Was Christopher Colombus a Hero or Villian

October 15, 2012 Was Christopher Columbus a Hero or a Villain to America? Yes, Columbus discovered America, but do you know how many deaths and how much destruction it cost? Columbus went to explore the ocean and he found a new continent, North America. He was actually looking for India and its gold but found a different place. Exploration of North America brought so many bad things to people. All of those things happened because of Columbus. It makes one want to say that Columbus is a villain. First thing that makes Columbus a “bad guy” is lying. Columbus lied to the queen about the explored island.

He said that there’s a lot of gold and spices, and people there would share anything with anyone. Columbus also lied that he reached Asia, which was his destination spot. He said all those things to make the queen believe that he’s a good man and to save himself from the death. Five hundred years before Columbus was even born, the Vikings settled land in northern North America. They were the true discoverers of the New World. Christopher Columbus merely takes credit while the Vikings are remembered as drunken savages. Not only did he not discover the New World, but his calculations were based on other’s works.

What kind of “hero” can’t find his way to where he wants to go and then receives the credit for a complete and utter accident! This doesn’t only make him a liar but it also makes him selfish. But yet we Americans still nationally celebrate his “accomplishments” that were all just faux. Another interesting fact about Columbus being a villain is that he deculturalized people. When he arrived, he started to control all of the land. He wanted to shape the Americas into a European society, and he did not want to consider the current ways of the Native American practices into his new society.

In fact, he would kill-or have his men-kill the Natives if he felt that they were being too unruly. For example how Columbus was on a mission to convert everyone to Christianity, instead of just letting the natives keep their normal religious practices. If you ask me he sounds more like a Hitler than a hero. Columbus met Sarawak Indians in North America; he wanted to make them just like Europeans. He was trying to make them all Christian. He was also giving women less power and fewer rights, and women had to work at fields and men had to work on deadly mines.

A lot of people were protesting but if they protested, they were getting killed. That’s another thing that makes Columbus a villain. Every native older than 14 was given an amount of gold to find per day. Those who didn’t reach their amount got their hands chopped off. That is nothing compared to what he did to runaways whom were executed. These Europeans also brought disease that the natives’ immune systems couldn’t handle. Besides genocide, he also kidnapped 500 natives and brought the half that survived back to Europe. They also raped the Native Americans, beat, abused them and even tested out new weapons on them.

The last but the worst thing that Columbus did to gain a “bad character” name is his partial massacre. When Columbus went to America the second time, he brought a lot of Native Americans back with him to make them slaves to work for his queen. A lot of people died on the way to Columbus’s country, and others were dying because they worked hard as slaves in mines and fields, which was hard and dangerous. And that’s the third reason to call Columbus a “bad guy” of history. Columbus wasn’t that much of a hero, as many people would say.

I mean yes, he did play a very important parts in history. For example he brought exchanged different plants and animals between Europe and America. He also brought more attention to a new continent, and partially helped the Native Americans (before he killed a lot of them). But he also did the devious things like killing the Native Americans, spreading diseases to them, enslaving them and torturing and abusing them, it’s easy to see why you could call Christopher Columbus a villain and defiantly not a hero after hearing all the details of his adventure.

All the destruction and pain that he brought to people makes him a villain. Also the conflicts he caused between different countries and regions . Don’t you think? Reference page http://www. scholastic. com/teachers/article/christopher-columbus-1451-1506 http://voices. yahoo. com/christopher-columbus-hero-villain-330564. html Holt McDougal United States History, Beginnings to 1877 ©2013, Florida Edition chapters 1-2