Christopher Columbus is known in the United States of America to be the founder of the Americas. We celebrate him in October but, in fact, he did not go onto the mainland (United States) until his third voyage in 1498. He also was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. In fact, Scandinavian Vikings already had settlements in the Americas in the eleventh century, and British fishermen probably fished the shores of Canada for decades before Columbus. His voyage is more famous because of his nationalism and the economic competition. Columbus was in the right place at the right time and had the most power.

Columbus did not do anything that others did not already do before him. The earth was already proved to be round. The Egyptian-Greek scientist Erastosthenes, already had measured the circumference and diameter of the world in the third century B.C. Arab scientists had developed a whole discipline of geography and measurement, and in the tenth century A.D., Al Maqdisi described the earth with 360 degrees of longitude and 180 degrees of latitude. The Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai still has an icon — painted 500 years before Columbus — which shows Jesus ruling over a spherical earth. And as said above, Scandinavian Vikings already had settlements in the Americas in the eleventh century, and British fishermen probably fished the shores of Canada for decades before Columbus.

Columbus was very greedy; he voyaged for three things, “Gold, Glory and God”. In his search for gold he killed many people and almost wiped out an entire civilization by himself. He did this for many reasons. One of course was for personal gain and the other was for Spain. If he did not get gold for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand they would not finance Columbus’ trip. Columbus had to pay the Queen and King back and he would do anything to do that. This need to repay his debt can be found in Columbus’ diaries as he raced from one Caribbean island to the next, stealing anything of value and killing or capturing Native Americans.

Columbus did many bad things to the natives and he killed almost all of them. He forced them to find gold where there was none, and if they did not find any Columbus would kill them. Columbus also forced the natives to become slaves, most of the natives died on their way to Spain. Columbus and his men threw the native’s corpses over the side of the boat and into the ocean. The natives that did not become slaves worked on plantations or mines where they too would die from the hard working conditions. The natives did nothing to deserve these harsh conditions; they greeted the Europeans to their land with open arms.

Christopher Columbus is very influential in our culture. We celebrate him and his accomplishments on Columbus Day. In fact, the United States honors only two men holidays bearing their names, Christopher Columbus and Martin Luther King, Jr. In January we commemorate the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr., who tried to stop racial prejudice and relinquish the remaining bonds of slavery in America, and in October, we honor Christopher Columbus, who opened the Atlantic slave trade and launched one of the greatest waves of genocide known in history.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Like this: Like Loading... Related