Spenser+Levad

 Spenser Levad P 7 Columbus the Villain Every year on October 12 America and many other countries throughout the new world celebrate Christopher Columbus Day, but should we really be celebrating a man whose only wishes were to exploit, plunder, and destroy the native culture? Columbus and the conquistadors, missionaries, and explorers after him effectively eliminated the new land’s native peoples, and introduced new plants and animals that would forever change the continent’s natural ecosystem. When Columbus’ three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, left port, he desired to find a quicker western rout to Asia. Instead he stumbled upon the Caribbean where he found people with completely different cultures and languages. He proceeded to tell them, in Spanish, that they would not be harmed if they completely give up their lives and embrace the Christian faith. Not surprisingly, many did not comply and were in turn murdered, enslaved, misplaced, and overall poorly mistreated. When news spread of a grand new world with bountiful natural resources, and a seemingly inferior population, Europe wasted no time in grabbing as much land as they could. Conquistadors came by the thousands easily slaying the native population with their superior technology and tactics. The real killer of the natives however, was foreign disease. Europeans not only brought guns and horses, but also smallpox and measles. Disease alone whipped out nearly all of the population leaving the rest to easily be conquered the old fashioned way, by way of genocide, enslavement, and misplacement. The new world was completely reaped of its benefits, such as corn, and potatoes, while new settlers introduced new plants and animals to the environment. Livestock like horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats, trampled fields killing the grass, and or destroying the native’s crops. New weeds also began to grow in the new world, choking out the native plants making it much more difficult to farm. In summary, Christopher Columbus and his European counterparts brought nothing to the new world but pain and misery to the native people already living there.