Preview

Why Is Christopher Columbus Bad

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
458 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Is Christopher Columbus Bad
Christopher Columbus Hero or Villain?

Christopher Columbus influenced the New World and Old World through social acts, religious acts, and geographical acts in a negative way.

From the moment Columbus set foot in the New World, bad social altercations took place between him and the Native Americans. Columbus treated the Natives with no human respect. He enslaved and mutilated the Natives. The first of the Natives that Columbus encountered, as well as almost every other Native group, were kind to the Englishmen. Columbus did not care, as he treated them with no respect. He immediately looked at the Natives as slaves. While they were enslaved, if they didn’t collect enough gold, he would punish them with a loss of a limb or even death. Columbus was even arrested by his own people for treating the Natives in this manner.
…show more content…
One of his goals was to bring Christianity to the Natives, and the New World. He did this, but he handled it in a terrible manner. He forced Christianity onto the Natives without hesitation. If the Natives were known not to be Christian, he would kill them in a vicious way, as he would with anything else he didn’t like. This also created a very tense conflict between the Natives and Columbus's people. Religion is very important for a lot of people and is taken very seriously especially by the Natives, so it wasn’t so easy for them to like being

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    From the moment Columbus was greeted by the natives, he immediately lost all respect towards them. Their nude bodies were defined as a lack of knowledge, skill, and religion (DeWitt). Columbus wanted to spread the word of Christianity among the Native Americans and at the same time he saw a source of easy profit by enslaving the Indians. Not once did it come to Columbus mind that these lands were not his to take but rather began to rename these islands when he sailed back home he had the entitlement of being “the founder”. During his first voyage, Columbus did not do anything incriminating against the Native Americans because he simply analyzed their culture. When he sailed back to Spain, he returned with many new items as well with kidnapped…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    make them slaves to work for his queen. A lot of people died on the way to Columbus's…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As stated the Native Americans were too friendly toward the Europeans, despite not even knowing them. This led Columbus and his men to seize control and take advantage. Even though, the Americans were nothing but friendly to the Europeans, Columbus abused this. However the Native Americans outnumbered the Europeans, but they still had many other advantages.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To gain the support for his journeys, he went the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. As part of his offer, he said that he hoped to be able to spread Christianity to ‘heathen lands’ in the east. In 1492, he sailed from Europe to America. He and his sailors crossed the Atlantic Ocean, not knowing where they would land. It was a voyage into the unknown as they say. Columbus did not find America, There were many people already living there Like native Americans. Vikings from Europe had landed in America many years before. Columbus and his sailors sailed bravely into the unknown. They brought home new foods, new knowledge and gold. But, they killed many Native Americans. The Europeans took their land and claimed it there's. Many Native Americans were killed in wars with the Europeans, or died from European…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Christopher Columbus is a man who is known in society simultaneously as a hero and a villain of his time. What if the world had to pick only one, what would it be? Many new studies and scholars believe that Columbus was the villain of his story not a hero as past information would lead us to believe. Past documents were all written from Europe’s point of view, this lead to extremely biased documents because Europe was the side to profit unlike the Native Americans. Columbus was the antagonist of the new world due to how he forced the natives into slavery, he raped and robbed the natives he found, and how he slaughtered the natives if they could not collect enough gold.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Regardless of whether or not Christopher Columbus was a moral man, or the fact he discovered America with the intentions of finding a trade route to Asia, or whether or not his intentions were good or bad he was a man of his era who started a new period of exploration and trade. This period ultimately led to the development of the greatest republic known to this date.…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    His men had rounded up many of the Indians to transport as slaves to Spain, since Columbus had to send something in replacement of all the nonexistent gold. He also traded with the Indians unfairly, making they trade lopsided and bad for the Arawaks. This unethical treatment began to worsen more and more as the Spaniards under his command were at the island longer. Calling Christopher Columbus a hero is like saying the sky is green. The Europeans had taken many Arawaks as slaves and made them work on plantations called encomiendas. They also used the Arawaks for free labor forcing them to work in mines and separating families. However, the most unethical treatment of the Arawaks came when the Europeans became very interested in gold. Each Arawak was responsible for collecting a certain amount of gold in a couple months time. When they collected the gold, they