Do you think that Christopher Columbus was a hero?

Me either. He was scummy.

Hey, you don't have to "not like him," the guy is dead already!

I certainly do not approve of torture but I have to ask do you equally dislike the natives who routinely tortured their enemies?

And yes this is most native tribes.

Keep in mind I am not saying one excuses another I am asking if you dislike those tribes as much as Columbus?

So he accidently found a gigantic continent while trying to reach the East Indies, which anyone would have done if they had simply been the first to try it, and is credited with its discovery even to this day despite the fact that it had already been settled by native Americans who were, at one point, the most advanced civilisation in the world. On top of that, he lived hundreds of years ago so he was almost certainly a sexist, bigoted religious fundamentalist who regarded the native Americans as heathen savages. Not exactly the resum? of a hero...

i do not think anyone who 'discovered' should even be remotely considered a hero and i agree with the quoted post. the natives had lived there for millenia and did not need 'discovering'. the mighty empires of the time should have kept there greedy noses out of america australia and all the native lands that were 'discovered' , and then its people, forests and natural beauty destroyed by greedy A*****es looking to be even more richer than ever. and btw im english and not native to any of those countries, for the record.

In a word NO! Although he himself was not an evil man,he did set in motion very evil outcomes!

lost of people was here before him like Indianans and vikings. his was not a bad person but not a hero

Depends on your perspective. I'm certain the Native Americans would not consider Columbus nor any European explorer a hero. I would expect the Pilgrims thought very highly of Columbus for showing them the way to a new world.

I love living in the U.S., but I regret the colonists did not sustainably co-exist with the Natives.

He may not have been a hero, but the ships that he came here in were only 17-18 meters in length. I would say that crossing the Atlantic Ocean in ships that small was a remarkable feat.

Holding someone from hundreds of years in the past to the standards held today is unfair, what was right and wrong then is not what is right and wrong now. I wouldn't be surprised if hundreds of years from now people then look at us as being barbarians.

Is he a hero? From an explorers' prospective, yes.

Even without 'judging him by today's standards or morals ,he isn't someone that IMO should be mentioned in the history of the USA except as just what he was ,a slave trader , the man that caused destruction of an entire population.
What he 'discovered ' was a land full of people ,that suffered a horrible existence after he discovered them.


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It is certain that the Indian?s version of the ?discovery? would be quite different from the European accounts had they been given the opportunity to tell it. Certain artifacts have shown that they were not an uncivilized community as Columbus had claimed.

Within a generation of Columbus?s landing, their entire group of people and their culture became extinct.
https://campuspages.cvcc.vccs.edu/POLIS/2003/nonfiction/Whitney%20DeWitt.amlit.htm

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The Enslavement of Native People
On October 12, 1492 (the first day he encountered the native people of the Americas), Columbus wrote in his journal: "They should be good servants .... I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses." These captives were later paraded through the streets of Barcelona and Seville when Columbus returned to Spain. [4]

From his very first contact with native people, Columbus had their domination in mind. For example, on October 14, 1492, Columbus wrote in his journal, "with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." [5] These were not mere words: after his second voyage, Columbus sent back a consignment of natives to be sold as slaves. [6]

Yet in an April, 1493, letter to Luis de Santangel (a patron who helped fund the first voyage), Columbus made clear that the people he encountered had done nothing to deserve ill treatment. According to Columbus:


"they are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts." [7]
https://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm
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Christopher Columbus, Journal (1492)



https://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/01-col.html