Choppy Waters for Christopher Columbus
A hero is all a matter of perspective and how you look at it. A person may have done many great acts and deeds in their life, but if no one acknowledges these acts and deeds this person has done, they are not considered a hero to anybody. On the complete opposite end of the scale, a person who has done many bad things in their life would not be considered evil if no one acknowledges them for the evil acts they have done. There is a middle ground in this situation though. A person who has these positive traits, and does good, but also has done many things wrong and has some negative trait too. They are not considered a hero, but they are not considered evil either. A man who has the courage to set sail into the ocean and successfully sets sail and finds the land he is looking for should be considered a hero. If this same man, or another sets sail not to find the land he is looking for, and has negative traits that he brings along too, he should not be named a hero. Christopher Columbus was not a man of his word; he was abusive to the people he met; had a lack of knowledge in everything he was named a hero for; and most importantly, the land he found was just a big mistake.
Christopher Columbus came to the New World as a sailor sent by the king and queen of Spain. The people of his country and his ships both spoke spanish including himself. When he came to America the language started spreading. In 1620 the pilgrims came to North America and settled in the land. This was over 100 years after Columbus. The pilgrims came from England which was an english speaking country, and brought their language to America (King). Over time both languages settled and as the countries developed these languages became more and more popular. One of the problems with Columbus being a hero is that his language is less popular in not only North America, but South America too. In North America there are 193,664,468 more English Speaking people than the second most spoken language, Spanish (The Most). In South America the Most spoken language is Portuguese not Spanish (Poser). If Christopher Columbus was a true hero, his native language would be the main language of the land he found.
When we look at our childhood heroes we see a strong man who fights the bad and saves the innocent civilians. A man who comes into another nation's land, disregards the people and treats everything like it is his is more of the villain that our childhood heroes try to defeat. Christopher Columbus came into America and tourchered the Indians living there. He made every Indian over the age of 14 go search the rivers for gold. As Koning says, “All Indians over 14 years of age were set to collect alluvial gold dust from the streams of Hispaniola.” He would go out and check, and if the people collecting did not find enough gold for Columbus, he would have their hands cut off (Koning). People were so scared of Christopher Columbus and his people that t...
