Christopher Columbus was a hero and a visionary. His risked his life - literally - and induced scores of others to go with him on a journey that, according to the contemporary "common knowledge" would have resulted in the deaths of all, as they sailed off the edge of the earth.
He continued his journey for months, even after most people on board were convinced of the folly of Columbus' vision, and begged him to turn around. But it turned out that his vision of the world was only partly true; it was much bigger than he imagined and he had no idea of the existence of the America's, so his great discovery was at the same time greater and less than he had hoped for.
People who blame Columbus for the eventual takeover of the America's by The White Man are morons. The inhabitants were, for the most part, locked in the hunter-gatherer stage of existence, and whenever the "discovery" took place and no matter who did it or which country he came from, the American natives and their cultures were doomed. Even the more advanced American natives lacked the technology and knowledge to progress. They had no metal that was capable of maintaining a cutting edge, they had not invented the wheel, they had no gunpowder, and they had no domesticated animals that could be used to do work. Some of what they did accomplish was remarkable in the extreme, but they could never hope to remain in their primitive state when confronted by people from more advanced civilizations.
And the Howard Zinn view of happy natives living in a virtual Garden of Eden is equally preposterous. The natives were just as savage and warlike as the Europeans (who, however, declined to engage in human sacrifice or cannibalism), and would happily have killed all of the settlers and conquistadors and plunderers if they had had the technology to do so.
Columbus was and remains a giant historical figure, and by no rational thinking could he be considered evil or worthy of condemnation. **** the Cancel Culture and all of its proponents. YOU are the ones who are worthy of scorn.
