What's the true history of the Native Americans and Christopher Columbus? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

What's the true history of the Native Americans and Christopher Columbus?

by MyUnpopularAccount

I've heard hundreds of different versions of the story from the smallpox blankets to genocide to everything being a big misunderstanding.

More recently I read that when the British came, they brought with them diseases that the Natives hadn't been acclimated to and it spread throughout their communities. When the British had started expanding they just came upon camps of dead bodies.

What ACTUALLY happened to the Native Americans when the British Colonists moved in?

DanKensington

What's the true history of the Native Americans and Christopher Columbus?

Columbus was a shit. More detail in these previous threads:

Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day: Revisionist? by u/Snapshot52
My history professor stated today that Columbus and his men killed between 2 and 8 million Native Americans in a 2-3 year period, and only a small portion of those deaths were from disease. Is this claim accurate? also by Snapshot52
Does anyone want to take a stab at Columbus? by u/TywinDeVillena
Does Columbus (and Columbus day) deserve all of the controversy and revile he gets? by u/Itsalrightwithme

For the disease thing, I commend to your attention the section of the FAQ titled 'Disease in the Americas'.

And as always, if anyone else would like to take on these matters, please don't let this linkdrop stop you from writing up a post of your own!