Christopher Columbus: A True Hero

     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.

School taught us about the infamous Christopher Columbus who was known as the hero who found the Americas in 1492, but is that the truth? Is Columbus really the hero that grade school portrayed him to be? Columbus was not. Columbus was a greedy man who destroyed an entire race of people with genocide just so only he could benefit and become a man of money and power.

Christopher Columbus- A merchant 's clerk from the Italian city of Genoa, a part-time fabric weaver inherited from parents, and expert sailor who discovered the Americas.

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.

What do you think about Christopher Columbus? He was rumored to have proven the earth was round, and against all odds "found” America. However that was all a rumor you are told as a child. If you really read the books you will see the real picture. However, there are still authors that believe this myth.

Columbus 'accidently' discovered the New World, although, there were several who came before him. His discovery ultimately resulted in life as we know it today. However, in my opinion, he was not a hero, but a villain who removed the Natives from their home and infected them with diseases of which they had no immunity against. Although Columbus' voyage to the Americas eventually paved the way for the establishment of the New World, it came with a price. Unfortunately, the Natives were the victims of it all.

It is said that Christopher Columbus discovered America, and he is portrayed as a hero for doing so, but he isn't a hero. Columbus caused entire tribes to be wiped out, his journey took longer than he expected, and he took away the Native Americans beliefs.

Everyone knows the saying Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. However, there is a lot more to Christopher Columbus than what everyone was taught in elementary school through high school. Columbus is thought to be a hero, but just being classified as a hero is a fallacy. Several works including Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies and The Lies my Teacher Told Me have been published about the real Christopher Columbus and his legacy.

Before we can truly label Columbus as a hero or evil, we must first define what is viewed as a hero. Many dictionary definitions exist having the meaning of a hero as one with courageous or noble qualities but seeing as these definitions are extremely objective, the definition of a hero I will be using for the purpose of defining Columbus will be, quoting Joseph Campbell, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Christopher Columbus clearly demonstrated giving and self sacrifice in his investments of time and risking his life for his voyages with “commercial expeditions resembling warlike cruises” and at some points in his travels being away from home for 29 months. The rewards that Columbus, along with the rest of Europe, reaped from his efforts include the new access to vast expanses of resourceful land, as well as the eventually successful, even flourishing, colonization of America, not to mention, that Columbus, “[the] founding figure of a new world” laid the framework to modern day globalization as well as played a key role in the creation of one of the most significant, powerful, and impactful nations existing today. The fact that Columbus grew up in poor conditions and being completely self taught in the art of navigation and seafaring only adds to the magnitude of his immense accomplishments.

Since his death in 1506, Columbus's life story has gone through many revisions and although we still might celebrate Columbus Day we still cannot ignore the fact that he was a slave trader who heartlessly took men and women away from their families in order to lessen his failure to find a new trade route. He enslaved and multilated natives, and he was arrested by the Spanish government. Although many still say that Columbus is an American hero despite his wrong doings, I believe him to be a villain who has had been made a legend but not

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, voyager, and navigator, with his first voyage in 1476. Columbus went on many expeditions to Africa, and he had a few African crew members on bard with him. In 1492, Columbus left Spain with the boat, Santa Maria, with Nina and Pinta at his side. Columbus was credited with discovering the Americas, and with colonizing it. Columbus went to sea as a teenager, and went on a lot of trading voyages, almost dying on one when his ship was attacked by French privateers.

Christopher Columbus is one of the most famous explorers in history. An Italian explorer, born in 1451, Columbus would become famous for his exploration of the Atlantic that lead to the colonization of the Americas. However, Columbus had other explorations, many before his voyage to the Americas. Almost losing his life in his first voyage in the Atlantic, Columbus continued to explore, and sail to Africa. Eventually, in 1492, Columbus set sail west, towards what he hoped to be a route to India. Columbus’s first stop was an Island in the Bahamas, which he claimed for Spain. Columbus then returned to Spain, but quickly left for his second voyage, discovering more Islands and discovering the mainland of modern day Venezuela. Returning to Spain,

Explorer. Navigator. Colonizer. History concerning him is not and never will be complete. There are a lot of controversial stories concerning about and his history. Even through all of those stories Christopher Columbus is credited with sparking European exploration of the Americas. He was the start of something bigger than himself and the end of another thing. Throughout his family, first adventures at sea, and his crewmates who almost turned back to spain. He was able to change the World in more than just one way.

The federal holiday, Columbus Day, has brought about its own uniqueness amongst many Americans. Generations of schoolchildren were instructed to read or watch videos that claimed Columbus was the founder of America. He was known as an explorer, navigator, and a colonizer. Now, Christopher Columbus is no longer portrayed as the hero he once was. Over many years, there has been a series of stories told by others, and a proof of documentation found to reveal information about his life, famous voyages, and the multicultural movement.