How do you define a “hero”? Should we teach children that such…

Question Answered step-by-step How do you define a “hero”? Should we teach children that such… How do you define a “hero”? Should we teach children that such figures as Columbus, da Gama, Cortez, and Pizarro were “heroic” if their actions led to devastating consequences for Amerindian peoples, such as wiping out the entire civilizations of the Aztecs and the Incans? Does the fact that in our contemporary world we benefit from what they did (such as the fact that the United States exists today as a result of their “heroic explorations”) justify or mitigate the fact that they contributed to the deaths of millions of indigenous peoples and cultures due through disease, conquest, and enslavement? 2. Imagine yourself as a person experiencing the conquest of the Americas firsthand. Take on the identity of an Amerindian woman asked by a Spanish missionary to describe what happened to you and your family when the Spaniards came to the Caribbean island where you live and incorporated your village into their new colony, Hispaniola. Think about all of the changes brought to Native Americans by the Columbian Exchange, particularly the impact of deadly diseases, cultural destruction, new plants and animals, missionaries, etc. How would you feel if you were required to give up your former beliefs and adapt to a new religion, or if you lost all members of your family and/or community to raging diseases that you have no cure for?  3. Which of the following three movements has had the greatest impact on our modern world? Which has had the greatest impact on your own life? Choose one and explain in a paragraph why you think its impact is the greatest.The Columbian ExchangeThe Atlantic Slave TradeThe Protestant Reformation  History World History HIST MISC Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)