History vs. Christopher Columbus Alex Gendler
Many people in the United States
and Latin America
have grown up celebrating the anniversary
of Christopher Columbus’s voyage,
but was he an intrepid explorer
who brought two worlds together
or a ruthless exploiter who brought
colonialism and slavery?
And did he even discover America at all?
It’s time to put Columbus on the stand
in History vs. Christopher Columbus.
“Order, order in the court.
Wait, am I even supposed to
be at work today?”
Cough
“Yes, your Honor.
From 1792, Columbus Day was celebrated
in many parts of the United States
on October 12th,
the actual anniversary date.
But although it was declared
an official holiday in 1934,
individual states aren’t required
to observe it.
Only 23 states close public services,
and more states are moving away
from it completely.”
Cough
“What a pity.
In the 70s, we even moved it to the
second Monday in October
so people could get a nice
three-day weekend,
but I guess you folks
just hate celebrations.”
“Uh, what are we celebrating again?”
“Come on, Your Honor,
we all learned it in school.
Christopher Columbus convinced the King
of Spain to send him on a mission
to find a better trade route to India,
not by going East over land
but sailing West around the globe.
Everyone said it was crazy because they
still thought the world was flat,
but he knew better.
And when in 1492 he
sailed the ocean blue,
he found something better
than India:
a whole new continent.”
“What rubbish.
First of all, educated people knew
the world was round since Aristotle.
Secondly, Columbus didn’t
discover anything.
There were already people living here
for millennia.
And he wasn’t even
the first European to visit.
The Norse had settled Newfoundland
almost 500 years before.”
“You don’t say, so how come we’re not
all wearing those cow helmets?”
“Actually, they didn’t really
wear those either.”
Cough
“Who cares what some Vikings did
way back when?
Those settlements didn’t last,
but Columbus’s did.
And the news he brought back to Europe
spread far and wide,
inspiring all the explorers and settlers
who came after.
Without him, none of us
would be here today.”
“And because of him, millions of
Native Americans aren’t here today.
Do you know what Columbus did
in the colonies he founded?
He took the very first
natives he met prisoner
and wrote in his journal about how easily
he could conquer and enslave all of them.”
“Oh, come on. Everyone was fighting each
other back then.
Didn’t the natives even tell Columbus
about other tribes raiding
and taking captives?”
“Yes, but tribal warfare
was sporadic and limited.
It certainly didn’t wipe out 90%
of the population.”
“Hmm. Why is celebrating this Columbus
so important to you, anyway?”
“Your Honor, Columbus’s voyage
was an inspiration
to struggling people all across Europe,
symbolizing freedom and new beginnings.
And his discovery gave our grandparents
and great-grandparents
the chance to come here and build better
lives for their children.
Don’t we deserve a hero to remind
everyone that our country
was build on the struggles of immigrants?”
“And what about the struggles
of Native Americans
who were nearly wiped out
and forced into reservations
and whose descendants still suffer from
poverty and discrimination?
How can you make a hero out of a man
who caused so much suffering?”
“That’s history. You can’t judge a guy
in the 15th century by modern standards.
People back then even thought spreading
Christianity and civilization
across the world was a moral duty.”
“Actually, he was pretty bad,
even by old standards.
While governing Hispaniola, he tortured
and mutilated
natives who didn’t bring him enough gold
and sold girls as young as nine into
sexual slavery,
and he was brutal even to the other
colonists he ruled,
to the point that he was removed
from power and thrown in jail.
When the missionary,
Bartolomé de las Casas,
visited the island, he wrote,
‘From 1494 to 1508,
over 3,000,000 people had perished
from war, slavery and the mines. Who in
future generations will believe this?'”
“Well, I’m not sure I believe
those numbers.”
“Say, aren’t there other ways the holiday
is celebrated?”
“In some Latin American countries,
they celebrate the same date under
different names, such as Día de la Raza.
In these places, it’s more a celebration
of the native and mixed cultures
that survived through the colonial period.
Some places in the U.S. have also
renamed the holiday,
as Native American Day
or Indigenous People’s Day
and changed the celebrations accordingly.”
“So, why not just change the name
if it’s such a problem?”
“Because it’s tradition.
Ordinary people need their heroes
and their founding myths.
Can’t we just keep celebrating
the way we’ve been doing for a century,
without having to delve into all this
serious research?
It’s not like anyone is actually
celebrating genocide.”
“Traditions change, and the way
we choose to keep them alive
says a lot about our values.”
“Well, it looks like giving tired judges a
day off isn’t one of those values, anyway.”
Traditions and holidays
are important to all cultures,
but a hero in one era
may become a villain in the next
as our historical knowledge expands
and our values evolve.
And deciding what these
traditions should mean today
is a major part
of putting history on trial.