Christopher Columbus As A Hero

     Throughout all of our years that we are taught about world history, we are led to believe that Columbus was one of the greatest explorers of all time. In my mind there is no question about whether Christopher Columbus discovered America; of course he did, its Columbus! However, this is a highly debated issue and through writings by authors Jeffery Hart and James W. Loewen we will investigate the true importance of Columbus.

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.

All my life, I have been hearing about Christopher Columbus. Since little, first, my family talking about him, then in school learning about him. I really thought he was a hero. The way they teach you about him in grammar school or middle school makes you think he really is a hero. But later on, doing research on him, looking for what he really did, where did he came from etc. I realize that he is not a hero. There are many reasons why people think he is good as well there are many reasons why they think he is bad. Personally I think Columbus is a villain, he did a lot of bad things that most people don’t know a bout. However if they know them, it would make them think a little bit deeper if Columbus is the Hero

People have many opinion of Christopher Columbus varying from hatred and believing he’s a villain to believing he’s a hero to the Americas. I believe Columbus was a great contribution in the advancements in the Americas. He brought technology, food, and a new religion. Technology brought by Christopher Columbus had a huge impact on the Americas, and because of him we have what we have now. A document by Colombo describes the benefits of what he brought over and the impact of it.

Many around the world always picture Christopher Columbus as a man who did great things for what America is today. Is that all really true? As kids, we have all, been taught that Columbus was the man who discovered America but in reality that is all a lie. Christopher Columbus was a man that made a mistake that started many issues that is still around today. Some of many things Columbus did was: he started the slave trade, he treated the Native Americans poorly, kidnapped the Tainos, and stole gold and many other items of value. Even though he did a lot of bad things not everything that Columbus did was terrible. I feel that though many things that are wrong today are his fault at the end of the day he still made America known in Europe. Christopher Columbus is a man that causes a lot of controversies but it makes a person think that was all he did worth the outcome. Bringing light to what Christopher Columbus does helps to acknowledge his legacy and what he left behind.

For more than five centuries Americans have lifted Christopher Columbus to heights of greatness and god-like. We celebrate his life as though he was a man that had done us a great favor. In resent years Christopher Columbus has come under scrutiny, his life and works being questioned more than celebrated. There have be many great men and women that contributed to the building of our great nation but they do not receive anywhere as much recognition as Columbus. When a person begins to study the actual accounts of the "finding of the New World" they begin to wonder if Columbus should adored or hated for his actions. As a child I was taught that Columbus was a great man that had accomplished great things for the sake of humanity, but in

Chapter One Thesis: Even though it is taught in history books and in schools, Christopher Columbus was not a hero but rather a selfish man who used cruel manners in order to obtain what he wanted, harshly killing thousands of Indians. Additionally, the ethics of these manners are not questioned but rather praised for bringing on economic and social progress.

Columbus 'accidently' discovered the New World, although, there were several who came before him. His discovery ultimately resulted in life as we know it today. However, in my opinion, he was not a hero, but a villain who removed the Natives from their home and infected them with diseases of which they had no immunity against. Although Columbus' voyage to the Americas eventually paved the way for the establishment of the New World, it came with a price. Unfortunately, the Natives were the victims of it all.

Christopher columbus should remember as both, a hero and a villain but mainly a villain because of his evil acts to the native americans. An example of why Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a villain is that because, according to, A Brief Account of the Devastation of the indies by Bartoleme De Las Casas stated that, “ Christopher and his group of spanish explorer attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughterhouse...They took infants from their mothers, snatching them by the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw

World history in general is a very controversial topic, but world history concerning Christopher Columbus is by far the most renowned debate in history. Columbus is no longer the national symbol that everybody idolized just decades ago, there may be a day that Columbus is eradicated from history books. This change of idolization is because of a change in time. Since, Columbus’ voyages, societies have advanced in knowledge, which resulted in new questions. Columbus did in fact make a change in history and played a major role in modernizing the era through his actions.

Since his death in 1506, Columbus's life story has gone through many revisions and although we still might celebrate Columbus Day we still cannot ignore the fact that he was a slave trader who heartlessly took men and women away from their families in order to lessen his failure to find a new trade route. He enslaved and multilated natives, and he was arrested by the Spanish government. Although many still say that Columbus is an American hero despite his wrong doings, I believe him to be a villain who has had been made a legend but not

My first encounter with the word, ‘Columbus’ was when I stepped foot out of the plane in Port Columbus International Airport. It would become a familiar name to myself as I pursued my undergraduate studies in the city of Columbus, Ohio. Before this, I had trivial knowledge of who Christopher Columbus was apart from being a famous discoverer in US history. I figured that since he is celebrated here on the October 12th, he must be a great man. However, I was not aware of the recent controversies surrounding this renowned historian.

Was Christopher Columbus a hero and founder of the new world or villainous destroyer of indigenous people? There is much controversy and debate around this man. Many people believe that Columbus’s discoveries were falsified or over exaggerated and that his misdeeds are left untold. Others believe that he was a great explorer and was responsible for the discovery and shaping of the new world. Is Christopher Columbus the brave explorer who ushered in the “age of exploration”, or was he the brutal and violent man who destroyed thousands of lives on his explorations for power and riches?

The life and fortunes of Christopher Columbus are highly significant of the fact that even a man destined to great deeds can only be explained by reference to his age and his environment. Our imagination is far too prone to endow an immortal figure with attributes deduced from the results of his achievement and in no way connected with his earthly existence and personality. Fame is a highly mysterious process of crystallisation, in the course of which much dross is purged away. For that reason, contemporaries misinterpret such a phenomenon, or even fail to notice it at all; while posterity, by its knowledge of the ultimate results, now embedded in the course of history, can no longer form a fresh and vivid impression of these mighty figures. Thus all our judgements on historical epochs as well as on historic personages are like much-worn coins, whose value is only investigated for some special reason.

This essay is going to be based on a few view points of Christopher Columbus. Some people might believe that Columbus was a hero because he discovered a new world. Others believe that he was greedy because he took over the Taino island. Some people even believe that he was a lucky adventurer since he never even meant to reach the Taino islands in the first place.