Christopher Columbus is a widely disputed character in American history. He is most often taught as being the hero, and orchestrating the discovery of the world that we live in today. However many people have disagreed with that because, while he discovered the New World, Columbus is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Native Americans. In A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn writes from a Native American point of view, having a very negative opinion of Columbus. In fact, Zinn has a very low opinion of all early European settlers in the New World, as well as Columbus. As seen in the text, “In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where [Columbus] and his men imagine huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen …show more content…
Zinn does recognizes that Columbus did progress European life, and without him our world today would be very different. But he says that history is incomplete without every part of it being told, and leaving out the horrors that Christopher Columbus committed is just ignorant. I think that Zinn’s main objective in writing about history, is to tell the story from the point of view that it isn’t usually told from. For example, telling the story of Columbus from a Native American point of view, or the Spanish-American war as seen by Cubans. He believes that the majority of Americans have one point of view on certain subjects, and his goal is to get them to see the point of view that isn’t American. The textbook is simply trying to teach people that without Christopher Columbus, they would live in a very different world. They focus more on the fact that Columbus explored, and found and colonized new lands that had never been seen by Europeans before. He began American colonization, which would completely change Europe and the future of the world. Textbook’s tend to skip over the fact that while doing this, Columbus committed atrocities on the Native
Christopher Columbus was a European explorer who a more fitting title would be a conqueror. He didn't discover anything as the common believe would say, rather he conquered already inhabited land. Christopher Columbus "exploration" had a bunch of direct and indirect effects. The exploration sponsored by the King and Queen of Spain had direct effects such as giving Spain control over new land and giving Christopher Columbus the fame he so desired, furthermore the so-called exploration also had some indirect effects such as allowing other nations to sail West and it also affected the Natives and increased the slave trade.
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.
Christopher Columbus was a cruel, delusional, and self-centered man who does not deserve high praises for the discovery of America.
Zinn first refers to the author Morrison and how he deals with who Columbus really was. Instead of “[lying] outright about the past” or “[omitting] facts, which might lead to unacceptable conclusions,” Morrison tells the truth about Columbus’ murders, and even calls it genocide. According to Zinn, Morrison “does something else. He mentions the truth quickly and goes on to other things more important to him.” Zinn believes that Morrison’s choice to do this meant that he was telling his readers, “yes, mass murder took place, but it’s not that important – it should weigh very little in our final judgments; it should affect very little what we do in the world.” Zinn is right. Too many history books either don’t mention or glaze over Columbus’ actions, and simply lead the readers to believe that he was a hero who found America. Even in his own journal entries, it is clear that Columbus wanted to exploit the natives for his own benefit, and never wanted to try and work with them. He says, “They should be good and intelligent servants.” “With 50 men all of them could be held in subjection and can be made to do whatever one might wish.” He took some Indians back as slaves, and was brutal when he went to war with th...
In some respects, we can attribute the founding of America and all its subsequent impacts to Christopher Columbus. Columbus a hero in the United States, has his own holiday and we view as the one who paved the way for America to be colonized. However, people tend to forget the other side of Columbus, the side that lusted after gold and resources that often belonged to the native inhabitants he came across in his exploration. In his insatiable greed, he and his crew committed countless atrocities, such as torture and killing of defenseless natives. Columbus’s discovery of these new lands contributes profound and negative effects as future colonists arrived. “Zinn estimates that perhaps 3 million people perished in the Caribbean alone from raids, forced labor and disease” (Zinn, 1980). Columbus was seen as a cruel man, who saw the peaceful inhabitants as right for the conquering and lead to the devastation of the native population, yet is celebrated every October.
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.
I didn?t know much about Columbus, but when it was taught to us as a class, which was rarely, the lessons were brief and covered only the ?positive? things that he did. That is, from the eyes of those who believe Columbus was a noble man. It wasn?t until 6th grade when my teacher showed my class the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen that we opened our eyes and saw reality. We had been deceived. Deceived by videos. Deceived by books. Deceived by teachers. But at least it felt good to know the truth-finally.
3. In traditional history books Columbus is often portrayed as the hero who discovered new land. These books do not mention the massacres of the Indians that took place, and if they do, they only say so briefly, and focus on all the positive about Columbus.
