Christopher Columbus should not be considered a hero. To start, his quest was originally to find Asia, and happened upon the Americas by mistake. His success was accidental, and he never creditted or payed the man who actually first spotted land. Secondly, his immediate response upon meeting the natives was that they should make fair slaves. ("they would make fine servants... with fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want"). In two years, he and his people managed to kill half of a 250,000 population of Indians. He gave them impossible tasks to meet false statistics that he had given to the Spanish royalty, and when the Indians could not meet these tasks, they were murdered in horrific ways, such as burning, bleeding out, hanging, and being fed to dogs. Additionally, once the encomienda system was implemented, he and his men went to extensive and unnecessary efforts to dehumanize the Indian population, by forcing them to carry the Spaniards everywhere, and keep them cool by fanning them with large leaves. Spaniards murdered Indians for little to no reason, or just for fun. Regardless of the fact that these acts of subjugation occurred with other men, Columbus's accidental success and what he did with it give reason to credit him as a villain, rather than a hero.
Lewis and Clarke were explorers similar to Columbus. Like Columbus, they explored the New World, however for them, it was only the United States. Additionally, their relationship with the Natives were quite good, as they relied on them for navigational help, unlike Columbus.
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