School taught us the story of the infamous Christopher Columbus, known as the hero who found the Americas in 1492, but is it the truth? Is Columbus really the hero that elementary school portrayed him to be? This was not the case with Columbus. Columbus was a greedy man who destroyed an entire race of people through genocide just so that only he could benefit and become a man of money and power. Columbus was a very good orator and very persuasive. He convinced the King and Queen of Spain to finance his expedition to "Asia" and he told them about all the gold and spices that would be discovered there and how they would become rich. # Columbus told them his famous conditions which stipulated that he would receive not less than a tenth of all the wealth that arrived from Asia by the new route, and not only the wealth he had acquired during his expedition, but also all the wealth from all future expeditions.# Columbus did not want this to be limited. to himself, but after his death, the profits would continue to go to his heir. He also wanted to receive titles such as "viceroy" and "admiral of the sea ocean". # This shows his level of greed and how much he wanted to be known as someone with great power. Columbus began his voyage in 1492 to sail to what he thought was Asia, which was actually South America. He kept two logbooks about the expedition, one to show the crew so they wouldn't get suspicious, and one to show the king and queen how to lie about discoveries, mileage and probably much more again.# Its crew members were not well paid. ; despite the money Columbus received to pay the king and queen's crew members, he only paid them about one thousand Marvdeis per month, which would be equivalent today to about one thousand three hundred dollars.# The king and queen had offered a te... ... middle of paper ....... New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. "Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress." Columbus, the Indians and human progress. http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html (accessed January 2, 2014). Koning, Hans and Bill Bigelow. Columbus: his business: exploding the myth. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1991. Meredith, Robert K., E. Brooks Smith, and Fernando ColoÌ n. Columbus' Quest; a detailed and accurate account of the discovery of America, with its many difficulties, its dangers and its triumphant return. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. “The Third Voyage of Christopher Columbus.” About.com History of Latin America. http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/thevoyagesofcolumbus/p/columbusthird.htm (accessed January 15, 2014). Wilford, John Noble. The mysterious story of Columbus: an exploration of man, myth, legacy. New York: Knopf :, 1991.