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Oct 8, 2015 · Five myths about Christopher Columbus. By Kris Lane. October 8, 2015 at 4:03 p.m. EDT. Christopher Columbus wasn't Italian? Kris Lane, professor of colonial Latin American history at...
- Myth 1: He Was A Violent Man.
- Myth 2: He Committed Genocide.
- Myth 3: He Instituted The Slave Trade.
- Myth 4: He Had only Worldly Interests.
- Myth 5: He Did Not Accomplish Anything Extraordinary.
Las Casas spoke of Columbus’ “sweetness and benignity.” Far from being a violent man, he often got into difficulties because he would be indulgent — toward natives and Spaniards — and would then take extreme measures against bothwhen things got out of hand. He was a great navigator but a poor governor. By his third voyage, he was cautioning Ferdina...
There was no “genocide” during these early voyages, though many natives died from unfamiliar diseases and clashes between two very different cultures. The Americas had been isolated from the rest of the world for millennia, which is why people here, though they had had their own plagues, were especially vulnerable to diseases from outside. Nonethel...
Columbus was not interested in the slave trade; his goal was to set up a trading post or, later, an agricultural colony on the island of Hispaniola, today’s Dominican Republic and Haiti. He did, however, take slaves as prisoners of war, or where he found violations of natural law, such as human sacrifice or cannibalism — the only reasons Spain perm...
People often claim that Columbus was motivated by “God, gold and glory,” but assume God was just a cover for worldly interests. In fact, his religious devotion was sincere. Among other things, we know from his writings that he felt that he had been given a role in spreading the Gospel to all nations, which had to happen before Christ could return. ...
Many also claim that Columbus did not “discover” the New World. Those living here already knew where they were, the argument goes, and didn’t need to be discovered. This is a half-truth. Indigenous peoples, of course, knew their own lands. They did not know that they were part of a larger world. One reason we especially honor Columbus is that he be...
- Columbus proved the “flat Earth” theory wrong. In an early scene in the 1992 Ridley Scott film “1492: Conquest of Paradise,” Columbus, played by Gérard Depardieu, gazes out at the Atlantic Ocean with his son.
- Columbus was Italian. The National Italian American Foundation calls the Columbus Day parade in New York “the most visible and accessible manifestation of our Italian American Pride,” and Italian Americans have led efforts to oppose changes to the holiday’s focus nationwide.
- Columbus was a successful businessman and a model leader. An early American archetype, Columbus has long served as a model entrepreneur. Columbus Day blog posts and articles have included “3 Business Lessons Learned from Christopher Columbus” and “5 Lessons in Leadership Effectiveness from Christopher Columbus.”
- Columbus committed genocide. On Columbus Day in 1989, the late Native American activist Russell Means led an American Indian Movement protest, pouring buckets of fake blood over the Columbus statue in downtown Denver while Italian Americans paraded in the streets.
Columbus—Hero or Villain? This article discusses the different myths of Christopher Columbus and their validity. The “traditional Columbus myth – which awards him personal credit for anything good that ever came out of America since 1492 – originated in the War of Independence” when our Founding Fathers were in search of an American ...
Oct 2, 2018 · Ahead of the now controversial holiday Columbus Day, it is worthwhile to examine the myths and mysteries surrounding that much vaunted explorer who in fourteen hundred and ninety-two went and sailed the ocean blue: Christopher Columbus.
Oct 10, 2011 · Guest host Tony Cox speaks with historian William Fowler to set the record straight on some of the popular myths surrounding Christopher Columbus and his voyage.
Oct 12, 2015 · When Christopher Columbus does come up in the media or the classroom, he is usually simply bashed or praised, depending on the viewpoint of the speaker. In either case, he remains more myth than man.
