Columbus 3 Essay, Research Paper
Essay on Christopher Columbus
Columbus as a man had many positive contributions as well as negative.
People all over the world celebrate Columbus Day, because of his
achievements, and success in finding the “New World”. Although, many people
revel in his glory, their are facts that infer that Columbus wasn’t as
admirable as people think of him. In 1892, Columbus was a hero, virtually
everyone praised him. On the contrary in 1992, revisionists who are delving
into archives, are uncovering the negative aspects of his infamous voyage.
Columbus’ journey was the first step in a process that produced an
experiment, where the “New World” became a symbol and a home for democracy.
In 1892, people perceived that Columbus and the Europeans who followed him
brought civilization to two immense sparsely populated continents, in the
process of enhancing and altering the Old World from where they had came
from. The 19th century, was a period whereby soceity of the Europeans
altered the Western culture of the Native Americans. The Europeans had
brought many new changes to the “New World”, such as pigs, horses. Columbus
had opened the seeds of change. The European society as a whole, had
thought that the Europeans were doing a favor, by changing their primitive
ways, when in fact, some of the Native American customs were far more
superior to what the Europeans had in their own.
did not want to make concessions because they had an assumed air of
superiority.
Columbus has been the all-time heroic figure portayed by people of
1862, they viewed him as a man of great and inventive genius. Columbus in
today’s perception is a grasping fortune hunter, an incompetent governor of
the “New World” colonies, those fame to the Indians he “discovered” was
plunder, servitude, and death. Columbus is like Hitler to a greater extent,
in that he persecuted, and tried to progress his own (European) race, just
like Hitler tried to persecute jews, and progress his own (Aryan) race.
Environmentalists see Columbus as a man who set forth the despoliation of
the New World, by using ecological imperialism. Columbus wanted Indian
genocide, inorder to aid the progress of the European civilization at the
expense of the lives of the Indians. Columbus started genocide, by
enslavement of the people, and the spreading of disease, which led to the
demise of approximately 75% of the Native American population. Columbus had
benevolent contributions, but the persecution of Native Americans does and
should not condone him from his faults.
Native Americans were doomed by European arrogance, brutality, and
infectious diseases. Columbus’ gift was slavery to those who greeted him.
Columbus’ arrival to the New World, set in motion a destruction of the
world he entered.