Answer:
Christopher Columbus is a very famous man known for connecting Europe with the Americas, a place they did not know had existed. Beyond this however, evidence shows that Columbus was a cruel man to the inhabitants of the part of the New World which he managed.
Columbus saw the natives as nothing more than servants and slaves who could be made to do heinous work or sold off for profit. Under Columbus, a buzzing Taino Indian population of more than 250,000 people was reduced to less than 800 after 56 years of Columbus landing in Hispaniola which in effect amounted to genocide.
He accomplished this by selling many of them into slavery and forcing others to look for gold with such pressure that around 50,000 of them committed mass suicid to avoid having to continue. In another instance, Columbus ordered the mutilation of natives and the parading of their body parts to discourage rebellion.
With such heinous crimes (including allegations of r ape against his crew), many denounce the notion that Columbus should be labelled a hero for he was a tyrant who couldn't even navigate effectively.
