Why Do We Celebrate Columbus Day?

[hjmick]

I do not know of anyone who "celebrates" Columbus Day.

 

[Douger]

Does this mean in a couple hundred years Afghanis and Iraqis will celebrate George W. Bush day ?

 

[syrenn]

I do not know of anyone who "celebrates" Columbus Day.

I agree. Ive always seen it more as an itilian heritage kind of day then anything celebrating columbus. Its a big thing here in north beach. I really didnt care who it was celebrating, it was a day off.



Italian Heritage Parade : Parade

 

[Bullfighter]

In 1492, Europe was lagging behind the Middle East and China and India is the civilized arts.

In 1492, West African cultures had a better grasp of proto-capitalism than any society in the world.

In 1600, at least 90% of Native Americans had perished, more than fifteen million individuals.

The Spanish empire assimilated the indios into a stratified culture that recognized their souls as God given and codified their legal status in society.

The French in North America generally respected Native American cultures, although the 'beaver wars' (down, Samson, down) disrupted entire regions and led to the extinction of several tribes.

The English would not accommodate and would not assimilate the Native American in general. The only possible reprisal by the Native Americans was battle, which inevitably they lost.

Having said all the above, I still believe if the colors of the Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans had been exchanged but not the cultures, then the outcome would have been the same.

Do schools teach how many helpless settlers were killed by Indians?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDC6ZQOp0J4[/ame]

How would you like these people as your neighbors?

 

[Two Thumbs]

Well well well...

Debunking Lies About Columbus: The Story Of Francisco de Bobadilla - Ricochet.com

Let me introduce you to Francisco de Bobadilla – liar and Columbus usurper. The criticism of Columbus today comes from de Bobadilla. Who was he? The man who wanted Columbus’ job as Governor of Hispaniola.

In 1500 the King and Queen sent him here to investigate claims that Columbus wasn’t being fair to the European settlers (which means Columbus was protecting the Indians). So de Bobedilla came here, and in just a few short days investigated (with no telephones or motorized vehicles to help him), then arrested Columbus and his brothers for Indian mistreatment and sent them back to Spain, sans a trial. Oh yeah, he appointed himself Governor. Coup de Coeur for power lead to Coup d’ etat, as usual.

The King and Queen called shenanigans and sent for be Bobadilla two years later, but he drowned on the trip home. Columbus was reinstated as Admiral. So what we know of Columbian malfeasance comes from a defrocked liar, de Bobadilla.

Nor was Columbus involved in the slave trade, as America haters like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky have asserted. One of his boats crashed in Haiti. He had no room for 39 men, so he started a colony there. Columbus came back a year later to find the Taino Indians killed all of them and left them where they fell. Columbus went to war with the Tainos and took 500 POWs, not slaves. They were released after the war. Big difference.

Also wrong is blaming Columbus for bringing genocidal microbes to kill the Indians. His detractors make fun of him for thinking he was in the East. So was his evil plan then to bring disease to wipe out the East?

Europeans didn’t know of germs until Italian physicist Girolamo Fracastoro proposed the theory 40 years after Columbus died. Also, had an Indian built a boat and traveled to Europe and back, he would have contaminated the Indians too. Trans-continental contamination was going to happen at some point, making the first carriers irrelevant.

And the hits just keep in coming.

People like making crap up or thinking the worst of great men, b/c it reminds them of how little they have done.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Does anyone besides govt employees and Banks celebrate coloumbus day?

Our sanitation truck drivers do at the city.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The right wacks have offered nothing of worth.

 

[Flopper]

Does anyone besides govt employees and Banks celebrate coloumbus day?

Columbus Day parade in New York

 

[Dick Tuck]

Meh. Holidays are political creations, not historical ones. Congress wanted a day off in October and decided they liked a holiday called Columbus Day. Who knows, maybe they'll change it to Lindsay Lohan Day or something else equally meaningless.

So you agree with Greaseman, and rue the fact that James Earl Ray didn't murder six more to get a week off work?

 

[uscitizen]

Does anyone besides govt employees and Banks celebrate coloumbus day?

Columbus Day parade in New York

It figures New York.

 

[BlindBoo]

"barbarism, warfare and general misery"

Boo-hoo

We know very little about the state of the native's civilization because they had so little of it. They had barbarism, warfare and misery long before Western Europe showed up.

