They were first mentioned by the political philosopher John Locke. He was very influential for the founding fathers who based the ideas of rights that are self evident on his philosophy. According to him, the natural rights were those of life, liberty, and property, a bit different than what ended in the final documents.
The things that interested Columbus the most in his first meeting with the Taino, as he himself wrote in his journal, were the abundant possesion of gold that the Taino showed and the inferred knowledge of them of the places where the gold could be found. In his opinion it was worthy to try to convert them to Christianity.
Because they wanted to expend their territory
