Christopher Columbus is a childhood hero of mine who has come under massive attack in the past decade. I am torn in my own opinions of him in this present day. When I was in grade school he was the man who discovered America and the reason we are all here! He was also the most courageous man of his day. He was willing to do what no one else was willing try. He was willing to prove to his culture that the Earth was round.
Like most great men of his day, the community at large thought he was mad. He fought hard to get permission to try to find a way to India by going around the world. No one else had the courage. He beat the odds. He found America.
Now he is belittled at every corner. He is the man who brought the evil white man down upon the Native American Indians. He took slaves, much like every other man in his culture. He fails at the moral standard of today. A man who beat the odds and changed the world has had his trophy taken away.
He wasn’t the first! The Vikings were the first! Well… yes, but the Europeans did not have this knowledge… so he was the first European to discover America.
He didn’t find America! He found Cuba! Sure… but he also found the “Americas” and was willing to try when no one else had the courage.
HE brought genocide to the Indians! No he didn’t. He was a curious explorer and a man of science. What other governments decided to do was not his fault.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
okay, so i will agree that columbus does not deserve the entire blame for what happened to American indians. he is a symbol of what happened. and sorry, but sure, he had some good qualities, he was brave and curious, and he did discover a "new" land according to the europeans at the time, but he did infact, enslave indians when he was there, and did bring back indian slaves with him when he returned. No one is perfect. Even the greatest heros of the world, Elizabeth the first for example, I'm sure had her faults, but columbus was human like everyone else, and the title of hero is not a deserved one. It's lame that we were all taught as children that he was a hero when he was not, but we get lied to all the time, and will continue to get lied to forever. Accepting that columbus was not a hero, and merely human, is not a bad thing. It's just the truth. And by accepting it, one can begin to accept other truths as well.if columbus hadn't done it, somebody else would have and we would be talking about that person instead.
ReplyDelete