Discussion UsefulNotes / ChristopherColumbus

Why is this biography so glamorized? Columbus today is really known as an asshole.

Which of the two stay?

• By many accounts, Columbus while a nice guy was a weak leader. As governing general of the area was not able to stop others from mistreating and enslaving the natives, nor did he push Catholicism on the locals the jobs he had been appointed to the post to do. He was arrested for his failures in the political field after he was recalled back to Spain.
• By many accounts, Columbus was a complete jerkass. On his four voyages, he stole credit (and the monetary reward) for first spotting land, enslaved the indigenous caribs against Isabella's explicit orders, governed the island of Hispaniola with an iron fist, and was later arrested in Spain and denied both governorship and the money which he had been promised. During his last voyage, he and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year, which was far longer than necessary because the only people who were in a position to rescue them hated his guts. He later died penniless in Castile.

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