Christopher Columbus is a man who is known in society simultaneously as a hero and a villain of his time. What if the world had to pick only one, what would it be? Many new studies and scholars believe that Columbus was the villain of his story not a hero as past information would lead us to believe. Past documents were all written from the Europe’s point of view, this would lead to extremely biased documents because Europe was the side to profit unlike the Native
A heavily debated topic in this day and age is if Christopher Columbus was really a hero or a mass murderer. On one hand, he opened up access to the New World and created trade routes, on the other, he primarily unintentionally almost wiped out a population and abused Native Americans. I believe that Columbus was more of a hero than he was a villain because he had a normal mindset and goal for Spaniards during the time period, many things he is blamed for happened completely unintentionally or by accident, and Columbus wasn’t the only one who had servants and took Natives captive. Often when looking back into history, we unintentionally judge events, people, and actions based off of our current mindset, and Christopher Columbus was no exception.
When I was younger I was under the impression that Christopher Columbus was a great man and that he discovered America. We celebrate Columbus day because we honor him for “discovering America”. From this new information that I have learned today, Christopher Columbus is not the man iv have been taught about.
“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives.
Apparently, life was described as “nasty brutish and short with no written language and no division of labor.” Observing that, he decided to change all of this and teach the indigenous the ideas and the achievements of all the great thinkers and bring undreamed-of benefits. Even though Columbus did help them progress further than they were going to get, what is the point if because of his actions all the natives died and can not progress for another thousand years anyways. If he really was looking for the best for the natives and everyone one in this world he would have made sure they had a good way to fight disease and a better system in handling the natives that would not result in the female natives to want to kill there
Colonial America laid the foundation for the complicated country we call the United States. Historians debate many questions about that critical time period before the thirteen colonies declared and won independence from Great Britain. One of the most interesting questions is: What was the most significant major event preceding the founding of the nation? There is no ‘correct’ answer to this question. There are many possible responses, but the facts show that some arguments are stronger than others.
He would seize First Nations from the Caribbean and ship them back to Spain as slaves. He also committed the mass murder of local tribes, regardless if they were woman, men, or even small children. He spared absolutely no one. Despite the First Nations efforts to co-exist, Columbus’ main objective was to acquire gold and other valuable resources to take back to Spain. This created conflict between the Europeans and the First Nations, and suddenly Aboriginals found themselves being imported to foreign countries, competing for food, and their homes being
If you think Columbus should not be prosecuted, think again. Columbus is not the awe-inspiring explorer he perceives to be. He has committed abounding amounts of crimes against humanity in which are shameful. Christopher Columbus has cruelly tortured, annihilated, and harshly killed many innocent Taino people. Christopher Columbus mistreated and tortured most, if not all of the Taino people.
Have you ever thought about the origins of our holidays? Columbus day in particular has recently been controversial. Maybe the textbook version isn’t the same as the truth. The truth about Christopher Columbus provides evidence that Columbus day should be abolished. First off, he didn’t even care about any of the Native Americans.
The truth is that Columbus did not travel purely to discover new land, he traveled with the motive to find gold and along the way caused a mass genocide of the indigenous people. Loewen’s approach on this issue is primarily focused on the American history textbooks. The textbooks left out the vulgar details of how Columbus discovered America, all creating an image that he is a “hero.” Loewen claims, “Textbooks want to magnify Columbus as a great hero, a ‘man of vision, energy, resourcefulness, and courage,” (59). How is it that
In the end Columbus was very cruel to the Natives and claimed
In my opinion I feel as if the backlash occurred because of the prior events that the Native American population has encountered, they did not agree with Christopher Columbus because they were in a sense comfortable in their trades, survival, and land that they worked hard for. With that being said, the Indians have a negative view of Christopher Columbus and do not see the good in what he was doing. I am a celebrator of Columbus as I have also been taught in school of how courageous he was despite the hardships that were going on in the world at this time. However, until I read up on this I did not realize that Christopher Columbus in a sense invaded the Native Americans land I believe Christopher Columbus open the doors to many things through
Columbus believed these people were easy to manipulate and take control over therefore, that's what he did. Although, he was told to treat these people with kindness he did the complete opposite expecting there to be no cause. He treated them horribly with brutality and severe violence. He even noted in one of his journals that the natives looked like they'd be good servants. Columbus also put natives to work for profits.
Many people, in today’s society, do not agree on the image of Christopher Columbus, or what this Holiday is portrayed to be. Some say he was a savage, and he should not be celebrated. People boycott the Holiday, and say he enslaved, killed, and tortured Native Americans for their lands and riches. Others believe he was a brave and honorable explorer, who set out on a voyage in search of A “New World”. Who is right?
Therefore, many are surprised to learn who Columbus was and the cruelties of his actions and his pursuits. Columbus Day is meant to be a day celebrating our country’s origin, however not only did Christopher Columbus not discover America, but he didn’t provide any new or useful information to European explorers of the time. The one thing he did do, though, was promoting terrorism and genocide, which even to this day has had an impact on Americans. In other words,