Columbus discovered or invaded the West Indies? There have been circular discussions, internationally, about whether Columbus discovered or invaded the West Indies. through this essay I will explore all the counterarguments for this particular topic. It's complex but simple, one step at a time. Christopher Columbus was a Renaissance explorer in 1492. He was sent by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to look for a trade route to East Asia. What does the word discover and invade actually mean? Well, if one discovers something it means being the first to find something. While to invade means to take/be in a place without permission. Violence is usually involved. Many people argue that Columbus had discovered the West Indies, this is because most historians in the 1400s, who were Europeans, therefore wrote partial texts to glorify their country where they wanted to avoid any form of negative conspiracy attached. Now. Even though we have read the Europeans' point of view, we are still in the dark about how we can hear both sides of the story. We were only shown one side of the coin: the Arawaks were illiterate and therefore very unlikely to have kept any kind of documentation regarding the events that had taken place. Being strangers to the reality of the facts, we have little knowledge of the Arawaks and what really happened, since there is a letter in which Columbus himself admits to having "discovered" the West Indies. At the time the news spread to Europe and the Arawaks were not aware of it. We would like to delve deeper into the meaning of discover, discovering a place means being the only person to find something before anyone else. How could Columbus 'discover' when men already inhabited it? How can he claim to have been the s...... middle of paper ......ombring was planned by the government " the next historian will use this information for his report. On the other hand, some books of historians say that he had invaded the West Indies is because he set foot in an area saying he discovered it when clearly there were people living there Another reason is that some books had said that Vikings from Iceland and Greenland were almost got there 500 years before Columbus. Personally I think Columbus invaded the West Indies because of the way they were treated by the Spanish (mentioned in the invasion paragraph I think he was responsible for the ethical cleansing of the Arawaks because he had slowly wiped them out. He exterminated them by selling them and giving them diseases. It was a prejudice, I know because he exterminated them simply for the color of their skin and for the fact that they did not worship who he did...