Final answer:
Columbus thought the inhabitants of the Caribbean would make good servants due to their immunity to European diseases, their agricultural skills, and because they did not know the terrain well, making them easier to control compared to Europeans who suffered high death rates from local diseases.
Step-by-step explanation:
Christopher Columbus thought that the inhabitants of the Caribbean islands would make good servants due to a combination of factors. Firstly, indigenous people were dying in high numbers from infectious diseases, such as smallpox and influenza, to which they had no resistance. On the other hand, Africans had developed an immunity to European diseases from centuries of interaction, making them a more robust labor force for the harsh conditions of the New World. In contrast, European indentured servants were not a feasible labor source due to the high death rates among Europeans from diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Furthermore, Europeans recognized that Africans had agricultural skills and were physically better suited to the hard labor required on plantations. Europeans also believed that Africans, unfamiliar with the New World terrain, could be controlled more effectively since, unlike indigenous people, they did not know the best places to hide and could more easily be recaptured.