The Morality Of Christopher Columbus

In the movie the director continued to show Columbus as a greedy perpetrator who destroyed the lives of innocent humans and took a land that wasn’t his. Columbus was not seen as a hero who discovered America, the way he was presented in the movie is totally agreeable. It was clear that Columbus thought highly of himself. In his letter addressed to the king, he explains how the Indians believe he was chosen by God. Throughout the movie and in his own written letter, it is clear that his purpose was to get recognition from the King and Queen of Spain. While also trying to get as much gold as possible for his own selfish needs. In The letter of Columbus, he describes himself as being the only one who discovered everything. Furthermore, in the movie scenes of Columbus’s arrival and conquest of the indigenous people, he forces them to convert to Catholicism. They are exploited for seditious outrage. The Indians didn’t mind giving the Spanish gold or being slaves. But when the Spanish started to kill them they had to rebel.

The natives that Christopher Columbus had come against were not in opposition of him but wanted to be able to hear him out and see what he could offer them. From his first voyage, Columbus had sent Indians back to Spain with him as a trophy to flaunt to the King and Queen of Spain for the recognition he should receive up on his return from the New World. In the Letter from Christopher Columbus (1493) he gives a description of how he gains their trust, “they are timid and full of fear… As soon as they see that they are safe, and have laid aside all fear, they are very simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have, none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it,” (Page 300). Columbus and his men were never

In 1492, Italian cartographer and explorer, Christopher Columbus, set off on a mission from Spain in order to find a quicker, alternative route to Asia. With him, Columbus brought eighty-seven men and three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María, to sail across the large and vast Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately for Columbus, a new route to Asia was never discovered by Spain that year because he had arrived in the Caribbean, which was found in North America. Thinking that he had just entered the Indies, he started to call the people of this land, “Indians”. These Indians were actually Native Americans who had lived on these lands for thousands of years prior. Immediately, letters from Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain were sent by boat back to Europe and soon Columbus was seen as the man who helped create a bridge of prosperous trading and riches between Europe and “Asia”.1 While this discovery proved that Columbus was a hero-like figure to Spain, it’s what he did within the new land that actually makes him one of the biggest villains to ever set foot on Earth. But what classifies this explorer as a villain? Columbus captured thousands of natives, many of which were sent back to Spain to live and work as slaves. Along with that, Columbus also forced the Christian religion onto them, spread diseases that killed thousands of lives, and used violence as a means of persuasion and control.2 Corrupted by his pursuit of riches,

To begin with, Christopher Columbus should be vilified for converting Native Americans to slaves. In the diary of Columbus, Columbus wrote about his intentions to turn Native Americans into “good and intelligent servants”. Columbus turned his intentions into a reality when he brought Native Americans to Europe as servants. As well as bringing slaves back to Spain, Columbus was an active involver in the slave trafficking network between America and Europe, thus becoming the “first slave trader in the Americas”. Slavery, the cruel practice that blighted the Americas for centuries, was heavily used by Columbus. By founding the American slave industry and kidnapping several slaves back home with him, Columbus showed that he did not value the Native Americans, as he treated them as objects rather than humans. If

Columbus's arrogance and exploitation regarding slavery began on his second voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella had ordered that the natives be treated kindly. In opposition to this order, Columbus began exporting slaves in great numbers in 1494. It was because he was not making any real profit elsewhere on the island that he decided to exploit the one source of income--people--he had in abundance (Fernandez-Armesto 107). When word reached him that the crown did not want him sending more slaves, Columbus ignored it. He was desperate to make his expeditions profitable enough for Ferdinand and Isabella's continued support. Evidently he was not reprimanded because thousands of Indians were exported. By the time they reached Spain, usually a third of them were dead. Bartolome de las Casas wrote that one Spaniard had told him they did not need a compass to find their way back to Spain; they could simply follow the bodies of floating Indians who had been tossed overboard when they died (17). It is horrible to consider that the exportation of these natives resulted

When Christopher Columbus had first arrived in 1492 to the New World, American Indians and European colonists started interacting with each other. These two very different societies interacting with one another was caused by the European colonists’ desire to expand into the New World and the land owned by American Indians. Due to the unwillingness to accept the Native people, the relationship in the New World between these two societies was a one of unease and violence.