Zinn believes that Columbus's voyage to the Americas was one fueled by the idea of wealth and power and upon his arrival other evils such as the idea of slavery, exploitation, and murder penetrated his heart. Armed with Columbus's journals and Bartolome Las Casas's texts Zinn proves the cruelty that possessed Columbus, Zinn quotes Columbus's journal which states "They would make fine servants...With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." Zinn believes that Columbus's life and actions have been ridiculously romanticized and that America has been celebrating the life of a mass murderer comparable to Hitler and Stalin. He states that historians have been telling the sweet little tale about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 but have been ignoring the true nature of this supposed Christian man. "He does not omit the story of mass murder..." says Zinn on Morrison ."..on one page, buried halfway into the telling of a grand romance... He mentions the truth (about Columbus committing genocide) quickly and goes on to other things more important to him." In other words, Morison tells the truth but then conceals it, in order to provide a faux placidity that diverts the reader from the horrid reality of Columbus's actions .
... of the United States of America. Although many people believe that the only things Columbus brought to this already complex world were death and destruction, he also brought the growing civilization of the Europeans. Before Columbus set foot in the Americas, it was meagerly inhabited, and most of its residents were wandering nomads, who travel from place to place. In addition, there was almost no technology and the society of the Americas had stopped developing for a thousand years. With Columbus came the technology and society of Western Europe, which was the predecessor of the now United States, a safety valve for people looking for a new start. Furthermore, history is all about the shifting of power from the once strong to the now strong. What Columbus killed and destroyed might have been good, advanced, and complex, what emerged from that was eventually the best.
In the Zinn reading, we need to think a lot about empathy and moral judgements. Columbus did many things that would not deem acceptable today, and although it should not have been accepted in the past, it was more socially acceptable than it would be in today’s time. This made it easier for such a tragic event, the slavery and extinction of the Arawak people, to happen at that point time. I think that Columbus had historical agency; he had great ideas and extreme motivation to accomplish them. Even though he misidentified the Indies and lead the movement that lead to the death of all Arawaks, he did make a significant impact on history. We also have to think about progress and decline. Clearly slavery and extinction of a group of people is a negative outcome of this historical event, but there was some progress too. The idea Columbus had to sail around the tip of Africa, and then attempting to execute that plan is progress. The way they began using the land around them and searching for cold is progress as well. So, even though this seems to be an extremely negative
(Debate.org). Columbus was not the very first person to find the New World, but he is the first person to explore it and tell other people about it. He opened another whole part of the world to not only his people but the people living in other places on the world, and at the time, it was a big deal and it still is. Without Columbus the American history would not have been possible without him. (Debate.org). This is why we have Columbus day, is to reward him for what he found and how he created our history, and possibly without him, nothing would be the same. Some people say it would be a few centuries before America would be found, or it wouldn't have been found at all. He reunited the human history (Debate.org). Debate.org said "He did something that everyone thought that was impossible - to cross the Atlantic". Before this was found, the Europeans believed there were only three continents and one ocean: Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean. With his explorations, he proved them wrong and showed that there was much more land than they
I think Christopher Columbus transformed the world in a good way. From reading the article, “The Debate Over Columbus,” I gathered a lot of information that helped me come to that conclusion. As I read through the article, many different points of views on the matter of Columbus was shown. Each person brought up a unique perspective of whether or not Columbus should be celebrated. They discussed things like his personality, how important Columbus is to them and other people, and how he can remind us of different things, either historic crimes or reminding us that the past is messy. Each side had a strong argument, but I agree with Columbus transforming the world in a good way.
Elementary textbooks depict him as a hero with pictures of Columbus looking high and mighty among the Indigenous People. A hero is defined as a person who is admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities, but in reality Columbus was anything but a hero. During Columbus's voyage to the New world, he transferred goods such as animals, technology, and even culture between the New World and Europe, this was known as the Columbian Exchange. In Michael S. Berliner article The Christopher Columbus Controversy he states that Columbus should be honored for bringing Western Culture into the New World and that the Columbian exchange had “brought enormous undreamed of benefits”(Berliner), but one of the biggest exchanges between Eeurope and the Nnew Wworld was slaves. Columbus had never even set foot on North America, he had landed in the Bahamas, the home to millions of natives who had already created a civilization of their own. Upon his arrival, Columbus saw the Indigenous People as tools he could use in order to build his empire and make a profit., Hhe uttered the menacing words “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I please."(qtd in Loewen). One of the first atrocities that Columbus committed against the Indigenous People was opening the Atlantic Slave Trade, in which hundreds of Indians were
As I grew up, other historical facts started to tarnish the pristine image of Columbus. Leif Erickson of the Vikings was actually the first known European to see the shores of the Americas. In the fifteen hundreds, educated persons and seafarers commonly knew the world was round, as the curvature of the Earth could be seen on the ocean horizon. The merchandise he traded was slaves from Africa. Furthermore, millions of indigenous peoples had been flourishing for tens of thousands of years on the new continent. I don't think that they would say Columbus discovered the shores that they walked on everyday. If fact, they probably would have a few very choice comments about Columbus and his `discoveries.'