Christopher Columbus Accomplishments

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Every elementary student across the United States has been taught this tune about the great explorer, Christopher Columbus. Columbus was a very important historical figure, and he has been credited with uniting Europe and America. He was not the first European to discover America, but he discovered a lot of land that was unknown to the Europeans, and he paved the path for Spanish land claims and spread of Spanish culture. As the Anthology of American Literature states, “He changed the way the world saw itself” (Columbus, 14). For this reason, his name and life story has been preserved in history books all around the world.

In “Columbus’s Letter Describing his First Voyage,” Christopher Columbus lavishly describes the Indies to an official in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish King and Queen at the time. He describes the beautiful lands he saw in a manner that seems overly exaggerated, and he talks about how he named all of the islands. All of the names Columbus gave to the islands were in Spanish, and some names were honoring the Holy Savior, Ferdinand, and Isabella.

“And I gave a thousand handsome good things, which I had brought, in order that they might conceive affection, and more than that, might become Christians” (Columbus, 16). Along with colonizing, one of Columbus’s goals was to convert the native people to his holy faith. However, the indigenous people were deeply religious, and a few goods could not sway them away from their religion. Other texts such as Red Jacket’s speech demonstrate how the Indians were very spiritual and did not want to convert to Christianity. Hence, in order to attract the King to fund his trips. Columbus gives off a wrong impression in his letter by making it seem like the native people would easily convert to