Christopher Columbus was an explorer for Spain who was born in Italy. He tried to sail to Asia but ended up in North America. Although Christopher Columbus was an accomplished explorer, he should not be remembered as a great historical figure for his brutal actions.
Christopher Columbus has made lots of great discoveries and has gotten himself a “big name”. There have been lots of places all over the world named after him such as British Columbia which is a Canadian province (Document 1,4). He is a national symbol with a holiday named in his favour. The holiday is called Columbus Day (Document 1,5). Columbus is a determined man who does not give up on his dreams. He wanted to sail west from Europe and no European had ever dare to go there before and he didn’t even have the money to do so (Document 2,5). He was able to successfully persuade the king and queen of Spain to found his vogues to the new world which isn’t the easiest thing to do (Document 1,5). Columbus was a great negotiator, he was able to negotiate 10% from the King and Queen of Spain to search for new lands, gold, and spices. No other explorer was ever able to negotiate so well (5). Christopher Columbus has made lots of great accomplishments for himself that everyone should recognize and accomplish him for.
Although Christopher Columbus has made lots of big accomplishments, he has also made plenty of mistakes. Columbus is credited for knowledge that is already known such as the world is circular (Document 1,2). Stories of his accomplishments are largely, if not fully false (Document 1). Columbus forced people to switch religions to his liking because he was deeply religious Christian (Document 2). Columbus spread European diseases and killed the native people (Document 2). Columbus was greedy, he stole the reward of a famous explorer who saw the land first and demanded the king to give 10% of their wealth to Spain (Document 3). Columbus was a lazy liar he knew the length from Spain to India was but instead he went to the closet island and called them Indians (Document 3). Columbus was a mean leader to his people (Document 3). Columbus was a slave trader and took the people of Canada as slaves and traded them for goods and such (Document 3,4). Columbus was cruel and asked the native people to give him a handful of gold, those who could not satisfy got their hands cut off (Document 3). By seeing all of these things that he has done wrong I would hope that you agree with me, that he is not a great historical figure.
Christopher Columbus is a controversial explorer. Although Christopher Columbus was an accomplished explorer, he should not be remembered as a great historical figure for his brutal actions. Even though Columbus has made some good decisions, he has made too many bad ones, therefore he should not be remembered as a great historical figure!