Christopher Columbus: A Villain

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Who is Christopher Columbus? Some say he’s a hero, others say he’s a villain. Teachers tell their students that he sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and discovered the New World, but he lingers in history as a question mark and a mystery. He may have exposed the New World to the Old World, but many of his actions were unacceptable. Christopher Columbus was a villain who brought devastation and slaughter to the native population.
Christopher Columbus did more than explore the new world. His punishments to the native people included “hacking off hands, noses and ears if the natives protested their forced enslavement to work in gold mines” (Murphy). According to Columbus, if the Native Americans refused to follow the “superior” Europeans’ orders,