How Is Christopher Columbus A Hero

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Christopher Columbus may have discovered new land and been a hero of his time but how truly great was Christopher Columbus, ultimately? Historian Howard Zinn writes in Columbus And The Indians about all the atrocities that Christopher Columbus committed. In contrast, the Order of the Sons of Italy states that “Columbus Day recognizes the achievements of a great Renaissance explorer who founded the first permanent European settlement in the New World.

Historian Howard Zinn thinks that Columbus is very vituperative to the Native Americans. As Zinn writes in “Columbus and the Indians,” “They set fire to wigwams, and as the Indians ran out to escape the flames, the English cut them to bits with their swords”. This shows how cruel Columbus was, how he would destroy the Native Americans homes and once they would try to escape he would slice the them into bits.
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Zinn writes in “Columbus and the Indians” that on October 12, 1492, Columbus’s men were sailing in the Caribbean Sea when another sailor named Rodrigo shouted out that he saw land: “In the Caribbean Sea, the first man to sight land was supposed to get a large reward, but Rodrigo never got it. Columbus claimed that he saw a light the evening before. He got the reward” (emphasis added). This illustrates how financially desperate Columbus was to pay off his debts, that he would, without a second thought, go to the extent of swindling his own crewmember of a deserved