

                        Essay on Columbus


     Columbus as a man had many positive contributions as well as

negative. People all over the world celebrate Columbus Day,

because of his achievements, and success in finding the "New

World". Although, many people revel in his glory, their are facts

that infer that Columbus wasn't as admirable as people think of

him. In 1892, Columbus was a hero, virtually everyone praised

him. On the contrary in 1992, revisionists who are delving into

archives, are uncovering the negative aspects of his infamous

voyage. 

     Columbus' journey was the first step in a process that

produced an experiment, where the "New World" became a 

symbol and a home for democracy. In 1892, people perceived that

Columbus and the Europeans who followed him brought civilization

to two immense sparsely populated continents, in the process of

enhancing and altering the Old World from where they had came

from. The 19th century, was a period whereby soceity of the

Europeans altered the Western culture of the Native Americans.

The Europeans had brought many new changes to the "New World",

such as pigs, horses. Columbus had opened the seeds of change.

The European society as a whole, had thought that the Europeans

were doing a favor, by changing their primitive ways, when in

fact, some of the Native American customs were far more superior

to what the Europeans had in their own. The obstinate Europeans,

did not want to make concessions because they had an assumed air

of superiority. 

     Columbus has been the all-time heroic figure portayed by

people of 1862, they viewed him as a man of great and inventive

genius. Columbus in today's perception is a grasping fortune

hunter, an incompetent governor of the "New World" colonies,

those fame to the Indians he "discovered" was plunder, servitude,

and death. Columbus is like Hitler to a greater extent, in that

he persecuted, and tried to progress his own (European) race,

just like Hitler tried to persecute jews, and progress his own

(Aryan) race. Environmentalists see Columbus as a man who set

forth the despoliation of the New World, by using ecological

imperialism. Columbus wanted Indian genocide, inorder to aid 

the progress of the European civilization at the expense of the

lives of the Indians. Columbus started genocide, by enslavement

of the people, and the spreading of disease, which led to the

demise of approximately 75% of the Native American population.

Columbus had benevolent contributions, but the persecution of

Native Americans does and should not condone him from his faults.

     Native Americans were doomed by European arrogance,

brutality, and infectious diseases. Columbus' gift was slavery to

those who greeted him. Columbus' arrival to the New World, set in

motion a destruction of the world he entered.
