Essay About Columbus Day

Columbus Day, which is celebrated on the second Monday of October every year, is a federal holiday celebrating when Columbus arrived in the Americas on October 12, 1492. This year, Columbus day falls on October 10. For some people, it seems rather shocking that this is still a holiday. The reasons there is questioning about this being a Federal Holiday is because of Columbus’ questionable character traits, negative impacts on society, introduction of encomienda into modern day, and the fact that Columbus didn’t really discover America; he just brought it to light for the Europeans. For these reasons, Columbus is not a person worthy of a Federal Holiday and that, if there should be a holiday to replace it, we should have an Indigenous People’s

Many, rightfully, blame Columbus for introducing this system to Spain. As explained in Howard Zinn’s A People's’ History of The United States, Columbus had, boarded 500 indigenous Americans on his first voyage back to Spain, planning to use them all as slaves . The exaggerations of the America’s sent to Spain by Columbus also caused many more explorers to come to america, causing even more problems for the natives. Columbus may not have committed every awful act that happened to the people Indigenous to the Americas, but he was definitely a spearhead for Spain’s behavior, making him an unfit role model in American History, much less a man worthy of his own holiday. Columbus’ expeditions to the Americas have caused a few really negative impacts on Society today that are definitely not worthy of any sort of celebration. The first and most prevalent impact was the treatment of the native Americans. Then, there is the belief being expressed by many historians on websites such as Seeker.com that Columbus had brought Syphillis back to Europe, a disease still very much a concern even today. While finding America was a pretty big deal for Europe, it wasn’t really worth all the negative things that happened