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5 paragraph essay for good christopher columbus
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“In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Every elementary student across the United States has been taught this tune about the great explorer, Christopher Columbus. Columbus was a very important historical figure, and he has been credited with uniting Europe and America. He was not the first European to discover America, but he discovered a lot of land that was unknown to the Europeans, and he paved the path for Spanish land claims and spread of Spanish culture. As the Anthology of American Literature states, “He changed the way the world saw itself” (Columbus, 14). For this reason, his name and life story has been preserved in history books all around the world.
In “Columbus’s Letter Describing his First Voyage,” Christopher Columbus lavishly describes the Indies to an official in the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish King and Queen at the time. He describes the beautiful lands he saw in a manner that seems overly exaggerated, and he talks about how he named all of the islands. All of the names Columbus gave to the islands were in Spanish, and some names were honoring the Holy Savior, Ferdinand, and Isabella.
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“And I gave a thousand handsome good things, which I had brought, in order that they might conceive affection, and more than that, might become Christians” (Columbus, 16). Along with colonizing, one of Columbus’s goals was to convert the native people to his holy faith. However, the indigenous people were deeply religious, and a few goods could not sway them away from their religion. Other texts such as Red Jacket’s speech demonstrate how the Indians were very spiritual and did not want to convert to Christianity. Hence, in order to attract the King to fund his trips. Columbus gives off a wrong impression in his letter by making it seem like the native people would easily convert to
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, is the rhyme embedded in children’s heads in the first lesson of US history. However, beyond the discovery of the New World, Christopher Columbus receives no other mentions. Especially no one acknowledges that he was the reason Native Americans were mistreated and kept as slaves. Although Christopher Columbus’ actions are not all honorable he should still be celebrated during Columbus Day as a brave explorer who risked his and his crew’s lives to find a new way of travel and land. His efforts bridged a gap between the New and Old World and helped feed Europe, which immensely impacts our society. Because of his dedication and bravery to be an explorer Christopher Columbus Day should be celebrated.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
Despite being one of the most renowned explorers in history, Christopher Columbus’ legacy remains controversial. The debate on whether Columbus should be celebrated has captured news headlines for decades. While many view him simply as a gifted Italian navigator who laid the seeds for the colonization of the New World, history paints a much more complicated picture. His journal entries and eye-witness testimony reveal Columbus to be a man of intolerance and indifference towards those deemed inferior to himself. Christopher Columbus’ treatment of Indigenous’ people, in addition to his ethnocentric worldview, allows for the conclusion that he should not be idolized as a hero in the modern age.
...us brought America to the attention of the civilized world, to the growing, scientific civilizations of Western Europe. The result, ultimately, was the United States of America. It was Columbus’ discovery for Western Europe that led to the arrival of ideas and people on which this nation was founded on. The voyages of Christopher Columbus contain one of the great adventure stories of all time. His first journey across thousands of miles of unknown ocean, in the middle of the rebellious grievances and tensions of his crew, was not only one of the most significant achievements of recorded human history, but was also a demonstration of Columbus's dominance as mariner and navigator. For a while he had faults and defects, which brought turmoil to his personal life, but there was no flaw, no dark side to the most significant of all his qualities, of course his seamanship.
the myths of his voyages begin with himself. For it was he who reported to
If it is at all possible to transport an individual to the year 1492, and experience life through the eyes of Columbus, his men, and even at times, the indigenous natives of the New World, this author has made it as nearly so as any man ever could. Interweaving first and secondhand accounts, personal journals, letters, logbooks, and other corroborating evidence, Bergreen creates an entirely factual and informative tale of the man best known for discovering the Americas; and adversely, destroying its native population and thriving ecosystem.
