Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?
As October comes rolling around, the famous Christopher Columbus is being remembered for his discovery of the Americas. The hero Columbus, some would say, gathered his courage, and set sail to the West Indies, and unknowingly discovered a whole new continent after being at sea for weeks. If these people who call Columbus a hero knew of the evil crimes that he has committed, then the opinions and the perspectives of these people would change drastically. Millions of Americans were raised up to be taught misleadingly, that Columbus was a hero: teachers, text books, and from the general public. Those people who wrote the history, sadly, did not record the whole truth into the history books that are viewed …show more content…
The Indians did them no harm, and even traded with the crew. Later, he captured and enslaved the Natives to mine gold for them. The Native Americans had to find a certain amount of gold in a period of time, and if they did not gather the amount of gold by the time it was collected, then their arms would be cut off and tied around their necks to send a message. The Spaniards knifed and slashed the Natives by tens just to test the blade’s sharpness. When he went back to Spain, he gave exaggerated reports on the island he named Hispaniola, “Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful ... the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. . . . There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals....” (Zinn, pg.3) Hence, his second voyage, Columbus was given 17 ships to be filled up with the promised treasures, but the gold he promised was impossible because the only gold that could be found are the little specks gathered from the rivers. With not enough gold, he had to fill the ships up with something, so Columbus rounded up the Indians, loaded them into ships, returned to Spain, and sold them into slavery. Also not just slavery, …show more content…
As stated before, Christopher Columbus is no hero; he is nowhere close to being a hero. He is a villain that history had twisted up and made a hero only in name. From all that he has done, murdering, enslaving, and raping the native people, if people do not call him a villain, then I don’t know what they would classify him
As October comes rolling around, the famous Christopher Columbus is being remembered for his discovery of the Americas. The hero Columbus, some would say, gathered his courage, and set sail to the West Indies, and unknowingly discovered a whole new continent after being at sea for weeks. If these people who call Columbus a hero knew of the evil crimes that he has committed, then the opinions and the perspectives of these people would change drastically. Millions of Americans were raised up to be taught misleadingly, that Columbus was a hero: teachers, text books, and from the general public. Those people who wrote the history, sadly, did not record the whole truth into the history books that are viewed …show more content…
The Indians did them no harm, and even traded with the crew. Later, he captured and enslaved the Natives to mine gold for them. The Native Americans had to find a certain amount of gold in a period of time, and if they did not gather the amount of gold by the time it was collected, then their arms would be cut off and tied around their necks to send a message. The Spaniards knifed and slashed the Natives by tens just to test the blade’s sharpness. When he went back to Spain, he gave exaggerated reports on the island he named Hispaniola, “Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful ... the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. . . . There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals....” (Zinn, pg.3) Hence, his second voyage, Columbus was given 17 ships to be filled up with the promised treasures, but the gold he promised was impossible because the only gold that could be found are the little specks gathered from the rivers. With not enough gold, he had to fill the ships up with something, so Columbus rounded up the Indians, loaded them into ships, returned to Spain, and sold them into slavery. Also not just slavery, …show more content…
As stated before, Christopher Columbus is no hero; he is nowhere close to being a hero. He is a villain that history had twisted up and made a hero only in name. From all that he has done, murdering, enslaving, and raping the native people, if people do not call him a villain, then I don’t know what they would classify him