Every year on October 12 we celebrate Columbus Day. We praise a man named Christopher Columbus because he discovered America. When reading our history books we see Columbus as one of the greatest mariners in history. He was described as " a visionary genius, mystic, and a national hero." The books we read only tell us about the great discovery of a world that did not need to be discovered. We never hear about what really happened on his voyages to the west. We never see the truth about Columbus and how he was a " failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, or a ruthless and greedy imperialist.".
In 1451, Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. His father was nothing more than a wool merchant and weaver. He moves to Spain in 1485 after the King of Portugal will not support his plan to find the New World. Here in Spain he convinces King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to help him in his "adventure." Columbus was not just looking for adventure, as most people think, he was looking for gold. Most people also think that Columbus proved that the world was round but most navigators all ready knew this by the end of the 15th century. However, what was not known was the size of the circumference, and Columbus underestimated that answer by one-fourth. .
Very few of the incredible accounts that we hear are true. The historians try to make Columbus out to be this brave adventurer but in reality he wasn't. Supposedly the first voyage was death-defying and many sailors died from bad weather and starvation, and of course this is not true. Another rumor that was found to be wrong was the story about Queen Isabella selling her crown jewels to support Columbus. In actuality the king and queen did not trust Columbus and failed to give him the rewards he was promised. Eventually they even had him arrested after his fourth and final expedition.
It is so unfortunate that people were lead to believe that this great man had to go through so much turmoil and to think all the information that we have on Columbus was made up to make him sound so courageous.
