Christopher Columbus: Villain or Hero?

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For more than five centuries Americans have lifted Christopher Columbus to heights of greatness and god-like. We celebrate his life as though he was a man that had done us a great favor. In resent years Christopher Columbus has come under scrutiny, his life and works being questioned more than celebrated. There have be many great men and women that contributed to the building of our great nation but they do not receive anywhere as much recognition as Columbus. When a person begins to study the actual accounts of the "finding of the New World" they begin to wonder if Columbus should adored or hated for his actions. As a child I was taught that Columbus was a great man that had accomplished great things for the sake of humanity, but in reality his agenda was not to better humanity but to better himself. He found the Americas by mere chance and he did not even know of what he found. We give him credit for "finding" the Americas but history tells of the people, that he called Indians, already inhabiting the foreign land. So you decide whether or not Christopher Columbus should be revered a hero. Columbus' original plan was to prove that early geographers were wrong and that the world was larger than computed (William Howarth). He had sponsorship from the King and Queen of Spain who were finally convinced by Columbus by his belief that he was a divine missionary, ordained by God to spread Christianity (P. J. Riga). When he got to the New World he had found that there was the possibility that there might be an abundance of gold, and gold was the commodity Columbus pursued with obsessive zeal (William Howarth). It would seem to be an item that he had a lust for more than anything. An elder on Tortuga described "within a hundred or more ... ... middle of paper ... ...1992, August). World Press Review, Volume 39, Issue 8, p33. "Early Explorers of the Western Hemisphere." World Almanac & Book of Facts 2000, 1999, p456. Giles, Thomas S. "How did Native Americans Respond to Christianity?" Christian History, 1992, Volume 11, Issue 3, p20. Hopkins, Dwight N. "Columbus, the Church, and slave religion." Journal of Religious Thought, Winter 92/ Spring 93, Volume 49, Issue 2, p25. Howarth, William. "Putting Columbus in his place." Southwest Review, Spring/Summer 92, Volume 77, Issue 2/3, p153. Marty, Martin E. "The clamor over Columbus." Christian History, 1992, Volume 11 Issue 3, p17. Riga, Peter J. "Columbus, the Church, and the Indians: A reflection." Journal of Religious Thought, Winter 92/Spring 93, Volume 49 Issue 2, p36. "When two worlds meet." (1992). Christian History, Volume 11, Issue 3, p13.

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