Growing up, most children are taught how Christopher Columbus was the discoverer of the New World and how without him we wouldn’t have the world we are in today. We have a national holiday in honor of him. We celebrate his life through most of our juvenile years. Over the last century, questions have been popping up regarding this man known to be one of the most popular men to have walked the earth. People of all ages have discussed for ages as to whether Christopher Columbus is a great explorer or a mass murderer.
One of Columbus’s greatest accomplishments was finding America. In the 1400’s, everyone worldwide was tricked into thinking that the world was flat. Christopher Columbus was able to see past this and make one of the greatest discoveries known to mankind. He believed that if he sailed west he could end up in Asia to set up a trade route with Europe. For most of this he was correct. After he started the journey to Asia, he encountered a very big obstacle. There was an entire continent in his way. He decided to explore it, thinking it was the very most eastern point of China. He did not give in to the fact that the continent he found was not part of America and took his argument all the way to his grave.
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Christopher Columbus did discover America but what bad things did he have to do to succeed to his fame and fortune? Sadly, behind every success is a trail of failure.
No matter which direction Columbus took he would have to encounter the Natives to reach his goal. When Columbus first saw the indians he described them as unattractive, unclothed people. He thought that their nakedness represented a lack of culture, customs, and religion. The king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, had ordered that the natives be treated kindly. Columbus enslaved, tortured, and killed thousands of natives on his journey through America going against the king and queen only to write; “... they continue to entertain the idea that I have descended from heaven; …” He was a man with no integrity and had an extreme lack of respect, causing thousands to spend the rest of their lives in
agony. Though he caused many people deep agony, he did also benefit the world. These two ideas together cause many to believe he is neither a hero nor a villain, he is just a man. Many people are judged whether they are good or bad by how the certain good deeds overpower bad deeds. Still people see Columbus as a man who has done this very thing on a very large scale, causing some to think he has done more good than bad, and others who believe he has done more bad than good.
Many consider Columbus a Hero, others believe he was selfish and self centered. Myint author of “Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?” and Ransby author of “Columbus and the Making of Historical Myth.”, are faced with the same dilemma. From a young age children are taught about Columbus and his greatness, but the books fail to document the atrocities committed in the process. Most of the books use biased language; little evidence and vague language is used to hail Columbus as a great hero. Myint provides a more objective stance, while Ransby condemns Columbus entirely. However, both suggest to consider Columbus a hero is a mistake.
Columbus described the people as being timid and unfitted to use weapons. He wrote, “They have no iron or steel or weapons, nor are they fitted to use them. This is not because they are not very well built and of handsome stature, but because they are very marvellously timorous.” Columbus described them as though they will not provide any resistance because they do not have the skill to use weapons, and that they very timid people. However, as shown in the first quote, Columbus wrote that they did not put up any opposition; he later wrote in the letter that he took some of the natives by force. If the natives did not put up any opposition to Columbus, why would he need to take them by force? Columbus also notes that they had been very serviceable, and would very much be open to evangelization. An important note, Columbus wrote more and provided more detail about the vast islands he had “discovered” compared to the indigenous people, of which he wrote, “ In all these islands, I saw no great diversity in the appearance of the people or in their manners and language.” In the end, Columbus’s description of the Indigenous people was that are serviceable people would make adequate slaves. Columbus’s letter paints a good picture into his imperialistic mind, as opposed to providing information about the
Who is Christopher Columbus? You may already have prior knowledge of him, but if you do not, Christopher Columbus was a Spanish explorer who made four voyages to the Americas. His voyages led to the Columbian Exchange and colonization. Many cultures, ideas, technology, and foods were spread between the Americas, the “New World,” and Europe, Africa, and Asia, the “Old World”. Even though many great things were exchanged between the Old World and the New World, many diseases from Europe were introduced to the Natives. Does this make Christopher Columbus a hero, or a villain? The answer is not that debatable. A closer look must be taken at Christopher Columbus 's life to be able to judge such things. This essay will take a look at his life,
Christopher Columbus does not deserve to be honored as a hero with his own holiday. Close to 500 years, people have praised Christopher Columbus and also celebrated him as though he was the one who truly founded America. Teachers teach students that he was a great man, also how he found treasures and land known as America. Students are also taught about the names of his three ships he used on his first voyage. However, they did not teach us the truth about Christopher Columbus, and his so called “discovery”.
The controversy of whether or not Christopher Columbus should continue to be acknowledged by a federal holiday proves that his legacy has not escaped the scrutiny of history. Arguments born of both sides of the controversy stem from issues such as genocide, racism, multiculturalism, geographical land rights, and the superiority of certain cultures over others. In The Christopher Columbus Controversy: Western Civilization vs. Primitivism, Michael Berliner, Ph.D. declares that recognition of Columbus Day is well-deserved, claiming that Western civilization is superior to all other cultures and Columbus personifies this truth. On the contrary, Jack Weatherford's Examining the Reputation of Christopher Columbus equates Columbus' so-called discovery with brutal genocide and the destruction of ancient sophisticated civilizations. These articles demonstrate two extreme points of view in a manner that makes clear each authors' goals, leading the reader to consider issues of author bias, motivation, and information validity.
Despite being one of the most renowned explorers in history, Christopher Columbus’ legacy remains controversial. The debate on whether Columbus should be celebrated has captured news headlines for decades. While many view him simply as a gifted Italian navigator who laid the seeds for the colonization of the New World, history paints a much more complicated picture. His journal entries and eye-witness testimony reveal Columbus to be a man of intolerance and indifference towards those deemed inferior to himself. Christopher Columbus’ treatment of Indigenous’ people, in addition to his ethnocentric worldview, allows for the conclusion that he should not be idolized as a hero in the modern age.
