Columbus Day Abolished

The explorer who supposedly discovered America, Christopher Columbus, was also the one to cause the destruction of the Native Americans residing in the ‘New World’. For this embellished act of exploration, there is a holiday, Columbus Day, held in honor for his infamous exploration. Columbus Day should be abolished from being a national holiday because of the fact that after he set reign over America under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand populations of the Indians in Haiti decreased rapidly from 8,000,000 to 12,000 Native Americans remaining. “Estimates of Haiti's pre-Columbian population range as high as 8,000,000 people. When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, he left his brother Bartholomew in charge of the island. Bartholomew took

a census of Indian adults in 1496 and came up with 1,100,000. By 1516, thanks to the sinister Indian slave trade and labor policies initiated by Columbus, only some 12,000 remained,” (Loewen, 3).
Logically speaking, Columbus is more of a villain than he is a hero; a villain in the sense that he enslaved and punished Indians dwelling in America long before he’d arrived, and hero for being a brilliant sailor helping the world discover new land. Though discovery of land helps today become what it is, the world loses an important race of people. This situation supports what Hiromu Arakawa mentions in his Fullmetal Alchemist and how it turns out to be true, “Humankind cannot gain something without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost,” (Arakawa, Vol 1). Applying Arakawa’s theory, the world gained a known land in exchange for a demise of millions.
A man comes into your house, robs you of your possessions, kills your family, demands money, and enslaves you after claiming that your house is now his. Put the Native Americans in dispense of you and your family and the Spaniards in place of the sole man that caused irreversible damage and you have what happened in 1492. By celebrating Columbus Day, you’re supporting the cruelties done to the Indians. Although, this isn’t the fault of this generation, it’s of the schools since they don’t teach why Columbus went to explore the seas. “Yet only one of the twelve textbooks, The American Pageant, mentions the extermination. None mentions Columbus's role in it. Columbus not only sent the first slaves across the Atlantic, he probably sent more slaves-about five thousand-than any other individual,” (Loewen, 3). His motives were simply to find land with people and wealth in order to acquire glory. After he’d found America, originally what he’d thought was India, Columbus reported back to the King and Queen of Spain to be granted permission for his intrusion in enslaving Indians. What some may ponder is, why would Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agree to the carnage of the Indians? They didn’t, because of the fact that they only sponsored his voyage in return to spread Christianity to the mass of people found in the New World. Never did they interpret to kill the uncooperative Indians or torture them.
One of Columbus’ goals was to spread Christianity throughout his explorations, but Bartolome de Las Casas was more indebted to religion and in a way a kinder person.

“Las Casas traveled to Spain and harangued the government. In his books and articles, he demanded that the Spaniards return Indian land and end forced labor. By the end of his life, he also proclaimed a revolutionary idea: the equality of all human races,” (“The Washington Post” Gibbin). Bartolome believed in equality and in the vicinity of Columbus, he should have been the real hero. Not only did Columbus enslave Native Americans, as he punished them by cutting parts of their body off, he like every other Spaniard kept the Indians as slaves expecting taxes of gold every three months. “Whenever an Indian delivered his tribute, he was to receive a brass or copper token which he must wear about his neck as proof that he had made his payment. Any Indian found without such a token was to be punished. With a fresh token, an Indian was safe for three months, much of which time would be devoted to collecting more gold,” (Loewen, 2). But to think about it, the Spaniards expected so much from the Native Americans but the Natives didn’t even expect the Spaniards to hurt them. “All the Indians of all the Indies never once did aught hurt or wrong to Christians, but rather held them to be descended from heaven, from the sky, until many times they or their neighbors received from the Christians many acts of wrongful harm,

theft, murder, violence, and vexation,” (“The Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies”, Casas). So it’s proven that Native Americans treated Columbus and his sailors with such benevolence. It’s sad to say that it went to waste, as the Spaniards took advantage of their kindheartedness betraying them at every turn to gain their land and wealth.
Christopher Columbus, a great sailor, the reason for mass genocide, and disruption to a whole race shouldn’t have a national holiday held in honor for his ‘discovery’ of America.

To prove a point without the astrolabe, compass, and maps created by other explorers, Columbus wouldn’t have been able to find America. Although many of the deaths of the Native Americans were caused by illnesses, such like small pox, tuberculosis, and typhus you can still blame Columbus. If Columbus’s greed for glory and slaves didn’t exist, then the punitive ways of the Spaniards, the murders and the loss of many Native American religions and cultures wouldn’t occur. Why support a man who exterminated many for sheer selfishness? Exactly, you don’t. Therefore, the aforementioned explorer shouldn’t have a national holiday honoring

him.