Christopher Columbus Argumentative Essay

Christopher Columbus was and still is a very controversial figure in history. Historically Columbus has been praised for his brave discovery of America, with many of the darker facts being covered up. Some say the world would not be the same without him, but others argue that all of the advancements he made do not make up for all the atrocities he committed against Natives. Even when he discovered America in 1492, it was because of pure luck, not because he was a daring explorer. Christopher Columbus’s legacy should be criticized because of his lack of knowledge about exploring and his despicable acts against indigenous people.

Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America started the persecution of the Native Americans. His actions led the way

Just because Europe did not know that America existed before Columbus’s arrival does not mean that they were the first to find it. If anyone should be praised for the discovery and have a holiday celebrating them, it should be the Native Americans. Columbus also discovered America because of his own mistake, not because he was a courageous adventurer set on finding new land. He made many mistakes throughout his career and was too arrogant to say he was wrong. This is still seen today by the derogatory name for Native Americans, “indians”, because Columbus did not want to believe that he was not in East Asia, so he called the people indians even though they were obviously not Asian. Columbus writes about his discovery of the new world, “In the meantime I had learned from certain Indians whom I had taken here that this country was an island.” The natives had explained to him that he was not in India, but he was still calling them Indians and not trying to discover their actual nationality. Even if America was not there, he still grossly misjudged how big the Pacific Ocean was and if he had not landed in America, there is a strong chance he could have died at sea. Columbus was not a good explorer by any means and would make up lies to try and make himself look better. For example, Chris Bodenner writing in Columbus’s Voyages to the Americas, states that “Columbus and his crew explored Venezuela and the

That Columbus did them a favor by enlightening them with Christianity and teaching them European manners. However, this is untrue because Native Americans had their own cultures and religions. Just because it was not what the Europeans thought was acceptable does not make Europeans better than them. The Europeans knew that the natives were not barbaric, unsophisticated people, but they still had that mindset because they did not want to accept that different nationalities have different cultures. After seeing the native people and their society, De Las Casas wrote, “Not only have [the Indians] shown themselves to be very wise peoples and possessed of lively and marked understanding...they have equaled many diverse nations of the world, past and present, that have been praised for their governance, politics and customs; and exceed by no small measure the wisest of all these, such as the Greeks and Romans, in adherence to the rules of natural reason.” This proves that Native Americans were much more advanced than Columbus and his crew once said and were not the uncivilized cannibals they were made to be. The settlers used Christianity as an excuse to be able to enslave, torture, and kill the Natives, which is one of the very things that Christianity is against. Even if Natives were primitive people, that does not give the Europeans an excuse to treat them like they were not human. Columbus did