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Get Lost Columbus

Oct. 11 is Columbus Day. Recently, this national holiday has received controversy. Some places have renamed it "Indigenous Peoples' Day." In other places, statues of Columbus have been either torn down or removed. Why is the legacy of this great hero being erased?

But, was Columbus really a hero? If so, what made him one worth remembering? "Because he proved the earth was round," some people might reply. But he didn't. People back then already knew the earth was round, as it was proven by the ancient Greeks centuries earlier. Rather, the common misconception was that the earth was larger than it is. Columbus thought the world was smaller, and that people could sail around it in a matter of days, which is what he set to prove during his voyage. Of course, he didn't prove it, as he never sailed around the world. But he did "discover" new lands. "Yes, but he discovered America," some people would rebut. But he didn't. People were already living there. In fact, before European arrival, about 100 million people lived in the Americas. In contrast, Europe at that time only had around 70 million. There were more people living in the Americas than in Europe around the 15th century, according to William Denevan in The Native Population. Even if we ignore the indigenous people already living there, Columbus wasn't the first European to set foot in the Americas. Leif Erikson had traveled to the continent nearly 500 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. "But Columbus still explored America," some would insist. But he never set foot in North America. He explored Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Even then, he never thought he was in a new continent. He assumed he had reached the East Indies. It wasn't until 1502 that navigator Americo Vespucci realized Columbus had discovered a new continent. "But he still explored the Americas." Yes, and he slaughtered countless innocent people while doing so. When he reached the islands, nearly 250,000 (a quarter million) Taino people already lived there. Initially, they were friendly and wanted to trade peacefully with him. But Columbus wanted more from them. He wrote in his journal: "They would make fine servants…With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

Columbus assumed the native people had gold. So he came back on his second voyage with 17 ships and 10,000 men to take it from them. The Oatmeal describes his bloody exploits: "Upon his arrival, he demanded that the [native] people give his men food and gold, and allow them to have sex with their women. When the [natives] refused, Columbus responded by ordering that their ears and noses be cut off, so that the now disfigured offenders could return to their villages and serve as a warning to others."

Columbus and his men enslaved and slaughtered the natives, even hunting them for sport and feeding them to the dogs. His crimes were so heinous that he was dragged back to Spain in chains to be tried for his atrocities. By then, his exploits had reduced the native population from a quarter million to only 200 million people, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

To recap: Columbus didn't prove the earth was round, and he didn't discover America. The only thing he achieved was the slaughter of the native inhabitants already living there. So, no, renaming his holiday and tearing down statues is not "erasing his legacy." It's acknowledging his "legacy" was never worth celebrating to begin with.

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