Compare And Contrast Cobus And Christopher Columbus

4. So, after 30 days or so at sea, when he struck land, he assumed he’d made it to the East Indies and therefore mistook the people as “Indians.”

These statements suggest that the English didn't come to the Americas simply to plunder gold and riches from the native Indians. As stated in A People and a Nation, "Unlike the Spanish, other European nations did not immediately start to colonize the coasts their sailors had explored. They were interested in exploiting the natural wealth of the region, not in conquering territories."# However, the English did, at times, exploit the Indians for their profit. Actually, they came to America for a number of reasons, but mainly to escape religious persecution and seek a new start in the world. People whom were mere peasants in England, and possessed no land, would soon become owners of many acres of their very own property.

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.

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

Smith was badly burned in 1606 from a gunpowder explosion and forced to return back to England. In 1614 he returned with an expedition to map the New England coastline. He would never return to Virginia again after this. He would from then on only promote colonizing the New England area. His efforts to promote colonizing were blocked by weather, pirates and lack of funding. He then resorted to writing about colonization. In his writing he elaborated about how wonderful it was in the new world. He would say that the fish practically jump into your boat when you go fishing and things such as that. He made the new world seem better than it really was so people would want to travel here and settle in it. His plan worked because year after year more and more people flocked to the New England hoping to colonize and not have to worry about running out

Until the sixteenth century, the experts in that period of time believed that it was impossible to sail west across from the Atlantic to Asia. By his adventure, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator, proved that they were wrong. However, based on the theory that the earth was a sphere, he thought that he could reach the East Indies by sailing west. He calculated the distance from Portugal to Asia was shorter than to Congo. In fact, the real distance from Portugal to Japan was much further, over ten thousand miles. With his erroneous estimate, he planned a scheme to prove he was right. After several unsuccessful lobbying in Portugal, Spain, even in England and France, eventually, in 1492, he won financing for his journey from Spanish monarchs,

He started his journey at a young age of 14, and he never gave up he went to places he didn’t even know what they were but thanks to all the equipment and resources we have today we are able to tell where he was, and the other countries he had discovers, and his contribution to world.

*Colonizing the New World would help the Age of Exploration became a more profitable time.

Columbus's arrogance and exploitation regarding slavery began on his second voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella had ordered that the natives be treated kindly. In opposition to this order, Columbus began exporting slaves in great numbers in 1494. It was because he was not making any real profit elsewhere on the island that he decided to exploit the one source of income--people--he had in abundance (Fernandez-Armesto 107). When word reached him that the crown did not want him sending more slaves, Columbus ignored it. He was desperate to make his expeditions profitable enough for Ferdinand and Isabella's continued support. Evidently he was not reprimanded because thousands of Indians were exported. By the time they reached Spain, usually a third of them were dead. Bartolome de las Casas wrote that one Spaniard had told him they did not need a compass to find their way back to Spain; they could simply follow the bodies of floating Indians who had been tossed overboard when they died (17). It is horrible to consider that the exportation of these natives resulted

John Smith was an English explorer and a soldier who has remained in the books of history for his role in the establishment of a British colony in America. He reigned Virginia British colony which was based at Jamestown for one year between late 1608 and late 1609. During his reign, he used his experience as a soldier and an explorer to lead exploration of major rivers around the colony. Smith was first involved in plans to establish a British colony in North America in 1606 for personal gains with a London company which had been granted a charter by the King of England. Towards the end of

They were willing to trade everything they owned. They were will built, with good bodies and handsome features. They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want”. In this quote, Dr. Zinn gives what he believed to be another motivation of Columbus, which was the motivation to make the Indians into slaves for monetary gain. Dr. Zinn believed this to be the motivation of what he termed the “Europe of the Renaissance”. Dr Zinn states; “theses traits, speaking of the Arawak, did not stand in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for the money that marketed Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus.

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.

Smith was one of the original governing council members and his explorations were a part of what shaped the nation. Cooper also stated, “As a council member in the Jamestown settlement and because of his explorations, his map, and its role in attracting settlers, John Smith helped shape his time and the future.” (6). Smith would meet Ahmed’s definition of a hero because he was endowed with extraordinary qualities of heart and mind. The council was proving to be ineffective so Smith stepped forward as the leader and “the moving spirit” (Arber, xiii) to lead the expeditions.

John Smith was selected because he was a Colonizer, soldier and an author as he wrote his first book in English in the New World called “A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia since the First Planting of that Colony (1608)”. While he was only in America for two years, Smith was in charge of the survival of England's first English colony in the New World. He is best known for being in