Columbus Blog #8

Is Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain?

Christopher Columbus can neither be defined solely as a hero or as a villain. He is a complex figure, created by the culture and ethics of the early European Renaissance, and there is no denying his seamanship. If one were to classify Columbus as either a hero or a villain, he would be both. However, he was perhaps more a villain because of his cruel treatment of the Natives he encountered in the "New World".

Columbus is arguably the instigator of the first genocide in the Western hemisphere. In fact, when Columbus first landed in the Bahama Islands in 1492, some of the first comments he made reflected what we now perceive with moral repugnance. He comments on the fine build and naivety of the Native Arawak people, and then he adds, "They would make fine servants...With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." And Columbus did just that- despite the excessive generosity of the Natives, Columbus and his crew took some of them captive to guide the Spaniards to gold.  After sailing to Hispaniola, Columbus took more Native prisoners, killing several when they refused his demands. As Columbus sailed back to Spain with his human cargo, the Natives started to die.
Columbus soon returned with a larger expedition, pursuing slaves and gold. When excessive amounts of slaves started dying en route, he turned to forcing Native children to collect gold for him. When the children did not produce the precious metal, the Spaniards would mutilate them, cutting off their hands and letting them bleed to death. Native resistance became impossible due to Spanish weapons, and soon Natives started committing suicide. Natives who didn't were forced to work to death on encomiendas. By 1515, only about 23 years after Columbus first landed in the New World, only about fifty thousand of an original two-hundred and fifty thousand Natives were alive.

However, it is important to remember that Christopher Columbus was (most likely) not a particularly sadistic man. During this time period, slavery was a common practice, and Columbus can not be considered a villain for following the common beliefs of the day. It would not be abolished in Spain and in most of Europe until the early nineteenth century. Columbus certainly cannot be vilified for pursuing gold and wealth for his country, considering that the Gulf War and even arguably the current war in the Middle East is motivated by oil, the "new gold". It is really Columbus's inhumane treatments of the Natives that incriminates him, but again, Americans would continue to treat Native Americans inhumanely for hundreds of years to come. Furthermore, Columbus was brave enough and enterprising enough to lead an expedition that spearheaded the future of the modern world.

Thus, Columbus was both a hero and a villain, although his incredibly cruel actions towards Natives arguably incited the first modern genocide. Thus, Columbus is considered a villain to a greater extant than he would be considered a hero.