04/24/2018
History is a weapon because it is limited in its production and in its ability to be experienced. The people that experience a major event such as the discovery and colonization of the Americas are not aware of the over all agenda supporting their actions. Being such they can't experience new cultures without seeing an excuse to justify their own. Though as proven by the Sailor Rodrigo and Columbus in regard to the reward for spotting land, the present authority and typically highest educated person will be the reference for historical fact, regardless of wether it is a truthful account or not. Clearly Rodrigo and his fellow sailors could prove that Columbus did not see land earlier, but because of a lack of things like education, positional authority, or organization, Columbus walks away the champion.
History becomes a weapon when it supports a mentality that has no real experience to support it. Referring to early settlers in the American colonies, their perception of native people is likely influenced by tribal encounters within their own countries even if they had happened years before they themselves had existed, and now the accounts left behind by early settlers plague the history books of my past. I recall history painting settlers as cruel but ultimately good people simply struggling to survive, failing to express too me the atrocities that military members or English/Spanish representatives would commit against those not painted into textbooks with fantastic and exaggerated descriptions to hide the context behind this clash of cultures, such as the introductions of Cortez and Moctezuma.
Clearly Columbus represents a fact known by many adventurers and entrepreneurs of his time, if no one is their to see what takes place for themselves they have no choice but to take your word for it, or come and look with their own eyes. By exaggerating the available gold, and other goods, Columbus helped fuel the investment by the Crown and others in similar positions and with similar resources, leading to endless justification for more slaves, more gold, and more atrocities.
History is a weapon because it is written in half truths, looking at the priest La Casa, you can see that a persons perspectives and beliefs can change with time yet still support the same actions, its a half truth because La Casa is not sharing the desires of his fellow Spaniards to treat the natives so poorly, yet his likely cultural view of Spaniards ranked against other cultures of man allows him to look to another source to suggest for slave labor but he is giving an accurate description of the character of spaniards unlikely to match a spaniards own account of themselves. When La Casa petitions for the use of Blacks and not Natives, he is only reacting to what he has actually experienced and before him he sees blood and destruction. Though the Concept of using Blacks is likely a much prettier picture to imagine, sadly in reality the abuse and atrocities seen committed against the Native people that La Casa experienced was witnessed again by La Casa. Being written this way allows for the truth to be smudged and presented with imperfect clarity. Ultimately not allowing the present person reflecting on it to make completely present and current conclusions as to the best way to handle the obstacle they have before them, that seem so similar to the ones referenced in the past.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html
