Columbus Day Special: Colonialists And Conquerors (PHOTOS, POLL)

Columbus Day may be celebrated as a patriotic holiday in the United States, but the man himself remains somewhat controversial. Some view Christopher Columbus less as a hero and more as someone who helped start a new era of imperialism and colonialism.

Does Columbus deserve this bad press? Look at the examples of colonialists and conquerors below to help us rate their legacies.

Have suggestions for great (or horrible) conquerors from history? Leave your ideas in the comments section below.

Christopher Columbus

Although not the first European to reach the New World, the Italian explorer's journey spurred a surge of interest in what lay across the Atlantic ocean, ushering in a new era of empires. A devout Catholic, Columbus had been working off inaccurate calculations in a belief that he would be able to travel around the world to reach Asia.

What he found instead prompted the Portuguese and Spanish to divide up the new continent between themselves, ultimately resulting in warfare involving France and Britain. Historian David Stannard has written that as many as 100 million indigenous people may have died, but this number has been disputed.

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Comments

[Bitsko]

I nominate my cousin Shlomo Lipshtiz, who on numerous occasions set ant hills on fire.

Comparing despots and tyrants is like apples and oranges.

[gaiuscaprica]

You truly r a dummy

[Bitsko]

Why, thanks.

[califlefty]

Read the works of V.S. Naipal, an Indian, who has visited non-Arabic countries that became Islamic. The indigenous culture becomes "Arabized", replacing the customs and names of the native population. This is not unusual in the history of competing civilizations, but the history of Arab expansion has been one of destruction and exploitation that is unending.

[Bitsko]

The recent bio of Mr. Naipaul, The World Is What It Is, is quite good. By the way, he is Trinidadian.

[chaya]

I'm really not believing you left out Cortez and Pizarro.

[Ping]

yeah.

[chaya]

Shame for including Captain Cook. Most people know he was neither a conqueror nor a colonialist. He was an explorer who tried his best to treat indigenous peoples with respect and leave no impact. Kinda like Star Trek.

[gaiuscaprica]

So what! why is everybody so concern with the actions of the men that forged the modern world.
All lot of the explores can be viewed as good or evil, and let not forget that the native people that died were no bunch of Mr.Rogers, they were blood thirsty, superstitious, warriors. If I had a time machine I would not change anything. Without Columbus and all that followed our country would not be here, I would not been born, we can't have this can we? Imagine a world devoid of me. This would be a true tragedy.

[cliffhammond]

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were responsible for over a million civilian deaths in Iraq. They lied to justify going in and by invading Iraq they committed a war crime of the highest order because it facilitated all others.

[seatech1]

You are correct SIR!

[gaiuscaprica]

Yeah Bush was a real Hit1er! where were you cliffhammo­nd/seatech­1 ? how many times did you go to jail in protest? "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them"- Adalai Stevenso

[Watain]

Hi
Tt
Ler
AND
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Me
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By far the worst.

[Edwin Davy]

James Cook neither colonized any country nor conquered any peoples. He was a renowned navigator and a highly successful seventeenth century explorer circumnavigating the global several times in vessels named the Endeavour, Resolution, Discovery and Adventure, declaring; "I had the ambition to not only go farther than man had gone before, but to go as far as it was possible to go.”

Contrary to the original posting he did achieve the first European discovery of New Zealand nor Australia. The Dutch - Able Tasman particularly – preceded him there by some 127 years. Cook did however discover Hawaii. His seventeenth century fame and successes are recalled by twentieth century ventures as diverse as TV’s Star Trek (Captain James T Kirk with a mission “To boldly go where no man has gone before “) and the NASA space shuttles, Endeavour and Discovery.

[almer77]

He was the first European explorer to in any way explore New Zealand - Tasman never landed, having been scared off by indiginous people when he attempted to land.

Cook's map of New Zealand was so detailed it wasn't replaced until satellite imgaging became available.

Cook also explored many other pacific islands, which perhaps made him overconfident of polynesian hospitaity when he landed on Hawai'i.

