Christopher Columbus; Hero or Villian?

Any elementary or middle school student knows that they have a long weekend because a Spaniard named Christopher Columbus in 1492 sailed the ocean blue. But what the schools lack to teach the students is that he was an arrogant man, thinking that he had the right to almost exterminate the Arawak race so he could be the hero on his return voyage to Spain. In Howard Zinn's bestseller, A People's History of the United States, he brings up the point that most Americans just accept the fact that Christopher Columbus murdered thousands of innocent natives for the name of progress. People can argue, saying that Columbus needed control of the lands and people he was conquering so he can achieve his goal of finding gold and receiving fame. But Columbus' total control over the native people led to total cruelty. One Spaniard wrote of the cruelties of Columbus' men, "two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys". Although this was not Columbus personally cutting off the boy's heads, the soldier's actions were probably reflected on the thoughts or own actions of their leader. Columbus treated the natives as an inferior race since they had no religion or few advancements in technology. He forced them to search endlessly for gold, though there was barely any to begin with. Zinn explains that Columbus cut off the hands of natives who did not find any gold or they were shipped back to Spain as slaves. Christopher Columbus, a celebrated explorer because he found the New World, should have his holiday removed from the calender for his horrid crimes.