Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama | Teen Ink

Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama

August 3, 2012
By CanaBean PLATINUM, Houston, Texas
CanaBean PLATINUM, Houston, Texas
32 articles 0 photos 4 comments

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The oversight of the explorations made by Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama are both brutal, surprising, and years later still relevant. The accomplishment that Columbus achieved may have become an enormous conquest for Spain but a bigger impact was on the land that he came to, in which he slaughtered and enslaved many Native Americans. As for Gama his motivation to sail from Portugal to India caused a stir due to the fact that many Europeans at the time thought it impossible because they assumed that the Indian Ocean was not connected to any other bodies of water. Both Columbus and Gama saw their goal: God, Glory, and Gold, not only for the impact of others but for their countries.

Columbus was not the first to just miraculously believe that there were acres of land on the other side of the world. When in actuality Columbus, like other Europeans, thought that the Earth was in fact flat. On his journey to what he called the “New World” Columbus encountered many strange aspects, one being seeing an enormous flash of light in the sky, which he included in his diary. Another constant error in which he wrote in his notes was the misinterpretation of calling the Native Americans of the “New World” “Indians”. This was a personal mistake on Columbus part due to the fact that he actual thought he was in India, which was his actual destination. While Christopher and his men were brutal to many Native American tribes including the Tainos, he impacted the European world with the so-called discovery.

However not all of the explorers of the European world were so avaricious, Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who became famous for his discovery of an ocean route from Portugal to the East. At first Gama’s trading with others was well-received however it did not last long. Vasco da Gama's presence also stopped the Muslim invasion and enslavement of Africans. Among others his son, Cristovao da Gama and his 500 men saved Ethiopia from Ibrahim Ghazi's invasion.

In conclusion, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama were both brutal yet till this day are still relevantly talked about. While the accomplishment that Columbus achieved may have become an enormous conquest for Spain but a bigger impact was on the land that he came to, in which he slaughtered and enslaved many Native Americans. As for Gama his motivation to sail from Portugal to India caused a stir due to the fact that many Europeans at the time thought it impossible because they assumed that the Indian Ocean was not connected to any other bodies of water. Both Columbus and Gama saw their goal: God, Glory, and Gold, not only for the impact of others but for their countries.



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This article has 2 comments.


pbpb86 said...
on May. 29 2014 at 5:36 am
I second KayKay - Most educated people in Europe understood the Earth was round, though they did not understand just how large it was.  Both Columbus and Da Gama carried out similar actions on the native populations they encountered in their travels, and were unsurprisngly disliked by the natives.

KayKay said...
on Aug. 30 2013 at 9:30 pm
Incorrect information regarding Columbus and de Gama is written about here. De Gama killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims, and people in Columbus's time did in fact know the world was round.