Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Hernan Cortes, and many other personalities are all connected to finding and exploring the “new world”. “Christopher Columbus discovered America” is a statement that almost every person on the planet knows. It is important to note that his reputation is not deserved because he only discovered the Bahamas, not the mainland. However, even if the message of their investigations was clear and needed, the ways many of them chose on their paths were harsh and unacceptable.
Columbus made four voyages to the shores of America with a duration of twelve years in total. He met the Taino people there, enslaved them, forced them to search for gold, murdering them during the operations. According to various opinions, their number ranged from several hundred thousand to eight million people. Even though Columbus did not arrange all the deaths, he played a massive role in their extinction. As stated in Schuman’s work, “Columbus started as a symbol of American individualism, then became an ethnic hero, with Italian Americans playing a major role in turning Columbus Day a holiday” (7). In my opinion, his personality is too controversial to celebrate his achievements.
Christopher Columbus, as long as other colonial figures, caused genocide and almost eradicated the tribes of two whole continents. Almost every investigator that became a part of exploring America pursued the desire to get rich and live by their own rules. To live a conscious life, every American needs to understand that our country is built on blood, tears, and millions of sacrifices. Columbus Day can stay on the calendars of US citizens only as the day of grief and sorrow about our country’s bloody past.
Works Cited
Schuman, Howard, et al. “Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Christopher Columbus, Hero or Villain?”. Oxford University Press, vol. 69, no. 1, 2005, pp. 2-29.