Faces of Money, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Paper money shown: Christopher Columbus, one Dollar, 1992, Bahamas

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

Five centuries after his daring voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus remains as famous as he might have hoped. He's just not as popular.

Though Columbus is undoubtedly one of history's great mariners, recent years have seen much squabbling over whether he was a good-guy hero who discovered new worlds, or a not-so-nice guy who violently helped steal the Americas from their native inhabitants.

Financed by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic in search of a sea passage to India. His mission was twofold: open trade routes to the Orient and to bring the word of Jesus Christ to the uninitiated.

In 1492 he sailed with three ships (Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria) and made landfall somewhere in the Bahamas. He made three more voyages, always believing that he had reached Asia. Columbus' success opened the door for Spain to conquer the Americas, and changed the history of the world. 

Do you think he is a monster for bringing European diseases, death and destruction to the civilizations of the New World, or a hero for his courage in discovering the New World and starting an era of exploration and scientific discovery greater than any before?