In October of 1492, Portuguese explorer Christopher Columbus landed by ship in the “New World” which is today known as the Americas. Many people believe the holiday that honors him annually in October has great meaning behind it. However, I believe Columbus day should not be celebrated. Christopher Columbus was not the first person ever to discover the Americas, he abused natives on their own land, and the holiday isn’t celebrated in the way it should be.
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.
Christopher Columbus is a Villain. On some accounts he can be a Hero. But on many other accounts he's a vicious Villain. Yes he discovered America ; Yes we have a holiday that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12, 1492. But here are some reasons to why he's a evil man.
There are many opinions about Columbus Day and whether we should celebrate it as a holiday. I believe the extent in which we should celebrate Columbus Day is just acknowledging him rather than dedicating a federal holiday to him. I would propose to celebrate “Indigenous People’s Day” or “Native Americans’ Day”. My opinion comes from his actual discovery of th New World and his actions after he settled in North America.
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.
The history of Christopher Columbus has been a shared piece of history in the education systems. American history books and majority of cultures portray Columbus as a hero. The United States of America honors Christopher with a holiday named Columbus Day, which occurs the second Monday in October. Also, historians divide Columbus’s history in a similar way as Jesus, example: before 1492 known as pre-Columbian. The school textbooks preserve Columbus with a positive life story and don’t include all the negative events that took place.
Regarding the question, “should Columbus Day be abolished as a national holiday,” I have done some research using the documents provided, and this may persuade you in some way. First of all, Columbus is recognized as the first European explorer to discover the American continent. Christopher Columbus was planning on sailing to the East Indies to find a water trade route, instead of using a land route, which would take much longer. On his journey, he ran into the American continent, and discovered many natives, which he then turned them into slaves, and treating them very cruelly. If one was unable to mine enough gold in three months, then his or her hand would be chopped off by one of his men. Columbus day should be abolished because he turned
Throughout many historical interpretations of the explorer, Christopher Columbus, many included his voyage of seeking for a new route from Europe to the land of the riches, Asia. Although Columbus never set foot in Asia, he had traveled west and discovered the New World, and led many influential impacts. From Columbus’s exploration, it created several questionings along with controversies, debating whether people should celebrate Columbus Day. Nevertheless, Columbus Day should not be a national holiday, because the honor presented by the holiday does not suit many of Columbus’s despicable actions. Columbus had received the wrong title for his journey, his discovery lead to massive amounts of murders, and his greed for valuables and fame was also part of Columbus’s
Have you ever met someone who is not who you thought they were? You should not trust just one source. Textbooks often show just one side of the story. New evidence proves that Christopher Columbus is not who he seems. Due to this information, Columbus Day should be changed.
Holidays around the world are celebrated to remember and commemorate certain times in history, and to keep those dates important. For quite some time, Columbus Day has been a questionable holiday. Some people say it should be a holiday because we are acknowledging the fact that he discovered the Americas. In contrast, others disagree because of the ways he treated the original inhabitants of the places he discovered. This paper will argue that Columbus Day should not be a holiday because he exploited, murdered, and enslaved many natives throughout his journeys.
The world has glorified many historical people especially early explorers. One such explorer is Christopher Columbus. Historians have discovered that perhaps Columbus Was given honor prematurely.
Bartolome de las Casas is used by Zinn for many of the sources of the cruelty against the natives, but even Zinn admits that "his figures are exaggerations"(). However, Zinn still puts Bartolome under much less criticism than Columbus even though the priest did his share in being cruel to natives; this was most likely because he wanted to make the point that Columbus should not be so heroized. Overall, the monarchy of Europe is truly to blame for sending the greediest men with orders only to extract wealth from the New World. Whether or not America should celebrate Columbus Day is a highly debatable topic, but it should not really be celebrated or called after a relatively cruel man. Columbus just happened to be in charge of the right ship with a gamble that turned out to make him extremely successful, but he did not have anything, besides good seamanship to make him any more exciting than the average
Some say Christopher Columbus was a hero because he was the explorer that discovered America. In reality, Christopher Columbus had an incredibly negative impact on the world because he enslaved the Native Americans, didn’t help the kind Natives when they got infected by diseases that the Spaniards had brought to America, and killed off most of the Native American population. The tactics he chose to use were violent and destructive by the standards back then and now.
Do you believe that we should celebrate Columbus Day as a national holiday? Do you believe he is a hero? or a Villain? Some people have different points of view when it comes to a question like this; sometimes, their opinion may reflect their religious beliefs or because of all the terrible acts against humanity in the New World. We also do have to remember that he did discover America; he started the Columbian Exchange,and brought many different values to this new world he just discovered. Even though I believe that he is a hero and we should celebrate him through a national holiday, I want to give you a chance to decide whether you think he is a hero or a Villain and choose if we should celebrate him as a national holiday.
In the two articles “Sail On” and “Should Columbus Have a Holiday” there are many similarities and differences. One similarity is that the two talk about how he discovered the Americas. Also, one difference is that one article talks about how he was the first man to discover the Americas, and the other talks about how someone else discovered them before him. There are many more similarities and differences but these are just a few.