Christopher Columbus determination to find a water route west from Europe to Asia influenced the Age of Exploration greatly. Especially King Henry VII who was eager to increase wealth for Europe. King Henry VII sent Columbus to discover a water route west from Europe to Asia. He also in 1496, issued letters patent to Cabot and his son, which authorized them to make a voyage of discovery and to return with goods for sale on the English market. He also encouraged Cabot’s second voyage.
According to the author Christopher Columbus enslaved the native Americans right after they peacefully and generously welcomed him and his crew. The writer states that after seven years of Christopher deal with the Spanish Royal family
In 1492 a man named Christopher Columbus was given the opportunity to find a new way to the kingdom of spice, India. He was given three boats by the Spanish king to sail west instead of east to get to India. Once he arrived although he thought he was in India he had actually arrived in the Caribbean. After this discovery of a new world to the west, many European countries set out to conquer this new land. This new world was inhabited by natives, and once the natives met the Europeans it was downhill.
For many years, people have debated over whether Christopher Columbus is a hero or a villain. Based on background research I have done, Columbus, to me, has proven to be a villain. Columbus forced the Indigenous people of America (Native Americans) to change their religion. He put them into slavery and abused them. They were also infected by the diseases that the Spaniards were immune to.
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.
I also learned that Columbus was both loved and hated when he was alive. He spread propaganda that he convinced himself was true. Throughout his life, both in Europe and the Americas, he overstepped his authority. In one case, he was “slap-happy” to enslave people. Although slavery was not entirely legal without cause, he enslaved people all too willingly.
Christopher Columbus’s historic travels from Spain to the Americas began the Columbian exchange. In 1451 the Italian native exited Spain and shored off to sea before entering an unknown destination, the Americas. Christopher Columbus was a navigator who explored the Americas under the flag of Spain. Columbus was an Italian explorer exploring the “New World”. Through his exploration, Columbus unintentionally facilitated the exchange of goods, ideas, people, and diseases between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
The European world made contact with the Americas and Africa in the relatively same time period. Christopher Columbus discovering America in 1492 and Portugal establishing a trade connection with Kongo in 1483 (Traditions and Encounters, 413 and 606). The two main similarities of their reasons for establishing a presence in the Americas and Africa were for trade and to spread Christianity. The main trade route during this time period connecting the eastern and western hemisphere was the Columbian exchange; named after Christopher Columbus's expedition. The goods received from the Americas included maize, potato, tomato, chocolate, peanut, pumpkin, squash, beans, tobacco, chilies, and avocados.
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.
With all of that being said, it is clear the Christopher Columbus’ discovery impacted to economic portion of “The New World”.
For Columbus, his attitude towards the natives in more ways than one, is leaning towards the idea of slavery. After they warm up to him, he sees from the way they are dressed and by the gifts they give him, that they are easily conquerable. He explains that, “after they have been reassured and have lost their fear, they are so guileless and so generous with all they possess” (29). This brings up the idea for Columbus to use them as slaves later on to get what he wants overall. His overall attitude comes to be the idea of power over the natives.
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
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. First, Columbus treated the Native Americans like uncivilized people by enslaving them and forcing them to work for him although they greeted him and his crew peacefully. ” They could make fine servants,”(document 2) he wrote in his journal,”I took them by force.
The day Christopher Columbus step foot in the Americas, he began to manipulate the natives he saw. While they saw him as a potential friend, Columbus saw them as fine slaves that could lead him to what he really wanted － gold. When he found out how naive and friendly they were being with him, he started to take advantage of that fact. He forced them to show him where the treasure was, for his own selfish reasons.
According to Loewen, few textbooks explained how Columbus was involved in the slavery and the exploitation of Indians. Another error that we have learned in schools about Columbus is that he was the first person to “discover” America. However, this is an error because people from other continents had already reached America before 1492. In fact, we forget
