Analyzing the Legend of Christopher Columbus

¶ … legend of Christopher Columbus has lasted for five decades and he still remains a very controversial and mysterious figure who has been described severally as one of the world's greatest mariners of all times, a mystic, a visionary genius, an inexperienced entrepreneur, an unsuccessful administrator, and a wicked and selfish imperialist[footnoteRef:1]. He was a master admiral and navigator of Italian origin whose four main transatlantic voyages of 1492-1493, 1493-1496, 1498-1500 and 1502-1503, led to the advent of European exploration, exploitation, and subsequent colonization of Americans.

For long, he is known as the discoverer of what is now known as the new world, though some Vikings like Leif Eriksson visited North America about five centuries before this time.[footnoteRef:2] [1: Library Congress, "1492: An Ongoing Voyage," Library Congress, March 2016, www.loc.gov] [2: Valerie, I. J.

Flint, "Christopher Columbus; Italian explorer," ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, March 2016, www.britannica.com] Christopher Columbus, in the company of his men, subdued the natives and enslaved them violently, in a bid to gather riches for themselves and to enrich their empire, converted them to Christianity forcefully because their religion was considered an evil one and introduced diseases that killed all Native Indians. Columbus transatlantic voyages were made under Ferdinand 11 and Isabella 1, the Spanish Catholic monarch's sponsorship.

At first, he was full of ambition and hope, an ambition that was partly indebted to his popular title, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, which was given to him in April 1492, and by the grants contained in the book of privileges, as record of his claims and titles.[footnoteRef:3] [3: Ibid] According to Valerie Flint, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, several books came out in the 90s about Columbus, which led to considerable debate.

There was equally a serious change in interpretation and approach; the ancient pro-European belief was replaced by one formed by the inhabitant's opinion of the Americans themselves.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Ibid] Going by the older perception, the discovery of America was a huge victory, in which Columbus was the hero in completing the four voyages, by acting as the means through which great material profit was brought to Spain and all other European nations, and in making America accessible to European migrants.

The more modern understanding, however, has focused on the critical part of the European triumph, laying emphasis on the disastrous effect the slave trade and the devastation brought by the introduced disease on the Indigenous Caribbean people and the entire American continent.[footnoteRef:5] [5: Ibid] Summary: Why did Columbus do these things? What was his ethical perspective? Just like most European explorers, Columbus came across a number of indigenous people during his voyages.

Determined to succeed in his quest to discover riches and conquer new territories, Columbus and his co-travelers treated indigenes they encountered in their journeys as hindrances to the actualization of their travel goals.

Three major sources of controversy have been examined on how Columbus interacted with the indigenes he met and named Indians: slavery and the use of violence, forceful conversion of natives to the Christian faith, and introducing several new diseases that would affect the native Americans dramatically for a longtime.[footnoteRef:6] Ethical issues have been brought forth by his interaction with the natives.

[6: Ibid] In an age where the international slave trade started gaining recognition, many native inhabitants of the West Indies were enslaved by Columbus and his men and they were subjected to severe brutality and violence. On his 1492 famous first voyage, Columbus journeyed for three years under tough conditions and arrived on one unknown Caribbean island. On the first day Columbus spent in the new world, he ordered that six of the natives be arrested because he believed they would make very good servants.

All through the years he spent in the new world, Columbus introduced new policies of forced hard labor, which saw the natives being used for hard jobs for profit-making purposes. Later on, thousands of peaceful Taino Indians were sent by Columbus to Spain from the Hispaniola Island to be sold. Most of them died during voyage.[footnoteRef:7] [7: Ibid] The fate that awaited the natives he left behind was equally a matter of concern.

With each of the island he conquered and tribe he took, the leader of the present Spanish expedition would assemble the captured natives and force them to declare their allegiance to the Pope and Spain. They were equally forced to go in search of gold in the mines on plantations.

About 60 years after Columbus arrived, just a few hundred of what could have been more than 250, 000 Tainos, remained on the island.[footnoteRef:8] [8: IbidMcGraw Hill, "The Journey of Christopher Columbus; Native Peoples -- the Indians," Glencoe Online, 2015, www.glencoe.com] According to the documents the Spanish historians came across in 2005, as the viceroy and governor of the Indies, Columbus imposed his iron discipline on what is now known as the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic.

As a response to native revolt and unrest, Columbus gave orders for a vicious crackdown in which a number of natives lost their lives: in his bid to forestall further rebellion, he ordered their dissected bodies to be paraded across the streets.[footnoteRef:9] [9: History.com, "Columbus Controversy," History.com, 2009, http://www.history.com] Adding to the controversy generated by the enslavement and forceful rule, the Age of Exploration led by Columbus had an added consequence of introducing new diseases into the new world, which over time, devastated the native population of most New World communities and Islands.

In a large sense, historians have adopted the phrase Columbian Exchange to illustrate the exchange of animals, plants and other goods between the East and the West, sparked by his voyages. Although the effects were extensive and dismissing them all as negative effects won't be fair, Columbus' critics have claimed that biological warfare came as a result of the worst aspects of this exchange.[footnoteRef:10] [10: Ibid] Ethics America's exploration by Columbus has bared the slavery issue.

Broadly speaking, slavery is the act of owning, buying and selling humans for the sole aim of unpaid forced labor. The slavery concept is seen by many as an unethical phenomenon for the reasons outlined below; it raises overall human happiness and satisfaction, the slave is treated by the slave-owner as.