How Did Christopher Columbus Change

Columbus Throughout the years of our education, the story of Christopher Columbus changes. We learn new things and we realize that the things that we had learned and believed weren't true at all. For the most part, I had always thought Columbus was this very intelligent guy that discovered this new place that eventually changed the whole world. However, continuing to get older and grow, I learn that maybe Columbus wasn't this all wonderful man who made this discovery. In fact, he stumbled upon this so called “new world” that already had natives living in it and took what he wanted by force. But, he does deserves some credit for the Columbian Exchange and the effect it had on the rest of the world. While reading “Two Monuments” by Charles
That when we talk about him, we seem to belittle his accomplishments, “He was a cruel, deluded man, today's critics say, who stumbled upon the Caribbean by luck”(Mann 4). He continues to say that we should indeed credit Columbus because “ Of all the members of humankind, who have ever walked this earth, he alone inaugurated a new era in the history of life”(Mann 5). This is the idea that if Columbus never would have came upon his discovery, the world wouldn't be what it is now. That no matter how he came upon this place, he still has a spot in history for what he set into play with the rest of the world. Then again, Mann goes back to what we learn in the classroom and what the textbooks teach, “ Crosby argued that the Columbian Exchange underlies much of history as we learn in the classroom - it was like an invisible wave sweeping along kings and queens, peasants and priests, all unknowing”(Mann 7). So maybe Columbus did accidentally find the greatest discovery in the world, but because it was an accident doesn't mean that he shouldn't get credit for what he did after to keep this discovery and change the world with it. However, there is a different set of ideas about giving Columbus credit in People’s History of the United