Module 3- Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus has a holiday named after him, but does he really deserve it? When he set sail in the fall of 1492, Columbus believed that he would make it to the East Indies. However, one-fourth of the way there he stumbled across a new land. (Zinn, 2003, 4) This new land, later named the Bahamas, was the first discovery of many that would forever change the world. Columbus would later explore the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola before sailing home with his discoveries. (Faragher, 2006, 38) So far, this sounds like what I may have been taught when I was younger, and it definitely excludes much important information.

When Christopher Columbus first approached one of the islands in the Bahamas, the native Arawak Indians swam out to greet him and his crew. (Zinn, 2003, 5) They were hospitable and gave gifts to Columbus. Columbus was given a gold mask as a gift by a local Indian chief, which led him to wild visions of gold. (Zinn, 2003, 5) This act helped open the door to invasion and death that would ultimately give birth to this country, the United States of America.

Columbus eventually sailed back to Madrid with some prisoners and gave an extravagant report to the royal court. (Zinn, 2003, 5) In return, Columbus sailed back to the Caribbean with 17 ships and more than 1200 men with the intention of bringing gold and slaves back to Spain. Columbus had a fort built in Haiti and from there; he led expeditions into the interior of the island to find gold. Columbus didn’t find gold fields, but he did finds fields of natives to be taken back to Spain as slaves.

In the end, Columbus was a great navigator and he discovered the clockwise circulation of winds and currents in the Atlantic that would enable countless ships to sail to the Americas in the future. (Faragher, 2006, 38) However, his contributions do not in any way excuse or offset the barbarism and death that Columbus contributed to the fall of native societies. Christopher Columbus should not be celebrated for his so called “accomplishments” as he did far more bad then good. Do you believe that Columbus deserves to have a holiday named after him?