Christopher Columbus

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Christopher Columbus is the most well known explorer by most school age children. When children are young, teachers tell them that Columbus was a very good person, a hero even. To be politically correct though, Christopher Columbus brought death and destruction with him to the Americas. He stole , killed, and tortured the natives. Christopher Columbus was not a true explorer, but he was a conqueror of people.

When Christopher Columbus set out on his voyage(August 3rd, 1492) to find a new route to the Indies there was no way that he could know that it would turn out the way it did. When he landed at the Caribbean Islands(October 12th, 1492), the people there were scared, but still friendly toward him. This next quote is from Columbus's journal: "I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, Weapons they have none, nor are acquainted with them, for I showed them swords which they grasped by the blades, and cut themselves through ignorance. But they seemed on the whole to me, to be a very poor people. They all go completely naked, even the women, I was very attentive to them, and strove to learn if they had any gold. Seeing some of them with little bits of this metal hanging at their noses". As you can see it was very easy for Columbus to take them over and treat them badly because they had no protection. That is a good example to show how cruel Columbus could act toward people he knew couldn't fight back. This is one proof of Christopher Columbus being a conqueror.

In the movie we watched in class, it told us how Columbus was just out to get gold, and riches. He ordered the natives to proclaim him governor of the lands. Since he was governor he made a law that said the natives had to bring him one bag of gold dust every three months. If they did not give him this gold(simply because their wasn't that much gold on the islands) he would order to have their hands cut off, and they would bleed to death. If they escaped, then he would hunt them down with dogs. Christopher Columbus also ordered his men to hang and burn some natives that wouldn't do exactly as he told them. Diseases also spread at this time. Many of the natives never encountered sickness before, and didn't have the immunities. Some people died from the flu! The population decreased from 1 million to 1,000 in the matter of 100 years from Christopher Columbus's orders.

Columbus tried to use the natives as slaves but they were too frail. They weren't used to that much physical labor as was expected of them on the plantations. This opened up the slave trade in Africa. More than 11 million slaves were taken from Africa by the 1800's!!!!

As you can see through my essay, I believe that Christopher Columbus was a conqueror of people. There is an old saying that says, "Might makes right", and the explorers back then, would go sailing around with this idea in their heads, that as soon as they came to a land that they had never seen before, they could just put up their flag and claim it. This is not exploring, and this is exactly what Christopher Columbus is recognized every October 11th for. Columbus was not a true explorer, but he was a conqueror or people.