Argumentative Essay On Christopher Columbus

     Throughout all of our years that we are taught about world history, we are led to believe that Columbus was one of the greatest explorers of all time. In my mind there is no question about whether Christopher Columbus discovered America; of course he did, its Columbus! However, this is a highly debated issue and through writings by authors Jeffery Hart and James W. Loewen we will investigate the true importance of Columbus.

The problem was that many people believed that the world was flat. Without knowing what was going to happen to him, Columbus went against the popular belief of his time and bravely set out with three ships and sailed out towards the horizon. Eventually he would reach land and open up an entire New World to Europe. Columbus, on his four voyages, explored all the islands of the Caribbean and Honduras. Columbus was a man ready and eager for adventure and discovery. Today we follow his example as we explore the universe, the ocean floors, and the microscopic world. Scientists, like Columbus, are always questioning popular beliefs and setting out to prove a new theory. Columbus is a hero for all scientists and explorers today. Columbus deserves to be recognized as an American hero on Columbus Day for inspiring all people to pursue courage, discovery, exploration, and adventure.

Columbus has always been portrayed as an enlightened, peaceful explorer who “discovered” a new world, and became friends with the native people. Howard Zinn’s view on Columbus’s encounter with the natives is an entirely different perspective. Zinn describes Columbus as a man who is willing to torture and kill others to be able to accomplish what he wants; in this case he wanted to obtain gold and other resources to take back with him to Spain.

    Greediness was the downfall of Columbus, making him a scoundrel. When the Spanish monarchs agreed to sponsoring the voyage, they made a deal with Columbus, in which both parties would benefit. If Columbus obtained gold and spices for the Spanish monarchs, he would obtain ten percent of the profits (“Columbus and the Indians” Zinn 2). In addition, he was egotistical and selfish. These qualities were illuminated when he interacted with his crew, specifically at the end of the voyage to the New World. While on the expedition, Rodrigo, a sailor, saw land and told the rest of the boat,

It was the 15th century, it was a quote unquote different century. They had many new forces and changes but that doesn’t justify what happened due to Christopher Columbus. In this i’m going to state why Columbus is a terrible person. He said Native Americans would make fine servants. With the fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever he wanted and or needed. Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but he isn’t as good of a person as we were taught. Until now some people just thought he was the guy we got the day off for. Once you learn what he’s done you realize he wasn’t just the reason we didn’t have school on a monday. He was the reason thousands of native

Throughout recorded human history, authors, leaders, and researchers, have documented the past from many different perspectives, and viewpoints. Not every historian has the same stance on a certain issue, therefore, differences in point of view occur in almost every writing. In the textbook The American Pageant, A People’s History of the United States by Larry Schweikart, and Michael Allen, and Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the reader can see many different perspectives throughout each reading. The infamous explorer known as Christopher Columbus, has been documented in many different ways. Depending on the reading, Columbus has be called everything from a “[...]symbol of the new age of hope”, to an inhuman tyrant who captured Indians and turned them into slaves.

After many centuries, a lot of controversy still surrounds Christopher Columbus. He remains to be a strange figure in history regarded as a famous explorer and a great mariner who made many discoveries in his days. Other people still regard him as a visionary and a national hero while others chose to remember him as a brutal and greedy person who used the rest of the humanity for his own selfish gains. Despite the fact that there have been protests in his being honored through a holiday referred to as the Columbus Day, he still deserves recognition and acknowledgement as a historical figure performed a great role in the making of the modern world.

After his voyage to San Salvador, he then made 3 other voyages to Cuba, The Bahamas, and Hispaniola. Although he was searching for unexplored land, he was also looking for gold which he was unsuccessful in finding. Also in his travels he planned on converting the Indians to Christianity. In Columbus’s entire life he never believed that he had found a new continent. His final voyage was to Jamaica which ended because of a ship wreck. When he was rescued, he was delusional and once he arrived back in Europe, he soon passed away.

For my compare and contrast paper I decide to write about Christopher Columbus because he is big in geography and his name is known throughout the world, and not only in the United States, and he did a lot in his lifetime. And I know every student will learn about him in schools. Christopher Columbus is mentioned in Davis’ book; however, I also decide to do my own research as well.

The second Monday in October is celebrated across America as Columbus Day. It is a celebration of the man who discovered America. In school, children are taught that Christopher Columbus was a national hero. In actuality, the man was a murderer. It is true that he found a land that was unknown to the "civilized" world, yet in this discovery, he erased the natives inhabiting the land. With slavery, warfare, and inhumane acts, Christopher Columbus and the men who accompanied him completely destroyed a people, a culture, and a land. These are not actions that should be heralded as heroic.

Christopher Columbus is known for being an explorer and is said to have made one of the most important voyages in world history without even wanting to. Something else that is also believed is that he “opened up” the Americas to European nations, which changed the course of American history. Before he went on his voyage though, he was in need of resources. So he asked Portugal, France, Italy among many other countries but they all denied Columbus and thought his statement was incorrect. Columbus’ statement was that he had found a faster way to get to Asia than the Portuguese had, which was going around the continent of Africa. Columbus lived a majority of his life in Spain, so when it came to setting sail for the west, Spain was one of the first nations he asked for funding. Though it took Columbus a little more than a few years to convince a nation to fund his voyage, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand from Spain subsequently granted to endow him in 1492. He would then leave for “Asia” on August 3, 1492. There are many unanswered questions and thoughts on why Spain decided to finally fund Columbus’ voyage, especially since he was an explorer that was born in Italy.

In grade school, we are taught that Christopher Columbus was the man who discovered America. Now that we are older, we have learned more in depth about him as a person and explorer. Not only did he set sail Westward in search of new findings, but that he would claim them as his own, eventually they would be inherited by his eldest son, and the generations after (Columbus, Journal, paragraph 1). Columbus did leave a legacy, nonetheless like every story, there are many obstacles that lay ahead.

Columbus decided that he should start converting Indians to Christianity on his third voyage. He also had his authority of governing taken away by the crown. So when he went to the colony the new governor arrest him and sent him back to Spain. Columbus had a fourth voyage. He was assigned the task of finding a sea route to Asia. He believed that with his new knowledge of the Indies, he could find the Asian continent. Columbus failed once again. All of Columbus’ documents show us that he failed at his tasks but brought Europeans to the Americas.

Although the feats of Columbus were significant and greatly beneficial to society, the question may be raised at this point on why the controversy surrounding Columbus even exists, seeing the substantial contributions Columbus made to society, both of then and now. The

Christopher Columbus’s life was filled with adventures and new beginnings that would leave a remarkable impression throughout history. Born in 1451 in Genoa, Columbus from an early age would become well acclimated to sailing as he began his career aboard a merchant ship and later study mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and navigation. Growing up and experiencing new thing Columbus began to come up with a plan different from all others to set sail across the Atlantic instead of going around the African continent. With his ideas being turned away from both Portugal and England it was Ferdinand and Isabella who took sympathy upon him and financial back his voyage as they both had hopes of gaining fame and fortune. In 1942, Columbus began his voyages and would carefully document each experience in the form of letters that would have a lasting impact on the world. I believe with the dramatic change in tones we see between the first and fourth letters it gives us the reader a true insight into Columbus’s mental and physical emotions over the years. Furthermore, these letters allow us to explore a part of history that is considered monumental while gaining information of what took place over a ten-year journey.