Christopher Columbus: Hero or villian?

[Lt.Zero]

[COLOR="Navy"]Recently we did a report about our opinions on Christopher Columbus in school talking about whether we thought he was either;

A) A 'Hero'.

or

B) A 'Villian'.

So I was wandering where you lot stand on whether he was a hero or a villian (for the lack of better terms). So please tell you're opinion and why. The way part of course being details supporting you're view point.[/COLOR]

[Retribution]

[font=Arial]I'm not sure how anyone could think Columbus a hero. He's a bad, bad man. I think the word [i]genocide[/i] sums up his actions against the indigenous Americans pretty well.[/font]

[Lt.Zero]

[COLOR="Navy"]No doubt about that in my mind, Retribution. However, there are still alot of people who find ways to justify his actions.[/COLOR]

[The13thMan]

[quote name='Lt.Zero'][COLOR="Navy"]No doubt about that in my mind, Retribution. However, there are still alot of people who find ways to justify his actions.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=DarkOrange][FONT=Century Gothic]There are always way to justify actions... or almost always.

I personally know very little about Columbus other than what my elementary school teachers told me. I think the word genocide is probably a bit harsh though. This is purely based on the fact that i never hear about Columbus and his genocide. I take the word to be a bit more serious, along the lines of Hitler. But i very easily could be wrong about this. I honestly don't know.

Even in discovering North America i don't see how that would qualify him hero status. I mean... it's a pretty big f-ing continent, you'd have to be a real dope to miss it if you were heading in the right direction.


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[desertphoenix]

[FONT="Georgia"][COLOR="DarkRed"]Not an expert on the subject, but I wouldn't put him exactly on the hero category. His name has been praised as the one who discovered north America, but actually "discovered" the islands near central America. Not exactly sure which Island, but it was his time period when the old world became aware of the new world (after the Vikings), so I guess that was a good thing. One of my teachers in middle-school hated the the guy, and every Columbus day she went on how he was a bad man and an anarchist.

I'm not really sure if my point-of-view is bias, but defiantly he was a bad guy.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

This thread is in need of a poll. Like nobody's frickin' business.

Anyway, I am not very informed on the subject, but genocide is always justified in the eyes of the perpetrator. The Holocaust was Hitler's way of advancing humanity. The Darfur struggles are based primarily on survival. I'm not saying that Hitler was anything less than a monster for his actions, but if you consider the way he viewed the world around him, you may find yourself pitying him for his ignorance. Also, slavery was brought about by people wanting to better themselves. This, fo course, was brought about by worsening the condition of their fellow man, who were then considered sub-human. However, despite the atrocity of such actions, the culprits may also have been victims themselves. Therefore, I have no opinion of Christopher Columbus. I consider his actions miguided and foolish, but I did not know him personally, so I will make no further judgements.

[Lt.Zero]

[quote name='Aceburner']This thread is in need of a poll. Like nobody's frickin' business.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="Navy"]How would I go about adding a poll to this thread?[/COLOR]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Lt.Zero'][COLOR="Navy"]How would I go about adding a poll to this thread?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

You might be able to by editing your first post, but it might be too late now. Mods, can we shed some light on the matter, please?

If not, it's fine, it's just easier to have solid numbers handy when taking a survey.

[SunfallE]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"][FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"][quote name='Lt.Zero'][COLOR="Navy"]How would I go about adding a poll to this thread?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]Just click on the link at the very top of this thread that says Thread Tools. In the drop down menu should be the option to add a poll. ^_~

Now as for the actual topic, just as I don't think Columbus is a hero, nor do I think he is necessarily a villain either. Unless you want to go by the standard normal greed of people looking to find new lands and get rich in the process. I won't deny that many things happened that were deplorable. But I'm not so sure that they were going with the intent to commit genocide. After all, until they got there they couldn't have known if there would be anyone there or not.
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[Allamorph]

[quote name='SunfallE][COLOR="RoyalBlue"][FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"]But I'm not so sure that they were going with the intent to commit genocide. After all, until they got there they couldn't have known if there would be anyone there or not.[/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote]
[FONT=Arial]True, but once the Europeans found out that other people lived there, they might have attempted to coexist. (The French [I]did[/I], actually.)

