by the people and Kings and Queens. He said something like “would you charge a gun for murder?” and how he was the gun. 

In today’s trial, we mainly got through Columbus’ and his men’s trials. I will be focusing on his men in this update. 

Columbus’ men’s attorney talked about how the men thought they would be rich quickly and that’s why they did what they did. In other words they didn’t know what they were getting into. They said that King Ferdinand was guilty because he was being greedy and wanted gold. They also claimed Columbus was guilty because he came up with the plan to kill The Tainos. 

Columbus’ men told us that they were pawns in the situation and didn’t have a choice. They were used by columbus and he allowed it to happen. The men made an analogy about a candy store that went something like this: If you’re in a candy store and your mom tells you to steal something, if you don’t she might hurt you but if you do the store might hurt you. He said, he is the child, that Columbus is his mom, the candy is The Tainos and The System of the Empire is the store. The System of Empire was guilty because without them the evil would’ve never happened. In conclusion, he said that everyone is to blame but he is just to be blamed less. 

Columbus: Uh, gold.