Meanwhile, they make up all kinds of details to tell a better story and to humanize Columbus so that readers will identify with him” (1). On American textbooks, Christopher Columbus was portray as the first person who discovered America, but it is actually a lie that Columbus is the first America’s “great” hero. In my opinion, American textbooks put more emphasis on making significant heroic character rather than giving a true detail of history. Also, it provides a mythical hero and covers up anything that shows in the history of the America in a negative light and made them look bad. Explorers who reached America before Columbus are well underplayed. They should stick to the facts of what Columbus really did and should focus on as many accurate details of Columbus’ life, without overcompensating for his
Published in 1493, Luis Santangel received the embellished journal of Christopher Columbus as validation for the much-promised riches in the Indies. Centered around an era of power and conquest, Columbus tapered his writings and findings to pacify his Royal sponsors for the voyage. Santangel was also one such wealthy sponsor. Although the tone of the letter was vastly hyperbolic, Christopher Columbus still managed to document the labeling of the numerous islands and its topography. Yet even the size and measurement is a bit exaggerated as well referring to one island being twice as large as that of Great Britain and Scotland. Columbus did his best to acknowledge various “thousands upon thousands” in this letter with that of spiceries and gold mines with mountains in a “thousand shapes...full of trees of a thousand kinds” as well as deeming the exotic islands incomparable to any other islands that “there could be no believing without seeing” firsthand. Colu...
[2] Columbus is a mainstay of American patriotism. He is the patron saint who planted the seeds of our nation. Our culture has been lulled into his heroic myth for hundreds of years and has celebrated this man with much pomp and circumstance. Columbus’ worthiness has been the subject of much controversy and is now being linked to such un-heroic terms as mass murder, holocaust, and genocide.
Columbus was in command of three separate ships. The Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María. Columbus taking overall command captained the Santa María. the Pinta was captained by Martín Alonso Pinzón and the Niña by Vicente Yañez Pinzón. First landfall was on the island of San Salvador. The land turned out to be a small island in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus named the island San Salvador, although he remarked in his journal that the natives referred to it as Guanahani. (Knopf). The second landfall was in Cuba. Columbus being far off on his navigation believed they had found part of China. He sent two men to investigate them being the first two people to observe the smoking of tobacco. The third landfall was Hispaniola or modern day Haití. Columbus grounded the Santa María and had to abandon ship taking command of the Niña. Columbus negotiating with the chief arranged to leave 39 men for settlement. On January 16th, the final two ships the Pinta and the Santa María reunited and departed for Spain and made landfall on March 4th. On my research of the first voyage Columbus made I found an intriguing paragraph written by Christopher Minster,
America's national memory is filled with icons and symbols, avatars of deeply held, yet imperfectly understood, beliefs. The role of history in the iconography of the United States is pervasive, yet the facts behind the fiction are somehow lost in an amorphous haze of patriotism and perceived national identity. Christopher Columbus, as a hero and symbol of the first order in America, is an important figure in this pantheon of American myth. His status, not unlike most American icons, is representative not of his own accomplishments, but the self-perception of the society which raised him to his pedestal in the American gallery of heroism.
In the beginning of the story, Columbus did not resist naming the first few islands he discovered. He then proceeds to discover another island that was “most fertile to an excessive degree” in his perspective (pg. 543). This seems to surprise him upon encountering the Indian people when he discovers them naked, no weapons, and no iron or steel. The reason for this is not because they are poor or well-formed people. However, Columbus says the people were fearful and felt they were suffering from being on the island with no authority. However, the Natives seemed positive and compassionate after they became more assured of Columbus’ presence on the island. Columbus mentioned anything that they have, even if it be asked for, the Natives would
In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail on a voyage searching for a route across the Atlantic to Asia for the Spain’s Kind Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Instead of reaching Asia, Columbus actually landed on present-day San Salvador Island. He still thought that he had reached India, called the native there “Indians”. Columbus even took some of these so called “Indians” back to Spain with him as slaves, so that he could show the king and queen. During this time Spain signed the Treaty of Tordesillas, which confirmed Spain’s claim on the Americas. In 1501 Amerigo Vespucci made a voyage
This is an analysis of Christopher Columbus’s Letter on His First Voyage on page 381. Christopher Columbus wrote a letter to his King and Queen of Spain, while he was in the West Indies. He wrote this letter in February 1493 reflecting on his voyage across the Atlantic in 1492. After reading this letter, I can tell that Columbus felt like he was better than the native people of the different islands he journeyed and that a lot of things they did were very strange to him. I can also tell that the world was a lot different to him and to people in 1492, than it is to people in 2014 because he referred to the native people of the various islands he traveled to as Indians, whereas most people in 2014 know that India and Latin American are not the
The “presence” of the North American Continent had been known to the persons living there for centuries before arrival. But Columbus, and those who followed him, recognized the significance of the New World; in this sense they certainly deserve credit for having “discovered” America.