Exploring Christopher Columbus--Was he a great man or a racist oppressor?

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | October 9, 2006 | Tom Purcell

[Always Right]

It is amazing how differently the left and right view America.

[ChiTownBearFan]

Dont let Tony Sopranos crew see this article!!!

[wagglebee]

LMAO!

[Chi-townChief]

For some reason, this always brings to mind the Bugs Bunny version of events where Columbus and King Ferdinand speak with stereotypic Italian and Mexican accents, respectively, and Queen Isabella says, in Mae West's voice, "Oh, Chris ... if you discover the New World, I'll give you my jewels."

[BenLurkin]

Were the Carib's cannibals?

Did the Aztecs practice human sacrifice?

Was Meso-American cultural development hopelessly stalled?

[SouthTexas]

Check out Ice Age Columbus on the Discovery channel.

[Alberta's Child]

Regardless of how he's viewed, there's no getting around the fact that Columbus was a mediocre explorer at best.

He actually thought he had reached the East Indies when he landed in the New World, which means his estimate for the size of the globe was off by thousands of miles.

[GarySpFc]

What did Columbus have to say about his discovery of America? We will let his words tell you the truth:

"It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel his hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me....

There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures....

I said that I would state my reasons: I hold alone to the sacred and Holy Scriptures, and to the interpretations of prophecy given by certain devout persons....

I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied....

No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service. The working out of all things has been assigned to each person by the Lord, but it all happens according to His sovereign will, even though he gives advice. He lacks nothing that it is in the power of men to give Him. Oh, what a gracious Lord, who desires that people should perform for Him those things which He holds Himself responsible! Day and night, moment by moment, everyone should express the most devoted gratitude to Him."

Libro de las profecias (Columbus' Book of Prophecies)

[stainlessbanner]

Great story about a former slave named Christopher Columbus:
Former Slave's Family Sees Him Honored At Last [FR]

[weegee]

"...Indigenous Peoples who were already here and took their land and their gold."

All was not peaceful in this hemisphere and the indifenous peoples' warred with one another, taking their land, their gold, and indoctrinating them in the new religious faith.

[Diamond]

Two of my teenagers informed me last Friday after school that Columbus was a rapist.

Their nitwit English teacher at the Catholic high school sold it to them. That is, until I got a hold of them.

Cordially,

[Names Ash Housewares]

"Columbus was a mediocre explorer at best."

In those days, if you came back alive, you were a great explorer.

[Strategerist]

There's some reasonably credible evidence that Columbus wasn't Italian at all, but Catalan.

[weegee]

Has this same teacher bother to tell the students that Bill Clinton was also credibly accused of being a serial rapist?

[Mr Ramsbotham]

There's some reasonably credible evidence that Columbus wasn't Italian at all, but Catalan.

According to the girls, his hands were Roman.

[Teacher317]

Read Orson Scott Card's "Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" for a great take on the topic.

(He's a proud Democrat, but he's got a great mind, and is unafraid to call the Dems out on their failures and hypocrisies.)

[Teacher317]

He actually thought he had reached the East Indies when he landed in the New World, which means his estimate for the size of the globe was off by thousands of miles.

Since most of the rest of the world's populace had the same expectations at the time (and many of those with other ideas still thought the world was flat), it's hard to fault him for that misconception.

[Alberta's Child]

Very few people in the 15th century with even a rudimentary understanding of basic science still believed that the earth was flat. The shape of the earth was pretty well established by that time, and the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes had made a pretty accurate estimate of the earth's circumference as far back as about 200 B.C., which means Columbus' "science" was out of date by about 1,700 years.

[6SJ7]

Reminds me of a cartoon featuring Christopher Columbus being interviewed by Larry King.

Larry: "Rape, disease, slavery. What do you say for yourself Chris?
Chris: "I'm-a just an explorer!"
Larry: "They say you destroyed an indigenous people."
Chris: "All I wanna' do is prove the world, she a-round, like an egg!"