Christopher Columbus Research Paper
Truth about Christopher Columbus: The Man behind a Genocide
“…Christopher Columbus sailed to the end of the world and discovered the Americas”-Mary Tucker. This depiction of Columbus’ journey summarizes what nearly every American grew up learning about Christopher Columbus. That Columbus was a hero making contact between the worlds of Native America and Europe which eventually developed into the America we know today. We are told that Columbus was a tenacious and courageous navigator who sailed across the Atlantic because he wanted to prove the world was round. He is described to have loved adventure and the high seas, and that he was a hero. We are taught this from elementary school all the way through the end of our senior year in High school. …show more content…
Is it as David Eagleman describes in his article The Moral of the Story; that it is a moral and humanistic obligation to persuade those who are young, that great things are accomplished by only those who are good natured and that the land they live on was discovered by a courageous and heroic man? This is only made clear in children books which are littered with aspiring visualizations of Christopher Columbus sailing to shore and graciously becoming good friends with the Native Americans. But sadly this description is far from the true nature of Christopher Columbus because behind his false heroic legacy is a gruesome reality. The Christopher Columbus whom we are taught to admire is responsible for stealing land from the indigenous population, causing the deaths and disruption of many Native American lives, which by current humanitarian dictates is …show more content…
Native American’s had a higher susceptibility to disease and also were familiar with the land, which made it easier for them to escape and navigate in the forests (Malone). African slaves however were unfamiliar to the land and less susceptible to diseases the Europeans had. The slave trade of African’s began in 1509 and continued for over 300 years, which led to the development of the idea of an “inferior race” (Malone), until the emancipation proclamation of the Civil War which abolished slavery, but left the African-American population uneducated, impoverished and segregated until the civil rights movement. Even in current culture discrimination and tension between races is evident and can be correlated to Columbus’ role in the initial slave
“…Christopher Columbus sailed to the end of the world and discovered the Americas”-Mary Tucker. This depiction of Columbus’ journey summarizes what nearly every American grew up learning about Christopher Columbus. That Columbus was a hero making contact between the worlds of Native America and Europe which eventually developed into the America we know today. We are told that Columbus was a tenacious and courageous navigator who sailed across the Atlantic because he wanted to prove the world was round. He is described to have loved adventure and the high seas, and that he was a hero. We are taught this from elementary school all the way through the end of our senior year in High school. …show more content…
Is it as David Eagleman describes in his article The Moral of the Story; that it is a moral and humanistic obligation to persuade those who are young, that great things are accomplished by only those who are good natured and that the land they live on was discovered by a courageous and heroic man? This is only made clear in children books which are littered with aspiring visualizations of Christopher Columbus sailing to shore and graciously becoming good friends with the Native Americans. But sadly this description is far from the true nature of Christopher Columbus because behind his false heroic legacy is a gruesome reality. The Christopher Columbus whom we are taught to admire is responsible for stealing land from the indigenous population, causing the deaths and disruption of many Native American lives, which by current humanitarian dictates is …show more content…
Native American’s had a higher susceptibility to disease and also were familiar with the land, which made it easier for them to escape and navigate in the forests (Malone). African slaves however were unfamiliar to the land and less susceptible to diseases the Europeans had. The slave trade of African’s began in 1509 and continued for over 300 years, which led to the development of the idea of an “inferior race” (Malone), until the emancipation proclamation of the Civil War which abolished slavery, but left the African-American population uneducated, impoverished and segregated until the civil rights movement. Even in current culture discrimination and tension between races is evident and can be correlated to Columbus’ role in the initial slave