Pros And Cons Of Christopher Columbus

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.

They funded and encouraged his journey because they all wanted something out of it. The Pope just wanted to to spread his religion and Catholicism. The King and Queen, however wanted land, slaves, more money and possessions. Columbus could not say no. Whatever the King and Queen said was the law and could not be refused or he would have been executed. The Pope would have done the same thing. Like everyone else during that time he wanted to take an adventure, see new things, and discover more land so he set sail with his crew.

When Granada was finally taken control of, Isabella and Ferdinand began to take notice of Columbus’ proposition. They realized that the outcome would be very beneficial to their kingdom, and it would not cost much money for them to fund the expedition (“Queen Isabella’s Influence in the New World”). They had also recently discovered some islands to the west, so they thought there could be more. They concluded that funding Columbus was worth the effort (In Depth Info).

After pushing back the Moors after nearly 700 years, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella finally established a firm set of laws and a government. They started with the inquisition act and ordered all arabs or jews to either leave Spain or accept Christianity. As time passed by many of the Jews and Muslims were faking their change to Christianity. So to prevent that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella asked the pope, if it would be ok to get rid of them by the inquisition and he agreed to that. Several years after the beginning of the inquisition, Spain became very powerful and wanted to conquer more land, so they sent Christopher columbus, who discovered the new world. Once that happened the King and Queen funded many of Columbus’s trips. In the New World, today called Central America, many conflicts began rising between the killing of the Tainos (Native people to the land) and Columbus’s men. Columbus and his men might have done the killing, but overall king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella funded Columbus, even after bringing Taino prisoners and torturing them, as long as Spain was getting wealthy, but still did not punish Columbus after what he did.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian who worked on behalf of, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I. The Spanish monarchs’ ultimate goals were to find a trade routine to India, Asia and to spread the Catholic religion to others. They financed Columbus with the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria to find a western route to India. Thinking that it was India, Columbus found land. In his journal, Columbus described his first account of the natives as “they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force” (“Fordham University”). Also, he plans for them to be great servants so they “may learn our language” (“Fordham University”). He says

The main idea behind the voyage was to find a faster route to the Indies, as well as introduce Christianity and The King and Queen to the new world along with its inhabitants. As said by Columbus “Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.” Like said, it shows that Columbus wished to find a faster route, so Spain could easily be able to obtained traded goods which would produce more profit for the country of Spain. This kind of shows that Spain needed to find this route due

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,

On May in 1486 almost a year after Columbus had enter Spain, he was finally allowed to meet with the queen who is said to be known for her great judgment in choosing the right man for the right job. The queen turned down Christopher’s proposals several times before giving it any true thought. The queen sent out her confessor to examine the great project to see if it was feasible. For the next six months Columbus lived the worst days of his life. Christopher was subjected to continuous prejudice even though he knew his great project would open new pathways to maritime achievement and opportunity, but still the public viewed his revolutionary planes as a crackpot idea. Very few of the queen’s staff were in favor of the great quest except for one, Diego de Deza who granted Columbus 12,000 maravedis a year, which was about $83 in gold. It was enough to support a man like Columbus. Columbus had simple tastes.

Christopher Columbus was a well-known traveler who originated from Italy. Christopher Columbus had a legacy that was troubled with disagreements for reason of his treatment towards the native population. His journeys encouraged mass amount of Europeans to obtain interest in taking over the Americas. Throughout his letter written to Sant’ Angel, Columbus explains his emotion in being very satisfied with the results he has revised throughout his first voyage. Christopher Columbus then goes into detail concerning his appreciation to the royal King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella as he mentions, “I passed over the Indies with the fleet which the most illustrious King and Queen, our lords, gave to me” (Columbus 8). Christopher Columbus creates a powerful image for the King and Queen because he trusts that the maintenance of Ferdinand and Isabella throughout his journey was an incredible aspect that resulted in his spectacular accomplishment.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave funds to the Italian explorer and navigator, Christopher Columbus, to discover a new route to Asia. By finding a new route to Asia, Spain would have the advantage in trading with them by having access to a shorter and safer trade route instead of having to go around the African continent. Why did King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella hire Columbus instead of a Spanish Explorer? The deal between Spain and Columbus was that any minerals and resources found would go to Spain and Columbus would become Governor of any place he landed at. In this way, there are many advantages and disadvantages of working relationships between foreign parties.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian-born man that managed to win the favor and funding of the Spanish monarchy. With this funding, Columbus led the most well-known voyage in human history: the voyage to the New World in 1492. This voyage laid the foundation for future colonies and, eventually, many nations in the world. However, this voyage would not have gone past conceptualization if Columbus had not been supported by the Spanish monarchy. While a variety of factors affected the monarchy’s decision, the primary factors were Columbus’ experience in navigation, assistance Columbus received from Jewish supporters, and the capitulations laid out by Columbus himself.

Throughout history, Christopher Columbus was seen in quite contrary ways. Some would view him as a valiant hero who discovered the New World and vanquished the primitive ways of the savage and barbaric native people. Others would see Columbus in a much different light, describing him as an interloper who spread disease to and enslaved an entire native people. These two statements above describe two vastly different visions of Christopher Columbus. In fact, the hard evidence would support that a bit of both of the above visions are indeed factual. Christopher Columbus was a man with several wonderful achievements, however some of these achievements had several negative repercussions. Columbus's discovery of the New World led to a more diverse society, a new social system, and the exploitation and eventual extermination of the Native peoples.

- Spain (Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand) actually assisted Columbus in his attempts, in order to accumulate goods that were valuable during time such as gold. Furthermore, it also tried to help the Catholic church financially.

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.

Gold and the regulation thereof are the primary focuses of Columbus ' letter to the King and Queen of Spain, thought to have been written around the year 1492, but definitely written after the his initial discovery.[3] So whether wholly or in part it appears that riches and power were factors contributing to Columbus ' decision to risk so much. After all he made multiple trips across the Atlantic not just one. So apparently he was concerned with more than just the discovery of a trade route.