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Why do we teach such an romanticized version of Christopher Columbus?

posted 8 years ago by Lucky_Number_7
12 replies | jump to latest

Why is this the common version of Columbus's journey we teach to kids? Columbus was not that great of a guy... leaving the genocide of Indians to the side, he wasn't even that smart. He got Lucky, he didn't expected to find the new lands, and his calculations prior to the journey were ccompletely wrong.
Even if the new world wasn't there, and he, somehow, managed to reach Asia, it would make a difference on trade routes. Plus, why did they make up stories that he was the only one to think the earth wasn't flat? Why lie?
I get it that what he did was indeed legendary, he was the first European to reach the new world and documented it to show to the old world. But that is all he did. If he had died during his voyage, someone else would have reach it layer one, maybe a portugues vessel would land on the coast of South America.

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[–] demita53 8 years ago

Actually, Columbus was not the first to reach the Americas. The Moors were there before him.

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[–] aaronacer 8 years ago

So were the Vikings. Approximately 500 years earlier.

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[–] wielderofspoons 8 years ago

Plus, why did they make up stories that he was the only one to think the earth wasn't flat? Why lie?

This is more a misconception than lie.

The Gershwin song They All Laughed containing the line "they all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round" started or at least contributed to it.

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[–] overseas7 (4255) 6 years ago

In my opinion there are two differents subjects related to this matter:

1. The fact that he was able to reach a new continent with just three ships and again all the superstitions of that time was a considerable almost heroic act. And although he was not the first european to be there (the Vikings were first there), he brought the information about the discovery to the known world. May be that is the reason for an romanticized version of him.

2. Regretably after this great achievement, a lot of things went wrong for the natives from north to south.

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[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Not just that, Columbus turned out to be a greedy and sadistic governor, not just in the treatment of the natives who he enslaved and publicly amputated and butchered if they didn't find him gold at his demanding pace, but even in the treatment of those that sailed over with him.

It's a travesty there's a national holiday named after him at all.

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[–] overseas7 (4255) 6 years ago

That would the second subject of my comment above. I know that in Spain and some countries of Latein America the 12th of October is a national holiday. In the USA too?

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[–] overseas7 (4255) 6 years ago

would be

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[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Yes, it's a national holiday here in the states on the 2nd Monday of October and has been celebrated as such since 1934. So it's not really the fault of our leaders of naming it a national holiday since the true depths of Columbus' barbarity wasn't uncovered until 2005. That was when a 48 page document sitting in a state archive in the Spanish city of Valladolid was discovered drawn up by a member of an order of religious knights, the Order of Calatrava, who had been asked to investigate the allegations of cruelty, tyranny, and avarice against Columbus by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.

But now that we know, there's a push every year to get rid of the holiday. A greedy and genocidal sadist should not be celebrated at all.

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[–] overseas7 (4255) 6 years ago

I understand what you say and I agree although the barbarities made in America were well known long before 2005. However I still want separate the two matters, the discovery in itself on the one hand and all what regrettably happened later.

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[–] eYeDEF (5050) 6 years ago

Yes the fact he committed genocide was well known. But there's nothing quite like official charging documents explicitly spelling out just what an extremely cruel bastard the man was to drive the point home.

Regarding his "discovery", yes he was the first. But I agree with the OP, if Columbus had died on his voyage someone else would have discovered it very shortly thereafter. The next voyager to reach the Americas was Britain's John Cabot in 1497. Cabot was looking for a route to China, but it's an open question as to whether he would have received funding that made his voyage possible had it not been known Columbus had survived his voyage and back.

Pedro Álvares Cabral’s voyage in 1500 was bound for India, and was not meant to cross the TransAtlantic but for reasons unknown he ventured further West than he needed to and discovered Brazil. So it's quite likely that had it not been Columbus, Cabral would have discovered the New World within 8 years and Cabot possibly even earlier in 5. The borders of countries today might look vastly different, but the only country I can understand legitimately celebrating Columbus is Spain because of what his discovery meant for enriching the Spanish Empire.

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[–] overseas7 (4255) 6 years ago

That is right, someone else would have "met" the continent sometime later, probably a portuguese, a spaniard or a brit due to the fact that Columbus had been in several european countries in order to find a sponsor for his cause.

There is also a lot of people in Spain who is against the celebration of the 12th of October.

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[–] brux (14724) 4 years ago

Most of American history it ... you call it romanticized, I call it lies.

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