Columbus Day the holiday (likely of the Italian American lobby, lol, look at multi-culti me) in the United States of America is about the opening of the New World to a new way to live in it for all mankind. It's a celebration of Western philosophy that followed quickly upon discovery. Discovery, the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment all made the USA possible in their path.

Since most everything was destroyed the claim that they has so little civilization simple cannot be backed up with fact can it?

Hahahaha, a new way to live. More like a new way to kill, and exploitation for the Spanish. And then after the Spanish decline came the other europeans to exploit the pristine forrests.

Have you not understood anything said on this topic to this point? Columbus Day is about the big picture and opening the New World to a better way of life. Yeah, 500+ years later the historical details show one primitive culture being cornholed buy a slightly less primitive culture but that's hardly shameful, Hell that's the story of mankind since day uno.

"Pristine forest"? Unless your some kind of cartoon fairy my guess is you would be dead in three days if lost in a pristine wood. How does one "exploit" a forest anyway. Build a house in it? (a school? a factory? a hospital? a museum?) Newsflash Sparky, that's the stuff of civilization. Really man, grow up.

You are probably as good at guessing things about someone whom you do not know as you are at history. The nation states in Europe needed timber for their war machines. Europe had already been de-forrested.

The ideas of the reformation and enlightenment conquered nothing. It was the army that conquered the natives. I never said it was shameful, it just is.
I'm just not willing to glorify the day with the common fantasy that western civilization won the day because European culture was superior. In fact I say the European won because they were more brutal and barbaric than the natives. (and they had better weapons)

 

[JakeStarkey]

The Europeans won, not because God was on their side (I am pretty sure by then He was hiding from their religious wars against each other), because they had superior technology, incredible numbers over the centuries, and European diseases. Good or bad? You decide. The fact is what it was: a superior technology and diseases that crippled Native American power.

 

[Trajan]

In 1492, Europe was lagging behind the Middle East and China and India is the civilized arts.

In 1492, West African cultures had a better grasp of proto-capitalism than any society in the world.

In 1600, at least 90% of Native Americans had perished, more than fifteen million individuals.

The Spanish empire assimilated the indios into a stratified culture that recognized their souls as God given and codified their legal status in society.

The French in North America generally respected Native American cultures, although the 'beaver wars' (down, Samson, down) disrupted entire regions and led to the extinction of several tribes.

The English would not accommodate and would not assimilate the Native American in general. The only possible reprisal by the Native Americans was battle, which inevitably they lost.

Having said all the above, I still believe if the colors of the Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans had been exchanged but not the cultures, then the outcome would have been the same.

In 1600, at least 90% of Native Americans had perished, more than fifteen million individuals.

I am going to have to ask for some verification, that seems an awful lot t have happened by 1600.

In 1492, Europe was lagging behind the Middle East and China and India is the civilized arts.

thats a curious way of putting it......can you define what you mean by- civilized arts?

 

[Trajan]

The Europeans won, not because God was on their side (I am pretty sure by then He was hiding from their religious wars against each other), because they had superior technology, incredible numbers over the centuries, and European diseases. Good or bad? You decide. The fact is what it was: a superior technology and diseases that crippled Native American power.

diseases? you are I guess referring to the Fort Pitt incident?

 

[Trajan]

Wow. What pieces of poorly-written, masturbatory garbage. I especially like how they say Columbus should be excused for not holding modern values, but then look down upon the Native Americans for having non-Western values.

I hope someone brought a tube-sock.

If it weren't for Columbus you would have never been born.

Because of Columbus, countless native Americans never were born.

wow, sounds like a huge burden to put on a guy that never even step foot on the Continent...oh, I get it, guilt by association.

 

[JakeStarkey]

In 1492, Europe was lagging behind the Middle East and China and India is the civilized arts.

In 1492, West African cultures had a better grasp of proto-capitalism than any society in the world.

In 1600, at least 90% of Native Americans had perished, more than fifteen million individuals.

The Spanish empire assimilated the indios into a stratified culture that recognized their souls as God given and codified their legal status in society.

The French in North America generally respected Native American cultures, although the 'beaver wars' (down, Samson, down) disrupted entire regions and led to the extinction of several tribes.

The English would not accommodate and would not assimilate the Native American in general. The only possible reprisal by the Native Americans was battle, which inevitably they lost.

Having said all the above, I still believe if the colors of the Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans had been exchanged but not the cultures, then the outcome would have been the same.

