Christopher Columbus Be Taught Essay

Like any appreciated myth, the Columbus story blends truths and truthiness, something that appears to be so normal and clearly genuine, yet isn 't. Columbus faced restriction. He persevered. He sailed west. He found land (not Asia as he had anticipated and kept on accepting yet the New World). In any case, these truths have nothing to do with the state of the earth—Columbus and every one of his spoilers realized that the earth was round. The truthiness in the myth lies though, from one perspective, it demonstrates a one sided old-fashioned Spanish Church that clung to a backwards thought regarding the state of the earth and which failed to listen to reason and proof. Then again, truthiness likewise portrays Columbus as a semi mainstream mastermind guided just by reason and proof.

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.

In the book Zinn, The author gives a point of view of Christopher Columbus that is usually not given. Most of the time the story of Christopher Columbus is told from a historian point of view. They usually tell you of his mission, and of the three ships that he takes in order to find gold and other new riches. Zinn informs us that he is not the hero that, that we all think that he is. It shows us that he tortured, abused, and overwhelmingly embarrasses the Arwark Indians. The book also shows us that he was dishonest. It shows us this by him making all of these promises to the people if they support his journey. According to the article, Honoring Christopher Columbus, they believe even though he tortured Indians, that he should still be celebrated

1. Zinn had stated that many historians have so far heavily relied on biased views that are influenced by ideological choices on what to present and emphasize in portraying history. However Zinn is not to ‘accuse, judge, condemn Columbus’, but to question against the ‘easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress.’ In other words, Zinn is challenging the prevalent, stereotypical story telling of the American history by demoting the exaggerated heroism, and telling it from the victims and the lessor’s perspective.

Howard Zinn takes the perspective that Christopher Columbus is not the hero that many people perceive him to be. He views him as a cruel and greedy leader who went to the Americas causes death in his wake for his unquenchable search for gold. Columbus took advantage of the Native Americans because at first they were "so naive and so free with their possessions"() by forcing them to collect gold for him else face the punishment of death. While Columbus may or may have not been as heartless as he is made out to be, he is not truly the one to blame for the harsh treatment of the natives on the Caribbean Islands. Almost every other European (at that time) that could have been in his position would have undoubtedly done the same things as Columbus. Only those completely loyal to the kings/queens of Europe and with an undeniable quench for

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”.

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

Christopher Columbus is a man who is commonly depicted as a hero and great explorer who discovered our modern day America, but many of the so called “facts” are not all completely true as people would like to believe. Columbus was undoubtedly a courageous explorer who brought many new ideas, cultures, and resources to be exchanged between the New World and Europe. While this is true, it is not uncommon for people to forget the harmful effects brought along with the voyages made by Columbus and the darker details of his times in America.

Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain? Not everyone will agree on this topic because everyone has a different point of view in the way he discovered the New World. Most people would say that he is a hero. We celebrate each year on the second Monday of every October of when he discovered the New World.

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.

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.

In Loewens point of view the books omit important details for reasons of appraisal of a “hero like Columbus. He explains that its just easier to talk about Columbus as a hero, he already has the holiday and with the ideas of heroification under his name it’s easier to shape him as a hero and not reveal the true importance of his existence. Columbus’ story is misinterpreted and the truths are hidden not revealing the wrongs of his voyages in textbooks as made evident in the chapter. Faking stories is dominant in textbooks as Loewen explains and how he read 12 different versions in the books he so much refers to. Not only is Columbus praised upon but he is mentioned as the first man to discover the Americas which is untrue. And Loewen further states how textbooks minimize other expeditions and how those explores are no where near praised as much as Columbus. Rather textbooks, seem to act as if expeditions began in the 1400’s in Europe but they didn’t. As Loewen states, “Most textbooks make no use of primary sources. A few incorporate brief extracts that have been carefully selected or edited to reveal nothing unseemly of the Great Navigator.” (p.63). Not only did Columbus bring wealth to Europe through his works, colored people were oppressed and are unmentioned. Textbooks don 't reveal behind the prosperity and don 't mention these things because no one wants a “hero” to be a bad guy. For

Loewen argues, “The authors of history textbooks have taken us on a trip of their own, away from the facts of history, into the realm of myth.” As historical events regress further into the past, writers may misinterpret facts that they may have studied. A story of discovery and friendship or a tale of conquest, murder, and greed, which of these are Christopher Columbus’ true stories? I believe the best method to teach American high school students about Christopher Columbus’ story is through historiography because historiography teaches students to compare and distinguish different outlooks from different writers’ point of views instead of just remembering misinterpreted facts. Historiography would guide and force students to study and learn history through a diverse set of historians who focused on the same subject and come to different conclusions. Historiography sets a better stage for an understanding of a subject and opens up a boarder class discussion dialog.

One reason why i think we shouldn't celebrate columbus day is that him and his men enslaved many native inhabitants of the west indies and subjected them to them to extreme violence and brutality.The detail that i got is that columbus enacted policy of forced labor in which native were put to work for the sake of profits.He did a lot of bad things & he treated people wrong why would we celebrate somebody that treat everybody like they trash.According to the text on his first day in the new world ,he ordered six of the natives to be seized,writing in his

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).