Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Ever since Christopher Columbus voyages in the 1400’s there has been many different opinions wheatear he is a hero or a villain. In my opinion Christopher Columbus should not be considered a hero. A hero is somebody who performs good deeds for the sake of others, and not for their own benefit, whereas Christopher Columbus just wanted to find gold and riches for himself and Spain. I believe he is a villain for a few reasons Firstly; he took full advantage of the Arawak community, Secondly, he treated the Arawak’s terribly using them as slaves and Lastly,

In October of 1492, when Christopher Columbus stepped foot on the Island of Bahamas thinking it was Asia he was instantly greeted by the Arawak’s who came barring gifts, food and water.

As there kind and neutering nature they traded everything they owned. Christopher saw how naive this community was and instantly thought just how great they would be as slaves. Although the Arawak’s outnumbered Columbus and his men by a large amount, the Arawak’s believed in peace, and were not at the same military level. Since they strongly believed in peace they have never been exposed to weapons, “I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance”. Columbus’s main goal on this voyage was to find gold; “It led Columbus to take some of them aboard ship as prisoners because he insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold.” This shows Columbus ignorance towards other people, taking away innocent people just to help find gold for his own personal benefit. He uses a militaristic approach in the sense of forcing Arawak people to help him for just his own benefit.

In September of 1493, when Columbus set sail for his second voyage, he became much more aggressive towards the Arawak’s since he had already captured them. The goal remained the same, finding gold but slaves became a much bigger aspect. The Arawak’s were given an impossible task, to collect gold and return in 3 months with it, and if they returned empty handed, their hands were then cut off. This task was extremely difficult because there was only such a small and limited amount of gold on the island. Eventually it became clear, there was no longer gold left. The remaining slaves were then taken as slave labor performing exhausting tasks and they died by the thousands.