Name: 【TED-Ed】History vs. Christopher Columbus - Alex Gendler
Uploaded: 2015-03-07T15:02:17.000Z
Duration: 5 min 55 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Many people in the United States and Latin America

have grown up celebrating the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage,

but was he an intrepid explorer who brought two worlds together

or a ruthless exploiter who brought colonialism and slavery?

It's time to put Columbus on the stand in History vs. Christopher Columbus.

Wait, am I even supposed to  be at work today?"

From 1792, Columbus Day was celebrated in many parts of the United States

on October 12th, the actual anniversary date.

But although it was declared an official holiday in 1934,

individual states aren't required to observe it.

and more states are moving away from it completely."

In the 70s, we even moved it to the second Monday in October

so people could get a nice  three-day weekend,

but I guess you folks just hate celebrations."

"Come on, Your Honor,  we all learned it in school.

Christopher Columbus convinced the King of Spain to send him on a mission

not by going East over land but sailing West around the globe.

Everyone said it was crazy because they still thought the world was flat,

And when in 1492 he sailed the ocean blue,

First of all, educated people knew the world was round since Aristotle.

Secondly, Columbus didn't  discover anything.

There were already people living here for millennia.

And he wasn't even  the first European to visit.

The Norse had settled Newfoundland almost 500 years before."

"You don't say, so how come we're not all wearing those cow helmets?"

"Actually, they didn't really  wear those either."

"Who cares what some Vikings did way back when?

Those settlements didn't last, but Columbus's did.

And the news he brought back to Europe spread far and wide,

inspiring all the explorers and settlers who came after.

Without him, none of us  would be here today."

"And because of him, millions of Native Americans aren't here today.

Do you know what Columbus did in the colonies he founded?

He took the very first  natives he met prisoner

and wrote in his journal about how easily he could conquer and enslave all of them."

"Oh, come on. Everyone was fighting each other back then.

about other tribes raiding and taking captives?"

"Yes, but tribal warfare  was sporadic and limited.

It certainly didn't wipe out 90% of the population."

"Hmm. Why is celebrating this Columbus so important to you, anyway?"

"Your Honor, Columbus's voyage  was an inspiration

to struggling people all across Europe, symbolizing freedom and new beginnings.

And his discovery gave our grandparents and great-grandparents

the chance to come here and build better lives for their children.

Don't we deserve a hero to remind everyone that our country

was build on the struggles of immigrants?"

"And what about the struggles  of Native Americans

who were nearly wiped out  and forced into reservations

and whose descendants still suffer from poverty and discrimination?

How can you make a hero out of a man who caused so much suffering?"

"That's history. You can't judge a guy in the 15th century by modern standards.

Christianity and civilization  across the world was a moral duty."

"Actually, he was pretty bad, even by old standards.

While governing Hispaniola, he tortured and mutilated

and sold girls as young as nine into sexual slavery,

and he was brutal even to the other colonists he ruled,

to the point that he was removed from power and thrown in jail.

When the missionary, Bartolomé de las Casas,

'From 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished

from war, slavery and the mines. Who in  future generations will believe this?'"

"Well, I'm not sure I believe  those numbers."

"Say, aren't there other ways the holiday is celebrated?"

they celebrate the same date under different names, such as Día de la Raza.

In these places, it's more a celebration of the native and mixed cultures

that survived through the colonial period.

Some places in the U.S. have also renamed the holiday,

as Native American Day or Indigenous People's Day

and changed the celebrations accordingly."

"So, why not just change the name if it's such a problem?"

Ordinary people need their heroes and their founding myths.

Can't we just keep celebrating the way we've been doing for a century,

without having to delve into all this serious research?

It's not like anyone is actually  celebrating genocide."

"Traditions change, and the way  we choose to keep them alive

"Well, it looks like giving tired judges a day off isn't one of those values, anyway."

Traditions and holidays are important to all cultures,

but a hero in one era may become a villain in the next

as our historical knowledge expands and our values evolve.

And deciding what these traditions should mean today

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【TED-Ed】History vs. Christopher Columbus - Alex Gendler

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