I woke up late that Monday morning, basking in the fact that there was no school. It was early October, and the stress of fourth grade was really getting to me. Christopher Columbus was a man I envisioned I would be forever grateful for, and as far as I was concerned, Columbus was wonderful, exploration was wonderful, and this day off was extra wonderful. But just how thankful should I really have been? Hidden behind the great accomplishments explorers have made exist the dark circumstances that accompany them. It is too often untaught at all levels of education, and to be looking past all the horrendous deeds that occurred in that era is cruel to those that suffered through it.  Grisly effects of exploration should not and will not go unnoticed, even if it is believed it was done for noble reasons. The age of exploration was heinous because there were a plethora of unjustified actions that in turn ravaged communities and the people within them.

Losses accumulated from the Age of Exploration are immeasurable. Although it may not be entirely purposeful, there is no denying that innocent people were devastated from the effects of exploration. One of the most major outcomes were the deaths accompanied by disease. Passed on through the triangular trade, disease wreaked havoc on those not immune to European illnesses. This generally included people of the Americas as well as Africa, which were the countries participating in the Triangular Trade. Deaths at this time were so prominent that it led to naming it the Great Dying. Obviously, the Europeans did not spread their viruses on purpose, but that still does not designate it pardonable at all. But something that was deliberate was the Middle Passage. African Americans were taken out of their homes to serve purposes for those of a higher class, and this whole movement had sparked the slavery all have come to loathe. Numerous slaves had died on this horrendous journey and those that made it out alive were still put under the cruel conditions of their owners. By allowing this to happen, people and families were torn apart and destroyed, and the destruction had become a part of their everyday lives. There were also specific explorers that added to the abounding losses, such as the well known and well liked Christopher Columbus. Most people only know about the great accomplishments he made in his lifetime, but what they fail to realize is that the destruction that came from his actions were substantially more important than the explorations themselves. According to Howard Zinn’s Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress, “In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead.” People were killed for groundless reasons by Columbus, and they were also so distressed and drained from the constant abuse that they decided ending their own lives would be better than living on. Cortes and Pizarro also did their part in damaging communities when they conquered the natives of the Inca Empire and the Aztecs. Traveling there with nothing but violence and greed in mind, they both contributed to the heinous outcomes of exploration in their day and age. Lives were carelessly taken all for the purpose of the explorer’s wants. Other people were not considered important when they decided that that would be their plan of action. 

Not only were lives taken, but for those who lived, culture was taken too. Sherman Alexie, a Native American author, voices the Indian perspective of life through his literature, and in his poem “How to Write the Great American Indian Novel,” he speaks of how Whites have taken over their heritage which most likely refers back to Columbus’ doings. He writes “In the Great American Indian novel, when it is finally written, all of the white people will be Indians and all of the Indians will be ghosts.” Culture of the Native American’s is being stripped down due to the events that occurred back when Columbus first made his visit to their land, and those detrimental effects have been following them lifetime after lifetime. How can one call the Age of Exploration heroic when it is seen that such a wide range of people are being depleted of their heritage and even killed in the process? That is not something that the world should be proud of, and to look past this for the sake of revolution would be a dishonor to those negatively affected by it. The world must realize it happened, and also realize that the damage done to the innocent people has made it much more heinous than heroic.

Whether it was because they did not realize what they were doing, or that they believed it was ethical, most affairs that ended up occurring were blown way out of proportion and caused a rippling effect on the world. Life after life were taken at the expense of what? Surely not for the benefit of everyone. There were countless times where explorers used unnecessary violence for an unclear reason, and this was extremely prominent in once again, the case of Christopher Columbus. The Indians “are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone…” (Zinn 3). Columbus had torn apart the Native Americans, but he had no coherent excuse for doing so. After being welcomed with such open arms, he still felt no empathy for destroying them as people and a community. These approaches that explorers and exploration have made have carried on through the years and resulted in an ongoing topic: racism. All over the news and nearly everywhere one will witness the racism that has been swallowing our country and taking more and more lives all for an issue that shouldn’t even exist. For example, Black Lives Matter has become awfully prominent and basically part of our daily vocabulary in today’s age. Also, there is still a constant reminder of exploration’s wrath in Native American communities where suicide, alcoholism, and poverty are far too common. How can any of this be justified when so many of these issues are still occurring today?

