500 years of gold and greed
It was all about gold and greed. The North American story and the search for gold began in the 15th century, with the explorations of Christopher Columbus. Columbus wasn’t the only explorer whose quest for riches stemmed from the adventures of one man, Marco Polo. Polo was born in Venice in 1254 and was to become one of the most infamous merchants in Europe. Polo’s overland adventures into Asia, bringing silks and spices to the European market, were legendary.
Mr. Polo also brought back gold.
Spain needed a route to Asia unknown to other sailors and explorers. The Turks held control of the eastern Mediterranean and, therefore, controlled the land routes to Asia. The Portuguese made their way to Asia sailing around the southern tip of Africa. So, as every school child knows, Columbus sailed due west in hopes of finding a faster route to Asia — and all the gold he could muster.
Columbus had imagined a smaller world. A sailor named Rodrigo screamed out “land” on October 12, 1492. It was an island in the Bahamas. Columbus was certain the he had reached the Indies though in reality Asia lay thousands of miles further west. The crew was met by Arawak Indians, swimming out to great them. The Arawak lived in small family villages and grew corm, yams and cassava. Unfortunately for them, they wore earrings made of gold.
In Columbus’s diary, he writes of his initial encounters, “With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want… As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.”
Columbus, now with informants (prisoners) on board, sailed to Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) and what is now Cuba, and observed gold in the rivers. One of the local Indian chiefs presented Columbus with a mask of gold. Columbus would write, “Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful … the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. . . . There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals….”
These words would encourage other explorer’s to pillage the America’s in search of gold. While the Arawaks were abused by Columbus, Cortes exploited the Aztecs, and Pizarro the Incas. Some would argue that the English settlers also wreaked havoc with the Powhatan and Pequot peoples of Virginia and Massachusetts. No argument here; however, the English settlers were not inflicted with “the fever” as were their Spanish colleagues.
Cortes was obsessed with gold. The Aztec did indeed create beautiful objects constructed of gold and silver. Cortes and his men traveled from town to town, massacring Aztec villages. Cortes was also looking for the fabled cities of gold. Where were they? He pillaged until Montezuma and the Aztec civilization were no longer. Pizarro destroyed the Inca in Peru, very much as Cortes did with the Aztec, searching for cities of gold.
Mexico City, was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, taken over by the Spanish in the 1520s, and continued its civic affairs in 1821 with Mexican independence. For over three centuries, the Spanish/Mexican empire searched for gold.
If they had found it, our little town of Sonoma may have reaped the benefit. Mariano Vallejo made repeated attempts to solicit money from Mexico City. Instead, the Mexican government was having trouble keeping afloat, much less financially supporting their presidios and pueblos in the northern frontier.
James Marshall discovered gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada on January 24, 1848. About a week later, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the U.S.-Mexican War. The U.S. acquired more than 500,000 acres, all of which included those fertile hills of gold. Soon, the news would spread across the world. It is rather amazing to think that gold has occupied the minds and motivated the actions of North American colonizers for over 500 years!
