Heroes or Villains?

There is hardly anyone around the world who does not know of the name Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus has become a household name, even having a holiday in his honor and numerous films and books about his greatest accomplishment: discovering the Americas. However, Columbus' actions after landing in America would horrify the very people who celebrate him. Columbus and his men performed many atrocities that can be considered acts of piracy while conquering the Americas for Spain. 

When Columbus first arrived in Hispaniola, the indigenous people of the land, the Lucayans, expressed cordial hospitality towards the newcomers of America. The indigenous Americans treated the strangers with respect and kindness. On the other hand, Columbus’s crew acted with intents of malice and greed. Upon arriving in America and seeing that it was already inhabited, they decided that everything the indigenous people owned would be theirs. This decision was just the beginning of Columbus's brutal destruction of the indigenous people. In order to fulfill his want of riches, Columbus ordered the indigenous people to bring him all of their gold. If the indigenous people failed to meet the demands of Columbus, they would most certainly face death. When the gold sources began depleting, Columbus moved onto enslaving the indigenous people and selling them, and he even killed them because of the lack of gold. The Spanish crew that accompanied him on his trip continued the atrocities that Columbus had started until the Lucayans became nothing. 

Christopher Columbus and the Spanish explorers in his crew do not deserve to be deemed heroes. Their terror-inflicting actions and horrifying deeds certainly make them villains. For their own personal gain and selfish intentions, Columbus and his men nearly annihilated an entire civilization. Therefore, a man who committed such foul acts for selfish reasons should not be exalted and idolized but rather should be infamously known for his crimes and looked down upon despite his achievements.

News, and World. The Lucayan: The Indigenous People Christopher Columbus Could Not Annihilate | National Post. 14 Oct. 2019, https://nationalpost.com/news/world/the-lucayan-the-indigenous-people-christopher-columbus-could-not-annihilate.