Christopher Columbus Hero or Villain?

American public school teaches that Christopher Columbus and other “explorers” were benevolent “discoverers”, sailing the seas on behalf of their sovereigns, in search of knowledge and resources.

As a young students we learned cute rhymes like, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”.  Around Thanksgiving half our class donned tea stained fringed frocks and feather headbands and the other half buckled hats and loafers. We sat at the lunchroom table simulating the peaceful breaking of bread and cooperation between the indigenous people and European colonizers.

While it is historically accurate that the settlers of Plymouth Rock celebrated the successful harvest of 1621 with members of the Wampanoag tribe, it is untrue that the “explorers” of the Americas treated the native peoples or their land with respect. Explorers invaded land, stole resources such as precious metals and jewels, massacred entire indigenous populations, and sold millions more into slavery.

The Lucayans welcomed Columbus and his men when the sailors happened upon their island, the island we know as the Bahamas. The explorer immediately noted the promise of riches indicated by the few gold nose rings. After a few kidnappings and scoping out other islands, the explorer returned to Spain to oversell the prospect of gold to the crown, so his next plunder mission would be adequately funded. He revisited the island several times, each visit more and more detrimental to the native inhabitants. When he and his crew were unable to find gold on their second trip, they kidnapped 500 Taino people. The explorers chopped of native hands when they didn't supply gold. They hunted them with dogs when they fled to mountains. In 30 years the island and its inhabitants were desecrated.

Columbus and fellow explorers were not altruistically cruising the seas for the betterment of the world as we were taught. They were stealing, raping, enslaving to finance greedy European empires. Stockton asserts, “Christopher Columbus was the fist who practiced piracy in American waters”. The brutal truth of European imperialism has been romanticized and softened to brainwash generations into believing the genocide and mistreatment of millions of indigenous people was beneficial for global culture and necessary for the progress of society.

Sources used:
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/the-lucayan-the-indigenous-people-christopher-columbus-could-not-annihilate

Stockton, Frank Richard. Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coast. Lulu Com, 2011.