Author’s Note: Before I get started, I would like to state that this article is purely my opinion, which I backed up with my own research. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I just thought this would be an interesting topic to both research and write about. I hope you enjoy the article, and the three day weekend as well! Please keep yourselves safe and healthy!

“In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way…”

Most if not all of us know at least some version of this old rhyme. It was probably taught to you in Pre-k or kindergarten along with the usual “facts” about Columbus and early European exploration, and then you probably moved on to some other unit or such. In fact some of you may not even remember Columbus at all except for the school holiday. However, there is more to Columbus than what the history books tell you, and there has long been a historical and ethical debate between scholars about Columbus and his legacy.

Now that I have refreshed your memory a bit, I want you to ask yourselves these questions, which I will answer shortly: First, was Columbus actually the first person to set foot in the Americas? Second, what was Columbus’ legacy? How did Columbus affect the people and land he encountered? And third, why do we celebrate Columbus Day today, and what is the impact of his famous journey in today’s world?

Columbus Sets Sail

Picture from pxhere.com

Columbus was an Italian explorer during the fifteenth century. He made a total of four trips to the Americas all of which were funded by the Spanish Monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. You see, it was beneficial to both parties; Columbus sought wealth and repute among his peers, and Ferdinand and Isabella also wanted to expand their religion, power and wealth. They struck up a deal, and Columbus set off. However, contrary to our popular belief, Columbus was not the first person to propose that the Earth was round. Historians even believe the idea may have been popularized as early as 600 B.C. As historian Jeffrey Burton Russel put it, “no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat.”

Columbus started his journey on August 3, 1492, and struck land on October 12 of the same year. One misconception, however, is that Columbus landed somewhere in North America. In fact, Columbus actually never touched the continent, instead he landed in what we now know as the Caribbean’s. The first person believed to have actually set foot in North America, or any of the Americas for that matter, was a Viking named Leif Erikson, and that was about 500 years before Columbus’ time. I guess you could say Columbus was a little late to the party.

Columbus’ Legacy

Columbus never actually made it to his desired destination. He thought he had made it to India, but he really landed in the Caribbean’s. However, he had no way of knowing this, and thinking his journey a success, he and his crew settled and explored these small islands seeking anything of value to take back home. All he found though were a bunch of relatively peaceful natives that lived on the islands.

Having acquired nothing of real consequence, Columbus soon turned his eye on to the natives, writing in his diary, “They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features …They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron …They would make fine servants … With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Indeed Columbus went on to capitalize on this plan slaughtering or enslaving most of the indigenous population and forcibly converting them to Catholicism.

Aside from the massacre of whole populations, Columbus and his crew also brought disease to the Americas. Previous to the arrival of the Europeans, the natives had only experienced diseases specific to their environment and people and had therefore developed some natural immunity. They were unprepared however for the Europeans, and seeing how unhygienic people were in the fifteen hundreds, disease spread through both peoples like wildfire. The landscape too dramatically changed as trees were cut, mines set up, and crops grown. This exchange of people, goods, diseases, and ideas became known as the Columbian Exchange.

Why We Celebrate Columbus Day

It wasn’t until centuries after Columbus’ time that we came to celebrate him. In the 1900’s, many Italian immigrants settled in America. As you can very well imagine, they weren’t received very well. The immigrants often spoke little to no English, and sought jobs Americans considered to be theirs by birthright. Italians especially were thought to be little more than criminals, gang members, or swindlers and as a result, were ruthlessly persecuted and harassed. Desperate to gain a foothold in American society, they put Christopher Columbus, one of their own, on a heroic pedestal. They reasoned that if they could show the Americans the importance of one of their own in American history, that they might be accepted or at least a little more respected. Eventually, the idea of Columbus Day was established and October 12 declared a national holiday. For most Americans, Columbus Day was just another holiday to celebrate or another historical figure to learn about, but to Italians it became a day to celebrate their unique culture and pride.

However, as the years went by and some of the controversies surrounding Columbus came to light, some people began to resent and protest the holiday. They argued that Columbus’ deplorable actions weren’t deserving of praise and that the day should be renamed Indigenous People’s Day in honor of the natives whose lives were lost due to Columbus and European exploration as a whole. And while the new name has been recognized by some, no official renaming of Columbus Day has occurred. However, the questions and arguments posed by many anti-Columbus thinkers do perhaps merit more thought, and a deeper look into the man Columbus really was.

Many of Columbus’ actions were certainly deplorable and devastating, especially to the indigenous populations, and there are many untruths and misconceptions surrounding his achievements. Yet, some argue that his journey was the catalyst for European exploration and as a result the formation of the countries we reside in today. So, I leave it up to you to decide whether or not we should celebrate this controversial man and the legacy he left behind.