If I were tasked with building a monument to commemorate Columbus’ efforts in the Americas, I would construct a statue depicting Columbus building a pyramid, the monument would be located in Italy as that is where he is from. This statue portrays the ideology that Columbus built the foundation of a global power due to the linking the New World to the Old World. Columbus’ efforts augmented the ways in which the Old World operated forever through the introduction of slavery and pillagery, “ Christopher Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized race relations and transformed the modern world: the taking of land, wealth, and labor from indigenous peoples, leading to their near extermination, and the transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass.”. Through the implementation of these two “phenomena”, Spanish economy was further developed in conjunction to the rapid development and advancement of technology and ideologies, pushing Spain to the forefront of global prowess. 

 

My monument to Columbus would be a statue of him standing on the front of a ship, pointing forwards (presumably towards the land he hopes to discover), and holding a bag of gold artifacts, some of which are falling out of that bag, and it would be titled “The Dream of an Explorer”. My justification for all of this is basically that it would be a physical representation of Columbus’ goal/dream.

 

If I were to build a monument to commemorate Columbus’ efforts in Spain, I would build a statue of Columbus standing upon a pile of gold with his right foot perched upon the peak of the mound. He would also be looking outwards with his hands on his hips. I would include the gold because Columbus brought wealth to Spain. I would also have him standing with his foot up and his hands on his hips because it displays confidence and demonstrates his dominance over the land he conquered (the Americas). Finally, Columbus is looking outwards because his conquest could also be seen as a discovery, and he is looking upon what he has encountered. 

 

I would build a structure of Columbus leaving land (The Americas) with sightings of great prosperity that was to come to the Americas shortly after Columbus’s arrival. For example there would be the different crops that flourished in the economy such as tobacco and sugar. There would be objects that display the “advanced” European technology at the time to show how the “land” in itself changed after it was discovered. Along with this, there would be fallen Native American Indians in a way to ensure that what they worked for and had achieved while living without contact to the outside world isn’t forgotten. It is a way to still ensure that the inevitable indirect truth that is that Columbus was partly responsible for their removal by wiping them out and removing them from their homes and land. 

 

If I were tasked with building a monument to commemorate Christopher Columbus’ efforts in the Americas, I would build it in the island of the Bahamas. I would build it there because that is where he first arrived in the Western world and where he began his ignorant search for gold and power. The monument would emphasize the great changes that occurred on the island and for the natives on the island. The natives were severely mistreated by Columbus and his men by being treated as less than humans. They experienced forceful conversion to Catholicism or were faced with dismemberment and murder. Also, the diseases the Spanish brought to their home made countless people suffer and die. After enduring such tortures and the complete invasion of their home, many natives of the island committed suicide rather than deal with the treatment of the Spanish. Therefore, the monument would include several different statues of different natives that resided on the island, and show how they gave up what they considered to be riches to the Spanish. Columbus would be among the Spanish men turning away the offerings, but he would have a haughty and scowling face. There would also be a plaque that described the events that took place on the island, such as the year when Columbus arrived to the island (1492) and how his men transformed the lives of the natives through their grotesque actions. 

 

I would build a statue in Spain that had Columbus as the main point with a gold sword as a monument to commemorate Columbus’ efforts in the Americas. It would represent his domination against Native Americans when he first came across the US. He gained a lot of power by forcing Natives to either be slaves, leave the land that was previously the Natives, or to be killed. This resulted in entire tribes being killed or used for Columbus' own power. He gained a lot of gold and riches that America had to offer and gained land for Spain, which put Spain in the leading power in Europe. He did greatly mistreat Native Americans by putting them through a lot of pain that wasn't okay which clouds the judgement that him finding the Americas was a necessarily good thing though. Even though he did a lot of questionable things, he still gained a lot of power and still to this day is the man praised for "finding" America.

 

If I were to build a monument to commemorate Columbus’s efforts, I would create a large slab of marble that illustrated the quote “If you stumble, make it part of a dance” as it reflects the numerous errors Columbus had made. This includes his belief that the land he had stumbled upon was Asia not the Americas and the numerous navigation errors that he had made. These mistakes include calling the Native Americans “Indians.” Despite these mistakes, Columbus was able to set the stage for European dominion over the Americas and was the cause of interaction between the Americas, africa and Europe. 

 

If I were to build a monument commemorating Columbus’s arrival to the Americas, I would design a model of the Santa Maria with its sailors attop it and the Natives below it. The ship would appear to be towering over and crushing the Natives. The Natives’ faces would display expressions of sorrow, pain, and fear. Columbus would be at the head of the ship, standing high with his nose turned up and away from the apparent destruction he caused. This serves as a representation of the immense power the Europeans gave themselves and the damage done to both the inhabitants of the land and the land itself. This would be in America.

If I were to build a monument to commemorate Columbus’s effort in the Americas, it would be one that represents the oppressive actions that would come as a result of his discovery. It would be composed of a regal-looking Columbus, holding the Spanish flag on one hand, standing on top a pile of dead Native bodies, with visible signs of disease.  It would be located on the island of Hispaniola, as to commemorate his first landing.