Christopher Columbus Criticism

Columbus Day, a holiday dedicated to the famous explorer for his achievement of arriving in the New World. We construct plays, arrange parades, and have erected monuments of Columbus to praise him for his discovery; for he had triggered the wave of European interest in the Americas. When it comes to the roots of Columbus’s arrival in Hispaniola, most people think that he arrived on an island with primitive natives who gladly gave up their land to him…without so much as a complaint. Only recently have the true accounts of his expedition come to light. Nowadays, the innocent and naive tale of Columbus’s discovery has turned into a story about a horrifying and unjust conquering of a land, and the domination of its inhabitants. When Christopher Columbus arrived in Hispaniola in 1492, he had thought that he arrived in India, and he expected for the land to be inhabited by the Indians. Instead he landed in present day Hispaniola, which was home to the friendly, and defenseless, Arawak people (also known as the Taino people). They had never seen Europeans before with their giant ships, extravagant clothing, and strange language; so they were excited and interested in meeting Columbus and his crew. The Arawak brought the Europeans gifts, food, and water. They wanted to open their home to the newcomers, and hoped to be able to become acquaintances with them and that they would trade with each other. Instead of returning the natives’ generosity and kindness, Columbus treated them cruelly, by making them slaves and forcing them to work to exhaustion and death, slaughtering thousands of men, women, and children till there was only five hundred Arawaks left by 1550, and not giving them enough food, so they died from famish. Our group believes that this injustice to the Arawak people was wrong, and shouldn’t be celebrated. Even though Columbus’s discovery opened the door for the start of European influence in the Americas, which has shaped them into the countries,