Christopher Columbus Hero or Villain Essay - 1788 Words

School taught us about the infamous Christopher Columbus who was known as the hero who found the Americas in 1492, but is that the truth? Is Columbus really the hero that grade school portrayed him to be? Columbus was not. Columbus was a greedy man who destroyed an entire race of people with genocide just so only he could benefit and become a man of money and power. Columbus was a very good speaker and very persuasive. He convinced the King and Queen of Spain to fund his expedition to â€Å"Asia† and he told about all the gold and spices that would be discovered there and how they would be wealthy.# Columbus told them his famous terms which stated that he would receive no less than one-tenth of all the wealth that would arrive from Asia†¦show more content†¦According to Meredith, Columbus had said that the Arawak Indians willingly traded everything that they owned and that they seemed a poor people.# He later states in his log to make himself appear humble that he g ave gifts to one particular man, a red cap, a string of glass beads, and two hawks’ bells which were together worth less than 3 cents.# â€Å"But, should your Majesties command it habitants could be taken away to Castile, or made slaves on the island. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.†# Columbus noticed that some of these Indians had little golden ornaments in their noses and ears, This made him take some of the Arawak Indians that they help prisoner onto the ship and insisted they guide him to where they were the source of the gold was, this had lead him to sail to what is now Cuba then to Hispaniola.# There bits of gold were visible in the rivers. Columbus and his crew built a fort and left thirty-nine crew members there to collect gold and store all they would find. Koing states, â€Å"I am not going to assert that this was all Columbus’ fault. Although there was no systematic slavery within Europe at that ti me, enslavement of darker races had been considered a matter of course from the first contact with them†¦ Spaniards from that time on become more cruel than any of theShow MoreRelatedChristopher Columbus : Hero Or Villain?884 Words   |  4 PagesRian White Crawford 3rd Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? In elementary school students are taught that Christopher Columbus is some godly hero who discovered that the earth was round and a shorter route to â€Å"Asia†. They even have a day dedicated to him. Typically, children are gullible and just believe what they are taught, rather than actually researching and learning the history on their own. As a child one’s brain is not developed enough to possess a sense of moral discernment. 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