Colonial America Dbq Essay

Americans celebrate so many holidays and enjoy their days off without truly knowing the history behind the events leading up to the creation of these “sacred” days. Elementary school students all around America learn the rhyme “in 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean blue” and celebrate his “discovery” of America. Columbus Day has been celebrated for two hundred years. Although the American population does not know all the details about Columbus. He was a greedy person and essentially started slavery in the United States. People should not celebrate Columbus Day because Christopher Columbus is not the heroic and courageous man many believe him to be.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer who is well known for “discovering” North America. In reality Christopher was trying to get to China and thought he was in Japan all 4 times he went to North America. He was actually in what is now the Bahamas and Cuba. And really Christopher didn't even discover America. The Native Americans beat Columbus by thousands of years.

Seeking religious freedom, more land and more raw materials, the Pilgrims from England set on a voyage to a new world. Arriving to a land already inhabited by Native Americans, the pilgrims were unwelcomed. Overcoming the differences and finding peace between each group, the Natives helped the Englanders prosper. The inference people can assume is from the numerous times Native Americans are mentioned in early American history such as “Of Plymouth Plantation” and “The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations” that the foundation of America began with the help of Natives.

During the time period of which Columbus first set foot on the new world, peoples views on slavery were much different than ours today. They made exceptions to it as everyone owned slaves back them (Document 2). However, physical abuse and torture are no exception. Columbus has been exposed for his torture on the Taino tribe. Every three months Columbus demanded a hawk's bell of gold or 25 pounds of spun cotton from everyone over the age of fourteen. Those who could not come up with the sum would be “punished”. By “punishment” he means having their hands chopped off and being left to bleed (Document 3). Every sane person, even in that time period would know that amputating a person's hands is an inhumane punishment.

Although Christopher Columbus marked a turning point in history, he was not the hero he’s said to be. For one, he enslaved countless amounts of natives after his arrival in the “New World”. He believed they’d make good servants and put them to work finding gold for him. He also mutilated these enslaved people if they did not find enough gold for him. They were usually punished by the loss of a limb and, on occasion, by death. As if that was not enough, Christopher Columbus did all of this out of greed. Spain had agreed to let him keep 10 percent of what he found there--including precious items and materials (which must have seemed like a very good deal). While Christopher Columbus did connect the two hemispheres of our world, he left a line

“On the thirty-third day after leaving Cadiz I came into the Indian Sea, where I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them for our most fortunate King...no one making any resistance” this is part of the letter he wrote this means that when he discovered the Americas he found the natives and they all became friends article A backs this evidence up because they talk about how Columbus was happy to see Indians in the new land and how he was brave and cool but it wasn’t always like that.

We have been taught the same concept of the discovery of America for hundreds of years. Christopher Columbus discovered America and we celebrate Columbus Day every year to honor his bravery and strength, but every story has two sides. Native Americans who have been settled in the “New World” long before Columbus stumbled onto the land, aren’t given the recognition they deserve. While some praise Columbus for his discoveries, many are questioning if we have forgotten the importance of Native Americans and what part they played in the Christopher Columbus story.

On October 12, 1492, an Italian merchant by the name of Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the New World. With him he brought three ships and a small crew of Spaniards. After exploring other islands, Columbus came one that he called Hispaniola; here, they found seemingly primitive and naϊve natives that they immediately began to take advantage of. However, little did they know that this first meeting would bring exploration of South and Central America that would wreak havok among the Natives. Throughout the period of European Expansion, Natives were ripped from their home and forced to work day in and day out. Almost every single person from the New World, whether a slave or not, was seriously impacted by the spread of diseases.Furthermore,

Looking back at the interactions between Christopher Columbus and the Natives, in today’s time we could classify this as genocide. The actions of Columbus were outright nauseating. Authors often leave out all of the bloodshed that was a result of his brutal journey. Columbus nearly destroyed an entire population along with its culture, tradition, and religion. Columbus did anything in his power to find gold for personal gain and for the Queen and King destroying anything in his way.

Christopher Columbus found new land that Europeans had never seen before and started an age of exploration like no other, or so we thought. Columbus, a well-known sailor from Genoa, Italy, was almost always thought of to be a hero, but not everything Columbus did was all that great. A hero is someone who performs good deeds for the sake of others and not for their own benefit. He started a huge trading system where many new things such as horses, cattle, pigs, grains, citruses, and sugarcane were introduced to the Americas, and many things such as corn, potatoes, tobacco, cocoa, squash, and turkeys were brought back to Europe. After he found the Americas, there was massive colonization, and Europeans also learned new farming techniques. With

Christopher Columbus letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel explained how his goal was to deceive the Native Americans and take away their valuable resources like their land and edible goods. In the early parts of the letter he is telling the king and queen how he has been renaming the new island that he came encountered with. This already shows the mindset he had going in to the new land his goal was to completely conquer every piece of land and convert every person to Christianity. He first tries to become friends with the natives. Learning their culture and what they had to offer so it can be able to benefit him and the Divine Majesty. He tries to make it seem like he is doing gods will by taking the native people land away. He tried

Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety-two. When one hears the name Christopher Columbus, they tend to think about his discovery of America. What they don’t consider is how his discovery changed and affected America.

Evidence: “When resistance mounted a to the Spaniards’ violence, Columbus sent an armed force to ‘spread terror among the Indians to show them how strong and powerful the Christians were,’ according to the Spanish priest Bartolome de las Casas” (Huffington Post).

Hi everyone. I am Queen Isabella of Spain, and I would like to let everyone know that Columbus is innocent. Before you use preconception and jump to the conclusion that Columbus is guilty, think for a second: where are you standing in this moment? In America, and without Columbus, we wouldn’t have found America for hundreds of years or maybe not at all. Those people who are charging Columbus for crimes against humanity and the environment are mistaken. When I let Columbus go, I expected some spices and maybe gold. However, when he came back, he brought six foreign Indians, cages of multi-colored parrots, baskets of exotic plants, thread, and to my great happiness, gold. Obviously, Columbus was only trying to do good. He never intended to hurt

Soon after the arrival of an Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci in 1499, the Europeans quickly began making maps for their new project. They then began to send travelers to explore the new-found land. The British have had a monumental impact on our culture as we know it, in several ways. Most people would argue that the British were inhumane and forced their beliefs onto others, because they were known for claiming land and taking it as their own with no remorse. To some extent we can thank the British empire for showing what characteristics we do and do not want in the “New World”. The question is, was the British taking over and forcing characteristics on America truly a good thing or was it bad?