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Columbus' family successfully sued the Spanish Crown for breach of contract.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleitos_colombinos
Both parties finally submitted to arbitration. On 28 June 1536 the president of the Council of the Indies, Bishop García de Loaysa, and the president of the Council of Castile, Gaspar de Montoya,[7] delivered the following arbitration award:[5]
They confirmed the title of Admiral of the Indies in perpetuity to the line of Columbus, with privileges analogous to those of the Admiral of Castile.
They removed the titles of Viceroy and Governor General of the Indies.
They established a seigneury for Columbus's heirs consisting mainly of the island of Jamaica (with the title of Marquess of Jamaica), a territory of 25 leagues square in Veragua (with the title of Duke of Veragua).
They confirmed the heirs' possession of their lands in the Hispaniola and the perpetuity of the titles of alguacil mayor ("high sheriff"😉 of Santo Domingo and of the Audiencia (tribunal) of the island.
They ordered a payment of 10,000 ducats annually to the heirs of Columbus as well as 500,000 maravedíes per year to each of the sisters of Luis Colón.
61d
@AThousandYoung saidWhat an amusing and absurd belief.
There's a lot to unpack when we hear about "the tyrannical ways in which Columbus and his brothers governed".
Keep in mind that the Confederacy considered the Union government "tyrannical". Preventing Spaniards from abusing indigenous people is likely the "tyranny" being referred to.
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@no1marauder saidAnd yet this "amusing and absurd belief" is consistent with the evidence.
What an amusing and absurd belief.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/hapchx/what_did_christopher_columbus_mean_in_this_letter/
Columbus, letter to Juana de Torres:
[Bobadilla] had indignated them against me, saying that I wanted to take from them what Their Highnesses had given them,
I wonder what Columbus wanted to take which Their Highnesses had given? Who were "they" who were talking to Bobadilla? Probably not the indigenous people.
Same letter, continued:
But upholding justice and the enlargement or Their Highnesses' realm has me completely sunk. Today, that so much gold is found, there is division on where is there more to gain, in theft or in toiling the mines. For a woman, a hundred castellanos are paid, as much as for a good farmstead, and it is very much in fashion, and there are many merchants who are looking for girls: of ages nine or ten are now appreciated, but a good merchant should have of every age.
Some people try to use the above as evidence that Columbus was an enthusiastic sex slaver but careful reading will indicate that Columbus was only describing the crimes that were taking place. It is not possible to condemn crimes without describing them first.
60d
@AThousandYoung saidThat's bad history and worse propaganda.The encomienda system of forced labor was based on feudal practices in Spain itself and was imposed on indigenous peoples like the Taino in Hispaniola BEFORE the conquests of the Atzecs and Incas.https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda
One thing that Anglos often call "slavery" in the Spanish Empire was how Spain co-opted the Inca system of taxation by labor. What is called "taxes" when applied to the Inca becomes "slavery" when applied to the Spanish but it was the same exact thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit%27a
Mit'a was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government in ...[text shortened]... of days out of a year (the basic meaning of the word mit'a is a regular turn or a season).
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@AThousandYoung saidIt's hardly consistent with Columbus shipping 500 Indians back to Spain in 1495 to serve as slave laborers, is it?https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=3569&smtID=2
And yet this "amusing and absurd belief" is consistent with the evidence.
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@no1marauder saidWe still "enslave" prisoners under the 13th Amendment. Those were murderers captured with the assistance of local Taino allies.
It's hardly consistent with Columbus shipping 500 Indians back to Spain in 1495 to serve as slave laborers, is it?https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=3569&smtID=2
https://www.osdia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Columbus_FriendorFoe.pdf
In 1494 the Taino chief Caonabo, who had led the Navidad massacre, united four of the five Taino
tribes to exterminate the foreigners. Columbus’ friend, Chief Guacanagari, however, refused to join the
league. Instead, he informed Columbus of the plot and assisted him in his expedition against the Indians in
1495. For this, Guacanagari was attacked by the other Tainos. He fled to the mountains where he later
died.
Columbus rounded up 500 Tainos that he had captured as a result of these hostilities and shipped
them to Spain.
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@no1marauder saidSo are you suggesting that everyone in Spain was a slave? Did the Spanish peasants not get feudalism "imposed" on them?
That's bad history and worse propaganda.The encomienda system of forced labor was based on feudal practices in Spain itself and was imposed on indigenous peoples like the Taino in Hispaniola BEFORE the conquests of the Atzecs and Incas.https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda
How about the people the Inca taxed? Were they slaves?
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@no1marauder saidIn the post you are responding to here I'm referring to the Spanish Mita of South America not the Encomienda.
That's bad history and worse propaganda.The encomienda system of forced labor was based on feudal practices in Spain itself and was imposed on indigenous peoples like the Taino in Hispaniola BEFORE the conquests of the Atzecs and Incas.https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda
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@AThousandYoung said"Murderers"? Sounds like they were defending their soil against foreign invaders.
We still "enslave" prisoners under the 13th Amendment. Those were murderers captured with the assistance of local Taino allies.
https://www.osdia.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Columbus_FriendorFoe.pdf
In 1494 the Taino chief Caonabo, who had led the Navidad massacre, united four of the five Taino
tribes to exterminate the foreigners. Columbus’ friend, C ...[text shortened]... 00 Tainos that he had captured as a result of these hostilities and shipped
them to Spain.
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@AThousandYoung saidComparing the Inca system with the Spanish one is incongruous as even your source notes:
In the post you are responding to here I'm referring to the Spanish Mita of South America not the Encomienda.
"The Inca and Spanish mita's served different purposes. The Inca mit'a provided public goods, such as maintenance of road networks and sophisticated irrigation and cropping systems that required intercommunity coordination of labor.[7] The majority of Inca subjects performed their mit'a obligations in or near their home communities, often in agriculture; service in mines was extremely rare.[8] In contrast, the Spanish mit'a acted as a subsidy to private mining interests and the Spanish nation, which used tax revenues from silver production largely to finance European wars.[9]
A 2021 study in the Journal of Economic History found that the colonial mita system in Peru caused the decimation of the male native-born population.[10]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit%27a
60d
""They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane. They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
From the journal of Christopher Columbus
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/columbus-mass-killer-slave-trade
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@no1marauder saidThe expedition to capture these people was Chief Guacanagari's idea.
"Murderers"? Sounds like they were defending their soil against foreign invaders.
In any case prisoners of war are also put to work today under the Geneva Convention. Ever see "Bridge Over the River Kwai"?
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@no1marauder saidYes that's one of the standard malicious translations Columbus haters often bring up.
""They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane. They would make fine servants. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
From the journal of Christopher Columbus
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/columbus-mass-killer-slave-trade
In the original it reads either "they would make fine servants" OF GOD i.e. Christians or else "they would make fine subjects".
In either case Columbus was also "a fine servant".