would receive a medal from the Spanish. If an Arawak did not collect enough gold, they would be killed. These killings led to more and more. Eventually, the Spanish would kill the Arawaks just for fun, or to try out weapons. This led to a rapid decrease in the Arawak population due to death, disease, and suicide. Eventually, there were no Arawak Indians left in the…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    [online]. [Accessed 24th October 2014]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/btt/columbus/native_peoples.shtml> http://www.wlcsd.org/Loonlake.cfm?subpage=1432988 http://allaboutexplorers.com/explorers/pizarro/ Lawyer: As you can see Christopher Columbus has shown that the treatment towards the natives was normal since Cortes had done the same thing and that the fact it was for valuables like gold and wealth and power and to be respected by the people around him and that these actions towards the natives were also because it was normal just because they wanted the natives the respect their God so all this would be normal in that time of era.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Howard Zinn’s article “Columbus, The Indians and Human Progress” presents Columbus as a genocidal tyrant, who committed atrocities in a perverse manner unbefitting a man described as an “American hero”. The article provides a much more detailed description of Columbus’ interactions with the native Arawak people, beginning with their first meeting on San Salvador. Columbus immediately sought to abuse the generosity shown by the Arawak towards him and his crew, noting that “They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever want.”. Upon his arrival on the island, Columbus had a desire for wealth stemming from a deal he had made with Spanish royalty before the voyage, which would see him receive a 10% cut of the…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While reading The Encounter Of Europe And The New World, I notice that the common theme of this passage is dominance and violence. A lot of blood was shed for the sake of land being "discovered". Countless of native people and their cultures are also looked down upon, as they are seen as savages. For example, in the section Christopher Columbus, he writes a letter that goes into detail about his voyages. Due to the fact that the native people are not like him, he thinks of them as people who are lower status. In his letter he states "Among those other tribes who are excessively cowardly, these are ferocious; but I hold them as nothing more than the other" (546). Cristopher Columbus also did not agree with the native people's culture and beliefs…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Columbus treated the Native Americans intolerably when he arrived to the New World. Upon arrival, his plan was for him and his crew to exasperate, ravage, kill, mangle, and destroy the Natives, as well as acquire gold from their king (Document 7). He and his crew committed harrowing crimes against the Indians that were irreversible and deadly. He forcefully made Natives strip mountains top to bottom, split rocks, move stones, and carry dirt to the rivers to be panned out for gold; this put great pain into the Natives lives. Also, Columbus ordered for the Natives to carry him and his…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    brutal actions. Besides killing Indians at disobeyed orders, he and his men raped the women. Columbus…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Columbus had a large role on America’s views and treatment of the indigenous peoples. While most Americans credit Columbus with finding America, (which he did not), what they tend to miss out is that Columbus is also responsible for the genocide of millions of Native Americans. This lead to many issues we have with Native Americans today, one being racism. Racism towards indigenous peoples is so a…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Christopher Columbus can in no way, shape, or form be considered a hero. A hero is someone who performs good deeds for the sake of others and not for their own benefit. Christopher Columbus did not do a single good deed in any of his four voyages in the late 1400 's. Christopher Columbus was not the founder of the Americas we live in today because he did not set a single foot on these grounds, even if he did there were already the natives who inhabited the land. When he first sited land it was further down south in the Caribbean Islands. Christopher Columbus can be considered the enforcer of slavery. Slavery was already going on when he left Spain. However, the natives could be used for trade with other goods, this was known as the slave trade. He and his crew basically enslaved a whole race of men, women, and children. When Christopher Columbus discovered what he thought to be the "New World", he had no idea that he would find a whole race of people. His intensions were to go out and find gold and spices to bring back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    History on Race Report

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It seems that the Native American people have faced a tremendous journey throughout history. When Christopher Columbus first came into contact with the Native Americans, he described them in such a positive manor. Upon meeting the Native Americans (Indians) Christopher Columbus recorded and entry into his log. “They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks ' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Log of Christopher Columbus) Although it seemed that the Native Americans were thought of as hospitable and generous, the Europeans took full advantage and became greedy over many things including land. Settlers brought diseases to the Native Americans and most of the disease…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays