Monday, October 8, 2007

Christopher Columbus - Hero or Villain

As we all sit down and enjoy the day off from our duties, we often think of Christopher Columbus and thank him for his accomplishments and contributions. Columbus had found the new world in an attempt to find Asia and had sent many expeditions to explore the area heroically. That is what the majority of people think about when they think of Christopher Columbus. Little do they know, Christopher Columbus had a dark side. He was deceitful and merciless, and would stop at nothing to obtain what he wanted , much like a villain. I would classify Columbus as a villain do to his horrible ethical treatment of others as well as his deceitful ways.

Christopher Columbus was not only a good explorer, he was a deceitful one at that, stopping at nothing to get his way or convince people that he is right. one example of this occurred when one of his crewmen spotted the land that is now known as the Bahamas. At the time, the Spanish government had promised a large sum of money to the first person who spotted land. The crewman should have received the prize. However, Columbus' deceitful antics persuaded the king and queen that he himself was the one that spotted land and he received the money. In addition to this, when Columbus reported back to Spain, he exaggerated the treasures that he had found there. he reported that the was gold all around when in reality, there was very little gold, only scarce amounts in rivers to be exact.

Perhaps more terrifying than his deceitfulness was the unethical treatment of the native Arawak Indians by the Spaniards under his command. His men had rounded up many of the Indians to transport as slaves to Spain, since Columbus had to send something in replacement of all the nonexistent gold. He also traded with the Indians unfairly, making they trade lopsided and bad for the Arawaks. This unethical treatment began to worsen more and more as the Spaniards under his command were at the island longer. The Europeans had taken many Arawaks as slaves and made them work on plantations called encomiendas. They also used the Arawaks for free labor forcing them to work in mines and separating families. However, the most unethical treatment of the Arawaks came when the Europeans became very interested in gold. Each Arawak was responsible for collecting a certain amount of gold in a couple months time. When they collected the gold, they would receive a medal from the Spanish. If an Arawak did not collect enough gold, they would be killed. These killings led to more and more. Eventually, the Spanish would kill the Arawaks just for fun, or to try out weapons. This led to a rapid decrease in the Arawak population due to death, disease, and suicide. Eventually, there were no Arawak Indians left in the area.

Next time you think of Columbus and his accomplishments, keep in mind what he had to do in order to fulfill those accomplishments. He lied, he tortured, he abused, and he killed many native people of the time.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

HOUNGRY

Unknown said...

IM HOUNGRY

Unknown said...

HOUNGRY

Unknown said...

this is a great artickle

Unknown said...

dangg columbus wasz a villian hahah

Unknown said...

Columbus day is only great because we get to get out of school. The dude created a genocide. He should change his name to Fuhrer Columbus. What a selfish prick.

Dr. Eric Flores said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dr. Eric Flores said...

I have to agree with you 100% I also have to say something about this particular fact "that Columbus had found the new world." In my opinion, basically he discovered nothing, and the new world as some called it was not new at all, the other fact is that it was a world already inhabited. All Columbus did was bringing the3D's to this world in the form of decease, devastation, and death. We can say that he helped re-establish the route to the America's by letting everyone else know that there is more than what they already knew. I heard from certain circles that before Columbus others had already been here and before them indigenous cultures had already large establishments all over the America's. I view Christopher Columbus and other (and I’m complimenting this from some facts I’ve took from Wikipedia) European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492 as band thief that came into someone's backyard and started raping it in any way possible they could. Great Article.

Sam Cicio said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sam Cicio said...

Same side of the story i had for my research paper

CUPITOR Veritatis said...

First of all, dghnfgj, please come up with your own ideas rather than copying and pasting from somewhere that interjects advertisements every other sentence; it bothers me when you do that and something so obvious is not going to make you look smarter. Second of all, Alexander, we do not care that you are "Houngry". Nor do we want to learn this worthlessly annoying information through an educational forum. Angela, despite my adoration of such a beautiful name, please stop posting "ar[tickle]"s on the internet. It is too busy laughing and my computer is running all the slower for it. To add a positive note to my criticism, I respect the opinion provided to us by "Elemental_Studies" and am relieved to know that there is still somebody in existence on planet earth that can actually form a literate opinion without copying and pasting from another source. Finally I would like to add that all of us are in a similar AP World History course with almost identical standards and projects. I'm just implying that we could confer with each other to...shall we say...better our "knowledge" aka "grades". Thank you.

Unknown said...

I think this is an okay artical i believe christopher is a villan


-JoJo

Unknown said...

This is an okay artical i believe christopher is a villan.