[wm1066]

I think the Conquistadors that came after Columbus that did greater damage. Cortes and his gang. I think Columbus was a little confused as to what he found. And wasn't it after the cannibals ate some of his men before he killed any Indians?

[KriTiKiT]

explain that to the puerto rican natives... who he raped despised and slaughtered.

[gaiuscaprica]

Guess PR's never get a break, even back then.( me cago en na)

[InfinteShibumi]

You're joking, right?

[wm1066]

Cortes and Pizarro killed alot more indians then Columbus. And were alot more greedy.

[gerontion72]

Where's Henry Kissinger?

[Justtellthetruth]

I don't know about the most infamous, but the only ones in the ENTIRE WORLD who are currently engaging in this type of horrific behavior are the Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

We cannot change what Pizarro and Columbus did, but we CAN stop the singularly naked brutality of the Israeli settlers in the occupied territories. Lets remove this black stain from the faces of both Israel and the US before it is too late to stop the NEXT terrorist threat that it will help to inspire.

[MosheDayanHero]

Groan....another preoccupied Judeophobe...

[Justtellthetruth]

I'm not afraid of jewish people, that would be ridiculous. I am afraid of and angry about violent, racist settlers who believe that their actions are above all other nations understandings of human rights and the proper conduct of Nations.

Most Israelis and American Jewish people agree with my stance regarding the settlements.

[califlefty]

Wait till he finds out Columbus had a rabbi on board, his head will explode.

[gaiuscaprica]

MosheDayanHero -

There is so much wrong with you(your postings-i'm sure you are the world to someone)
To me there's only one race the human race- And I consider my self a citizen of the cosmos(an idea introduced by Carl Sagan, who I admired -a Jew ) but blindly calling someone you disagree with anti-semetic is pointless. Justtellthetruth had an almost PERFECT ARGUMENT, that's why you made personal attacks. The reason I say almost perfect is cause all that was missing is the following:
A small minority threatens the entire world because, of a false claim to a land( Granted by divine decree) that was illegally and immorally seized. We need to stand to this insanity and not let the views of radical minds to take root.

[gaiuscaprica]

MosheDayanHero -

There is so much wrong with u (ur anyway postings-i'm sure you are the world to someone)
To me there's only one race the human race- And I consider my self a citizen of the cosmos(an idea introduced by Carl Sagan, who I admired -a Jew ) but blindly calling someone you disagree with anti-semetic is pointless. Justtellthetruth had an almost PERFECT ARGUMENT, that's why you made personal attacks. The reason I say almost perfect is cause all that was missing is the following:
A small minority threatens the entire world because, of a false claim to a land( Granted by divine decree) that was illegally and immorally seized. We need to stand to this insanity and not let the views of radical minds to take root.

[MosheDayanHero]

Immortal quote by the blogger Alexander the Great "creating a Greek empire that is still in evidence today."

"EMPIRE STILL IN EVIDENCE TODAY" Ha-ha-ha.
This going to be filed in the same hall of shame department as the following high school history example:"

Without the Greeks, we wouldn't have history. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intolerable. Achilles appears in "The Illiad", by Homer. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.

[InfinteShibumi]

You mean "invulnerable," not "intolerable". Or maybe not. Achilles was definitely insufferable.

[MosheDayanHero]

Ah, this was a blooper, taken out of a middle school student's essay. You mean you couldn't tell?!!

[cliffhammond]

"Elohim" is the plural of "god" -- there were many -- out of which the warrior g-d of the volcano eventually became the one in vogue today. They used to sacrifice their children then they cut that out in a move to civilized behavior -- they just sacrificed animals for more than a two millennia, out of which the "Lords Supper" has become the "Passover Sacrifice." Secular Protestant nations have more or less let all that go and returned to human sacrifice -- they sacrifice your children in the Middle East to the g-d of money ("Mammon").

