Blog #9: Columbus

 
            Christopher Columbus was a notable historical figure which provided two distinct versions of himself and as such is remembered in two different lights. One of which being that he was an evil racist man, or the second version to a lesser extent, one of a brave pioneer that laid the roots for the modern world that we know today, one that includes the western hemisphere. In elementary school, teachers taught us the surface level information about him, and how he discovered the world was flat and that he was the first person to find the New World. As the years passed on and our ability to process and understand more dark concepts matured, more information was supplied which completely changed my outlook on the man whom we gave a national holiday to. This led me to the conclusion that even though Columbus may have committed some heroic acts, the atrocities he committed throughout his adult life far outweigh any aforementioned heroic acts. His heroic acts, though dwarfed compared to his heinous crimes, still existed. His action were of a huge consequence and his discoveries have led to the modern world, and even the people who exist within this world, us. It also took bravery to cross the Atlantic and go where nobody in his time had gone. Even though ships were the main mode of transport back then, they were not as safe or efficient as the boats of today. In fact, two of Columbus' own ships sank during the trip, but he still ventured on. It is made obvious that these actions had a number of positive ramifications, but does that outweigh his horrible acts? His intentions for the voyage had nothing to do with the outcome, in fact the entire voyage was fueled by the lust for Glory by finding a new trade route to India. This greed is more reminiscent of Scar from The Lion King or Charles Ponzi then a hero like Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, or Jimmy Carter and his peanut farm. Compare this to his villainous actions. These acts can be more clearly attributed to him, seeing as heinous acts of genocide are harder to do accidentally. His actions directly led to the deaths of a myriad of natives, and because of the oral and generational tradition of the natives also removed their cultural identity. This set a precedent for future explorers and settlers, who learned from Columbus' actions. It also ruined any fighting chances for Natives as thier numbers were slashed through Colombus' genocide, and many of the important information which was passed through generations were lost due to the death of village elders. In summation even though there may have been some actions made by him which could have been argued as good, in my opinion almost all of his actions had negative consequences and the few that had a good outcome only occurred by mistake.
I chose Andrew Jackson because he also committed many atrocities on the Native Americans as the President of the United States but he also is still commemorated through the 20 dollar bill. He differs from Columbus in that there isn't a really misinformation or selective information spread about him, I think that people just don't really know who he is.