christopher columbus arriving in america

However, there is a dark side to all this because he was driven by his desire to find gold and spices.

He started a period of mass murder by the European conquerorsĪccording to Carlos Martínez Shaw, professor of modern history at the National University of Distance Learning (UNED) and a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of History, “Columbus has avoided criticism and protest on account of his navigational feats and because he colonized new territory which led to globalization. His discovery paved the way for centuries of colonization, and though colonization is, by its very nature, violent and repressive, a majority of historians consulted for this story do not believe Christopher Columbus should be accused of genocide. When he came ashore in the Bahamas, he believed he had reached his destination, which is why the indigenous population became known as Indians. The statue, which was a gift from an Italian association based in southern California in 1973, was trucked off to be left in storage.The question, however, remains: was Christopher Columbus a product of his time or was he, as O’Farrell and the indigenous community maintain, the man who ushered in some of the worst massacres the world has ever known? The explorerĬolumbus undertook four voyages across the Atlantic under the patronage of Spain’s Catholic Monarchs between 14, seeking to establish a western route to the East Indies and profit from the spice trade. Insisting that the Genovese explorer’s activities in the Americas amount to a stain on history, LA Council member Mitch O’Farrell, a descendant of the Native American Wyandotte nation, secured the removal of his statue from the city center’s Grand Park on November 10 to cheers and celebratory drumming from the local indigenous community, many of whom had fought alongside O’Farrell during his campaign. Christopher Columbus is removed from the center of Los Angeles. Christopher Columbus may have discovered the New World, but he is now persona non grata in the city of Los Angeles.

Christopher columbus arriving in america