Change was found to be absolutely crucial, but were the steps taken appropriate? In the book Ishmael, a gorilla speaks about the world as we know it and how life came to be the way it is, but he particularly expresses that everything was done for this desired revolution that humans needed. He asserts “Takers believe in their revolution even when they enjoy none of its benefits” (Quinn 218). Explorers were so desperate for something, but they weren’t exactly sure of what that something was. What they did believe, was that whatever they did would change the world in some way, whether that resulted in something positive or negative. In the end, they turned out to cause more harm than they had initially expected. Ishmael also stated that “They all believed profoundly that, however bad things are now, they’re still infinitely preferable to what came before” (Quinn 218). The motive guiding all these explorers to do what they deemed imperative was change even when change was the one factor that spiraled the world out of control. Out of all these negative outcomes, how can one say that this happened for the benefit of the nations and their people? There is no way to justify the poor decisions made by blowing situations way out of proportion and not realizing the detrimental effects they have caused.

Regarding the topic of whether the Age of Exploration was heinous or heroic, there is a lot up for argument. Seeing it on a larger spectrum is an eye opener in realizing that the many actions and outcomes that were once thought to be so remarkable are actually the variables that caused the worst damage.  When talking about the great resources that have been passed around through the Triangular Trade, one could say that the new crops and cultures have been influential and positive for everyone, but that is not completely true. How can it be so positive when these cultures were taken away and the new crops were being picked and grown through force by African American slaves? People look past details like this, and it gives them this false sense of hope, that everything is perfectly fine and there was no harm done. Some believe that this all paved the way to the modern world, but it becomes relevant to ask, how much do we really enjoy this modern world? Being surrounded by all of this hurt is surely not what one desires to endure, but it is the actuality because of those events. Happiness cannot be easily achieved anymore, and daily issues are constant reminders of past ancestors’ grave mistakes that turned the world upside down. A fellow student of mine also believed that the “needs of many outweigh the needs of few,” but that is just not practical in this sense. If he considered a “few” the whole Native American and African American race as well as others, then he is one hundred percent correct, but it is not rational to any extent. They may have discovered new land also, but did they need to kill and harm millions of people in the process? Some may believe that the modern society wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for exploration, but have they ever considered the fact that the world could be in a BETTER place if there would have been some changes in the tactics used? Of course, there were a few explorers that did not do any harm with their explorations, like for example, Amerigo Vespucci. All he aimed to do in his lifetime was further exploration and further enhance his map of the world. Although this may be the case for him, that was not the case for the countless other explorers that shattered the cultures of many. Too many lives have been impacted negatively because of the Age of Exploration, and even when there may have been some positive outcomes, they definitely do not outweigh the horrid things that followed them.

When weighing everything out, it can be easily determined that A, there is no way to deny that exploration was absolutely heinous, and B, the few favorable outcomes that did come out of it were not extravagant enough to outweigh the horrible ones. Everything one has learned throughout their lives can, at this point, be proven wrong. Elementary school teachers fail to realize it. Middle school teachers fail to realize it. One can only realize it when they put in the effort themselves and find that all of the fantastic achievements he once knew were one hundred percent false. Instead of supporting and celebrating exploration, one should be shunning it and taking every necessary action to ensure nothing of the sort happens again. When has violence ever been an efficient solution? Look around. Was it all worth it? All the pain and loss and grief that seems to be everywhere? Heroism is not putting the lives of others behind your own. Heroism is not destroying communities and cultures time after time. Heroism does not lead to centuries of misery.