Columbus does not deserve to be praised for the discovery of America. In short, if he didn't do it, someone else would have within 10 years. He was not the only one who believed that the earth was round, and the ideas of similar voyages had been previously proposed.
Although this essay is historically accurate it lacks important details, which might paint a different view of Columbus. Boorstin writes favorable of Columbus and depicts him as a heroic and determined figure who helped shape history, but he neglects to include Columbus’ unethical acts committed in the world that was not supposed to exist, the Americas. When Columbus first discovered the New World, he took care that the royal standard had been brought ashore and he claimed the land for Spain in front of all, including the indigenous population who had been sighted even before Columbus made landfall. According to the medieval concepts of natural law, only those territories that are uninhabited can become the property of the first person to discover them. Clearly this was an unethical act. Thus, the first contact between European and non-European worlds was carried out through a decidedly European prism, which ensured Spanish claim to the islands of the Americas. Faced with a colony in an inhospitable area, the Spanish soon inaugurated the practice of sending regular military parties inland to subdue the increasingly hostile natives. Members of the indigenous population were captured and enslaved to support the fledgling colony. The object of Columbus’ desire changed from exploration and trade to conquest and subjugation.
For generations upon generations, students have been taught about the “hero” Christopher Columbus who had discovered our new world. However, to say he was a hero would not exactly be the truth; Columbus was an eccentric man who cared much more about his profits than the well being and even lives of the natives. It is documented in journals that he and his crew had slaughtered entire villages at a time, and that he had even killed people just for the point of testing how sharp his sword was. Not only did Columbus and his crew have a thing for violence, on multiple accounts crew members wrote down every single successful rape of women; and used the voyage to help begin a slave export for the royalty of Spain.
For more than five centuries Americans have lifted Christopher Columbus to heights of greatness and god-like. We celebrate his life as though he was a man that had done us a great favor. In resent years Christopher Columbus has come under scrutiny, his life and works being questioned more than celebrated. There have be many great men and women that contributed to the building of our great nation but they do not receive anywhere as much recognition as Columbus. When a person begins to study the actual accounts of the "finding of the New World" they begin to wonder if Columbus should adored or hated for his actions. As a child I was taught that Columbus was a great man that had accomplished great things for the sake of humanity, but in reality his agenda was not to better humanity but to better himself. He found the Americas by mere chance and he did not even know of what he found. We give him credit for "finding" the Americas but history tells of the people, that he called Indians, already inhabiting the foreign land. So you decide whether or not Christopher Columbus should be revered a hero.
Columbus enslaved the Native Americans in two ways. The first was “[enslaving] them to work in his brutal gold mines. Within only two years, 125,000 (half of the population) of the original natives on the island were dead” (Kasum). The other type of enslavement was “the selling of native girls into sexual slavery. Young girls of the ages 9 to 10 were the most desired by his men” (Kasum). If slavery was not bad enough, “In the early years of Columbus’ conquests there were butcher shops throughout the Caribbean where Indian bodies were sold as dog food. There was also a practice known as the montería infernal, the infernal chase, or manhunt, in which Indians were hunted by war-dogs” (Schilling). There is absolutely no way any person could be considered a hero after seizing, enslaving, and causing the deaths of hundreds of people, especially if these people were so innocent and friendly. Even “Bartolome De Las Casas, a former slave owner who became Bishop of Chiapas, described these exploits. ‘Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel,’ he wrote. ‘My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write’” (Schilling) Columbus must be a villain in our own
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, is the rhyme embedded in children’s heads in the first lesson of US history. However, beyond the discovery of the New World, Christopher Columbus receives no other mentions. Especially no one acknowledges that he was the reason Native Americans were mistreated and kept as slaves. Although Christopher Columbus’ actions are not all honorable he should still be celebrated during Columbus Day as a brave explorer who risked his and his crew’s lives to find a new way of travel and land. His efforts bridged a gap between the New and Old World and helped feed Europe, which immensely impacts our society. Because of his dedication and bravery to be an explorer Christopher Columbus Day should be celebrated.
[2] Columbus is a mainstay of American patriotism. He is the patron saint who planted the seeds of our nation. Our culture has been lulled into his heroic myth for hundreds of years and has celebrated this man with much pomp and circumstance. Columbus’ worthiness has been the subject of much controversy and is now being linked to such un-heroic terms as mass murder, holocaust, and genocide.
In America many people are given the day off from work on the second Monday of each October for the national holiday known as Columbus Day. This day is set aside to celebrate a “great” explorer who “discovered” America. The controversy over this particular holiday and whether or not Columbus is someone worth celebrating has intensified in recent years. Our nation should not have a holiday that honors the heinous acts of a man who is responsible for the abuse and annihilation of entire cultures of innocent people. Doing so not only sends a message of acceptance of his actions, but also condones the atrocities he committed. The main opposition against Columbus Day is the way in which the explorer treated the Indigenous People upon his arrival
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, who was sponsored by Spain in 1942. After taking four trips across the Atlantic Ocean and credited for opening up the opportunity for Europeans to colonize the Americas. Christopher Columbus was taught as an icon that found the “New World,” everyone praises Columbus as a legacy and glorifies him. Some viewed him as a monster, that mutilated and enslaved the natives. Was Columbus really the man everyone thinks of him as? Does Columbus deserve all of the recognition he receives? After this examination of the three sources, “Prayers of Columbus,” “Columbus,” and an analyzation of Columbus's Journal Entry from October 21, 1492, we will discover the true aspects of his character.