[MosheDayanHero]

The same ldiot wrote a post calling Sarkozy a "French Prme Minister." LOL

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/jean-sarkozy-was-thrown-t_n_318544.html?show_comment_id=32731454#comment_32731454

[fallingsky]

Cecil Rhodes,,,, infamous racist,,,, Rhodes Scholarship founder........ By liberal correlations shouldn't Bill Clinton and Rachel Maddow be ostracized and demonized for accepting Rhodes Scholarships ?

[TovSquirrel]

Only convoluted conservative logic would take you there.

[StarDagger]

There were a few conservative intellectuals, I think they all have died now, or drop dead when they see FoxNews.

The inability to present an agure without facetiousness or a call to fear, anger and ego is one of the chief reasons the conservative movement is in such utter disarray. You may get people to move in your direction for a while with a doctrine of fear, but the populace of America can not sustain fear when they are so comfortable in so many basic ways.
If they were not well fed and housed their would be a Revolution and the Right (and to some extent the Left) would have to pay for their lack of vision.
The Rich should be happy that all people did last year was vote a passionate progressive into office, if they keep pressing the pressure cooker will explode into their botoxed faces.

Yours in Revolutionary Plasma,
Star*Dagger

[StarDagger]

You need to read the beginning of The Peoples History of the United States.

Columbus was a brutal and bloody conquer who raped and killed thousands, read the book, or even the first 50 pages and then come back and defend him. Oh the source you ask, his OWN WRITINGS!

In disgust at a country that would celebrate columbus,
Star*Dagger

[amdezurik]

he had to convince Isabella that it was Ok to enslve the natives, in order to "uplift" them via rape, mur.der and torture, leading up to killing off all of them and "re-populating' from other islands and Africa. yeah, i really want to watch a parade about that guy.

[eweqo]

marxists writers always write ant-american propaganda. There's no need to read tphotus. just read marx and you know how he would characterize the west. the facts are that millions of first americans would have died even if the Europeans had the best of intentions. the majority of natives died of disease. the same kind of fate that europe endured during the great plagues. the other aspect that always gets me riled up is that the marxist conveniently forget to mention the hundreds of millions the marxists have exterminated in the twentieth century. Columbus was a human like everyone else with failings to match. Still he did something extraordinary and that's why we still remember him.

[StarDagger]

I love it when the Neo-Fasc..Cons pan books they have never read and then encourage others NOT to read them.
Reading leads to liberal thought for a reason, and that reason is Reason. Maybe you should start with the Enlightenment theorists if you do not like conflict theory.
The simple fact is that Columbus was a murderer, rapist and imperialist. Whitewashing him means you are invested in some way with these ideals, which does not surprise me in a country that just survived eight years of an experiment with Neo-Fascism.

[lungfish]

Of course it was all done in the native peoples best interests..... which means it was Church sanctioned and the Jesuits were a driving force in the oppression, subjugation and murder of thousands in God's name.
Go to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadelupe in Mexico City and check out the "relic' of the proof of the Virgin Mary appearing to a poor peasant - her image transferred to a piece of burlap - its an obvious icon-like painting, a story intended to control the native people.... and then look at the 30ft high mural of the Governor, his officers and the priests, all glaring down mirthlessly... it is a terrible place... and poor Mexicans crawl on their hands and knees across sharp stones laid in the courtyard in "acts of faith"...
So I nominate the Catholic Church to join that list of despots and murderers.... because it was all justified in God's name and they didn't lift a finger to do otherwise...

[Merrimack]

I guess the natives should have had bigger guns. Survival of the fittest. Darwin's theory applies to civilizations and groups of people just as it does to species.

Columbus is not responsible for the natives poor immune system. These silly comments could be made about every leader in history that expanded civilization.

[pahpah25]

columbus and his crew stopped off at a small island in the carribean for a little R&R...in the process, they infected the people living there with their european venereal and other diseases..to which these people had no immunity...this is how the italians , spanish and portugese....good catholics all., 'conquered' the 'new' world...with sexually transmitted disease........their pope was happy as they were 'saving' the heathens.......kind of reminds one of 'destroying the village to save it'

[MosheDayanHero]

you got it wrong. It is the other way around, Syph-lis was introduced to Europe by Columbus' sailors,