Christian History 1400 to 1499

In less than a decade after Columbus' first landing the native population of the island of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo & Haiti)— and thousands and thousands of people — had dropped by a third to a half. Before the next century ended, the populations of Cuba and many other Caribbean islands had been virtually exterminated. (46) "When the Christians came to these islands they said, take this Bible, close your eyes and pray, so we did; when we opened our eyes all we had was this Bible and the white man had all our Islands." Hawaiian Kahuna (46)

1494

TYRANU / TRNAVA (Hungary) - Riots began after a blood libel with 16 Jews being burned at the stake. Tyranu was one of the oldest Jewish settlements in Hungary/Slovakia being founded before 1350. [74] (47)

1496

The island’s population of about eight million at the time of Columbus’ arrival in 1492 had been reduced by a third to a half by the year 1496. Eventually, all of the island’s natives were exterminated forcing the Spaniards to import slaves from the Carribbean islands. These imported slaves also suffered the same fate. They were liquidated in barely a quarter of a century.  

"In less than the normal lifetime of a single human being, an entire culture of millions of people, thousands of years resident in their homeland, had been exterminated."

After successfully wiping out all of the island, the Spaniards then turned their attention to the mainland of Mexico and Central America, with the exquisite city of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City today) as the next target.

By the end of the 16th century, about 200,000 Spaniards had moved to the Americas and about 60,000,000 natives had died. Cortez, Pizzaro and De Soto along with hundreds of other Spanish conquistadores sacked the southern and Mesoamerican civilizations “in the name of Christ”.

No different were the founders of what today is known as the United States of America. Although none of the settlers would have survived the winter months without help from the natives, they still plotted to expel and exterminate the Indians. Warfare among North American Indians was rather harmless in comparison to European standards, and was meant to avenge insults than conquer land. Just as some pilgrim fathers have said, “Their wars are far less bloody”, and there usually was “no great slaughter of neither side”.  The Indians also usually spared women and children.

1498

It was in 1498 when the Indians first had a major contact with Christianity. Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese, landed with gunboat and priests in 1498 to invade and subject all countries which are under rule of the “enemies of Christ” – the Saracens or Moslems who fought against the Christian Crusaders in the middle ages and Pagans. Accordingly, de Gama and his crew were not only merchants but also devout Christians ordered by the Pope.

Hindus were forced to convert, otherwise, were tortured and killed. Thousands had to escape Goa to preserve their culture and religious beliefs.

Gaspar Correa, an historian, described what Vasco de Gama did, thus:
"When all the Indians had thus been executed, he ordered them to strike upon their teeth with staves and they knocked them down their throats; as they were put on board, heaped on top of each other, mixed up with the blood which streamed from them; and he ordered mats and dry leaves to be spread over them and sails to be set for the shore and the vessels set on fire... “ Before killing and burning the innocent Hindus he had their hands, ears and noses cut off.”

Once, the head of the Hindu population, which they refer to as the Zamorin, sent a Brahmin (Hindu priest) to Vasco de Gama to plead for peace. De Gama had the Zamorin’s lips and ears cut off. A dog’s ears were sewn on him instead. The Brahmin was sent back to Zamorin in that condition and the three boys whom the Brahmin brought with him – two of whom were his sons and the other his nephew – were hanged from the yardarm and their bodies were sent ashore.

Francis Xavier SaintFrancis Xavier, a Jesuit Priest, came soon after Vasco da Gama, with the firm resolve of uprooting Hinduism from the soil of India and planting Christianity in its place. His sayings and doings have been documented in his numerous biographies. Francis Xavier, wrote back home, "As soon as I arrived in any heathen village, when all are baptized, I order all the temples of their false gods to be destroyed and all the idols to be broken to pieces. I can give you no idea of the joy I feel in seeing this done." The Church had a special way of dealing with converted Hindus who were suspected of not observing Christian rites with appropriate rigour and enthusiasm, or even of covertly practicing their old faith: "…the culprits would be tracked down and burnt alive."[28] (49)