Here are my initial thoughts. Remember, this is for kids. I'd love to hear your comments.
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Hi kids!
Christopher Columbus was not the first European to figure out that the earth was round, lots of people knew that. But his voyage to the Americas were the catalyst for a great age of exploration, trade, and eventually colonization by Europeans. In a very real way, this era re-shaped the world - from the languages we speak, the religions we follow, the food we eat, and the diseases we catch.
Columbus was a brave man, and like many brave men believed very strongly that he knew what he was doing - even though he was wrong about so many details - and it's ok to be impressed by his bravery.
But it's also important to know that as a result of Columbus' voyage and the many trips that followed, horrible things happened. First, European diseases ripped through the Americas, killing millions of people over time. Second, Columbus believed in slavery and believed in religious conversion - so he and those like him forced native people to change their religion even if they didn't want to. He took indigenous people, those he called Indians, as slaves and tried to bring them back to Spain or put them to work on their own islands. He crushed rebellions by committing horrific acts that we would consider war crimes today. The people who followed him, who eventually conquered Central and South America continued this trend. So many indigenous peoples died of diseases and violence, that the colonizers had to import African slaves to work in their farms.
So when you hear people praise Columbus for his bravery, you can believe it, even if he didn't "discover" the Americas or figure out that the earth was round. He was brave. But brave people can do bad things, and worse things can happen without any planning. That's one of the lessons of history.
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How'd I do? How can I fix it for next year?