I say that the issue of Columbus's hero-hood is irrelevant. He is just as guilty as Cortéz and Pizarro, the English Crown, and the settlers. In fact, he didn't even get the "New World" named for him, and all we do on Columbus Day is close our banks and post offices. Whoop-de-frikkin'-doo.

No, Columbus Day isn't really even a holiday, so there's no reason to debate whether he should be hailed or hated. Most of the people I see just ignore him. Not a bad idea.[/FONT]

[Drix D'Zanth]

Nah, Christopher Columbus was an accomplished man. Hero? Hardly. Read a little Howard Zinn history to learn a bit about Christopher Columbus. Zinn's source? Columbus' journal. Among some of his exploits:
-He claimed to see the New World a day before the actual sighting (after the sighting, is why we can recognize it as a "claim") taking the promised bonus for himself.
-He estimated the amount of men it would take to "subjugate" the natives, assuming they would make "fine servants".
-He took some of the natives forcefully in order to coerce them into revealing the location of gold. He noticed that the native Arawak Indians wore tiny gold earrings... a feature that would doom them :(.
-He took from the indians who would "offer to share with anyone," who's altruism astonished him, frankly. When on Hispanola, these regularly generous indians refused to trade as many bows as the spaniards desired, the two were simply executed on Columbus' orders.
-Upon noting their primitive styles of dress and culture, he declared, "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." And he did.
-Those natives that fled instead of searching for gold were hunted down by dogs and killed.
-Natives in Cicao on Haiti were expected to find a certain amount of gold. Those who found sufficient quantities were given a copper token to hang around their neck. If they were found without a token, their hands would be cut off and they would bleed to death.
-Following a brief resistance by the Arawaks which was quickly defeated by the better equiped Spanish under Columbus, the natives (out of desperation) began committing mass suicide using cassava poison. Sounds like the company wasn't too friendly.
-In two years the population (through murder, mutilation, suicide, etc.) of 250,000 Haitian indians were halved. 200 years later, all traces of Arawaks or decendants were gone from Haiti.

I could keep going, but I think this should give you an idea.

Columbus was a dick.

[Horendithas]

[COLOR="Indigo"]He's hardly a hero and since Drix D'Zanth, listed many of the reasons why he's not, I'll not bother to expand on it. But yeah, just go and read up on what this 'man' did and it becomes clear that hero is not a word that describes him. He may not have known about the existing natives, but it sure as hell didn't stop him from doing whatever he wanted to gain money and power.[/COLOR]

[SunfallE]

[COLOR="RoyalBlue"][FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"]Well all of you won't get any argument out of me as to Columbus not being a hero. In all honesty, when the subject came up when I was in History and such, it was not discussed in depth at all. So most if not all of what occurred is something I'm not familiar with. And I've never been into history all that much, though I suppose that came from having history teachers who quite literally bored me to death. I've only had one who made it interesting.

Also, if anyone wants to enlighten me on this... I think the real question as to whether or not he's a villain comes from knowing how much of what he did was considered acceptable in his day, not by today's standards. I think that puts it in a different light altogether. It doesn't make it acceptable, but I think it does change the actual intent. And like I said, I really don't know a whole lot other than his name. XP[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Rachmaninoff]

Ah, the question of Christopher Columbus. The guy was a [SIZE="1"][insert swearword of choice here[/SIZE]] The things that happened... sick. Considering Columbus a hero after the genocide of indigenous Americans... This would be the equivalent to calling for an Adolph Hitler Day in order that the world not forget the Jewish Holocaust. I'm with Allamorph in that it's not even a proper holiday so it's best to simply ignore him.

[Lt.Zero]

[COLOR="Navy"]Well I think that the mass majority of people would agree that Christopher was no man of honor. Anyways I fiqureured out how to get the poll thing up (Thanks SunfallE) so go crazy with the poll...um...polling? Is that it? Anyways, feel free to vote on the poll.[/COLOR]