Christopher Columbus Should Not be Considered a Hero

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Christopher Columbus was a man who much credit was given to for a very small deed. In fact he discovered a new world, but that world was only new to him and the men of his previous generations. What about the many Native Americans whose fathers and father’s fathers shed their blood for the land in which they had lived for so many years. How could one such as Christopher Columbus who was looking for freedom and hope cause so much bondage and destruction? One man’s victory turned out to be devastation for millions.

When you think of historical greats like Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. Columbus is not a name that I would use in association with theirs. Now on the other hand I see similarities between Columbus and Hitler. When we remember Hitlerwe look back on all the devastation that he caused and have nothing but empathy and admiration for the Jews and their endurance. Why not the same for the Indians of these great lands, whose tears and blood where shed for nothing more than mere greed.

Christopher Columbus can in no way, shape, or form should be considered a hero. A hero is someone who performs good deeds for the sake of others and not for their own benefit. Christopher Columbus did not do a single good deed in any of his four voyages in the late 1400's. 1492, proved to be a good year for Spain and Columbus , but it would become known as the year of hell for the Indians who occupied the land. Columbus and his crew basically enslaved a whole race of men, women, and children. The Natives were plagued by disease and forced into labor for the sole benefit of finding gold. How can one who is suppose to stand for such democracy assume the position of such a horrible dictator?

We as Americans should look at the facts before we celebrate this so-called founder. For far too long we have praised and celebrated a tyrant instead of giving glory to the Native Americans whose land this rightfully is, we read in history books how victorious he was but as the story goes on it reveals a history of rape, murder and deception.

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