How to evaluate Columbus correctly

Christopher Columbus is one of the most outstanding navigators in human history, and his deeds of discovering the new continent are widely known. Columbus's achievements are unparalleled in the maritime world, but people have never commented on his merits and demerits.

An excellent navigator

Columbus is very willing to be the best navigator in human history so far, and it all starts from his childhood. Columbus was born in a family of textile craftsmen in Genoa, Italy. He has helped in the textile workshop at home since he was a child. Years of hard work and hands-on practice have cultivated Columbus' meticulous and patient character and strong hands-on operation ability, which laid the necessary foundation for him to go to sea and draw charts in the future. Genoa is an important and famous port in the northern Mediterranean, where tens of thousands of ships call every day. Young Columbus was deeply impressed by people with different colors and clothes, exotic spices, mailboxes of tropical wood, strange sea stories and the foul smell of seafood. Such superior external conditions paved the way for Columbus to become a navigator. What needs to be mentioned here is that Columbus lost confidence in business because of his father's business failure and tragic death, which prompted him to cast all his eyes on the sea. When it became possible to be a sailor, Columbus left the land and began his career at sea. Young Columbus was a sailor in Genoa's merchant ship and had been to Spain, Portugal, England, France and Iceland. During this period, Columbus accumulated quite valuable sailing experience. Before formal navigation education, these interests and experiences support future navigators.

1476, Columbus fell into the water in the fierce battle during the voyage and swam to Portugal with a broken boat board, from which he learned navigation knowledge. At this time, wisdom and diligence helped Columbus. Yes, here, he learned Portuguese and Latin, and used these languages to study cosmology and mathematics, which are essential for navigation, and learned to draw maps and use various navigation tools. More importantly, in Portugal, a maritime power, Columbus was psychologically prepared for sailing: he read the Travels of Marco Polo and had infinite reverie about the richness of the East, which gave him the idea of going to the East; He contacted Toscanelli, a scholar, accepted the "Earth Circle Theory" and strengthened his belief of reaching the East from the sea. At this point, the voyage to the west is only due to the "material" east wind.

Columbus came to Spain when his application for funding from the Portuguese King's Office was rejected. Out of the same pursuit of gold, Columbus reached an agreement with the Spanish royal family (signing the Santa Fe Agreement). It has its own fleet and crew, and with God's blessing and mission, it dreams of setting sail.

On August 3rd, 1492, the first westbound route departed. On the way, the sailors almost made trouble because they drifted for a long time and didn't see land. However, he insisted on going west and found "land" in the waters of the Bahamas at 2 am on June 12. He named the island "San Salvador". In this way, the new continent was discovered.

1493 On March 4th, Columbus returned to Lisbon and Barcelona at the end of April, and was awarded the grand prize. At this point, the first voyage was successfully completed.

Subsequently, Columbus made three voyages to the Western Ocean at 1493~ 1496, 1498~ 1500, 1502~ 1504, which were continuously discovered and "perfected".

A devout Christian

Columbus wrote in his will: "With the help of the Holy Spirit, I gained and thoroughly understood an idea ... I visited the Indian mainland at 1492 ..." On his deathbed, Columbus still remembered his "Lord", which is evident in his piety. Columbus sailed under the banner of the Crusader, which shows that he took it as his duty to preach for God and was loyal to the "Lord". One of the purposes of Columbus's Western Expedition is to preach, which is not only "the king's will", but also his bounden duty as a Christian. In fact, Christians in western Europe believe that pagans who don't believe in God should be killed and eliminated, which is not difficult to explain the killing of Indians after Columbus arrived in America. Columbus showed his devotion to God by killing Indians.

Not the executioner

Many people just cursed and angered Columbus's massacre of Indians. But I think Columbus's behavior is inevitable and historic. The reason of "religion" has already been said above, so I won't say it here. From Columbus's standpoint, as colonists and marauders, the role of killing Indians is obvious: reducing the local population in order to occupy more land; Scare Indians, easy to control and use, including slavery and direct access to wealth. This method avoids the entanglement between Europeans and Indians, and it is also a "quick and economical" method to plunder wealth and colonize, which is completely in line with Columbus' class interests and the purpose of finding wealth. In fact, a large number of deaths of American Indians were caused by the lack of resistance of indigenous people to diseases from Europe, which was an objective result, not Columbus' intention. From a certain point of view, it can be said that the slaughter of Indians is inevitable.

A pioneer in the era of change

Columbus's discovery became a new era of new continent development and colonization, which was a major turning point in history. /kloc-in the 0/5th century, the population of Europe expanded rapidly, and the discovery of the new continent provided Europeans with places to emigrate, as well as minerals and raw materials that could change the European economy. But at the same time, this discovery led to the destruction of American Indian civilization. The successful opening of the new airline has further promoted cultural exchanges around the world. American rubber, corn, tobacco leaves, sweet potatoes, cocoa and potatoes were all brought back to Europe by the Spanish and spread all over the world. European immigrants brought plants such as barley, rye, oats and rice and livestock such as horses, cows and mules to America and took root, which greatly enriched the cultural exchanges between the eastern and western hemispheres. On the other hand, in the long run, this discovery has also led to the emergence of some new countries (the United States) in the western hemisphere that are completely different from the Indian tribes that once settled in this area, which has brought great influence to the countries in the old continent. It can be said that Columbus' discovery of the New World was objectively progressive on the basis of injustice.

However, it should be noted that the large amount of gold and silver that caused the primitive accumulation of capital and price revolution in Europe was not brought back by Columbus alone, but was the result of plunder by him and many subsequent maritime colonists. It is far-fetched to attribute the contribution to the embryonic development of European capitalism entirely to Columbus.

It's not accidental.

Columbus, like other great explorers, even without Columbus, his discovery will be discovered by others, which is a historical necessity. /kloc-in the 0/5th century, European trade extended in all directions and the economy developed at a high speed, which inevitably produced and stimulated exploration activities. It seems certain that Europeans will discover the new continent sooner or later, and it won't be long before Columbus discovers it. However, if Columbus did not discover the new continent in the expedition of 1492, but the French or the British discovered it in the following year of 15 10, then the subsequent development will be completely different from today's history.