Opinion of Christopher Columbus

[DemPGH]

Yes, he was horrible personally, but why single him out? Innocent VIII enacted the Inquisition in 1487 and had just blessed a torture manual called The Malleus Maleficarum. CC was sent by the crown for the expressed purpose of looting, slaving, forcing Catholicism on natives, and whatever else.

You know who figured out that the Earth was round? Eratosthenes.

In 1492, the debate was not the shape of the Earth. It was what lied to the West and how far away it was. No one knew, no one agreed, and no one seemed particularly interested in finding out. So that CC contributed nothing or was simply Hitler is just plain wrong.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Also, of course, I'd like to point out that whilst, of course, Columbus wasn't the first person to 'discover' the Americas, he was the first to establish permanent, lasting contact between the new and the old worlds, thus, in that respect, he was a truly significant figure.

^^^

Agreed with Cassius.

This just in: making "permanent, lasting contact" between two nations now redefined as slaughtering, raping the citizens of the weaker nation.

[RINO Tom]

I voted HP because that's what he obviously is ... but holy cow, do I get annoyed when people constantly talk about it.  WE GET IT, LOL.  He didn't "discover" America first, he was a really narcissistic and imperialist person, he treated the people already inhabiting the area terribly, etc.  That stuff is awful, but most people (especially people who post on a forum like this) know their history enough to know that stuff, and it seems that people who speak the loudest about how terrible CC was feel like they're enlightening you on the subject.

[BaconBacon96]

Obviously a HP, although not on par with people like Hitler.

[The Mikado]

Michel-Rolph Trouillot's Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History is a good book about how Haitian history and its absence in the global historical narrative is used to silence certain agendas.

Anyway, the last chapter of the book involves a riot in Haiti (which, of course, is on Hispanola) that grabs a statue of Christopher Colombus and tosses it into the sea.  Deeply resonant passage.

[memphis]

Being a heinous monster and being absolutely critical to the development of the modern world aren't mutually exclusive. Life is full of these moral conundrums. Deal with it.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Who here hasn't tied one on and made a wrong turn.....in his case it was just bigger than nornal. 

[Yeahsayyeah]

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Probably not. Beware the Ides of Hyperbole!

How is that hyperbole?

To be fair, at first I read "the most despicable human being" and that would clearly qualify. But even your notion would heave Columbus on a podest of cruelty that he would share with several hundred thousand human beings, at least.

2. It's of course pretty comfortable to personalize the cruelty of colonialsm and state that it was that way, because Columbus was so vile.

[Velasco]

Columbus is just one in many despicable human beings involved in the conquest and colonisation of the Americas. Arguably people like Hernán Cortés was less scrupulous than the supposed "discoverer". His only merit is that his arrival at Hispaniola was the starting point of the process. Some US posters should look into their own history, the mythologised conquest of the American West and other disturbing issues. Then, you can resort to hyperbole or whatever you want to do.

[Mechaman]

A short dumb dago.