Indians as such would ultimately benefit them by exposing them to Christianity and to
Hispanic ways. Columbus believed that native Peoples, because of their unfamiliarity with
Spanish customs, were best treated as slaves. He reported that “They are fit to be ordered about and made to work, plant, and do everything else that may be needed.” Thus, the Europeans accepted Columbus' views of the Natives as an inferior people, and dominated them . The Europeans' benefits from the Indians was one-sided, as the Indians received many diseases and pests from the colonizers. For the next four centuries, the Native Peoples would be actively exploited for colonists' benefit, much to the degeneration and destruction of the Indians' lives, traditions, and beliefs. Any resistance was put down and many were converted and baptized 'for their own good,' and to serve the