What makes a person a hero when he kills thousands, rapes many young women, takes other people out of their homes, and then makes them slaves? Christopher Columbus is clearly a villain. Would someone who did all these terrible things be considered a hero? He converted people to his God and killed thousands with weapons they didn’t have. He travels all over the world looking for gold to make people pay him. His greed for wealth, power and gold brought about disease in natives as well as Spain. Millions of homes were destroyed. Are these men heroes?
The religions of the Spanish and indigenous peoples were very different. However, the Mesoamerican Indians and South Americans had different beliefs which had since been abandoned. These people were forced to follow Christianity by Christopher Columbus when he arrived in these areas. Christopher Columbus converted these people to Christianity upon the request of Queen and King. He was highly praised by Spain, but many saw it as a bad thing. His methods were violent and destructive to indigenous people. While the natives refused to abandon their religion, they were denied the option. These people were not in possession of weapons, so he used them as well. Christopher Columbus used violence not only to force natives to Christianity, but also to make them slaves and to get him gold. Christopher Columbus claimed that the first time he arrived in America, they saw a sword and went to get it. These swords were not available to them yet, and they certainly didn’t have guns. They didn’t have the opportunity to defend their land, so this was unfair. Christopher Columbus was extremely greedy. He wanted all of the land, power and gold as well as money. Christopher Columbus was very greedy when he first arrived at Ayti. He made the Taino bring him some gold. They had to either bring twelve kilograms (or more) of cotton to give him the goods or make slaves. All this was due to his obsession with gold. He said that he loved gold and considered it the most precious thing in the world. Christopher Columbus had a deep desire to get rich and it was the reason why he set sail. To keep making more money, he continued to take slaves and young women as sexslaves in order to continue getting more. Six hundred people were the population of the Taino people. He didn’t care about the lives of these people, or how they would react to him. He only wanted gold and money.
Christopher Columbus purchased germs for the Americas’ native peoples. He also brought some with him when he returned home. Christopher Columbus went to America with very weak immunity systems. They had never been affected by any serious disease. Native Americans were decimated by the disease, which killed 95%. He brought smallpox cholera, measles bubonic malaria, flu and several other deadly diseases. Syphilis is still very common today, and it was his intention to bring the disease back to Europe. Syphilis, a STD, is still a problem in Europe today. It can cause brain damage, meningitis, blindness, vision, or hearing loss. Tobacco was another major issue Christopher Columbus brought with him to Europe. Tobacco, the most widely smoked legal drug, has caused eight million deaths each year. People are still dying and in danger of the things Christopher Columbus did. Christopher Columbus was an individual who made millions of people sick with disease and guns hundreds of centuries ago.
Christopher Columbus, who found land already owned by natives but made it his own, is not worthy of being a hero. Unworthy of celebration is a man who does such terrible and horrendous things to innocents. Why is this man being celebrated? Christopher Columbus may have been a horrible man, but he was selfish and ghastly in his quest to find the Americas. He does not deserve any kind of kindness from the world.
