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
In the first document, Columbus on the Indians’ Discovery of the Spanish, 1492 discussed views that Zinn may agree with. It talks about the Indians sharing and exchanging items with the Europeans in which Columbus found fascinating. The second document supported Johnson’s perspective because it mention that the Europeans wanted to take over and they wanted to convert these people to Christianity. Additionally the Europeans wanted to impose their beliefs and punished the Indians for their beliefs. This document definitely supported Johnson’s views of the Europeans which is to conquer and rule over other nations
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
Many people when they were younger, including myself, were taught that Columbus is a hero and an amazing person who discover the New World. We were all told that Columbus’s purpose for sailing thousands of miles across the Atlantic was to come here in search of undiscovered land. Columbus DID want land but he was expecting to get that land from
Colonial America laid the foundation for the complicated country we call the United States. Historians debate many questions about that critical time period before the thirteen colonies declared and won independence from Great Britain. One of the most interesting questions is: What was the most significant major event preceding the founding of the nation? There is no ‘correct’ answer to this question. There are many possible responses, but the facts show that some arguments are stronger than others.
He authored a four-book biography of Columbus and portrayed him as a brave American hero. “Columbus was a man of great and inventive genius. His ambition was lofty and noble, inspiring him with high thoughts and an anxiety to distinguish himself by great achievements. His conduct was characterized by the grandeur of his views and the magnanimity [nobility] of his spirit.” Instead of writing, that Columbus was devastating to the newly found nation and that he sought to take over, cultivate and civilize the Natives.
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.
So while his actual story is presented and accepted as fact, details about his personality and treatment of Indians are not. It may be that the men with Christopher created lies to make him look bad on purpose as well, therefore there is no way to know what really
Is Christopher Columbus Worth Honoring 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.
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
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. One reason why I think we should not celebrate Columbus day to the extent of a federal holiday is because of the thinking that Columbus was the one who discovered North America.
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.
Instead of finding the Indies he finds the “New World” and creates a settlement of his own and starts to do terrible things. This can be taken as Christopher Columbus being greedy and self righteous than being an explorer for Spain. Christopher Columbus should be considered as a pirate instead of an explorer. Christopher is more of a pirate than explorer is that he became the ruler of the new land he found and was very unfair to the natives and his people.
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.
Argumentative Essay Outline I. Claim: Celebration of Columbus Day should be abolished due to Columbus’ harsh treatment toward the Native Americans and fallacies in his exploration. II. Sub-Claims: A) Reason: Columbus’ exploration was not meant to discover America but to conquer and exploit existed American civilizations.
“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives.