Christopher Columbus A Hero Essay

Today in America, we see Christopher Columbus as a hero. In school we learn that he brazenly voyaged across the Atlantic and discovered America, and valiantly brought forth a new era of history. And then as we get older, we start to learn that there are some complications. Columbus may not be simply the bold adventurer we were taught he was. His discoveries not only opened a new world for Europeans to explore, but brought a less-desirable fate upon the native people.
Although Columbus had the opportunity to work out an agreement and exist peacefully with the Native Americans, he was focussed on his mission to “find riches and conquer new lands.” The three main sources of controversy involving Columbus's interactions with the Native Americans

The Native Americans got the worse end of the bargain. Along with new farming technology, weapons, all sorts of animals including the horse, and many new plants, the Europeans brought with them disease. These diseases included smallpox, measles, malaria, yellow fever, influenza, and chicken pox. Because the people of the New World had never been exposed to these ailments, they were extremely susceptible. Probably the most deadly to the Native Americans was smallpox. “Smallpox killed tens of thousands of Indians in the New World.” The Native Americans had been isolated before the Europeans arrived, so their immune systems were not ready to take on such a disease. Some of the Old World diseases were transmissible by air and touch, making it very easy for them to spread

It was impossible to believe, Columbus reports, "that anyone has seen a people with such kind hearts and so ready to give the Christians all that they possess, and when the Christians arrive, they run at once to bring them everything." Columbus was quick to abuse their unselfishness when he saw that some of the Indians had gold. He had no doubt on how to proceed with these people; he came to take possession and establish control. Columbus did eventually find that the gold wasn’t plentiful as he originally believed. Still searching for profit, Columbus and his men began selling to slavery and killing the same Native Americans that assisted them. He believed that there was more gold to be found, and he wanted the Native Americans to dig it up for him. To the king and queen of Spain he said, “. . .they are also fitted to be ruled and to be set to work, to cultivate the land and to do all else that may be necessary, and you may build towns and teach them to go clothed and adopt our customs.” This was a pretty horrible thing to do. It set a horrible example for the rest of the Europeans to settle in the New World, and set the Native Americans on a course for genocide. “From a population of 100,000 at the lowest estimate in 1492, there remained in 1514 about 32,000 Arawaks in