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Pros And Cons Of Christopher Columbus

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The rhyme “in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” is a phrase well known by most students in America, often first hearing it in elementary school; however, many may mistake this date for when Christopher Columbus found the United States when in reality, it was when he discovered the places now known as the Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and more, first. Another misconception about Columbus and his voyages is that the regions he found had no previous individuals living there, however, there would have been millions of natives occupying the areas the Spaniards claimed to have “discovered”. As time progressed, more land was found which led to more natives being taken advantage of due to the resources that were discovered in what is modern day Mexico. …show more content…

To begin, the Spaniards who were invading these areas belonging to the natives used many (often harmful) methods in order to get what they wanted; in this case, the land and everything that went with it. And while the Spaniards were aware of their task at the beginning of their journey, the natives in most cases were clueless and had no way of knowing that these invaders were going to harm them. In fact, they believed them to be gods and attempted to befriend them because of it. For example, when Hernán Cortés, a Spanish governor, ventured to the new land Columbus had …show more content…

With the Spaniards venturing to the Americas during their conquest, they unintentionally brought diseases along with them. While this could have been little to no issue, it turned into a massive killer for the natives due to them not having the tolerance against them like the Spaniards did. The “...epidemic of smallpox..” took cities by storm and caused deaths that could easily have been avoided (The Broken Spears, 92). This “... terrible plague that… spread throughout the city” weakened the natives to the point where “...no one could walk or move”, leaving them helpless and unable to take care of themselves (The Broken Spears, 91-93). This tragedy may not have been directly the fault of the Spaniards, considering spreading a disease was more than likely not their top priority, however, it is something that caused the natives great deals of pain and suffering over the course of the Spaniards’ conquest and demonstrated how little the Spaniards cared about the Native Americans and their

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As economics begins to grow, indentured servitude began to take place and natives were sold to work for companies. One of the first few mistakes that the English did was build their fort on a swampy peninsula which was full of diseases. Another mistake they made was not educating themselves on growing crops which left them with no food. This led them to stealing food from the natives. While Davidson mentions the mass death of Europeans due to diseases and malnutrition, Axtell touches on how the Europeans spread diseases that the natives had never been introduced to, killing a lot of natives.

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Pros And Cons Of Christopher Columbus

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Pros And Cons Of Christopher Columbus

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Christopher Columbus is not worthy of a recognition of a national holiday. Columbus is not worthy of a national holiday because he threatened and killed the Indians. For example, he claimed the Indians land as his own. Also he murdered the Indians and forced them into hard labor. Also to test how sharp his swords were he cut pieces off the Indians.

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Pros And Cons Of Christopher Columbus

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Throughout the histories, obeyed without spontaneous to the wrong order and made the irretrievable mistakes happened so many times. When Christopher Columbus discovered the America, who also noticed where hidden enormous wealth, where the natives were friendly and peaceful. Columbus was so impressed with the hard work of these natives, but which didn’t wipe out his monster desires of get endless wealth and power. Columbus used natives’ naive and weaponless, who brought more and more soldiers to this new priceless land and gave the instructions of plunder. Not even this, Columbus instigated soldiers to took everything from natives, and enslaved, forced them to work for Spain.

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What Are The Pros And Cons Of Christopher Columbus

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We all spend days staring out our window, dreaming of what it would be like to just explore the world. For some it’s just a dream, and for other ’s it’s a reality. If you are an explorer, then your second dream is to be remembered for something you discovered. The first man that comes to most minds when they think of this may be Christopher Columbus.

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While many people argue that Columbus was just a man of his time, we live in the present, and in the present it is believed that one must be punished for the crimes he commits. In addition, the evidence about Columbus’ murders, rapes, slavery, and kidnapping of Native Americans show that this man was never good, and that he only really “discovered” Hispaniola for his own

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503 Words | 3 Pages

Some say Christopher Columbus was a hero because he was the explorer that discovered America. In reality, Christopher Columbus had an incredibly negative impact on the world because he enslaved the Native Americans, didn’t help the kind Natives when they got infected by diseases that the Spaniards had brought to America, and killed off most of the Native American population. The tactics he chose to use were violent and destructive by the standards back then and now. First, Columbus treated the Native Americans like uncivilized people by enslaving them and forcing them to work for him although they greeted him and his crew peacefully. ” They could make fine servants,”(document 2) he wrote in his journal,”I took them by force.

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1513 Words | 7 Pages

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