Christopher Columbus is commonly known as the “discoverer” of the Americas. From a young age students are taught all the wonderful things he did for our land and how well he interacted with the Natives. Although the truth is disregarded and as students grow, they come to learn that Columbus was not a hero in fact. Columbus came close to causing a genocide of the Native Americans, and basically began the “white power” movement that America is forced to deal with today. The truth of what Christopher Columbus did makes him no better than Hitler, yet America still praises him as an important figure in our history. The actions of Columbus has impacted all Americans lives since the 1400’s when he first landed on American soil. Although it did make America into the super power it is today, the structure within the borders will never be equal because of his abuse of power back then. Christopher Columbus is not the hero American students are taught from a young age and does not deserve any of the praise or recognition that we as American citizens continue to give him on a daily basis.

The famous explorer has been regarded as a hero only for his achievements and accomplishments only for them to be darkened by his crimes of genocide, slavery and rape thus the controversy arises as to how he should be remembered . In his quest to find riches and conquer new lands, Columbus encountered many native people who he treated as

In the year of 1492, the man who brought tragedy to the Americas was seen as a hero to us, but little did we know what he really did. Every elementary kid learned that Christopher Columbus found America in an honorable way. We also have a national holiday just for him. They never told us though how he was looking for the Indies and thought he was in China. In reality he was lost and had no clue he was in America. They also did not show us how he actually treated the people on the islands when he met them. He was cruel to them just because they could not understand him and he took away their land just because he wanted to. Christopher Columbus was a really bad man, but was taught to us as a good man. What really happened in the year

Some say Columbus is a hero and should be recognized, which I believe has some valid points. The main point is that without Columbus we would not of been here with the opportunities we have today. In a video, it says how Columbus was an inspiration to struggling people. I believe that this is a very weak argument that most people bring in. If Columbus never “discovered” America, we would have saved millions of Native Americans and they would never have been placed in reservations that are hideous

Christopher Columbus and Bartolome de la Casas are similar in most ways but have a major difference. They were both explorers of the New World and came to convert the natives into Catholics. The two explorers worked on the Spanish’s behalf. Columbus wrote accounts of the New World in his journal. La Casas wrote the Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. Both gave accounts of the native people they saw. Columbus’s journal entries aim to give a positive light on the Spanish and their relationship with the natives. La Casas’s Brief Account does the opposite. While this is true, both explores worked faithfully in favor of the Catholic Church, but they each held different beliefs on the treatment of natives as slaves.

When you think of Columbus what comes to mind? A hero? A villain? Most people think he is a hero, but many do not think of the things he did to people such as slavery, beatings, raping, etc. He is most known for discovering America, but he only got to the Bahamas. Columbus was an Italian explorer that sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Columbus Day should not be celebrated because of the awful things that don’t make up for the discoveries that Christopher Columbus did.

Columbus never even walked on what we now call the United States of America. Where ever he did land, he was motivated only by his own greed. Columbus came for the gold, spices, and slaves. In his diary, he mentioned gold 75 times just in the first two weeks, alone (Katz 13). Indians who weren’t able to find gold, were punished by having their hands cut off. Most slaves died en route to Spain. Many Indian females were taken as sex slaves, some as young as nine and ten years old. Columbus forced cooperation from the Indians by disfiguring them and using them as examples. Even worse, he used hunting dogs to tear the Indians apart. Many natives committed suicide, and murdered their own children to save them from such a horrible life. Those who survived the voyage were worked to death. Still, another huge portion of these Indians died from disease brought over by Columbus and his

Columbus’s big plan for Hispaniola since the beginning was to take advantage of the natives and take their land, and the gold he believed was located there. He built the first fort in the Western Hemisphere, and left some of his men to find and store gold there. Columbus had to ask for a little more help from their majesties, he convinced them by saying he would take them “as much gold as they need ... and as many slaves as they ask” (Zinn,6 ) Columbus’s plans affected the natives, in many ways; first of all they were going to lose their land, and also they were going to be taken captive for slave labor.

Columbus came across a wealth of things that would help them for life. They had a vast area of land to do whatever they wanted to do with it. They could use the water, oil, lumber, coal, and so many other things. They were faced with a new group of people, people they didn't know what to do with. These people could be used as slaves for their personal use, being they came in and took over the land, and with the land come the people. When Columbus found this New World, he brought a world of wealth back to the Spanish, later to be shared with all of Europe.