Should Christopher Columbus be considered a hero or villain?
Personally I find it hard to believe this, but Columbus was definitely more of a villain than a hero. All my life I was taught Columbus was an amazing explorer for his discovery of the Americas. But his treatment of the natives was terrible. One could say that he as only acting as any man would of his time; foreign, non-white peoples were generally considered slaves, barely above animals. By using that logic it could also be argued to an extent that Hitler was only acting on the antisemitism of his time. So I feel that Columbus is a villain for the way he treated the natives that he and his crew came upon, especially in his second voyage where he dragged 500 natives home to Spain, of which two hundred died en route and most died soon after arrival. Though it was custom for his time, it makes it no less evil an act for him to mistreat another human being, no matter how "primitive".
The one thing I won't do is blame Columbus directly for the mass decline in the population of the American natives. It would be like shooting the messenger; he is not responsible for the actions Europeans took when he told them of his discovery.
No comments:
Post a Comment