Bad Things About Christopher Columbus

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Christopher Columbus is a figure who has greatly molded the Americas we know today. Whether this be for the better or worse is highly debatable, but my stance on Christopher Columbus is that he stands more in the middle. Possibly leaning more to the villainous side of things rather than the heroic perspective. In the past textbooks often have exaggerated, lied, or straight up ignored what Columbus did and did not do. Despite all of the negative things we cannot simply ignore the contributions Columbus made to the Americas. Christopher Columbus should be remembered as a flawed hero. First and foremost, the biggest argument for why Columbus isn’t as great as textbooks make him it out to be, and why several states have put the celebration of Columbus Day to a halt, is that Christopher Columbus and the peoples he brought with him murdered and enslaved thousands of Native Americans, among many other atrocities. For example, when a native commited even a minor offense, the Spanish would cut off their ears or noses. This is not even the worse. Native Americans that did not meet the expectations had their hands cut off completely. Columbus also started the Atlantic slave trade. In the end, a population of 100,000 Arawaks in 1492 ultimately ended up as a mere 200 Arawaks. Furthermore, most, if not all, of what many textbooks say about Columbus are …show more content…
His explorations started many other voyages to the Americas and explorations. The Spanish also documented much of the Americas thanks to him.

To conclude, Christopher Columbus’s legacy should be that of a flawed hero. A very flawed hero. From murdering thousands of natives, to starting the slave trade, and textbooks often not telling the complete truth, Christopher Columbus is not at all what he is made out to be. Although, he did make some contributions they are arguably minor compared to all of the atrocities he

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