Another side of Columbus

The other side of Columbus

         
          As stated in history textbooks, Christopher Columbus in 1492 sailed the ocean blue. He was the one that discover the America, the person who colonized it first and who convinced Europe that the earth is round. This all is true. But the history textbook also said he was a kind person to his crew and the natives. But is that fact true? 

       Columbus is actually an atrocious man. First of all, he was not an honest man and lied to Queen Isabella. After the first voyage, Columbus told her that he found a lot of gold and spices on the island he found, asking for second voyage. In truth, he found no spices, and the only gold he saw were ornaments on people ears, neck etc. 

       Secondly, due to his ideology of finding gold, riches, and God, he acted cruelly to achieve his three goals. Columbus thought that every non-Christian go to hell; thus he wanted to convert the Natives to Christianity thinking that Christians have elite status in the world. He converted them by brute force forcing them to be baptised and to go to church. If they didn’t, they would have a dire effect afterward. But he took no pity in this, thinking that he is enhancing the natives’ life. On the gold ideology he was even worse. Due to his trip, he needed to pay back the money he owes to the Monarch of Spain, the people who sponsored him. When he reached the West Indies, he found no gold. He thought that he can get some gold by using the locals. So he used a cruel way to do this by forcing anyone fourteen years and older to find certain of amount of gold every day.  If they did, they would receive a bronze token. Any natives without the token were to have their hand cut off immediately. Any native who tried to advocate his rights was immediately suppressed and put down. Those who tried to escape were hunted down by dogs. This act razed many villages. This clearly shows that he is a flagrant person. 

 For the short supply of gold, he has an idea to replace that. Which is slavery. Starting the hundreds of years of slavery in North America. His acts bring a great deal of turmoil in the West Indies, and to add to that he is not even nice to his fellow crewmen. He will cut of his sailor ears if they start complaining . He also said that he will give put prize to anyone that saw land first. Someone saw it first, but he claimed that he sawed it first, thus taking away the prize.

         Columbus is a cruel man, but we shouldn’t strip out some of his title he accomplishes. Like he discovered America which brought a lot of positive thing. But we shouldn’t forget the cruel things he did. And how those cruel thing is still affecting now or recent past.