America should not celebrate Columbus Day. With Christopher Columbus's interruption he came with hostility, false narrative and wrong celebration.
When Christopher Columbus sailed and took over he used hostility against the Indians in the caribbean by cutting their hands off, silenced them with wooden slats put over their tongues and killing indians in the caribbean within two generations. He did not contribute to any positive or important knowledge by doing so, none the less the results led up from here weren't pretty, he also treated his people very cruelly. Source one tells us some information that supports this claim “ Their chiefs were roasted on fires of greenwood. When their cries kept the Spaniards awake, they were silenced with
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wooden slats put over their tongues. Ten years after the first landing, the miserable native survivors started killing themselves by eating poisoned roots.
Yes, Christopher Columbus was the first European to sail America in recorded history. But Columbus set into motion a sequence of greed, cruelty, slavery and genocide that, even in the bloody history of mankind, has few parallels.” This paragraph concludes everything we would stand against as Americans, why should we celebrate this?
Another reason why Columbus Day shouldn't be celebrated is because of Christopher's false narrative. One of those was the discovery of America. Christopher Columbus took credit by saying he was the first to discover America which isn't true. Information that supports this is in Source four where it says “Estimates of the pre-Columbian population of these lands vary widely, but numbers proposed in recent years by authorities on New World demographics such as Henry Dobyns suggest some 145 million people lived in the hemisphere in 1492, with some 18 million of those north of Mexico. These estimates are cited by
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David Stannard in his book American Holocaust as well as by others. Stannard goes on to show that this 145 million figure is roughly equal to the estimated 142 populations of Europe, Russia and Africa put together . Clearly, the lands visited by columbus could not be said to be empty by any stretch of the immigration.” This proves that it wasn't a newly discovered land, which brings in the conversation of taking over someone else's land for their own benefit. The actual people who discovered and colonized these places were not given credit or honored the way we are honoring Christopher columbus through this holiday. Not only were these things lied about but also the theory about him proving the earth was round. Once again Source four gives us information on this. It says “Jeffrey Burton Russell, a professor emeritus at University of California-Santa Barbara and authority on the intellectual history of medieval Europe, has shown in his book Inventing the Flat Earth that educated Europeans of Columbus’ time did not believe the earth was flat. The few who did believe so, the ones routinely cited by modern historians to support the medieval flat earth idea, were the expectations rather than the rule, ridiculed by their peers.” In addition to his false narration and his hostility we should not celebrate this horrific holiday because it's generally celebrating mistreatment, stolen land and slavery.
In Source four it clearly states “Later Columbus set up a tribute system to get the gold he had been unable to find, forcing the people to bring him gold regularly. Those who failed to do so had their hands cut off. Columbus’ men hunter the people for sport and used the bodies for dog food. Soon forced to labor was added to the list as well, in a system which led the malnutrition and disease. The Native people of Haiti, where Columbus established a colony in 1493, were almost completely exterminated within one generation, due directly or indirectly to Columbus’ actions.” This clearly shows all the wrong deeds Christopher Columbus did. His actions were horrible and hurt many. Celebrating these “achievements” are wrong. He forced people to bring him gold regularly for his own benefit, and killed those who did not do so. Source one tells us also that he didn't even treat his own people fairly. How could we continue to support such wrong doings? He destroyed generations and stole gold from many places as a sign of his great achievements. He also colonized a place that already was founded and taken over by
others. His interruption includes many wrongdoings and wrong celebration with violence towards others, false theories about America and earth are some of the reasons why we should not celebrate Columbus day.
Ransby believes “Columbus 's image has been scrubbed clean and sanitized by many generations of American historians so that he can now be offered up as a sterling example of the glorious era of discovery.” (Ransby, 1992/2015, p.14). Objective evidence is also a major component in this article. Columbus’s journal proved he wanted to exploit, and enslave the Indians. A population of 300,000 dwindled to a mere one by 1540. (Ransby, 1992/2015, p.12). Many scene of rape, murder and beating were also described in journals of sailors that travelled with
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”.
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 can in no way, shape, or form should be considered a hero. A hero is someone who performs good deeds for the sake of others and not for their own benefit. Christopher Columbus did not do a single good deed in any of his four voyages in the late 1400's. 1492, proved to be a good year for Spain and Columbus , but it would become known as the year of hell for the Indians who occupied the land. Columbus and his crew basically enslaved a whole race of men, women, and children. The Natives were plagued by disease and forced into labor for the sole benefit of finding gold. How can one who is suppose to stand for such democracy assume the position of such a horrible dictator?
What he and his men did to the Indigenous people is told in horrifying detail by the Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas, “whose writings give the most thorough account of the Spanish-Indian encounter.” Las Casas witnessed firsthand Columbus’ soldiers stabbing Natives for sport, dashing babies’ heads on rocks, and sexually abusing Indigenous women. His testimony was corroborated by other eyewitnesses, such as a group of Dominican friars, who addressed the Spanish monarchy in 1519, hoping to bring an end to the atrocities. At the very least, Columbus was complicit in the actions of his men. He cared so little for the welfare of the Indigenous people that he let his soldiers commit reprehensible acts that would be considered crimes against humanity in the present day. Christopher Columbus’ actions suggest he had no issue with serving as an enabler of the horrifying actions committed by his men against the Indigenous
First, Columbus was a cruel man who enslaved, raped, and murdered the natives of the countries he sailed to. According to an article by John Margolis entitled "Goodbye Columbus", Columbus "oversaw the killings of some (Indians) and ordered the enslavement of others." Margolis goes on to say that Columbus did not prevent his crewmen from raping the innocent natives, and even that he himself raped an Indian women after beating her "with a piece of rope". If these actions do not constitute villainy, I don't know what does.
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
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.
One reason we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day is because he enslaved Natives to have them work. The text states,”The aim was clear: slaves and gold. They went from island to island in the Caribbean,capturing Indians,”(page 8
Other than what was taught in primary education I knew little of Christopher Columbus. I certainly did not know the truth. Educators and school board officials provided a faulty historical account of Christopher Columbus growing up. Most youth raised in America grew up with nursery rhymes and bedtime stories fictionalizing the heroic efforts and swash-buckling adventures of Columbus’ and men alike making their thievery and lack of concern for human life acceptable. All Americans including the Native and African Americans who were indirectly affected by Christopher Columbus via the slave trade and destruction of their people, observe Christopher Columbus Day. If this is so, why don’t we have a Hail Hitler Day? Hitler, though many see him as a terrible man, was simply doing what power hungry individuals have done for centuries. He simply took a page out of Christopher Columbus’ book destroying the weak and enslaving those left standing. In the case of Christopher Columbus quest for gold, he went to extreme measures to ensure he would get every last golden flake that glittered in Hai...
[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.
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
Even through all of the bad, Columbus day should still be a national holiday in America. As both a celebration of success and enlightenment, and as a reminder of the past. Many other people (including remaining Native American tribes) believe that the holiday either be changed or removed