History vs. Christopher Columbus

Contents

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is an Italian explorer who is believed to have discovered United States of America. He is a man who enjoyed exploring and started travelling at a very young age. To his record he completed four voyages across the Atlantic ocean.

Actually Columbus set out his journey to find the shortest and direct water route from west of Europe to Asia. But rather he ended up in finding a whole new continent.

Controversies

Many controversies are prevailing on the topic of Columbus. Many people hold the view that the educated people already knew that the earth was round since the age of Aristotle. Some people claim that Columbus did not discover anything new as there were already inhabitants living in the continent. Others claim that he was not the first to conquer or make settlements since the Norse had settled there almost 500 years before.

Practices of Columbus

Even though Vikings made their settlements first, Columbus’s settlements remained there for a much longer period of time. Many travelers followed his path to America after he spread the news. Like everyone else Columbus also had a negative side.

The natives of the continent were made prisoners. In addition to that the tribal warfare wiped out about 90% of the population of the native Americans. He even tortured and disfigured the native people who did not bring enough gold. Young girls were sold as sexual workers. Eventually he was put in jail. Bartolome de las Casa, a missionary, wrote that over three million people were perished from 1494 to 1508 from war, slavery and mines.

Columbus day

Controversies are prevailing on ‘when’ and ‘why’ the Columbus day is celebrated. October 12 was celebrated as the Columbus day from 1792. Although it was declared as an official holiday in 1934, many individual states of United States of America does not observe it. The voyage of Columbus was an inspiration to many of his successors.

In some Latin American countries the same day is observed under different names. Some places changed its name to Native American day or Indigenous people’s day.