NDN Support

Good white people

Queen Isabella of Spain (1451 - 1504)

Isabella of Castille and Léon became Queen of Spain after she married Ferdinand 2 of Aragon in 1496. She and her husband were the ones to drive out the jews and muslims out of Europe by starting the Inquisition in 1492 and it was also under their reign that Christopher Columbus sailed out to supposedly finding another route to India by sailing West. Neither she or her husband believed that Columbus would ever succeed so it was easy for them to grant him all that he demanded to have. The colourful exotic parrots and the gold that Columbus brought back from the New World impressed a lot of Spaniards and made want to go to America also. Isabella however, who had granted permission to discover more land in the Americas, was horrified by the sight of some native people in chains, the ones that Columbus brought back from his voyage as half of the enslaved natives got ill and died from smallpox and were thrown overboeard into the ocean. She demanded their imediate

Royal flag Ferdinand and Isabella

Royal banner Ferdinand and Isabella

release and when she heard of the atrocities committed by her conquistadores in the New World, she had it laid down in her will that the Indians have to be treated well. On her death bed she wrote her will and wrote: “…no consent nor place is given for the mistreatment of the Indian natives and inhabitants of said Indies and Mainland, already gotten and still to gain, to their persons or their possessions, but it is so ordered that they be well and justly treated and if they receive any grievance that it be remedied, and that it be provided for…”

back to contents

back to articles

1

1