Four reasons why the life expectancy of Native Americans dropped after Columbus came were:
- enslavement
- brutal treatment by Columbus and his men
- disease
- outright murders and executions
Columbus was so hellbent on finding gold and other sources of wealth, that he dealt harshly with the Native Indians such that their numbers dwindled and their life expectancy dropped.
Some ways he did this were:
- Enslavement - he and his men treated the Natives as slaves and made them work for very hard for the Spanish. He made them bring him gold that was scarcely there and when they couldn't, he would cut a hand off.
- Brutal treatment - the Spaniards were quite brutal in the way they treated the Natives as they would ra-pe, kill and mutilate them, sometimes for fun.
- Disease - Columbus and his men brought diseases like measles to the New World and because the Natives had no immunity, they died in large numbers.
- Murders and executions - Columbus and his men thought nothing of the lives of Natives. Accounts by some showed that they would regularly kill Natives by the dozen or as a way to punish them. It got so bad that tribes committed mass sui-cide.
Columbus is dead so holding him accountable is going to be difficult. We can however start by showing what a brutal and horrible man he was. We can also remove his monuments and cancel holidays in his name.
In conclusion, Columbus was praised as a hero in Europe but the Natives saw him as the devil and they were not very far from the truth.
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