frame

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

DebateIsland.com is the largest online debate website globally where anyone can anonymously and easily debate online, casually or formally, while connecting with their friends and others. Users, regardless of debating skill level, can civilly debate just about anything online in a text-based online debate website that supports five easy-to-use and fun debating formats ranging from Casual, to Formalish, to Lincoln-Douglas Formal. In addition, people can improve their debating skills with the help of revolutionary artificial intelligence-powered technology on our debate website. DebateIsland is totally free and provides the best online debate experience of any debate website.





Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Debate Information

Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain?
aarong
  1. Live Poll

    Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain?

    18 votes
    1. Hero
      16.67%
    2. Villian
      38.89%
    3. Mostly hero
      11.11%
    4. Mostly villain
      33.33%
I could either have the future pass me or l could create it. 

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain .” - Benjamin Franklin  So flat Earthers, man-made climate change deniers, and just science deniers.

I friended myself! 



Debra AI Prediction

Predicted To Win
Predicted 2nd Place
11%
Margin

Details +




Post Argument Now Debate Details +

    Arguments


  • someone234someone234 647 Pts   -  
    Villain in every shape and form.
    kentuc2669
  • someone234someone234 647 Pts   -  
    Both in the corrupt way he silenced who really found America and took credit from them and the aftermath of what he found and brutal invasion of the Natives that he endorsed.
    StrangeQuarkMatterMajoMILSdlGMGVstarphanietran
  • NopeNope 397 Pts   -  
    He found the Americas way after the natives. He also was not the first European to find America as he was beaten by the vikings. He did not even find north America. He thought the world was smaller than it was which is why he thought he could sail west to easily get to India. He killed many natives who did not harm him and showed kindness. He opened up the silver trade which clasped Chinese economy and lead to China no longer being a world power. Just some information to help people decided. : )
    Poguestarphanietran
  • PoguePogue 584 Pts   -  
    I will also add some information and my opinion.
    He was a villain and a terrible person. 
    He was not the first person to know the Earth was not flat. Educated people knew it was not flat since the time of Aristotle. He just thought it was a small little pair shape. 
    He did not discover anything at all, people were living here for millennia. He also was not even the first European. The Norse landing here almost 500 years before him. 
    Because of him, hundreds of thousands of natives are not here today (the ones he killed, not by disease). He took the very first natives he met, prisoner. He forced so many into slavery. He wrote in his journals, how easily he could conquer and enslave them. 
    This man caused so much suffering that the natives' descendants still suffer from poverty and discrimination. 

    Some would say that you can not judge him by modern standards. However, he was still pretty bad by 16th century standards. 
    He tortured and mutilated natives who did not bring him enough gold while governing Hispaniola. He sold girls as young as 9 into sexual slavery. He was even brutal to the other colonists (white people) that were there.
    This was so bad, that he was removed from power and thrown in jail.
    When Bartolome de las Casas visited the island, he wrote, "From 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slaver;y, and the mines".  

    I have one question for all the people that think he was a hero. 
    How do you make a hero out of a man who caused so much suffering?
    OakTownA
    I could either have the future pass me or l could create it. 

    “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain .” - Benjamin Franklin  So flat Earthers, man-made climate change deniers, and just science deniers.

    I friended myself! 
  • SilverishGoldNovaSilverishGoldNova 1201 Pts   -   edited March 2018
    Well, isn't he the guy who killed, raped, sold, mutilated, etc millions of people for his own glory and gold, who somehow gets a bunch of statues and a city in Ohio named after him, who ruled so horribly even the white colonists rebelled against him? Things you know when you research besides schools saying "He went the wrong way and chilled with the natives".
    Pogue
    I am no longer active on DebateIsland or any debate website. Many things I have posted here and on other sites (Such as believing in the flat Earth theory or other conspiracy theories such as those that are about the Las Vegas Shooting or 9/11) do not reflect on my current views. 

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p6M-VgXHwwdpJarhyQYapBz-kRc6FrgdOLFAd3IfYz8/edit

    https://debateisland.com/discussion/comment/18248/#Comment_18248 (Me officially stating that I am no longer a flat-Earther)
  • stormyboistormyboi 13 Pts   -  
    Disgusting man. He doesn't even deserve for me to waste my precious time insulting him.
  • AmpersandAmpersand 858 Pts   -  
    From a modern perspective certainly villainous, although viewed through the racist and self serving lense of the time he would have been heroic to people then.
  • PoguePogue 584 Pts   -  
    Ampersand said:
    From a modern perspective certainly villainous, although viewed through the racist and self serving lense of the time he would have been heroic to people then.
    No. To quote me, "Some would say that you can not judge him by modern standards. However, he was still pretty bad by 16th century standards. 
    He tortured and mutilated natives who did not bring him enough gold while governing Hispaniola. He sold girls as young as 9 into sexual slavery. He was even brutal to the other colonists (white people) that were there. 
    This was so bad, that he was removed from power and thrown in jail. 
    When Bartolome de las Casas visited the island, he wrote, "From 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slaver;y, and the mines"."
    I could either have the future pass me or l could create it. 

