When Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he came upon a peaceful, thriving world located in what we would now call Central America. Through his actions, that world and the people living in it were turned upside down. Within just about sixty years, Columbus would cause over 200,000 of the Taino people to die (historychannel.com). He would also force many more people to live in slavery or under a brutal government, and trick his own seamen. Columbus should not be celebrated for these actions; he should be punished! Columbus’s first voyage began on August 3rd, 1492. It took significantly longer than he had expected. Near the end of the voyage, Columbus’s crew started to become anxious and homesick. Columbus changed the ship’s log so that it would seem like they had covered less distance than they actually had. There’s a word for what Columbus did; it’s called deception. Columbus tricked his sailors to make up for his bad estimates. We should not regard people who trick their followers as heroes. Columbus is also guilty of maltreating the Taino people because he forced them to convert to Christianity. According to Milton Meltzer, “The idea that the Indians might have a right to determine their own way of life…did not occur to him” In the United States, everyone has the right to practice whatever religion they desire. Therefore, Christopher Columbus should not be celebrated for making others convert to his religion! Not only did Columbus force the Taino Indians to convert to Christianity; he also enslaved many of them. On his first day in the “New World”, Columbus described the Taino’s as good-looking, friendly, and helpful. That same day, he captured six of them to be slaves (historychannel.com). Columbus would go on to cause hundreds of thousands of Natives to work as servants, miners, or field-slaves. He would also fuel an era of mass slavery that would last for hundreds of years. The majority of people know Columbus as a sea captain. However, in his later years, he would become governor of what is now the Dominican Republic. As you might guess, Columbus was a fierce and brutal ruler. In one attempt to stop a rebellion, he killed many natives and put their dead bodies in the streets. These evil actions are just one more example of Columbus violating basic human rights. Columbus’s life was one “of both wonder and tragedy, of bravery and savagery” (Eichenberger). Though he may have had a few good qualities, he was certainly guilty of being deceptive, single-minded, and cruel to multiple groups of people. In conclusion, if you closely examine the actions of Columbus, you will discover that this celebrated man should be regarded as a villain, not a hero.
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