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The impact of christopher columbus
The impact of christopher columbus
Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain
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Columbus Day Persuasive Essay
Christopher Columbus; when hearing that name a large majority of Americans conjure an image of a noble hero who courageously sailed west to get to the far east, furthermore discovering America and bringing the barren land out of its destitution by creating a modernized colonization. Because that is the utopical heroine that is taught in elementary schools, most people do not stop to think about the character of the man who “sailed the ocean blue in 1492” apart from the official holiday in his honor that is observed each year. There are only two individuals in the totality of American history who have federal holidays named after them, so clearly Columbus’s legacy is one of significance, though not entirely accurate. After further research, one can discover information that is contradictory to the elementary version of America’s founder. The United States should not honor Christopher Columbus with a national holiday because he enslaved natives, played a part in the decimation of entire
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If Columbus subjugated and misused others to reap personal benefits, then he is of unethical and dehumanizing character therefore unworthy of the honor bestowed upon his memory.
In addition, the cataclysm of European born disease that plagued the native populations are partially the fault of Christopher Columbus. Although Columbus was likely unaware of the native’s lack of immunity to the diseases carried by the Europeans, he choose to bring the large amount of men on his voyages, which is ultimately what caused the widespread of fatal illness. Because Columbus was a key factor in the disease outbreak that obliterated native societies, his ignorance is responsible for the lack of many ancient native american cultures. Consequently, Columbus is undeserving of his current
“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.
Columbus’s “intentions were far from selfless.” (Myint, 2015, Para. 5). The greed was immense as Columbus believed in the entitlement of ten percent of all the treasures that were plundered. Nothing was shared with the crew. Natives were also mutilated and enslaved. If the natives did no collect enough money they lost limbs, some also lost their lives. A hero would not hurt innocent people trying to survive.
Christopher Columbus does not deserve to be honored as a hero with his own holiday. Close to 500 years, people have praised Christopher Columbus and also celebrated him as though he was the one who truly founded America. Teachers teach students that he was a great man, also how he found treasures and land known as America. Students are also taught about the names of his three ships he used on his first voyage. However, they did not teach us the truth about Christopher Columbus, and his so called “discovery”.
The name of the article is PRO/CON: Should we celebrate Christopher Columbus?It was made By Silvio Laccetti, McClatchy Tribune, and Los Angeles Times Editorial Board adapted Newsela staff. On 10/06/2017. There are monuments and teachers that are being destroyed. Many people died during Columbus time and when people think of Colombes they think of all the people that he killed. There are parks playgrounds and schools that tribute Christopher Columbus. The article says we should the accomplishment he made. The Los Angeles California City Council have joined with other cities to replace Columbus Day with a holiday called Indigenous Peoples Day. because of the controversy of Columbus, a lot of people
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?
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.
While discovering the New World he brought smallpox with them that wiped out most of the native people living there. Although, Columbus did never mean to do that intentionally, he did basically kill hundreds of people. In the article “Columbus Doesn’t Deserve a Holiday” the author says “Within 70 years of his arrival, of the hundreds of thousands of Arawak Indians on the Bahama Islands only hundreds remained.” Even with the small number of native’s left after the smallpox, Columbus brought them back and put them on sale. They started with 500 native’s, but 200 died on the way there. Not only did Columbus kill hundreds, he also destroyed a natural, peaceful place. He just took people out of there land and called it his. After reading this one might not believe Columbus is the hero we all think of.
In some respects, we can attribute the founding of America and all its subsequent impacts to Christopher Columbus. Columbus a hero in the United States, has his own holiday and we view as the one who paved the way for America to be colonized. However, people tend to forget the other side of Columbus, the side that lusted after gold and resources that often belonged to the native inhabitants he came across in his exploration. In his insatiable greed, he and his crew committed countless atrocities, such as torture and killing of defenseless natives. Columbus’s discovery of these new lands contributes profound and negative effects as future colonists arrived. “Zinn estimates that perhaps 3 million people perished in the Caribbean alone from raids, forced labor and disease” (Zinn, 1980). Columbus was seen as a cruel man, who saw the peaceful inhabitants as right for the conquering and lead to the devastation of the native population, yet is celebrated every October.
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.
For generations upon generations, students have been taught about the “hero” Christopher Columbus who had discovered our new world. However, to say he was a hero would not exactly be the truth; Columbus was an eccentric man who cared much more about his profits than the well being and even lives of the natives. It is documented in journals that he and his crew had slaughtered entire villages at a time, and that he had even killed people just for the point of testing how sharp his sword was. Not only did Columbus and his crew have a thing for violence, on multiple accounts crew members wrote down every single successful rape of women; and used the voyage to help begin a slave export for the royalty of Spain.
Christopher Columbus should continue to be celebrated as national holiday because he lead scientist to newer philosophy, people blame Columbus when there was already slavery, And discovered America . First reason why we should celebrate Columbus day is he lead to scientist to newer philosophy. As you know Christopher Columbus lead actions in which all Americans can be proud. He challenge the convectional thought that the Earth was flat reaching east by going west. " An idea to which scientist of the day were forcibly opposed"(Columbus should be celebrated). Because of Columbus theory about the earth being flat it forwards and challenges Aristotelians philosophy that was guided for centuries for more newer philosophy.
Have you ever been forced to do something you don’t want to do? Well maybe you have,but have you ever had your hand cut off because you didn’t do the thing that people made you want to do? I’m asking these questions because Christopher Columbus did these things to the Natives of America.That’s why I think we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day at all.He enslaved Natives to mine gold and if they didn’t he’d cut there wrists.Columbus also spread disease(such as smallpox) throughout America killing even more Natives. Finally though Columbus had butcher's cut the Native people up,to just feed their own dogs.On that same gruesome note Columbus ordered his men to cut the Natives in half to test the sharpness of their blades.
Some of the problems when studying history are the texts and documents that have been discovered are only from perspective. Furthermore, on occasion that one perspective is all there may be for historians to study. A good example of this textual imbalance can be found from the texts about the discovery of the New World; more specifically, the letters of Christopher Columbus and Pêro Vaz de Caminha during their voyages to the New World. Plenty of the text from this time is written from the perspective of the Europeans, as the Indigenous population did not have any written text. What this means is that it provided only one perspective, which can drastically hinder how history is interpreted. Columbus’s letter of his first voyage to the Caribbean
Although Columbus was increasing the wealth and strength of Spain, he was “a catastrophe for the indigenous inhabitants of the lands” (Belasco 67). He had no remorse for the natives as he proceeded to establish plantations, enslave them, slaughter them, and create a new colony called Espanola on their lands. According to Schuman, Howard, Barry Schwartz, and Hannah d’Arcy, Christopher Columbus “deserves condemnation for having brought slavery, disease, and death...
From an early age, students in the United States learn the rhyme “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” to memorize the date when the widely celebrated Italian colonizer, Christopher Columbus, landed off the coast of America. However, what the school poem does not mention about Christopher Columbus is that in 1492, after sailing the ocean blue, he committed genocide. After his arrival in their home country, Columbus forced American Indians into slavery and utilized barbaric punishment against them, including amputation, and dismemberment by dogs. In his legacy, disease carried by settlers and warfare with colonialists killed millions of native individuals. Yet, despite Columbus' crimes, history largely remembers him as a hero.