Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Real Columbus



Everyone knows Christopher Columbus as the brilliant man who founded our beautiful country, America.  But how well do we really know Colombus?  The real Christopher Columbus started out as a man born in a sea town in Italy.  He was a very smart person who could navigate impressingly well.  When he became older he wanted to sail across the world to find new land on other sides of the world.  He wanted to find a country called India so he made his proposal to Portugal, who negated it.  His second proposal was to Spain, who ended up sponsoring his voyage.  He set out on three modern ships- Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria- to sail across the world to India.  Columbus arrived in “India” (really America) and saw that people were already on the land.  He got spices and some gold from these Indians, so thinking that this place was rich, he brought the souvenirs, along with some Native Americans, back to Spain to show the King and Queen how easily the Native Americans could be overpowered and subjugated. Columbus then decided to go back again, but this time when he got there the settlement was destroyed and many men were dead.  Due to this, Columbus then killed many Native Americans because he was mad his settlement was destroyed.  He mismanaged his voyages, so he was arrested and put into jail back in Spain.  Christopher Columbus died thinking he founded India, but it was really America, a whole separate continent.  Christopher Columbus’s true legacy is that he really founded America, but he was extremely harsh to the Native Americans, he took some to Spain as slaves, and he was arrested for abusing his privileges.  Some people might have negative opinions towards Columbus, while others might have positive ones.

The second monday of every October we celebrate the holiday known as Columbus Day, which honors Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America on October 12th.  Most kids like the holiday because they get Monday off from school, making it a long weekend from Friday after school to Monday night.   Most kids don’t do anything that day in remembrance of Columbus, so some say it’s a waste of a day that could be put towards getting out earlier for the summer.  But if Christopher Columbus arrived in India like he had planned rather than in America, it could’ve taken hundreds of years before anyone ever founded our land. So people should really give credit to Columbus even if he thought it was India the whole time.  If it wasn’t for him, others wouldn’t have also travelled to America.  A great population doesn’t know Columbus’s true legacy and how he treated the Native Americans by killing and enslaving them.  After hearing about that, many people will get negative opinions about Columbus, but they have to remember America might not be like it is today without Columbus making it under control of Spain.  The United States should continue to celebrate Columbus Day in his name and his discovering of America.  And even if people have a negative view of him, it’s still a day off from school, and it’s on a Monday.

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