For most of the past 500 years, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) has been widely regarded as a great discoverer – the Admiral of the Ocean Sea. The Spanish histroican Francisco Lopes de Gomorra called the voyage of Columbus to the New World “the greatest event sicne the creation of the world.” Columbus has left a considerable historic legacy; there is a country named after him (Colombia), a Canadian province (British Columbia), two national capitals (Colombo, Sri Lanka and Washington, District of Columbia, USA), and a major River (Columbia). The United States has at times seen him as a national symbol and celebrated a national holiday, Columbus Day, in his honour.
It is known that the first people Columbus met in the Caribbean were the Tainos. They greeted him with great kindness but later suffered under his rule. Two of Columbus’s children, Diego and Ferdinand, sailed with him to the New World and one wrote a biography of his father.
Many people have begun to question the celebrated fame of this sailor from Genoa, Italy. Some stories about Columbus are legends and thus not completely (or even largely) true. For example, it is often said that he was a modern thinker who dared to claim that the earth was round, and that those who opposed him were closed-minded, religious fanatics who believed that the world was flat. In truth, Columbus was not as visionary as this legend suggests – it was already widely accepted at the time of his voyage that the earth was globe-shaped.
There is no doubt that the world we live in (especially in North America) would be incredibly different if Columbus had not accomplished what he did. That is why he is considered such an important character in history. But now it is your turn. After watching the videos, reading and discussing this dude in class, should Columbus be considered a Champ (hero, courageous, adventurer, explorer) or Chump (promoter of slavery, greedy, misinformed, mean)? Fill out the following survey found here.
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