Columbus’ own writings reveal how tightly religion and conquest were intertwined from the start

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(The Conversation) — Few historic figures are as divisive as Christopher Columbus. For some, in both Spain and the United States , he remains a great hero , an explorer who found a “new world.” He is reviled by others who see him as an arrogant conqueror: the first European to enslave Indigenous Americans , and the man who launched ecological destruction in the Western Hemisphere .

As a historian who writes about early encounters between Europeans, Indigenous Americans and Africans in North America, I believe it is important to recapture this period as much as we can from existing documents – including Columbus’ own writings. Those texts reveal the enormous importance the push to spread Christianity played in Europeans’ colonial plans from the start.

In my 2026 book , “Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680,” I describe how Europeans’ religious desires shaped the creation of American colonies that benefited conquerors, at a high cost to those they displaced or enslaved. In the Americas, the linkage of religious purpose and the eager pursuit of glory and wealth…