Christopher Columbus - a hero or a villain, or How the legend of the great explorer appeared

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Christopher Columbus is a legendary man, a heroic figure in world history! First explorer to establish a European presence in the New World. His personality is so controversial! In Christian circles, Columbus is almost a saint, his arrival in America is a national holiday. But in fact, who is he, a heroic explorer or a greedy villain?

Christopher Columbus certainly changed the world. It was with him that the colonization of the New World began. The consequences were both positive and negative. On the one hand, with the introduction of new crops from other continents, such as coffee from Africa, sugarcane from Asia, and wheat from Europe, America's landscape has changed. This has brought many benefits to Native Americans. The New World brought us crops such as tomatoes, corn and potatoes, which helped feed the growing population of Europe. Thanks to the fact that the Europeans taught Native Americans to use horses, their lifestyle has changed in many ways, hunting has become more effective.

Along with this, colonization led to the almost complete destruction of many indigenous peoples and cultures of the Americas. The global transfer of plants, animals, infection with diseases, which the population here did not hear about and did not have immunity to them, all this brought negative consequences. In addition, there was an unprecedented mixing of cultures.

America became a place where romantics moved, all sorts of adventurers immigrated and criminals were exiled. The motley audience did not get along well. Local interethnic conflicts arose. The first Italian immigrants faced severe discrimination. Christopher Columbus helped them in the sense that the national hero of young America is a sailor from Genoa. The famous Italian - a significant historical figure gave a powerful impetus to immigrants from Italy to feel their own, so to speak, Americanness.

Columbus Day is a national platform where you can bask in the glory of a compatriot while celebrating his legacy. Recently, historians have begun to pay more attention to the negative aspects of Columbus's legacy, especially in relation to indigenous communities. There were calls from everywhere to cancel Columbus Day or replace it with Indigenous Day. This has turned the annual celebration of Italian pride into a hot spot of controversy.

Why the Church considers Christopher Columbus to be practically holy

It all began long before the explorer became a symbol of Italian-American identity. At first he was elevated by the Protestant part of the American population. Christopher Columbus is a hero who, by God's direction, “discovered” America and presented it to European Christians. His name became incredibly popular throughout the United States: in 1784, King's College in New York was renamed Columbia College; in 1790, the country's capital was moved to the District of Columbia; states such as South Carolina and Ohio have placed their governments in the cities of Columbia and Columbus.

“The celebration of the landing of Columbus in 1792 was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant holiday celebrating a new country, a new land and our separation from European nations,” says William Connell. Professor of Italian American History at Seton Hall University.

In 1882, a group of Irish Catholic priests formed a fraternal ministry group called the Knights of Columbus, which included many Italian Americans. "This is an indication of how highly respected Columbus was," says Connell. "Irish Catholics saw Columbus as a path to legitimization, as did the Italians."

Anti-Italian sentiments

The many Italian immigrants who moved to America in the late 19th century were different from the predominantly northern Europeans who settled here before them. They were mostly poor farmers fleeing famine in southern Italy. They had dark skin and many spoke very poor English. They were often portrayed as such simple-minded criminals. The press often portrayed them as members of the Sicilian mafia. Anti-Italian discrimination sometimes led to violent acts.

The New York Times at the time published an editorial spreading anti-Italian stereotypes: “These treacherous and cowardly Sicilians are the descendants of bandits and murderers who brought lawless passions, cruel methods, and sworn societies to this country. They are pests for us, period,”the editors wrote.

Even Theodore Roosevelt, who was then a member of the US Civil Service Commission, saw nothing particularly wrong with the persecution of Italians.

Columbus monument as a solution to the problem

In the face of this daunting problem of persecution, prominent members of the Italian-American community in New York had a great idea. After celebrating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the shores of America and the holding of the World Columbia Exposition in Chicago a year later, it was decided to raise the authority of the Italian Americans. The way was to associate himself with this very "American" Italian. After raising $ 20,000, they hired a sculptor from Italy to create a portrait of the explorer from the finest Italian marble. The statue of the "discoverer" of the Americas was erected on October 12, 1892. Since 1934, this day has become an official holiday, and since 1968 - a federal holiday, which is celebrated every second Monday in October.

Columbus as a stumbling block

Columbus Day was widely celebrated very magnificently. Everything was closed, people came out to the parade. It was not just an Italian-American holiday, it became a national holiday. But over time, Italian American communities began to use Columbus Day as a pride parade to compete with St. Patrick's Day. “The feeling that Columbus Day is something everyone should be involved in was lost,” says Connell.

Following recent protests in the United States, the statue of Christopher Columbus was demolished. Protesters called the researcher a symbol of genocide.

The personality of the navigator is still shrouded in all kinds of myths. Modern historical science does not stand still. Recently, there has been a lot of research that has debunked many of the legends surrounding the name of Columbus. The character of the researcher is presented by scientists as a combination of cruelty, greed and deep depravity. For example, Christopher, who was briefly the governor of the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti), enslaved and killed countless indigenous people.

Arriving in the West Indies as the international slave trade was gaining momentum, Columbus and his men forced the locals to work on plantations and mine gold, while the rest were sent to Spain to be sold. As governor, Christopher gave orders to suppress any riots harshly. And under his rule, the Spaniards committed numerous brutal acts of massacre, torture and sexual violence against civilians. According to experts, the number of the local indigenous population has decreased from several hundred thousand to a couple of hundred, just 60 years later.

Columbus' rule of Hispaniola was so brutal and tyrannical that the colonists complained about it to King Ferdinand. Christopher Columbus was arrested and sent to Spain in chains. Although he was deprived of his post of governor, the monarch not only released him, but also sponsored the next trip of the researcher to America.

The controversy surrounding the celebration of Columbus Day continues

The researcher's defenders appeal to the fact that, in spite of everything, Columbus's merits in world history cannot be denied. Opponents are always ready for the objection that Christopher Columbus was far from the first European to cross the Atlantic and set foot on the cherished American shores. Many historians attribute this to the Norse Viking Leif Eriksson. Researchers believe that he landed in what is now Newfoundland more than five centuries before Columbus. Only Leif Eriksson's Day on October 9 does not cause any special pomp and national pride.

And after death there is no rest

After Columbus died in 1506, he was buried in Spain, in Valladolid. The body was later transported to Seville. Subsequently, at the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to Hispaniola. There they were buried in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. In 1795, after the capture of the island by the French, the Spaniards dug up the remains of the explorer and transported them to Cuba. After they were returned to Seville. However, in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, a box with human remains and the name of Christopher Columbus was discovered. DNA examination in 2006 showed that at least some of the remains in Seville belong to Columbus. The Dominican Republic has refused to conduct such tests. Therefore, where the body of Columbus is not known for certain to this day.

The heirs of Columbus and the Spanish monarchy were in litigation until 1790. They claimed that the Spanish crown fraudulently appropriated their money. Basically, all these trials were completed by 1536, but some dragged on until almost the 300th anniversary of the famous voyage of Columbus.

History has known many controversial personalities whose role can hardly be overestimated, for example, read our article about what the procurator Pontius Pilate really was.