Christopher Columbus Hero Or Villain

Christopher Columbus A Hero or Villain? Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain? He was a villain he was horrible! Those innocent people did not deserve that. What was Columbus motive in finding a route to Asia through the Atlantic?

He used their kindness, which he saw as strange and naive, for his own advantage. Zinn says, "all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death" (Zinn 4). This explains another way that Columbus treated the natives: as slaves. He did not care about their hospitality towards him, and how they graciously greeted him and brought him gifts. My next important theme discussed about Columbus is that he never would have actually made it to Asia. Zinn writes, "Columbus would never have made it to Asia, which was thousands of miles farther away than he had calculated, imagining a smaller world. He would have been doomed by that great expanse of sea." (Zinn) He, like many others during this time, imagined that the world was much smaller than it actually is. He turned out to be lucky; he came across Cuba and Hispaniola - the Americas. The first thing Howard Zinn explains is the picture that is painted of

Columbus only cared for himself. Howard Zinn says, “He had to make good on his promise” and “to show a profit on his voyages.” Columbus used slaves to do his work and when they ran away, they were killed.

Chapter One Thesis: Even though it is taught in history books and in schools, Christopher Columbus was not a hero but rather a selfish man who used cruel manners in order to obtain what he wanted, harshly killing thousands of Indians. Additionally, the ethics of these manners are not questioned but rather praised for bringing on economic and social progress.

In his journal he explains that in exchange for some water he gave the Natives some hawk’s bells and glass beads. Letting his readers know that he was a fair man. If this was a personal journal he wouldn’t be talking about how he traded with the Natives, but how he traded the natives themselves. Rather than considering Columbus a hero he should be considered an enforcer of slavery. Columbus and his crew practically enslaved a whole race of men, women and

Nobody from Spain new that there were people in these lands but there were. While Columbus expected these Indians to bring harm, they did not do any of that. It was the opposite of rough and tough, they were kind, caring people who were very generous to the Europeans and wanted to make a friendship with them. In Columbus’s journal he said, “Anything they have, if it be asked for they never say no, rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts. . . . Nor have I ever been able to learn whether they held personal property, for it seemed to me that what-everyone had, they all took shares of. . . .” (Meltzer 91) These Indians were very considerate to the new comers and would invite them over as if to show them that they were very peaceful people. However once Columbus landed in the Americas and met the Native Americans (Indians) the Indians would not have an easy life, there life would soon turn into a disaster and there would be no peacefulness ever again. Slaves and servants started forming and the life of a Native American got tough. “Indians were the first to explore North America.” Columbus thought he was the first and that he would go down in history being the first to explore it.However the Indians were the first, they lived there after all and knew how and what it was like to live in the Americas. "But Columbus and most of the white explorers and colonizers who would come after him were not able to see that. They saw the Natives through a European looking glass; the image was badly distorted. The whites would debate whether the Indians were human. Some would say the Indians were a sort of two-legged animal without soul or spirit. If the Indians were subhuman, then the white need have no qualms about his treatment of them." (Meltzer 88) Columbus did not like these Native Americans he thought of them as the wild and he thought that they were not

Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, that's what has been told. But unfortunately, this leaves out the sad reality that Christopher Columbus was a genocidal liar. The United States has been filtered with made up stories about who he really is but he is a villain. Columbus was a user he used innocent people for his own parsimonious reasons. He murdered the natives to get to the king. Lastly, was also a deceiver and this made him enslave the natives.

It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory

During 1492-1502, Christopher Columbus did some good things, but also did some very bad things, theses would make him a villain.

Columbus enslaved natives’; he forced many to convert to Christianity, and used violence against them. On his first day in the “New World”,Columbus wrote in his journal that he enslaved six Natives, believing they would be great slaves. Columbus forced many to work for profits. He sent thousands of Indians from the island of Hispaniola to Spain

Christopher Columbus did not do a single good action in any of his four voyages in the late 1400's. Christopher Columbus was not the founder of the Americas we live in today because he did not discover it, even if he did there were already the natives who inhabited the land. It was just luck that he discovered the Americas, because he wasn’t even coming here, he got here because his ships went the wrong way and “Oh Surprise!” “We got something here to bring to Spain”

At first, the indigenous natives were subservient and used by Columbus. It was concluded in the primary source of Columbus’s letter regarding his voyage that from the start when he first came into contact with the natives, he treated them inferiorly and used them for their

Before we can truly label Columbus as a hero or evil, we must first define what is viewed as a hero. Many dictionary definitions exist having the meaning of a hero as one with courageous or noble qualities but seeing as these definitions are extremely objective, the definition of a hero I will be using for the purpose of defining Columbus will be, quoting Joseph Campbell, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Christopher Columbus clearly demonstrated giving and self sacrifice in his investments of time and risking his life for his voyages with “commercial expeditions resembling warlike cruises” and at some points in his travels being away from home for 29 months. The rewards that Columbus, along with the rest of Europe, reaped from his efforts include the new access to vast expanses of resourceful land, as well as the eventually successful, even flourishing, colonization of America, not to mention, that Columbus, “[the] founding figure of a new world” laid the framework to modern day globalization as well as played a key role in the creation of one of the most significant, powerful, and impactful nations existing today. The fact that Columbus grew up in poor conditions and being completely self taught in the art of navigation and seafaring only adds to the magnitude of his immense accomplishments.

School taught us about the infamous Christopher Columbus who was known as the hero who found the Americas in 1492, but is that the truth? Is Columbus really the hero that grade school portrayed him to be? Columbus was not. Columbus was a greedy man who destroyed an entire race of people with genocide just so only he could benefit and become a man of money and power.

When Columbus and his men arrived to the islands, he noticed that the natives were generous, and accommodating because they willingly traded everything they owned and brought them such things like: food, water, and gifts. Since the beginning the natives offered all of their hospitality to Columbus