Argument on Columbus' Discovery of America

This study will argue that Christopher Columbus did not "discover" America, and that only by twisting reality can it be said that he or any European "discovered" a land which was already inhabited by other human beings. The basis of this twisting of reality is that the inhabitants of the "New World" were less than human beings, and therefore it cannot be said that the land was inhabited at all, but was instead populated by semi-humans, by near-animals, by non-Christian savages with no civilized qualities. In reality, however, the "Indians" Columbus "discovered" were indeed human beings with a subtle civilization and a fully developed religious belief system. Therefore, Columbus did not "discover America" because it had already been discovered and populated by human beings long before his arrival. He and his fellow arrogant and ethnocentric Europeans imagined that he had "discovered" the "New World" so that they could exploit it and its inhabitants in every imaginable way for their own selfish and inhumane ends.

The argument that Columbus did indeed "discover America" is weak but can be made, if one considers the issue from the ethnocentric perspective of a Christian European. Columbus did complete a remarkable achievement in sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in the late 15th Century. No European before him did what he did in leading that voyage and finding land as he did, although it was not the land he believed it to be. It can be argued from that perspective that he was

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eans' profit (Jara and Spadaccini 11-12). Whether or not the natives were as advanced in terms of religion, culture and civilization, they most certainly were fully human and had evolved a way of life which had brought together a spirituality, a world view, a culture, and especially a healthy relationship with the land and its ecology. Whether or not Leif Erikson or some other explorer first landed in the "New World," Columbus (or Erikson) did not "discover America." To claim that the Europeans "discovered" such a land is clearly preposterous and denies the reality of the circumstances of the time. Columbus did finally find land which was populated by people whom they named Indians because they believed the land was India. He and his men gave the "Indians" "little trinkets and returned to Spain with a few of the Indians to show King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella" (Bigelow 254). All of these facts are true, but none of them support the argument that Columbus "discovered America." For those who might argue that Columbus' civilizing influence in America is evidence that he and his fellow Europeans did "discover" a land populated by beings who were in great need of such civilizing, Bigelow writes, . . . Columbus took hundreds o

Category: History - A