years before Christopher Columbus was born. In fact, many archeologists now believe that the first people to settle North America arrived as early as 40, years ago when they crossed a land bridge that then connected Siberia and Alaska. Despite this fact, Christopher Columbus was at one time credited with having “discovered” the Americas Dec 19, · Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain? Was the French Revolution inevitable? Is history always written by the victors? Is history bound to be repeated? Funny Controversial Topics. Are cats better pets than dogs? Does pineapple belong on a pizza? These are the kind of age-old debates we look into in our Funny Controversial Topics page October 12th marks Columbus Day, commemorating the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in Is this occasion worth celebrating, though? Well, there are many different opinions out there. Turns out, a YouGov poll of more than 7, US adults found that Americans narrowly view the European explorer as more of a villain (40%) than a hero (32%)
Controversial Topics for Essays, Speeches, and Debates
On the second Monday of October each year, millions of Americans celebrate Columbus Day, one of just two federal holidays named for specific men. To some, he was an intrepid explorer, following his instincts to a New World. To others, he was a monster, a trader of enslaved people who unleashed the horrors of the conquest on unsuspecting Indigenous societies.
What are the facts about Christopher Columbus? Schoolchildren are taught that Christopher Columbus wanted to find America, or in some cases that he wanted to prove christopher columbus hero or villain essay the world was round.
He convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to finance the journey, and she sold her personal jewelry to do so. He bravely headed west and christopher columbus hero or villain essay the Americas and the Caribbean, making friends with Indigenous peoples along the way, christopher columbus hero or villain essay.
He returned to Spain in glory, having discovered the New World. What's wrong with this story? Quite a bit, actually. The theory that the Earth was flat and that it was possible to sail off its edge was common in the Middle Agesbut it had been discredited by Columbus' time.
His first New World journey did help fix one common mistake, however: it proved that the Earth was much larger than people had previously thought. Columbus, basing his calculations on incorrect assumptions about the size of the Earth, assumed it would be possible to reach the rich markets of eastern Asia by sailing west. Christopher columbus hero or villain essay he succeeded in finding a new trade route, it would have made him a very wealthy man.
Instead, he found the Caribbean, then inhabited by cultures with little in the way of gold, christopher columbus hero or villain essay, silver, or trade goods. Unwilling to completely abandon his calculations, Columbus made a laughingstock of himself back in Europe by claiming that the Earth was not round but shaped like a pear.
He had not found Asia, he said, because of the bulging part of the pear. He didn't need to. Isabella and her husband Ferdinand, fresh from the conquest of Moorish kingdoms in the south of Spain, had more than enough money to send someone like Columbus sailing off to the west in three second-rate ships.
He had tried to get financing from other kingdoms like England and Portugal with no success. Strung along on vague promises, Columbus hung around the Spanish court for years. In fact, he had just given up and was headed to France to try his luck there when word reached him that the Spanish king and queen had decided to finance his voyage. The Europeans, with ships, guns, fancy clothes, and shiny trinkets, made quite an impression on the tribes of the Caribbean.
Columbus made a good impression when he wanted to. For example, he made friends with a local cacique on the Island of Hispaniola named Guacanagari because he needed to leave some of his men behind. But Columbus also captured and enslaved other Indigenous peoples.
The practice of enslavement was common and legal in Europe at the time, and the trade of enslaved people was very lucrative. Columbus never forgot that his voyage was not one of exploration, but of economics. His financing came from the hope that he would find a lucrative new trade route. He did nothing of the sort: the people he met had little to trade.
An opportunist, he captured Indigenous people to show that they would make good enslaved workers. Years later, he would be devastated to learn that Queen Isabella had decided to declare the New World off-limits to enslavers. Again, this one is half-true. At first, most observers in Spain considered his first voyage a total fiasco. He had not found a new trade route and the most valuable of his three ships, the Santa Maria, had sunk. Later, when people began to realize that the lands he had found were previously unknown, his stature grew and he was able to get funding for a second, much larger voyage of exploration and colonization.