In 1600, at least 90% of Native Americans had perished, more than fifteen million individuals.

I am going to have to ask for some verification, that seems an awful lot t have happened by 1600.

In 1492, Europe was lagging behind the Middle East and China and India is the civilized arts.

thats a curious way of putting it......can you define what you mean by- civilized arts?

Sure. The total in most our high school and college text books are from 12mm to 18mm. Wikipedia is not always good but this is good enough: Genocides in history - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Most of the world was more civilized, I believe Tenotchilan had running water and clean streets (which none of Europe's cities had at that time), Mayan architecture and mathematics and astronomy and calendar were as good or better than Europe's), the Middle Eastern Islamic civilizations preserved the classical Greek literature and philosophy works, and China's administration, management, and art were superior.

However, if the lesser civilized nation had better metallurgical arts and weapon making and military science, plus the numbers and will to use that superiority, no one should be surprised that it turned out that way.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The Europeans won, not because God was on their side (I am pretty sure by then He was hiding from their religious wars against each other), because they had superior technology, incredible numbers over the centuries, and European diseases. Good or bad? You decide. The fact is what it was: a superior technology and diseases that crippled Native American power.

diseases? you are I guess referring to the Fort Pitt incident?

measles, mumps, small pox, chicken pox, so forth and so on. The Native American communities, having no immunity to any of these diseases, withered away.

 

[Bullfighter]

The Europeans won, not because God was on their side (I am pretty sure by then He was hiding from their religious wars against each other), because they had superior technology, incredible numbers over the centuries, and European diseases. Good or bad? You decide. The fact is what it was: a superior technology and diseases that crippled Native American power.

diseases? you are I guess referring to the Fort Pitt incident?

measles, mumps, small pox, chicken pox, so forth and so on. The Native American communities, having no immunity to any of these diseases, withered away.

It's pretty hard to kill the invading Mexican. A baseball bat in the head still requires about 5-6 swings to take out those monkeys.

 

[konradv]

If it weren't for Columbus you would have never been born.

Because of Columbus, countless native Americans never were born.

wow, sounds like a huge burden to put on a guy that never even step foot on the Continent...oh, I get it, guilt by association.

Never stepped foot on the continent? Check out the history of his 3rd and 4th voyages. During the third he explored the coast of Venezuela, SA and during the 4th Panama, NA.

Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[52ndStreet]

It’s time again to honor the great man that discovered America. To me this has always seemed a bit strange since he did not discover America and his greatness is certainly debatable.

Leif Ericson landed on our shores 500 years before Columbus. There exists cartographic evidence, according to cartographic expert Armando Cortesao, that Portuguese explorers visited the Americas and mapped the area in 1424. There is also evidence of other early explorers reaching our shores. Of course we always discount the first real discovers of American, the native Americans.

Well, as far as a being a great man…. He was a slave trader who heartlessly took men and women away form their families in order lessen his failure to find a new trade route. He oversaw and participated in the rape and murder of innocent villagers. His contemporaries despised him. As governor of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola, he was a despot who kept all profits for himself and his brothers, and was loathed by the colonists whose lives he controlled. Attempts were made on his life and he was actually sent back to Spain in chains at one point after his third voyage. During his fourth voyage, he and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year where his ships rotted: no one wanted to travel there from Hispaniola to save him. He was also a cheapskate: after promising a reward to whomever spotted land first on his 1492 voyage, he refused to pay up when sailor Rodrigo de Triana did so, giving the reward to himself instead because he had seen a “glow” the night before. However, one of the greatest curses he brought to American was smallpox which killed as much as 400,000 native Americans. A great man, I don't think so.

Previously, elevation of Columbus to a hero caused people to name cities (and a country, Colombia) after him and many places still celebrate Columbus Day, but now days people tend to see Columbus for what he really was: a brave, but very flawed, human being. Frankly, I just can't figure why we set aside a special day in his honor.

Who Discovered America? Not Christopher Columbus, That's for Certain - Associated Content - associatedcontent.com
The Truth About Christopher Columbus
AmericanHeritage.com / Christopher Columbus, Hero and Villain

Typical White European. They invade other peoples land, bring all kinds of incurable diseases, steal the natural resources, rape the indigenous women,enlsalve the people.
And then want you to celebrate them with a holiday?!

When are white people going to realize why they are some of the most hated people in the black and brown world.?!