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Impact of christopher columbus on countries
Impact of christopher columbus on countries
Christopher columbus: the discovery essay
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Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. He is known for discovering the ‘New World’ or what we now know as America . Although he changed the world, he might not be the hero one would think of. The author of “Sail On!” thinks of him as a ‘brave’ hero who changed the world. However, the author of “Columbus Doesn’t Deserve A Holiday” thinks of him as a ‘great evil’ or even a ‘murderer’. Between these two articles Columbus had the same goal and achieved it, but does Columbus deserve to be honored? Both articles say he changed the world for better, or worst. By discovering the ‘New World’ they found new areas where they could settle down. He sailed all the way from Spain to America, and even when the crew members aboard said to turn …show more content…
back Columbus kept on moving forward. No matter what story Columbus, revealed America and the native people living there. He discovered the New World we now all live in, even if some bads things happened in the process. However, Columbus isn’t exactly the good guy or hero one might would think of.
While discovering the New World he brought smallpox with them that wiped out most of the native people living there. Although, Columbus did never mean to do that intentionally, he did basically kill hundreds of people. In the article “Columbus Doesn’t Deserve a Holiday” the author says “Within 70 years of his arrival, of the hundreds of thousands of Arawak Indians on the Bahama Islands only hundreds remained.” Even with the small number of native’s left after the smallpox, Columbus brought them back and put them on sale. They started with 500 native’s, but 200 died on the way there. Not only did Columbus kill hundreds, he also destroyed a natural, peaceful place. He just took people out of there land and called it his. After reading this one might not believe Columbus is the hero we all think of. Although, Columbus may have done some bad things to America, he helped England, Spain, and all people to this day. When he discovered America he made it known, allowing people to travel there and begin a new life. Lots of countries honor Columbus, especially Spain. For his discovery we wouldn’t be where we are now, we might have still believed the world was flat. From the author of “Sail On!” he says “Columbus’ voyage made America known to the people of Europe. This truly changed the world. It is why Columbus is honored.”He will be honored for the good things we don’t need to ponder on the
bad. For what he did to the native people, he is still the pioneer who discovered the New World. Without him one would never know America existed. Even though he kill hundreds, we wouldn’t be here without him the past is the past we can’t change it. Is Columbus the hero everyone knows?
Columbus’s “intentions were far from selfless.” (Myint, 2015, Para. 5). The greed was immense as Columbus believed in the entitlement of ten percent of all the treasures that were plundered. Nothing was shared with the crew. Natives were also mutilated and enslaved. If the natives did no collect enough money they lost limbs, some also lost their lives. A hero would not hurt innocent people trying to survive.
Although Columbus was increasing the wealth and strength of Spain, he was “a catastrophe for the indigenous inhabitants of the lands” (Belasco 67). He had no remorse for the natives as he proceeded to establish plantations, enslave them, slaughter them, and create a new colony called Espanola on their lands. According to Schuman, Howard, Barry Schwartz, and Hannah d’Arcy, Christopher Columbus “deserves condemnation for having brought slavery, disease, and death...
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”.
Christopher Columbus was a man who much credit was given to for a very small deed. In fact he discovered a new world, but that world was only new to him and the men of his previous generations. What about the many Native Americans whose fathers and father’s fathers shed their blood for the land in which they had lived for so many years. How could one such as Christopher Columbus who was looking for freedom and hope cause so much bondage and destruction? One man’s victory turned out to be devastation for millions.
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.
Christopher Columbus is a mythical hero or in other words, not a true hero. The story of Christopher Columbus is part of the many myths of Western civilization. Also the story of Christopher Columbus represents the power of those that are privileged and in most cases white European men that have written this mythical history. Zinn (2009 exposes the truth about Columbus through eyes of the people who were there when he had arrived which were the Native Indians (p.481). Columbus had kept a personal journal for his voyage to describe the people and the journey. What was evident throughout his journal was the Native Americans were very nice, gentle and kind hearted people (Zinn, 2009, 481). As Zinn suggests Columbus spoke of the Native Americans as” they are the best people in the world and
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 has profound and negative effects as future colonists arrive. “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 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.
The text states,” ...diseases also were apparently exchanged. The Europeans brought a host of infectious maladies unknown in the New World, the most damaging of which was smallpox...contracted by Columbus’s crew members” (The Legacy of Christopher Columbus). This quote made me start actually know that Columbus Day should not be celebrated even more.I think this because the disease’s he spreaded were just so bad and had killed so many Natives.The small pox just made it even worse as it affected the most Natives and people. Smallpox is now extremely rare but it spread so quickly when Columbus was around and that’s why it’s so deadly. Columbus also brought measles to America. “ ... native Taino population (an indigenous Arawak people) had no immunity to new infectious diseases, including smallpox, measles…”(OMRF).Wow measles is another awful fatal disease.Why celebrate a man who spread basically death(at least
Christopher Columbus, was he a hero, or villain? For about 500 years, people have praised him and celebrated his life as though he was someone who did good for us. Schools teach students that Columbus was a great man, found gold and pearls, and discovered new lands. Students are even taught the names of Christopher Columbus' three ships he used on his first voyage. However, they grow up not knowing the truth about Christopher Columbus, what he really did to 'accomplish' his tasks. I simply believe that schools should show both sides of Columbus' story, so that students can be aware of the facts behind the 'discovery' of Early America.
“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 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. This is the phrase that most elementary school children learn when they are taught about the discovery of the Americas. Most people look fondly on Christopher Columbus since he traveled to the unknown and started the colonization of America that lead to the North and South America that we know today. Christopher Columbus is not a hero, however, since he was not the one to discover the Americas and because of his cruel treatment of the Native Americans.
The actions he is taking prove to have an impact on his ventures. For example, from the first voyage it can be safely assumed that Columbus had little regard for the well-being of the natives, nor did he treat them as humans. This can be seen in the account from the Italian lieutenant, in which it is stated that the Admiral gave a native woman to him [the lieutenant] for his own pleasures, and when she did not cooperate, he whipped her until they came to terms and she performed like “she had been brought up in a school for whores” (Italian lieutenant, 139). This is not the only account where mistreatment of the Indians is written or implied. When Columbus took rest because of his illness and Pedro Margarit revolted then left the island, every Spaniard went out and robbed the Indians and took their wives if they pleased (Hernando Colon, 187). As a result, the natives retaliated and killed ten Christians as well as ordered the firing of a house that contained four ill men. The caciques and the native people were angry with the Christians for their actions while the Admiral was at rest, and when he returned the caciques were punished, but Columbus had already lost so many of his men. The deaths of the Christians caused for more violence from the Spaniards and led to their conquest of the people of other islands, which only brewed more animosity between the Natives and the Christians. Again, the actions of Columbus were laying the ground for his