Question

hey guys, could u all help me with my question?
Is columbus a hero or a villain? (please give me your point of view)

Answer 1

ive heard this question befor he was a little bit of both in my point of view but mostly on the villian side because he took advantage of the indians and wiped the m out a form of imperialism which is never good

Answer 2

hero - traveled to unknown lands across uncharted seas
but motivation not so heroic - riches (are you a hero because of what you do or why you do it - pretty philosophical question)
jerk (but constrained by his own time) in first week he mentions in his diary that a couple of guys with guns could totally subjugate the natives
positive impact - Europeans take over new world (couple guys with guns totally subjugate the natives)
negative impact - Native peoples wiped out

ain't history complicated?

Answer 3

@marxim, your view point of imperialism always being bad is a very limited view. A little background on the Indians: Do you know the difference between the settlers who arrived in the America's and the Indians? Thw white settlers settled while the Indians were nomadic. As in, after they hunted their game they left and they left their trash which consisted of bones, arrowheads, and any other waste they didn't need. The romantic view of Indians caring for the land and doing anything they can for the land is misguided. The white settlers however, took care of the land. Do you know why? Because they remained on the land so if they didn't take care of it, they'll have to deal with their own trash. One argument for imperialism is that nomadic populations do not use the land to the greatest extent. The Indians weren't using all the trees and resources available to them while the white settlers were. If two brothers are having an argument over who should get their father's car and one brother needs the car once a month and the other needs it everyday, then who should get the car? The same applies to land. Then again you could argue that it's not worth killing people over but you missed the complexity by saying outright that all imperialism is evil.

Answer 4

A villain? Like in a James Bond movie? A plotting mad man with fancy ways to kill people? No, he wasn't a villain. He was an explorer. A really good explorer. He found two continents.

Answer 5

Columbus was a mass murderer. Thousands of native Caribbeans died by his hand and at his command even though they had not initiated hostilities against Spain. This was unprovoked aggression and its purpose was to enslave the locals to mine gold. It worked, and the locals died in droves from harsh mining conditions worsened by the casual rape and beatings. This set the trend for the European maltreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Columbus was casual in his cruelty, and is a good example of Spanish atrocities in the New World. His only "achievement" was sailing across the Atlantic to the Americas, but as he thought he was in India, we must conclude that this too was a failure, although it opened up new wealth for his royal patrons in Spain. Columbus is a villain, a man with a history of cruel opportunism, and a crappy navigator.