But more than that, christopher columbus hero or villain essay, Columbus stubbornly stuck to his guns for the rest of his life. He always believed that the lands he found were the easternmost fringe of Asia and that the rich markets of Japan and India were just a little farther away.
He even put forth his absurd pear-shaped Earth theory in order to make the facts fit his assumptions. He is vilified by Indigenous rights groups today, and rightly so, christopher columbus hero or villain essay, yet he was once seriously considered for sainthood. Columbus may have been a talented sailor, christopher columbus hero or villain essay, navigator, and ship captain.
He went west without a map, trusting his instincts and calculations, and was very loyal to his patrons, the king and queen of Spain. Because of it, they rewarded him by sending him to the New World christopher columbus hero or villain essay total of four times.
And yet, while Columbus might have had some admirable qualities as an explorer, most popular accounts of him today fail to highlight the significance of his crimes against Indigenous peoples. Columbus did not have an abundance of admirers during his time. Many of his contemporaries despised these actions. As governor of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, he was a despot who kept all profits for himself and his brothers and was loathed by the colonists whose lives he controlled.
Attempts were made on his life and he was actually sent back to Spain in chains at one point after his third voyage. During his fourth voyagehe and his men were stranded in Jamaica for a year when his ships rotted.
No one wanted to travel there from Hispaniola to save him. He was also dishonest and selfish, christopher columbus hero or villain essay. Those who voice disdain for anti-Columbus historians may feel like the explorer's legacy is shouldering the weight of crimes that not only he committed. It is true that he was not the only person who enslaved or killed Indigenous peoples, and perhaps written histories should more explicitly acknowledge this fact.
In this way, Columbus might then be more widely seen as one of several major explorers who collectively contributed to the decimation of Indigenous civilizations in the New World. Straus, Jacob R. Marr, John S. Share Flipboard Email. Table of Contents Expand.
The Myth of Christopher Columbus. Myth 1: Columbus Wanted to Prove the World Was Not Flat. Myth 2: Columbus Persuaded Queen Isabella to Sell Her Jewels to Finance the Trip. Myth 3: He Made Friends With the Indigenous Peoples He Met. Myth 4: He Returned to Spain in Glory, Having Discovered the Americas. Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? Additional References.
Christopher Minster. Professor of History and Literature. Christopher Minster, Ph. He is a former head writer at VIVA Travel Guides. our editorial process. View Article Sources. Cite this Article Format. Minster, Christopher. The Truth About Christopher Columbus.
copy citation. The First New World Voyage of Christopher Columbus The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus. Biography of Christopher Columbus, Italian Explorer. The Controversy Over Columbus Day Celebrations. Biography of Juan Ponce de León, Conquistador. Biography of Bartolomé de Las Casas, Spanish Colonist. A Timeline of North American Exploration: — A Brief History of the Age of Exploration. Did Christopher Columbus Actually Discover America?
Timeline of Hernan Cortes' Conquest of the Aztecs. Causes of the Latin American Revolution. Biography of Antonio de Montesinos, Defender of Indigenous Rights.
The Untold History of Native American Enslavement.
Celebrating Columbus
, time: 5:38Was Carnegie a Hero or Bad Example | GraduateWay
October 12th marks Columbus Day, commemorating the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in Is this occasion worth celebrating, though? Well, there are many different opinions out there. Turns out, a YouGov poll of more than 7, US adults found that Americans narrowly view the European explorer as more of a villain (40%) than a hero (32%) Sep 28, · Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?1. Jack and the Beanstalk, a Hero’s Journey. This essay was written by a fellow student. You may use it as a guide or sample for writing your own paper, but remember to cite it correctly. Don’t submit it as your own as it will be considered plagiarism Dec 19, · Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain? Was the French Revolution inevitable? Is history always written by the victors? Is history bound to be repeated? Funny Controversial Topics. Are cats better pets than dogs? Does pineapple belong on a pizza? These are the kind of age-old debates we look into in our Funny Controversial Topics page
No comments:
Post a Comment