Compare And Contrast Essay On Christopher Columbus

Dakota Black

9/1/17

Mrs. Eakin

Point of View on Christopher Columbus

When talking about history, almost everyone will agree that Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492, but much fewer people can agree on the kind of person he was. Some say that Christopher Columbus and other explorers were ruthless killers who organized the slaughter of millions of Native Americans, while others people believe that they were brave heroes who started colonizing the New World. Two articles that clearly show these two differing points of view are “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, which expresses that the explorers were greedy and cruel, and “A Patriot’s History of the United States” by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, a passage that shows that the explorers helped progress.

In the two articles, these opposing views are shown in a few ways. First of all, the Native Americans are portrayed as kind and innocent in the writing by Howard Zinn, where it describes how they helped Columbus when he first landed. This helps emphasize the point that the Natives were treated unfairly by the Europeans. However, in the article by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, the Aztecs are said to be violent and oppressive, and tells the story like the Spaniards were freeing the natives from the brutality of their leaders. The same article also casts

To begin with, both “A Patriot’s History of America” and a “People’s History of the United States” agree that some Native Americans were killed by Christopher Columbus and the other European explorers that came after. The two articles also admit that many studies disagree on the number of natives that were living in the Americas when Columbus arrived. The fact that the explorers were largely motivated to go to the Americas because of their search for gold and power was mentioned in multiple places in both