Christopher Columbus: A National Hero

Some people say Christopher Columbus is the man who discovered America and is a hero. Others might say Columbus is a sadistic villain who destroyed the Native American people. There are valid points to each side of the argument for this and are good points. He went to America in 1492, not discovering it. Columbus became well known in America because of this and was made into a holiday. He has his own holiday because of America’s short history. In almost all cultures, they look up to an historical figure, except for America. Columbus had a huge impact in history according to Time who said that Columbus is #20 on the most significant figures. So why wouldn’t Columbus be looked at a hero? I believe, Christopher Columbus is a villainous figure

     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.

While trying to adapt Native Americans to European customs, Columbus and his followers took advantage of the Indians. The Spanish burned the Natives sacred objects and would not allow them to practice their own religions. They also abused the Natives, enslaving them, taking land from them, and raping their women. Because of the conquistadors quest for gold and other riches,

Columbus noticed that some of these Indians had little golden ornaments in their noses and ears, This made him take some of the Arawak Indians that they help prisoner onto the ship and insisted they guide him to where they were the source of the gold was, this had lead him to sail to what is now Cuba then to Hispaniola.# There bits of gold were visible in the rivers. Columbus and his crew built a fort and left thirty-nine crew members there to collect gold and store all they would find.

Him and his men went in groups to look for gold and round up any natives. They would take women and children then force them into being sex and labor slaves. In 1495 they went on a very large raid of the land and ended up putting 1500 men into captivity. Captivity as in they were put into cages like animals guarded by the spaniards and dogs. Of the 1500 they captured, the ones who they thought were the most healthy and fit were put on sale in Spain, but only 300 of them arrived. Only 300 arrived because on the way there 200 of the “best specimens” perished. Columbus still hadn’t lived up to his promises, so he had people search for copper. The “indians” who searched had to hang the copper they found around their necks, like a necklace. If they came back empty handed, you’d get your hands chopped off, and left to bleed out and die.

Christopher Columbus did not do a single good action in any of his four voyages in the late 1400's. Christopher Columbus was not the founder of the Americas we live in today because he did not discover it, even if he did there were already the natives who inhabited the land. It was just luck that he discovered the Americas, because he wasn’t even coming here, he got here because his ships went the wrong way and “Oh Surprise!” “We got something here to bring to Spain”

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.

Christopher Columbus is commonly known as the “discoverer” of the Americas. From a young age students are taught all the wonderful things he did for our land and how well he interacted with the Natives. Although the truth is disregarded and as students grow, they come to learn that Columbus was not a hero in fact. Columbus came close to causing a genocide of the Native Americans, and basically began the “white power” movement that America is forced to deal with today. The truth of what Christopher Columbus did makes him no better than Hitler, yet America still praises him as an important figure in our history. The actions of Columbus has impacted all Americans lives since the 1400’s when he first landed on American soil. Although it did make America into the super power it is today, the structure within the borders will never be equal because of his abuse of power back then. Christopher Columbus is not the hero American students are taught from a young age and does not deserve any of the praise or recognition that we as American citizens continue to give him on a daily basis.

It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory

To begin with, Christopher Columbus should be vilified for converting Native Americans to slaves. In the diary of Columbus, Columbus wrote about his intentions to turn Native Americans into “good and intelligent servants”. Columbus turned his intentions into a reality when he brought Native Americans to Europe as servants. As well as bringing slaves back to Spain, Columbus was an active involver in the slave trafficking network between America and Europe, thus becoming the “first slave trader in the Americas”. Slavery, the cruel practice that blighted the Americas for centuries, was heavily used by Columbus. By founding the American slave industry and kidnapping several slaves back home with him, Columbus showed that he did not value the Native Americans, as he treated them as objects rather than humans. If

Christopher Columbus, explorer for Spain, is he a hero or a villain? Columbus started a new age of exploration when he set sail in 1492. He asked many leaders if he could sail for them, but they said no and that they were happy with the way things were. He sailed west for the Indies, but found America instead. Columbus should not be judged by today’s standards, he is hero and should be treated as one.

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.

Whether viewed as a monster who destroyed ancient civilizations or a legendary figure who led society to where it is today, Christopher Columbus remains a greatly controversial historical center point as his impact on civilization then, and now, have sparked ongoing debates for centuries. But despite the greatly exaggerated slander against him, Columbus should be revered and celebrated as a hero for his contributions to societal development instead of hated for the blatant lies created by mainstream media in an effort to demonize an iconic historical figure in an attempt to push anti-western sentiment.

How things changed in a century! Political, religious, and social differences, far from vanishing, place Columbus today in the center of a world-wide cultural civil war. The great hero of the nineteenth century seems well on the way to becoming the great villain of the twenty-first. Columbus, it is now charged, far from being the pioneer of progress and enlightenment, was in fact the pioneer of oppression, racism, slavery, rape, theft, vandalism, extermination, and ecological desolation.

Adam Smith who was the author of “The Wealth of Nation” once expressed, “The discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind” (1776). But was Columbus really a hero? Well, it depends on your definition of the term “hero”. Do you consider someone a hero if they found a land already discovered by someone else and got the credit for it? Or if they murdered innocent people just to obtain gold? This is the kind of person, Columbus really was. Christopher Columbus was an Italian sailor who made his “base” in Portugal. He believed that he could reach the Indies by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. He asked the Kings of Portugal, England, France, and Spain, where he was turned down because everyone thought that his idea was absurd. Eventually, Spain decided to sponsor his voyage to the Indies. On August 3, 1492, he set sail with 3 ships: The Nina, The Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Consequently, on October 12, 1492, Columbus reached on a Caribbean Island and named it “San Salvador”. He then made 4 more voyages to Hispaniola, San Salvador, and various other Spanish colonies. On his 3rd voyage to the Americas, he got arrested by the Spanish crown. He then spent a majority of his life in prison and then after he got out, he went set out on his last voyage to the Americas. He eventually died on May 20, 1506. During his voyages, Columbus killed, enslaved, and