Christopher Columbus’ ship should have been named Lady Luck. Why, you ask? Many people think that Christopher Columbus was an amazingly smart man who sailed the world and found America. Yet, when you read about his voyages in detail, you can’t help but wonder if it was his intelligence, or the way the tides happen to be working that week that landed him in North America. Christopher Columbus left Spain in 1492 looking to find India. When he landed in the Bahamas, he thought he had hit Asia and was content that his voyage was complete. Columbus probably stayed in the Bahamas for a while to replenish his supplies and give his crew a break. He must have assumed because of the tropical weather that he was in India. He returned to Spain never found
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There is another explorer who is not as well known as Columbus but in my opinion he was a more skillful sailor. He is a Chinese superhero named Zheng He. He found many new routes around Asia and Africa and he did this between 1405 and 1433, long before Christopher Columbus was even thinking about sailing! (Zheng He Mini-Q 303) Zheng He led seven voyages for China. On his first voyage he had 255 ships with a crew of 27,500 (Zheng He Mini-Q 305). At this time, this was the biggest fleet ever to leave a country. It was long before Christopher Columbus’s expedition and it was still much grander. Some of Zheng He’s voyage purposes were to find new routes and win tributes for China such as local products, pepper, horses, rhinoceroses and zebras (309). These gifts were greatly appreciated by the Chinese Emperor because they were goods that were not available back home. Zheng He was also looking to trade and make both the Chinese and the natives wealthy. If you look at a map of his route and his destination points you can tell he was trading a lot …show more content…
Or have historians been covering up the truth so that America has a hero to believe in? We have been taught that Christopher Columbus was a great and fearless explorer and the explorer who discovered America. Since nothing has been written about the bad things he has done, everyone thinks of him as a brave and nice man. In fact, Christopher Columbus was all but nice. His crew hated him, and there were many arguments and fights on board (1492 Conquest of Paradise). Although history books focus on Columbus’s achievements as a sailor, very little has been written about what he was like as a person. It is only recently that historians are writing about what he did when he landed in ports around the world. He was abusive to the Native Americans and seemed to have been using early forms of slavery (Should we even have a Columbus day?). In this essay, the author, David McGrath writes, “His own words survive in his letters as proof of his dehumanization of the indigenous people, whom he considered the property of Queen Isabella. He enslaved many Tiano Indians, while the rest he subjected to war and destruction.” Columbus brought many Native Americans back to Spain and used them as waiters and servants around the house and on ships (1492 Conquest of Paradise). I think that it is important that we should learn about Columbus’
There is another explorer who is not as well known as Columbus but in my opinion he was a more skillful sailor. He is a Chinese superhero named Zheng He. He found many new routes around Asia and Africa and he did this between 1405 and 1433, long before Christopher Columbus was even thinking about sailing! (Zheng He Mini-Q 303) Zheng He led seven voyages for China. On his first voyage he had 255 ships with a crew of 27,500 (Zheng He Mini-Q 305). At this time, this was the biggest fleet ever to leave a country. It was long before Christopher Columbus’s expedition and it was still much grander. Some of Zheng He’s voyage purposes were to find new routes and win tributes for China such as local products, pepper, horses, rhinoceroses and zebras (309). These gifts were greatly appreciated by the Chinese Emperor because they were goods that were not available back home. Zheng He was also looking to trade and make both the Chinese and the natives wealthy. If you look at a map of his route and his destination points you can tell he was trading a lot …show more content…
Or have historians been covering up the truth so that America has a hero to believe in? We have been taught that Christopher Columbus was a great and fearless explorer and the explorer who discovered America. Since nothing has been written about the bad things he has done, everyone thinks of him as a brave and nice man. In fact, Christopher Columbus was all but nice. His crew hated him, and there were many arguments and fights on board (1492 Conquest of Paradise). Although history books focus on Columbus’s achievements as a sailor, very little has been written about what he was like as a person. It is only recently that historians are writing about what he did when he landed in ports around the world. He was abusive to the Native Americans and seemed to have been using early forms of slavery (Should we even have a Columbus day?). In this essay, the author, David McGrath writes, “His own words survive in his letters as proof of his dehumanization of the indigenous people, whom he considered the property of Queen Isabella. He enslaved many Tiano Indians, while the rest he subjected to war and destruction.” Columbus brought many Native Americans back to Spain and used them as waiters and servants around the house and on ships (1492 Conquest of Paradise). I think that it is important that we should learn about Columbus’