    “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain .” - Benjamin Franklin  So flat Earthers, man-made climate change deniers, and just science deniers.

    I friended myself! 
  • AmpersandAmpersand 858 Pts   -   edited March 2018
    Pogue said:
    Ampersand said:
    From a modern perspective certainly villainous, although viewed through the racist and self serving lense of the time he would have been heroic to people then.
    No. To quote me, "Some would say that you can not judge him by modern standards. However, he was still pretty bad by 16th century standards. 
    He tortured and mutilated natives who did not bring him enough gold while governing Hispaniola. He sold girls as young as 9 into sexual slavery. He was even brutal to the other colonists (white people) that were there. 
    This was so bad, that he was removed from power and thrown in jail. 
    When Bartolome de las Casas visited the island, he wrote, "From 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slaver;y, and the mines"."
    To the former accusation of him being bad by 16th century standards based on his removal from power, is only half true and the half that is true doesn't relate to him being a villain.

    "Now one can understand why he was sacked and we can see that there were good reasons for doing so.

    "The monarchs wanted someone who did not give them problems. Columbus did not solve problems, he created them."

    The issue was not that he was violent and barbarous, it was that his violence and barbarism was ineffective and was too problematic for the crown. If he'd managed to keep the colonists in line with this violence there would have been little issue - with little cared about violence towards natives either way. The same monarch that ordered a royal official to arrest him in turn ordered him freed, his titles and fortune returned and gave him funds for a new voyage, they simple did not allow him to have a position of governance again.

    In regards to the contemporary criticism, if your logic is that because some minority of people did view him as a villain then by that regard you also can't call him villainous now as there are people who still view him as a hero. You can't have it both ways.

    lastly Bartolome de las Casas wrote that decades after Colmobus's death..
  • someone234someone234 647 Pts   -  
    @Ampersand you are right. Those that arrested him were even more corrupt.
  • MayCaesarMayCaesar 5965 Pts   -  
    Columbus was an explorer at the time when being an explorer implied claiming discovered lands for the empire at any cost, and when primitive native tribes weren't considered entirely human by the European societies. From the dominant modern perspective, what he did was atrocious; for his time, it was as common as washing dishes.

    Hundreds years from now, some of our customs will look barbaric and disgusting in the eyes of the futuristic society. Evaluation of historical elements is curious in this regard: it is highly dependent on the present state of the society and changes significantly (usually for the more critical one) over time.

    So, to summarize and to answer your question, I would say that Columbus was both a hero and a villain, depending a) on what side of his personality (exploratory nature and courage vs prejudice and brutality) you focus your attention, and b) on which society is judging him.
  • kentuc2669kentuc2669 12 Pts   -  
    Pogue said:
    Was Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain
    hi i am a 13 year old boy and i think he is a hero because,  we are the most wealthiestcountry on earth.because of that man he made us a very good country because what all he did for us but there is some bad thing he did but that don’t mader that much, it's all about the good thing’s he did for us and we the people not all but some are just hating on him for the bad things he did but over all he did all of us a favor. 

  • kentuc2669kentuc2669 12 Pts   -  
    explain why he is a villain? 
  • VaulkVaulk 813 Pts   -  
    I suppose it depends on what you believe about morality.  If you believe that morality is naturalistic then what Christopher Columbus did was within the norms at the time that he did it and therefor within acceptable moral behavior because morality is always evolving.

    If you believe in objective Morality then what he did was absolutely Evil and he deserves no recognition for his accomplishments in light of his violations of human rights.  Similar to how no one notices Hitler's economic success because of what he did to the Jews.
    대왕광개토
    "If there's no such thing as a question then what kind of questions do people ask"?

    "There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".

    "Oh, you don't like my sarcasm?  Well I don't much appreciate your stup!d".


  • 대왕광개토대왕광개토 235 Pts   -  
    Colombus was a hero for those sought new land and wealth(Europeans). However, he was an evil to native Americans.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Back To Top

DebateIsland.com

| The Best Online Debate Experience!
© 2023 DebateIsland.com, all rights reserved. DebateIsland.com | The Best Online Debate Experience! Debate topics you care about in a friendly and fun way. Come try us out now. We are totally free!

Contact us

customerservice@debateisland.com
Terms of Service

Get In Touch