Christopher Columbas: The Not So Heroic Explorer
Uploaded by Doraemon on Jan 03, 2005
Christopher Columbas: The Not So Heroic Discoveries of Christopher Columbus"
"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." This childish rhyme refers to the heroic efforts of the believed discoverer of the Americas. But who is Christopher Columbus and how valiant were his discoveries? Was he a great hero, or was he the world's largest zero? The answer to this radical question will astonish the average American citizen. Christopher Columbus is a farce due to his hypocritical out looks on religion, his approval of slavery, and the media's false depiction of this so called hero.
Columbus is not a good and humble Christian man as the mass American media portrays. Although Columbus preached the "good word" he very rarely followed it. In his personal diaries Columbus predicted that the end of all civilization was going to occur in 1650. Yet the Bible clearly states that the second coming of the Lord could not be predicted for it comes like a thief in the night. The 5th commandment obviously frowns upon the act of murder. Yet Columbus and his fellow Spaniards often laid bets on which man could split a Native American civilian in two. These moral values were also passed from his generation to the next. The son of Columbus, Ferdinand, wrote a book entitled "Indians and the Christians" intended to frighten the Native Americans. These are not the values of a pure and holy man.
Secondly, Columbus also supported the enslavement of fellow human beings. In fact, on October 12, 1942, Columbus wrote "...they are a people who can be made free and converted to our Holy Faith. They ought to make good and skilled servants." Is this a quote from an international hero? Due to the enslavement of too many Native Americans Columbus put these innocent people to work in mines and plantations located in the Caribbean which he and many followers created. Aboard Columbus' slave ships hundreds died and were thoughtlessly thrown into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. This is an act of pure heartlessness and overwhelming ignorance.
Lastly, Columbus' unmarked reputation is not only false but is a great American conspiracy. Modern historians claim that Columbus' voyages were the birth of racism, yet these views are never portrayed in a high school student's textbook. Little time is ever spent attempting to understand the tribulations felt by those Native Americans affected...