Every October in the United States, a holiday is observed by schoolchildren and working adults to commemorate the accomplishments of the great Christopher Columbus. While this break from school and work is appreciated by all, there is controversy surrounding the holiday itself. This debate stems from misinterpretations of the origin of Columbus Day and whether it really concerns Columbus himself. Due to its name, this holiday is taught to children by portraying Columbus as a hero and the founder of the Americas, but this is not the truth. Columbus Day should be abolished in the United States due to the misunderstandings of Columbus’s accomplishments, the devastating consequences experienced by the Taino people on San Salvador, and the repercussions
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Contrary to what many Americans believe nowadays, Columbus was not a great man who heroically founded the Americas and had many grand achievements during his lifetime. One common misconception is that he was the first person to confirm that Earth was round. In reality it was an Egyptian-Greek scientist named Erasthosthenes, who had proven this phenomenon in the third century B.C.E. (Weatherford 290). Columbus’s calculations for reaching India were also tremendously inaccurate. Given that he understood the Earth’s spherical nature, he should have also understood just how large its circumference is. A couple of days after reaching land in the Caribbean, Columbus wrote that “I want to go to see if I can find the island of Cipango [Japan]” (281). This remark shows how off-course and lost he really was. Indeed, Columbus still believed he had reached land close to the Asian continent when he died in 1506 (Weatherford 290). In addition, Columbus did not “discover” America; the Native Americans had lived there for thousands of years beforehand, and he was not even the …show more content…
After Columbus falsely told of gold and riches in the New World, many other European nations, such as France and England, sent explorers to claim land in America. The arrival of the Europeans caused both a cultural and biological exchange, better known as the Columbian Exchange. The biological element largely consisted of the spread of disease. If the Europeans had not come to America, diseases such as smallpox would not have killed off the vast majority of the Native population. Even today, many of the problems and stereotypes that Native Americans face can be traced back to the arrival of the Europeans (Mankiller 295). In most schools across the United States, children do not have a great deal of knowledge about the Native Americans, and many grow up believing that the modern Natives still live rustic lifestyles and are not a significant part of American society (Mankiller 294-295). Some people may argue that European colonization of the Americas led to great advances in technology and that key Enlightenment ideals were carried over from Europe (Berliner 292). Though these progressions and principles were instrumental in the formation of the United States and other American countries, they were at the expense of millions of Native American lives and an immense loss of cultural
Contrary to what many Americans believe nowadays, Columbus was not a great man who heroically founded the Americas and had many grand achievements during his lifetime. One common misconception is that he was the first person to confirm that Earth was round. In reality it was an Egyptian-Greek scientist named Erasthosthenes, who had proven this phenomenon in the third century B.C.E. (Weatherford 290). Columbus’s calculations for reaching India were also tremendously inaccurate. Given that he understood the Earth’s spherical nature, he should have also understood just how large its circumference is. A couple of days after reaching land in the Caribbean, Columbus wrote that “I want to go to see if I can find the island of Cipango [Japan]” (281). This remark shows how off-course and lost he really was. Indeed, Columbus still believed he had reached land close to the Asian continent when he died in 1506 (Weatherford 290). In addition, Columbus did not “discover” America; the Native Americans had lived there for thousands of years beforehand, and he was not even the …show more content…
After Columbus falsely told of gold and riches in the New World, many other European nations, such as France and England, sent explorers to claim land in America. The arrival of the Europeans caused both a cultural and biological exchange, better known as the Columbian Exchange. The biological element largely consisted of the spread of disease. If the Europeans had not come to America, diseases such as smallpox would not have killed off the vast majority of the Native population. Even today, many of the problems and stereotypes that Native Americans face can be traced back to the arrival of the Europeans (Mankiller 295). In most schools across the United States, children do not have a great deal of knowledge about the Native Americans, and many grow up believing that the modern Natives still live rustic lifestyles and are not a significant part of American society (Mankiller 294-295). Some people may argue that European colonization of the Americas led to great advances in technology and that key Enlightenment ideals were carried over from Europe (Berliner 292). Though these progressions and principles were instrumental in the formation of the United States and other American countries, they were at the expense of millions of Native American lives and an immense loss of cultural