Christopher Columbus- Hero or Villian

8/11/2019 Christopher Columbus- Hero or Villian

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Amber Donaldson

AP United States History

Mr. T. Casso

August 31, 2014

Columbus the Villain

Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover America and was an

instrumental part of creating our country, but, he was also the cause of many deaths and many

people had hardships because of him. Christopher Columbus should be viewed as a villain

because of all the bad things he did such as treat the natives unfairly, trying to convert the

Natives, and God, Glory, and Gold. Columbus first left Europe intending to land in India to find

gold. Instead he found America and nicknamed the Native Americans Indians because he

thought he had reached his desired destination.

The first injustice of Columbus is that he tried to convince the natives that he discovered

the land before they existed, which was an obvious lie. He also traded with the natives unfairly

and sent all of them to Spain to become slaves. The working conditions were horrible and he

treated them very badly. He exaggerated the amount of gold he found, to make it seem that his

venture was successful when it really was not and there was very small amounts of gold that

were found . Under Columbus’ orders the natives were tortured, raped, or killed if they did not

get the amount of gold that he wanted. He treated the people that lived there before him and

welcomed him to their land like animals or like they were worth nothing to him.



The second injustice of Columbus is that he tried to convert the natives to

Christianity. The native peoples already had established religions cultures and customs.

Trying to make them change is like making them throw everything they knew away and

adapt to new customs that were completely foreign to them. For example, imagine that

you were living in Italy particularly in the city of Rome where the population was mainly

Catholic. What would happen if a group of Muslims came destroyed our Basilicas,

churches, and made us stop practicing in everything we believe in, we would be

completely lost.

The third injustice is that Columbus really only cared about three things: Gold,

Glory, and God. During his search for these things he cause copious amounts of death.

During his search for gold he killed many people and almost wiped out entire

civilizations under is orders. He did this for very specific reasons. One reason, of course

was for the gain of his personal wealth and the other was for Spain. If Columbus had not

find enough gold for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, they would not finance his

travels. Also he was indebted to them. Columbus had to pay the Queen and King back

and he was willing to do anything to pay him back. This need to repay his debt was so

great that he raced from one Caribbean island to the next, stealing anything of value and

killing or capturing Native Americans. He forced the Natives to find gold where there

was none, and if they did not find any Columbus would kill them. Columbus also forced

the natives to become slaves and unfortunately most of the natives died on their way to

Spain. Columbus and his men threw the Natives’ bodies over the side of the ship and into

the ocean. The natives that did not become slaves worked on plantations or mines where



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Christopher Columbus- Hero or Villian