2007-09-10 10:19:02 · 30 answers · asked by cindy61892 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Christopher Columbus was a fraud... full stop.
2007-09-10 10:27:33 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 2⤋
No. If you read his own journal, his first entry for landing on the New World includes estimates on the number of men it would take to subjugate the locals.
He was not a genius -- in fact, all educated people knew the world was round. It was in the middle of a massive expansion all over Europe through the oceans; it would have happened with or without Columbus.
When his investors found out how much he lied about gold laying in the hills of the New World, they cut off his pension. He died penniless, insistent in his then-dispelled delusion that the New World was really India. He believed he had been conned, but it was he who conned everyone around him.
There's really no historical reason to celebrate the life and death of a half-wit conman like Columbus.
2007-09-10 10:31:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
I'm not particularly against it, as I don't hold the behavior of later exporers against Columbus. However, I don't see a particular reason to celebrate him to begin with. The guy was so lost he thought he was in India when he arrived. Throughout four voyages to the New World, it is debatable whether he ever understood that he was nowhere near Asia. Yeah, it was gutsy to cross the Atlantic, but history is full of gutsy people. You don't see anyone celebrating Magellan Day.
2007-09-10 10:23:57 · answer #3 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Maybe we could call it Explorer's Day? There were many voyages to the America's before him. The Native Americans were already here trading with the Phoenicians and possibly the Egyptians. The Chinese may have been here as well. Also, the Vikings had a colony in Canada. Maybe if we called it Explorer's Day, our children can go to school and learn about the different explorer's?
2007-09-10 10:36:44 · answer #4 · answered by Jonathan D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, because he was just another man. He didn't "discover America" as the Native Americans have lived here for thousands of years and the Vinkings had discovered it, and the NA, long before Columbus. The South Americans were also exploring it...how can you be the first to discover something when people already live there? He was a fraud and it makes no sense what we teach about him in school.
2007-09-10 10:26:22 · answer #5 · answered by mathaowny 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
My daughter calls it the Columbus Got Lost On the Way to India Day.
2007-09-10 10:24:58 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 1⤋
No. Christopher Columbus Day shouldnt be celebrated because technically he didnt find America. The Native Americans were here first so we should be celebrating
Native Americans. They taught us alot. They taught us how to grow corn and travel through the native land.
2007-09-10 10:24:25 · answer #7 · answered by Cheyenne S 1 · 6⤊ 1⤋
Yes. Because I work for the State and I get the day off paid.
Otherwise, probably not. Why give credit to someone who doesnt really deserve it? The Chinese and Vikings were here well before Columbus.
2007-09-10 10:24:28 · answer #8 · answered by ? 5 · 8⤊ 1⤋
No. Because Columbus never actually touched any part of our country.
And he was an idiot. Until the day he died, he thought that all his trips had been to the eastern coast of India.
2007-09-10 10:26:19 · answer #9 · answered by ♥≈Safi≈♥ ☼of the Atheati☼ 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
No, while it's nice to get a day off, we shouldn't celebrate the thing. He didn't find the new America, but got the credit for it. I read before he passed on, he confessed he wasn't the one who found the new land.
2007-09-10 10:26:32 · answer #10 · answered by CELTS! 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