Christopher Columbus Hero Or Villain

When you think of Columbus what comes to mind? A hero? A villain? Most people think he is a hero, but many do not think of the things he did to people such as slavery, beatings, raping, etc. He is most known for discovering America, but he only got to the Bahamas. Columbus was an Italian explorer that sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Columbus Day should not be celebrated because of the awful things that don’t make up for the discoveries that Christopher Columbus did.

In the year 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic hoping to land in Asia, but ended up in the New World. The world where he met Native Americans and called them Indians. Hoping to find spices, he found enough to trade between continents that ended up being called the Columbian Exchange. His rediscovery marked a new chapter in textbooks which many are still arguing whether it makes him a hero or villain. Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a villain because his encounter, with the intention of taking advantage of Native Americans, lead to many deaths.

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.

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”

Columbus was no exception. The Indians, Columbus reported, "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.” (A People’s History By Howard Zinn). Columbus took some of the friendly natives by force just so that he might know where the treasure was hidden. He goes on to say, “I was very attentive to them, and strove to learn if they had any gold. I gathered from them by signs that... there would be found a king who possessed large vessels of gold, and in great quantities.” (-- Christopher Columbus (1492)) The Native’s strong belief in sharing, unfortunately, caused the Europeans to fall into greediness. They took advantage of their kindness beyond the limit. Furthermore, he came up with a cruel system. In this system “they ordered all persons to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Those without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death (-- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (1980)). “ Columbus and his crew went to an extreme here in order to

In 1492, Italian cartographer and explorer, Christopher Columbus, set off on a mission from Spain in order to find a quicker, alternative route to Asia. With him, Columbus brought eighty-seven men and three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María, to sail across the large and vast Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately for Columbus, a new route to Asia was never discovered by Spain that year because he had arrived in the Caribbean, which was found in North America. Thinking that he had just entered the Indies, he started to call the people of this land, “Indians”. These Indians were actually Native Americans who had lived on these lands for thousands of years prior. Immediately, letters from Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain were sent by boat back to Europe and soon Columbus was seen as the man who helped create a bridge of prosperous trading and riches between Europe and “Asia”.1 While this discovery proved that Columbus was a hero-like figure to Spain, it’s what he did within the new land that actually makes him one of the biggest villains to ever set foot on Earth. But what classifies this explorer as a villain? Columbus captured thousands of natives, many of which were sent back to Spain to live and work as slaves. Along with that, Columbus also forced the Christian religion onto them, spread diseases that killed thousands of lives, and used violence as a means of persuasion and control.2 Corrupted by his pursuit of riches,

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

The full measure of Columbus's failure as a colonizer was not yet apparent when he returned to Castile in 1496. Yet by the end of six or seven years of his governorship, with his own, the monarchs', and the settlers' objectives all still unachieved, and Hispaniola suffering an apparently interminable series of rebellions not only by the Indians but by the colonists too, Columbus was to be superseded and disgraced, and shipped home to Spain in chains.1 Overall, Fernandez-Armesto depicted Columbus as an annoyingly eccentric person incapable of succeeding. Although, he discovered the Americas, he failed to be a leader to his crew and the natives. Instead, he was on the lookout for ways of manipulating the motives for profit.

He used their kindness, which he saw as strange and naive, for his own advantage. Zinn says, "all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death" (Zinn 4). This explains another way that Columbus treated the natives: as slaves. He did not care about their hospitality towards him, and how they graciously greeted him and brought him gifts. My next important theme discussed about Columbus is that he never would have actually made it to Asia. Zinn writes, "Columbus would never have made it to Asia, which was thousands of miles farther away than he had calculated, imagining a smaller world. He would have been doomed by that great expanse of sea." (Zinn) He, like many others during this time, imagined that the world was much smaller than it actually is. He turned out to be lucky; he came across Cuba and Hispaniola - the Americas. The first thing Howard Zinn explains is the picture that is painted of

Christopher Columbus A Hero or Villain? Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain? He was a villain he was horrible! Those innocent people did not deserve that. What was Columbus motive in finding a route to Asia through the Atlantic?

In his journal he explains that in exchange for some water he gave the Natives some hawk’s bells and glass beads. Letting his readers know that he was a fair man. If this was a personal journal he wouldn’t be talking about how he traded with the Natives, but how he traded the natives themselves. Rather than considering Columbus a hero he should be considered an enforcer of slavery. Columbus and his crew practically enslaved a whole race of men, women and

Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, that's what has been told. But unfortunately, this leaves out the sad reality that Christopher Columbus was a genocidal liar. The United States has been filtered with made up stories about who he really is but he is a villain. Columbus was a user he used innocent people for his own parsimonious reasons. He murdered the natives to get to the king. Lastly, was also a deceiver and this made him enslave the natives.

Columbus only cared for himself. Howard Zinn says, “He had to make good on his promise” and “to show a profit on his voyages.” Columbus used slaves to do his work and when they ran away, they were killed.

In his biography of Christopher Columbus, historian Felipe Fernandez- Armesto, wrote the true side to Columbus. Columbus had facers to himself both brilliant and evil., “Her had an implacable temperament which could never be satisfied and unremitting ambition which could never be assuaged.”(Fernandez Columbus) Columbus was a ruthless, rough conquistador who encountered the Indians and treated then with no respect whatsoever. Columbus did anything possible to conquer the world even if that meant behaving like a villain.

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.