Influence Of Politics On Columbus example essay topic

727 words
Although Christopher Columbus is looked at as a hero in America the real truth is that he was more of a villain than anything. In deciding weather Columbus was actually a praised hero or a secret villain certain things must be known about him in advance. Socially, his decisions reflected his people and when the decisions were bad his people were looked at as the enemy. Economically, Columbus made promises he couldn't live up to and took his frustrations out on the people. Politically, support came from England on what Columbus was telling them about the new land. Columbus, due to his actions, is looked at as a villain socially, economically, and politically.

Columbus' journey had many different social effects on the people. When Columbus first saw the Indians he wrote, "They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features". In other words he saw the Indians as sexual objects and fine servants from the beginning. Very little time passed and Columbus began asserting himself into the Indians lives and taking over. Moreover, in another trip to America Columbus went on a slave raid.

He searched and rounded up about fifteen hundred Arawak men women and children. In the group he picked the elite five hundred from them and then they were sent to Spain to be sold. Also, the treatment of the Indian women were mostly sexual. Sexual relations were considered without marriage laws and could choose their mates as they pleased. All relationships with Indians were free without offense, jealousy or anger. The social part of Columbus' voyage also had a great impact on the economical views of his adventure.

The economic views of Columbus were very selfish and inconsiderate. An example of his selfishness would be the pension of 10,000 maravedi's a year reward for first seeing land. A sailor named Rodrigo first saw the evening moon reflecting off of the white sand. Once Columbus found out about this he quickly claimed that he saw the light the night before, therefore Columbus got the reward. Another example of how Columbus was obsessed with his money is how he treated the people of Cicao. In Cicao he created a law among the people that they would have to collect a certain amount of gold in a three month period.

If his demands were not met they would have their hands cut off and left to bleed to death. While all of these terrible things were happening in America Columbus would continue to send back false reports to England. The reason he would do this would be to get more support from the government and to gain more money to help his cause. The economy could not survive in the first place without the influence of politics. Politically Columbus completely fooled the English government. He had the English government giving him what he wanted when he wanted it.

As long as Columbus kept giving back good reports the English believed him more and more. An Example of this would be Columbus' description of the new land. He referred to it as a bright new place where the fields were bright green and the rivers flowed with gold. In the times when he had nothing to show for all of his searches he sent Indians to England and Spain to gain money and show that he was not failing in his journey. The slaves that he sent either died on their way or did not last long in their new inhabitancy. This helped and hurt Columbus because he was gaining money but losing manpower at the same time.

Overall, the influence of politics on Columbus brought in money and help to succeed. The history of Christopher Columbus has been altered over the many years since he "discovered" America. The majority of the time it is pushed in the direction of making him look like a hero when in fact he really is not. The person he really is can only be described by the words killer and conquer. If something like this is celebrated in America why is Adolf Hitlers' birthday not celebrated as greatly as Columbus day?