In my book, Christopher
Columbus is no doubt a Hero. Columbus is
defiantly not a villain for the simple fact that a villain’s actions are
deliberate and without thought or considerations of their victims. In other words, because Columbus had no idea
as to any negative effects of his trip or their encounter with any natives. he
is not a villain.
Columbus first
came to what is known as Hispaniola and later to South America. He crossed the Atlantic with a small crew using
three ships that were very small, less that 60 feet long. That is an amazing accomplishment in itself.
Another reason
Columbus is a hero is the fact that he was a visionary. He felt he could go west in order to wind up
east as he was looking for an alternate trade route to China and India. He was in the minority in 1492 and was
willing to stake everything, including the lives of himself and his crew, on
his belief that the earth was round. A
crazy idea back in the 1400’s.
It is a
misconception that the American Indians were living in a germ-free world of
their own and Columbus shattered it all for them. They already had plenty of diseases of their own in the New World including tuberculosis, giardia, rabies, amebic dysentery, hepatitis,
herpes, pertussis, and poliomyelitis to name a few. The diseases that were brought over and
infected the native American Indians were from Europeans like Ponce de Leon in
1494. What Columbus did was to open a doorway
to westerly expansion to literally a new world.
His actions should be appreciated for what they were, great men taking a
risk for the expansion of mankind, not unlike our going to the moon for example.
In
conclusion, Columbus was a great visionary who was willing to take a risk on
what he believed was the right thing to do and the time was ripe. The thought of spreading diseases never entered his mind. If Columbus hadn’t discovered the new world,
someone else would have and they would be reviled. In any case, it all worked out as we needed a
holiday in October anyway so, if only for that, he’s a hero in my book.
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