Essay On Columbus Day

With Columbus Day rapidly approaching us, a day celebrated by millions upon millions of people who dearly believe that he is a hero, you begin to wonder. Do these people know what they are celebrating? While yes, he “discovered” the New World, however people fail to acknowledge that Columbus was in fact a mass murderer. In all likelihood, he brought to life “the worst case of genocide imposed on one nation of human beings by another”. Instantly you may have asked yourself why I placed quotation marks around “discovered”. I say this because, yes Columbus was the first one to bring the attention of America to Western Europe. As well as all the resources and benefits the civilized world had. However, no he was not the only person to ever lay
his eyes on America. What about all the natives that were inhabiting the land? Although living conditions may vary, In spite of that, people were still there for thousands of years prior to his “discovery” in 1492. Not only did Columbus exhibit numerous acts of slavery, and cold-blooded acts on others, he and his accompanies managed to eliminate a population of around fifteen million people. Are these the kind of actions you want to be celebrated yearly? “In Hispaniola a small colony consisting of thirty-nine of his crew, the rest returned to Spain with Columbus along with gold, spices, and natives taken as slaves to be given as gifts for his royal patrons”. Columbus never took a minute to think of these people in any terms aside from slave. He took major advantage of them and their lack of knowledge in the trade world. Not only that but he terrorized and killed these people. The ones who were not exported had been put into slavery in the New World. Soon after, he led a second expedition composed of fifteen large ships. Among the ships were thousands of new colonists arriving in the Americas. When he arrived at Hispaniola, he learned that his men were killed by locals. From then on a new colony was founded. The local tribe was named the “Taino”. These people were brutally tortured by Christopher. In 1498 “conditions had been in decline so he stepped up to the terror campaign against the Taino, ruling with an iron hand causing resentment from the colonists and local chief’s alike”. Eventually, the complaints reached Spanish Monarchs and in the fifteen hundreds Chief Justice was sent to bring him and his brothers back to Spain in chains. Regardless of the fact the he was killing an entire population of people, he was released upon arrival.
Not to mention, he was also granted a fourth and final expedition. This final expedition was no different then others. By 1504 that Taino were reduces to around 100,000 people. “Some of them were killed directly as punishments for “crimes” Such as not paying tributes to the invaders. Taino who either could or would not pay had punishments including getting their hands chopped off and being left to bleed to death. “Columbus and his men are documented by the chronicles of Las Cases to have part taken in mass hangings, roastings, and burning young children to death and feeding them to dogs for minor crimes”. Majority of Columbus defenders insist that these innocent people were killed by disease. Little do they know that these diseases were cause by the one and only Christopher Columbus and his poor living conditions in forced labour camps! These people were “deprived of their crops and fields, many fell prey to dysentery and typhus, were worked to death or were left to starve to death”. In other news, by 1592 only 200 Taino were left and they were considered extinct. As can be seen, Christopher Columbus was a brutal man who tortured and killed an entire population of people. Do you still think Columbus is a heroic figure? To me he is just a glorified
murderer.