Christopher Columbus' expeditions are well known for opening the door for cultural interaction between the Old and New Worlds. Understanding that at the time colonization was procured around the spreading of the Christian faith and international trading, many fail to acknowledge his impact on the native populations. Many indigenous people were stepped on, taken for granted, and unwarrantedly sacrificed – all under the justification of Christianity and commerce, as a means of expansion. Christianity is a missionary religion that directs followers to spread the faith, and Columbus intended to do just that. Made very clear from his, somewhat cloudy, journal entries, he makes it apparent that the natives "would be better freed [from error] and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force." However, that statement seems to be a contradiction because throughout Columbus' journal entries he makes it palpable that he has no intentions of giving these indigenous people an opportunity as to whether or not they have a say in adopting this new faith.
Along with saturating his journal entries in contradictions, Columbus also did a phenomenal job with veiling these contradictions in insensitivity. Being that Columbus and his mates brought with them a lot of things that were foreign to the natives, he automatically assumed their ignorance. By assuming their ignorance, he preyed upon the gentle nature of these natives. As stated in his journal "It seemed to me they are a people very poor in everything They are very gentle and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others, nor steal; and they are without weapons and so timid that a hundred of them flee from one of our men if even if our men are teasing them They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion.
