Christopher Columbus Perceptions Essay, Research Paper

As citizens of the United States of America, nearly every individual in

today?s society is familiar with the name Christopher Columbus. Sailing

across the Atlantic in the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria in 1492, Columbus

was the man who landed on the continent of North America and founded

Euro-American society. Yet for most of us, that it where our knowledge

ends.

Recently however, through a combination of heightened research and

increased education many Americans are beginning to question the validity

of Columbus?s reputation as a historical hero.

Admittedly, the arrival of the Columbus and the Europeans did have

several detrimental effects, both on the conditions of the continent and on its

people. After only a century of their presence the Europeans with their

foreign diseases had killed nearly ninety percent of the Native American

population. In North America alone the native population had diminished

from a expansive fourteen million at the time of the Europeans arrival, to a

mere quarter million by only 1917. European diseases such as the Smallpox

had brought a once powerful and flourishing people to near annihilation in

under a century. Those natives who survived faced an ongoing struggle with

a new society which threatened their land, depleted their food supply, and

extinguished their culture through assimilation. However although

Columbus?s arrival undoubtedly proved detrimental to the Native American

population, to either pass judgment on Columbus or place the blame of the

Native American?s fate directly upon him would be nothing but premature.

Before any conclusions may be made about the validity of Columbus?s

voyage one must first examine the motives behind the man.

When Columbus first set sail on his voyage there were basically two

motivating factors behind his actions. These were the spread of religion and

the drive of economic prosperity. Religion was a large guiding factor in both

the life of Christopher Columbus and of the Spanish people. When it came

time for Columbus to ask for financial backing by the King and Queen,

Ferdinand and Isabella, he used the spread of Christianity as the main reason

why they should finance him. Originally Columbus believed that his journey

would take him to India, and in pleading his case, he told Isabella that his

voyage would fill the ?Great Khan?s? curiosity about Catholicism.

Writing later about his conversation with Ferdinand and Isabella

Columbus recounted that the monarchs desired for him to voyage to India to

gather reports and see how ?their conversion to the Holy Faith? might be

undertaken. Both Ferdinand and Isabella believed that they held a divine

right to convert the world to the righteousness of Christianity. Even

Christopher Columbus himself believed to have been chosen by God to carry

out his mission, and frequently signed many of his papers – ?Christopher

Columbus, Christ Bearer.? He truly believed that when he set sail he was on

a divine mission of God. Upon his arrival upon the shores of North

America,(which he believed to be the Indies), and contact with the Native

Americans Columbus

immediately placed flag with a cross into the ground marking his holy

purpose.

Besides the religious motivation of Columbus and Ferdinand and

Isabella, the other main reason why Christopher Columbus set off for the

Indies was for economic prosperity. Columbus believed the distance from

Spain to the Indies heading West would be substantially shorter than that of

heading East, and therefore prove equitable for the Spanish trade economy.

By being the first to discover an alternate route to the Indies Columbus

hoped to gain control of the world trade with the Indies. When he

unexpectedly arrived on the coast of North America Columbus offered to

trade with the natives on several occasions. Even when the natives refused to

accept goods for the trade of their furs etc. Columbus still graciously

compensated the natives with beads, glass, and tools out of good faith.

Although the trading between the Native Americans and Columbus proved

prosperous, the major economic benefit of the continent proved to be its

gold. Columbus found gold to be in abundance in the Americas, and told

Ferdinand and Isabella of their fortune. Columbus found gold to possess

almost a spiritual meaning, and

advised the Spanish monarchs to ?…spend the all the profits of my enterprise

on the conquest of Jerusalem.?

Columbus left the ports of Spain in search of the Indies in 1492,

driven by the hopes of spreading his Christian beliefs and attaining

economic prosperity for his country. When he finally hit land he arrived at a

continent previously unknown to the world, America. To the native

Americans inhabiting the continent Columbus?s arrival marked a disastrous

change in their lives and in their future. Their people were introduced to new

diseases,

later driven off their land, and challenged to give up their very culture.

However, upon analyzing the situation one must realize that although the

Native Americans suffered greatly, it was not the result of the arrival of

Columbus himself, but instead the arrival of Europe in general. It must also

be concluded that inevitably, even without the existence of Columbus, the

American continent would have discovered at one point by the Europeans,

and suffered the same detrimental effects. Therefore in judging Christopher

Columbus one must not look at the fate of the Indians, but instead at the

motives and actions of the man behind the voyage. Filled with good

intentions and commendable motives Christopher Columbus was on the

whole a good

man, and deserves the national heroic status which he maintains.