# Does anyone really even care about Christopher Columbus? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 14, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764 "2019-10-14T20:59:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/41 "2019-10-15T16:38:19Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And it’s pointing the wrong way. He’s pointing to his birthplace, not the Americas. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/42 "2019-10-15T18:04:33Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > He’s pointing to his birthplace, not the Americas. “I can see my HOUSE from here!!!” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/43 "2019-10-15T18:20:36Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > As a person, no interest. However, it marked a huge turning point that produced globalism as it is today. Obviously, it would have happened anyway, (and, indeed, already did a couple of times previously) but the manner of it might have been very different. What if it was a ship full of indiginous Americans landing in Spain? What if it was Arabs who made first contact with the new world? Or the French? Well, the indigenous Americans didnt have “ships” as we think of them, and even if they had, they wouldnt have colonized Europe. But yeah, John Cabot would have hit and several others. Columbus did “discover” America in that he reported back and the knowledge got passed. Sure the Norse ( a better term than “Vikings” since they werent on a raid, _per se_) found America, and of course there was colonization some 20000 years ago or so. People love to blame Columbus for all the bad stuff that happened, but the diseases would have happened no matter what- Europe . Columbus was by no means a nice guy, but he was a man of his period. We also have to remember that the Aztecs etc were pretty evil too, what with wars, slavery and mass human sacrifice. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/44 "2019-10-15T18:23:10Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > What bugs me is the idea that Columbus was this evil conqueror that if he had only stayed at home North Americans would have stayed happily peaceful or that had anyone else landed they would have first asked permission or something, I dont know. The point is it happened and I think we should move on. Slamming Columbus by rewriting history books to make him the bad guy or by vandalizing his statue does no good. Yep. And the Europeans of that period were not nice people as we think of today. Slavery, disease etc were more or less gonna happen no matter which Euro nation found the America’s first. Mind you - Columbus was by no means a nice guy. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/45 "2019-10-15T18:32:03Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > My edumacation was a bit spotty - tell me, why don’t we live in the United States of Columbus (Columbia?)? Who was this Amerigo Vespucci and why did his name take? > > (yes, I know, I could go goggle it) Well, Amerigo Vespucci was a explorer. He had several voyages, and if his tales are to be believed (and some are rather doubtful), he was the first to land on South America. In any case, it is believed he was the first explorer to realize that the Americas were new Continents. German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 used “America” to refer to South America. The term took off. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/46 "2019-10-15T22:29:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > We’d only have 49 states without it. We could always promote DC or PR? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/47 "2019-10-15T23:12:03Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 used “America” to refer to South America. The term took off. So glad he kept HIS ego in check. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/48 "2019-10-15T23:46:18Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > “She’s a round, she’s a firm, she’s a fully packed! She’s a round, like a you head!” > > _ **WHACK** _ > “She’s a flat, like a you head!” No, no no! The last line is in King Ferdinand’s Mexican accent, “She ees flat like your ha-id.” ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/49 "2019-10-15T23:55:02Z")
To defend Columbus here, I think there was (a) much more to him than is the silly caricature often presented, where bits of things he wrote are deliberately distorted to sound stupid, and (b) much more favorable then believed to the native people he met in the Americas. He may not have been “nice” and he certain had no modern beliefs - but that if that’s the measure we can look far closer than Columbus. He was brutal in his treatment of Spaniards - precisely because he was concerned for native welfare. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/50 "2019-10-15T23:59:20Z")
Somebody vandalized a statue of Columbus here in SF over the weekend, and my first thought was, “Wow,\* that’ll \*show a guy who’s been dead for 500 years.” ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/51 "2019-10-16T00:03:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > My edumacation was a bit spotty - tell me, why don’t we live in the United States of Columbus (Columbia?)? Who was this Amerigo Vespucci and why did his name take? > > (yes, I know, I could go goggle it) This very question is on the Dope’s front page today. [Why was America named after Amerigo Vespucci?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/951/why-was-america-named-after-amerigo-vespucci/) Apparently, it sounded better than Vespucciland. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/52 "2019-10-16T12:44:36Z")
