Columbus Good Or Bad Essay, Research Paper

Christopher Columbus is a very important person in our country’s history. He found the “new world,” the one we live in today. He started the society that makes us who we are today, the society that allowed our ancestors to come to America and start the life that we live now. This whole world owes their lives to this man and his soldiers. Columbus should always be remembered as a very important and especially good person in history.

Columbus made an especially daring trip when he set sail for the Indies. He knew he was headed for some rough water, bad weather, and maybe even an unwelcoming crowd of people. When he left the shore he didn’t know what was to lie ahead in his journey, but to say the least it was the most prosperous voyage ever made. He opened so many doorways to new opportunity to the European and the Indians. By finding the new world, people were able to spread out. The population was easily dispersed among the “new and “old” world, making it easier to live and even easier to produce more people. By finding the new world Columbus created an opportunity to produce a brand new society. A society later to be know as the United States of America. In finding the new world many people were able to leave a less than desirable situation and start over. It allowed the people that suffered from the potato famine to flee Ireland. The new world allowed Jews to flee to avoid being killed by Hitler. Columbus left a legend that would help people forever. Columbus, by far, helped many more than he ever hurt.

At the time of the Columbus Voyage there could not have been a better thing for Europe than to find a well of good fortune. Spain was faced with a new continent, a place that no one ever knew was even there. Columbus opened a load of new opportunity for the Europeans. In this find, he gained money, people, land, and respect from the other countries. One of the big things that Columbus got out of this voyage was resources. Columbus came across a wealth of things that would help them for life. They had a vast area of land to do whatever they wanted to do with it. They could use the water, oil, lumber, coal, and so many other things. They were faced with a new group of people, people they didn’t know what to do with. These people could be used as slaves for their personal use, being they came in and took over the land, and with the land come the people. When Columbus found this “new” world he brought a world of wealth back to the Spanish, later to be shared with all of Europe.

Now, in our present society, people are rethinking the goodness of Columbus and the actual impact that he had on our world. People feel that the killing of the American Indians was unethical and morally wrong. When Columbus made the Voyage to the Americas it was a different time, a different way of life. People had different morals and ethics. When it came to the killing of animals it was entertainment just as television would be in this time and age. In the Columbian period it was fun to give a hurt dog to fight with a wild pig and watch the dog get killed. In 1492 there were many internal conflicts in many countries. Fighting was a thing that was normal. There were Civil Wars all over the world and fighting was a thing of the time.

In the late 1400’s and the early 1500’s there was a major problem with disease. The European body was immune to sicknesses that the Indians were not and the Indian body was immune to sicknesses that the European was not. Due to this fact, when the two came together they shared the disease with each other and in result, killed each other. According to those who are against Columbus, they feel that the Indians were killed strictly by killing but in all actuality that is not true. The Indians were killed by the disease as were the Spanish. Another main factor in the death of the Indians was their own suicide. Many of them committed suicide by eating poisonous roots. Again, telling that Columbus can’t be totally blamed for the death of all of the Indians.

In the issue of slaves, it is best said by Barry Gouph when he says, “It was the custom that the conqueror always took slaves.” In every battle ever fought there was some kind of slavery involved. How can we only persecute Columbus for doing the same thing that conquers had been doing for years. We can’t. Again he is a man of his times learning from his history.

In closing, the idea that Columbus is a barbarian and that he is lacking moral and ethics is exactly the opposite of the actual truth. He had all the right morals, ethics, and intentions. Columbus set sail to make Spain wealthier than it already was. Although he missed his destination, he found a place of more wealth than he could have ever imagined. Columbus founded our new world, creating a new opportunity for mankind, leaving the world changed forever. This leaving reason enough to remember Columbus forever as a figure in history that should be seen as a successful and great man, in the eyes of everyone.

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