School Writing

Thematic Essay- Columbus Day

Throughout the years Columbus day has been impacting the society of the world today. When Columbus 'sailed the ocean blue' and 'discovered' America that left a shocking legacy that will shake the minds of those who don't yet fully know what Columbus and other explorers had done. The age of exploration is a great impact on the world, where people were treated poorly, and where their rights to even live, were taken away from them.

One of the most famed people in the age of exploration was Christopher Columbus, who in 1492, sailed the ocean blue. The man has statues, time cables, and monuments all over the world dedicated to him for something he did centuries ago. However, was what he did really worth crediting him for? Columbus, an Italian explorer, was sent by Spain to find gold, spices, and a new way to India, in hopes of making a new trade route. However, this also triggered the slave trade later on, and the taking of Natives to make them do other people's labor. In a packet the GlobalLit class had to read, Zinn Chapter 1, stated how much of a horrible person Christopher Columbus was. Zinn Chapter 1, a secondary source with parts of Columbus's journal embedded into it, stated that Columbus wanted to make slaves out of them. "They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features...." This, and another quote; "They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do what we want." Columbus wanted to take advantage of the 'indians' and sell them off as servants. When Columbus brought soldiers over, all the native Americans committed suicide, killed their children, all to escape the hands of the Spaniards even though before, they had treated him with nothing but kindness. "Two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys." This quote, along with many other numerous quotes in Zinn, shows how harsh, and abusive the Spaniards were to the native population.

Another explorer well all know too well, is Cortes, who conquered the Aztec empire. Cortes, a Spanish explorer, conquered the Aztecs in a simple way. He surrounded the empire. However, this is not all. The Spanish, when they first came to America, in 1519, November 8th, and met the Aztec populations, they had thought he was their god Quetzalcoatl, and they also, like the natives that Columbus met and conquered, gave them gold, jewelry, food, and women. This convinced Cortes to take advantage of them, like Columbus, and overthrow them in search of gold, and force them to convert to Christianity. "Upon arrival in North America, Hernando Cortes founded the colony of New Spain in Mexico. On November 8, 1519, he challenged the native forces and entered Tenochtitlan, taking the Aztec leader, Montezuma, hostage." The Spaniards were also aided by gruesome diseases such as smallpox, and measles, in which they had no immunity to, yet the Europeans did. This was all negative for the natives, just like Columbus, but at least the Europeans got new foods such as potatoes, tomatoes, beans and maize to bring back to Europe and improve their diet.

Amerigo, another known explorer, is famous for naming the supposed 'new world' America, after himself. He was sent from Spain, like Columbus, but was born in Italy, Florence. He was recognized for his reputation in navigation skills, and astronomy, in what made it capable for him to know the supposed 'new world' was not new, or the Indies. When Amerigo discovered this, he realized the geography of the 'Indies' was much different than the geography on maps he had, or the constellations didn't match up with the current star constellations in the Indies. When Amerigo had reached southern South America, Amerigo named North and South America after him. This was in 1501.

Francisco Pizarro, yet another Spanish explorer, is known for conquering the Incan Empire, in a brutal way, possibly even more so than Columbus. In 1532 in search of riches and goods, Pizarro had come across a vast, and well-developed empire. The Incas where a strong empire, and was practically the Roman Empire of the Americas. Pizarro, like the explorers before him, used the Christian doctrine, to enable the ability to conquer lands that were already inhabited by natives. When Pizarro came across, he met a group of natives, who offered him the daughter of the chief or ruler of the empire. This helped out greatly in the fall of the Incan Empire. When Pizarro got to land, he made a small civilization compared to the large Incan empire. About one village. The Incas tried to invade, multiple times, but were held off. The princess, or daughter of the native chief, had somehow, sent a message to her mother, the ruling chief at the time, asking for help, or an army. In response, her mother did so. There was the next time the Incas tried to invade, there was possibly only one or two gunshot wounds from the Spanish, and the others were from other native tribes. It didn't help that the Incan Empire was already weak from the disease given by the Spaniards, or a civil war happening between two brothers, in order to rule. Inca grave sites after that weren't always facing the sun, or in an upright position. Sometimes they were sprawled out, hastily wrapped, and so on. This supports that the Incas were too scared to properly bury the bodies from battle or sickness, and perform ceremonies because of the Spaniards. Even after the battles between the Inca and the Spaniards continued to be brutal, as they betrayed the smaller empire that had helped the battle the Incas, and fought with them.

Explorers from all over Europe have explored the Americas, treated natives poorly, and used the Christian doctrine to take away the rights of natives, and take away their culture to force them into Christianity. However, due to even all this treatment, the explorers, such as Columbus, Cortes, Amerigo, Pizarro, and so on, has shaped the history that we have today, and made the countries located in the Americas, such as the United States, Mexico, Canada, Chile, Brazil, and so on. The native people, however, have their land being taken over, and shrunken down year after year, taking away their rights, acting like the people are savages, and have no ownership over practically anything. All of this is important because people don't fully know how the European explorers really treated the native people, who actually had discovered the Americas, and instead, are treated like heroes. The Age of exploration has one of the greatest impacts on the world, and people must have the right to even blink, or breathe.

Sources:

Zinn Chapter 1

Class video

Please note, I am not dissing my own faith, I'm just stating how they used it to do what they did was wrong.