> [@2ManyTacos](#): > > To the extent that I care about Christopher Columbus, it’s mostly in that I am still to this day pissed off that I got force fed the whitewashed ‘heroic’ portrait of Columbus when I was in elementary school. Like, if we as a society are going to teach kids about CC, then actually _teach_ them about him as he actually was. It does not matter one iota to me whether a kid is only in the second grade or whatever when the Columbus history lesson is introduced; the world is a rough place and sanitizing the CC story doesn’t do anybody any favors. How old are you? I’m curious how many years you’ve been pissed off that you got force fed the whitewashed ‘heroic’ portrait of Columbus in elementary school. See, we all got that same story in elementary school. At least pretty much every one in the U.S. public school system got that same story. Most of us, upon further education, learned more about that period and the “truth” and with that new knowledge applied it to our life and moved on. Do you think the time spent being pissed off for (potentially) years is a reasonable reaction? I’m not a cheerleader for Columbus and I don’t deny or whitewash the actual history. But all the faux outrage on Monday on social media was just absurd. WE ALL KNOW THE REAL STORY NOW AND WE STILL CAN’T CHANGE ANY OF IT! Even my Trump supporting wing-nut in-laws know the real story by now. Quite virtual signaling how “woke” you are Karen! 😉 And I disagree that we need to be teaching second graders about how our country was founded upon the murder of millions of indigenous people to take their land and to further our white conquest in the name of Protestant God. That’s probably a lesson better saved for a more age appropriate time. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/53 "2019-10-16T13:13:33Z")
> [@MeanJoe](#): > > And I disagree that we need to be teaching second graders about how our country was founded upon the murder of millions of indigenous people to take their land and to further our white conquest in the name of Protestant God. That’s probably a lesson better saved for a more age appropriate time. Yes, at least 3rd grade, and get it right too, Columbus was murdering people in the name of the Roman Catholic God. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/54 "2019-10-16T14:40:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Yes, at least 3rd grade, and get it right too, Columbus was murdering people in the name of the Roman Catholic God. Catholic - Christopher Columbus. Protestant - Pilgrams. Protestant. Roman Catholic. So hard to remember which group of white people were killing in the name of what religion. 😉 Haha ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/55 "2019-10-16T14:44:14Z")
In 1492 there were no Protestants, of course. So in this case as to “what group of white people were killing in the name of what religion” would be “Europeans” and “Christianity”, specifically, the Catholic variant which was all that the majority of the population knew. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/56 "2019-10-16T16:04:03Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > In 1492 there were no Protestants, of course. So in this case as to “what group of white people were killing in the name of what religion” would be “Europeans” and “Christianity”, specifically, the Catholic variant which was all that the majority of the population knew. Understood. I had recently read “Lies My Teacher Told Me” which covers both Columbus as well as the later pilgrims. Just got them mixed up in terms of religious affiliation as I was posting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/57 "2019-10-16T16:08:05Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > And it’s pointing the wrong way. No, he was just anxious to get home. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/58 "2019-10-16T16:26:40Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > In 1492 there were no Protestants, of course. So in this case as to “what group of white people were killing in the name of what religion” would be “Europeans” and “Christianity”, specifically, the Catholic variant which was all that the majority of the population knew. As opposed to what group of "red’ people were killing in the name of religion. Substitute any color you like. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/59 "2019-10-16T17:59:46Z")
It irks me that the pendulum has swung from “Columbus was the greatest hero explorer ever and we all owe our freedom to his benevolent conquest” to “Columbus was literally Mecha-Hitler and the Original Sin all white people must hereafter atone for”. He’s just this guy, you know? Also, am I alone in thinking replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day is a slap in the face to Native Americans? I mean, first of all, they ought to get an entire month, at least, and if not, they should at least get their _own_ day, not what amounts to “Anti-Columbus Day”. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764/60 "2019-10-16T18:20:21Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Also, am I alone in thinking replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day is a slap in the face to Native Americans? Nope > [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > For what it’s worth I’m all for something like Indigenous People’s Day, but I really can’t think of a more inappropriate day for it than CC day. Maybe expand [Native American Day](https://www.calendar-365.com/holidays/native-american-day.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-really-even-care-about-christopher-columbus/841764.md?page=4)