Christopher Columbus

:For information about the film director, see the article on Chris Columbus.

Perceptions of Columbus

Christopher Columbus has had a cultural significance beyond his actual achievements and actions as an individual; he also became a symbol, a figure of legend. The mythology of Columbus has cast him as an archetype for both good and for evil.

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The casting of Columbus as a figure of "good" or of "evil" often depends on people's perspectives as to whether the arrival of Europeans to the New World and the introduction of Christianity or the Roman Catholic faith is seen as positive or negative.

Related Topics:
Christianity - Roman Catholic

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Columbus as a hero

Traditionally, Columbus is viewed as a man of heroic stature by the European-descended population of the New World. He has often been hailed as a man of heroism and bravery, and also of faith: he sailed westward into mostly unknown waters, and his unique scheme is often viewed as ingenious. He "set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith" (George H. W. Bush, June 8, 1989).

Related Topics:
George H. W. Bush - June 8 - 1989

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Hero worship of Columbus perhaps reached its zenith around 1892, the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas. Monuments to Columbus (including the Columbian Exposition in Chicago) were erected throughout the United States and Latin America, extolling him as a hero. The myth that Columbus thought the world round while his contemporaries believed in a flat earth was often repeated. This tale was used to show that Columbus was enlightened and forward looking. Columbus's defiance of convention in sailing west to get to the far east was hailed as a model of "American"-style can-do inventiveness.

Related Topics:
1892 - Americas - Columbian Exposition - United States - Latin America - Flat earth

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In the United States, the admiration of Columbus was particularly embraced by some members of the Italian American, Hispanic, and Catholic communities. These groups point to Columbus as one of their own to show that Mediterranean Catholics could and did make great contributions to the USA. The modern vilification of Columbus is seen by his supporters and by many scholars as being politically motivated and non-historical.

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Columbus as a villain

Much criticism focuses on the continuing positive Columbus myths and celebrations (such as Columbus Day) and their effects on American thought towards present-day Native Americans. Official celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage in 1992 were muted, and demonstrators protested marking the anniversary at all. It was in this spirit that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signed, in October, 2002, a decree changing the name of Venezuela's "Columbus Day" to "The Day of Indigenous Resistance" in honor of the nation's indigenous groups. On October 12 2004, supporters of Chávez destroyed a 100-year old statue of Columbus in Caracas. They did this because they found Columbus guilty of 'imperialist genocide'. (For more, see Columbus Day.) The genocide and atrocious acts committed by the Spanish against the natives (the Tainos in particular) are well documented in terrifying detail by Bartolom%C3%A9 de Las Casas in his letters and book A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. See Native American Genocide for more details.

Related Topics:
Columbus Day - Native Americans - Anniversary - 1992 - Venezuela - Hugo Chávez - October 12 - 2004 - Caracas - Bartolom%C3%A9 de Las Casas - A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies - Native American Genocide

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The view of Columbus as a villain received mass exposure in the United States when an episode of the TV show "The Sopranos" included a shot of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn and demonstrated a common reaction to critical pedagogy in U.S. classrooms.

Related Topics:
The Sopranos - A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn - Critical pedagogy

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Columbus is also viewed as a villain for transporting Native Americans to Europe for sale as slaves. There is no evidence of any previous trans-Atlantic voyages that transported slaves for sale. Thus, he was the first known European to transport slaves eastward across the Atlantic, and so is seen by some as the founder of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans were transported westward across the Atlantic for sale as slaves in the atrocity of the Middle Passage.

Related Topics:
Atlantic slave trade - Middle Passage

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Physical appearance

Nobody has ever found an authentic contemporary portrait of Columbus. Over the years historians have presented many images that reconstruct his appearance from written descriptions. They depict him variously with long or short hair, heavy or thin, bearded or cleanshaven, stern or at ease. The image at the beginning of this article (and which is shown again to the right for the reader's convenience) dates from close to Columbus's time, but historians do not know whether the artist painted it from personal knowledge of his appearance. Despite the uncertainty, textbooks in the United States use this image so uniformly that it has become the face of Columbus in popular culture.

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