Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Columbus is one of the most famous people in history, accompanied with several different perspectives and opinions relating to his famous endeavors.  Columbus was a man of knowledge, expertise, eagerness, and a thirst for fame and power.  In his quest to become one of the most notable figures in history, Columbus was both a political powerhouse, and an arrogant liar.

Columbus devoted his victories and discoveries to the King and Queen, knowing that doing so would increase his favor by the monarchs, and, therefore, he would receive grand titles and hefty sums of money.  According to his journal, Columbus named one of the first islands he discovered Ferdinandina, and another Isabela.  Columbus lied and exaggerated about his findings in the new world, so much so that one of his letters was circulated into public, claiming that “Their Highnesses can see that I (Columbus) will give them as much gold as they may need,” despite the fact that gold was scarce in these newly explored lands.  Regardless, Columbus returned to Spain a hero, and Queen Isabella, the main supporter of Columbus’s expeditions, provided funds that allowed him to continue on several more voyages to the new world.  

After the second voyage, however, things started to work against Columbus’s will.  According to Howard Zinn, valuable resources like gold became so scarce, Columbus enslaved the entire Indian population, and if they did not meet the quota of gold that they were supposed to have acquired in the allotted time,  a copper token hung around their necks was not punched with a hole.  Indians that were found without the hole in their tokens had their hands cut off and bled to death.  Despite Columbus’s considerably villainous efforts, he was still not able to acquire a satisfactory amount of gold, and thus his favor decreased in the monarchy’s eye.  In one of his short works, Eduardo Galeano describes Columbus’s return with the description “hostile murmurs are heard in the salon.  The gold is minimal, and there is not a trace of black pepper, or nutmeg, or cloves, or ginger.”  

By his third voyage, Columbus had become ill, and his hold on authority was slipping.  When reports reached Spain that Columbus’s reign was quickly receding, the King and Queen sent  Francisco de Bobadilla to implement a new, firm governance over the Indians and newly established Spanish colonies (Columbus, 2011).  While doing so, Bobadilla arrested Columbus, and sent him home in shackles.  There, Columbus was incarcerated.  Due to his failing health, however, the King and Queen, out of what may have been pity, restored his previous titles, and relieved him of a trial and punishment.  After one last voyage to the new world, Columbus’s illness quickly overtook him, and he died a questionable hero.  

In his lifetime, Columbus did achieve his goal of becoming a notable figure in history, although some of the reasons for his notability probably weren’t intentional.  Columbus’s desperation to bring home plentiful amounts of gold led him to commit such acts as the massacres of Indians.  But even worse was the lack of justifiability of these acts, when there were so many other precious, useful resources that would have turned out profitable, without resulting in the extermination of a large fraction, and in some cases, the entirety of original Indian populations, such as the Arawaks.   Columbus’s refusal to believe that there was not a significant enough amount of gold in the new world to meet demands brought about the true nature of his arrogance.  

Ironically, Columbus wasn’t completely idolized until years after his death. According to an article on the origins of Columbus day, Columbus was chosen as an idol for the newly populated America in the early eighteenth century because “The human need to explain origins, to create self-identity through national identity, was thwarted by this reluctance (of American Revolution leaders to rise to stardom because of their exploits).  A vacuum was created, and was slowly filled with the image of Christopher Columbus.”  To put it shortly, America needed somebody or something to serve as a fundamental base to grow as a new country.  Because Columbus was “the solitary individual who challenged the unknown sea, as triumphant Americans contemplated the dangers and promise of their own wilderness frontier.” The connection with somebody to build and base a culture off of for this new country was perceptive and realistic, especially due to the fact that in 1829,  Washington Irving published his  work, Life of Columbus, and portrayed Columbus as a “romantic hero.”  America immediately began to idealize and adopt him into its growing society.  According to the same article, America’s “adoption of Columbus magnified his own place in history.”

 And so, years after Columbus died, he grew even more famous to the world and was looked upon as a hero, as a result of our own ignorance towards his malicious endeavors.  

"Columbus after 1493." Glencoe Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2011. <http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/btt/columbus/after_1493.shtml>.