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. The obstinate Europeans,

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.