In Defense of Columbus Day

originally posted 07 OCT 2014

Mention that you support Columbus Day as a holiday and prepare to have your head taken off. Not here, of course, we're too civilized but out in 'real' life.

Part of my degree is in cartography. I love maps. I could stare at maps for hours. A little odd, perhaps, but there is just so much that can be seen on a map.

I've studied the Age of Exploration as much, if not more, as the next guy. America, for better or worse, is what it is today because of Columbus. A lofty claim perhaps but one I believe.
We need to put aside a few notions when we discuss Christopher Columbus

- First, we can't weigh him on today's justice scales. He lived in a much different time. Social mores were vastly different. It would be easy to take apart most, if not all, historical figures when we apply our current values systems to them. Pick a character, if somebody wanted to vilify them, they could.
- Second, we're talking the Age of Exploration here It wasn't just the Europeans motoring (ha!) around the globe. There has been some indication that other cultures, including Muslims, had drifted to North America but there had been no real colonization. Don't think for a moment that if Columbus had not found his way to the West Indies, this would still be a land populated solely by Native Americans (who had in turn migrated from Asia). Given time there is a good chance, we could have become a Muslim nation which is very likely had Europeans not come over. That not be a problem for some but think of how different our country would be today!

- Slavery and racism did NOT originate with Christopher Columbus. If you believe that, you needed a better high school history teacher. Slavery already existed around the world, even here! There is even some indication that free black Africans might have taken part in his voyages. Diseases? Not his fault either. We are a global society. We now have airplanes. Diseases are going to mingle around the globe (Ebola anybody?). Without early Europeans setting in North America, it would only have delayed the inevitable.

- There is no doubt that Columbus did not 'discover' North America and it is true, he never made his way onto the soil that is now the United States. He is, however, the first to keep very detailed records of his voyages and ended up 'expanding' the world like at no other time in history.

I could go on but this is getting a bit long already. Christopher Columbus was an amazing navigator. He knew the earth was round and had extensively studied Ptolomy's Geography which led him to believe the east coast of Asia was actually where Mexico is located. Columbus was also the first noted explorer to make use of the trade winds. Although, Columbus always believed he'd reached Asia, his detailed records aided cartographers and geographers alike in determining the world was actually much larger than previously thought. By some in today's society, he has been given a little too much 'power'. The world was a much different place and, much of the blame, attributed to this one explorer is very much misplaced.

Whether you believe the world is better or worse off as a result of Columbus' journeys is up to you but he does hold an important place in our history.

And a happy early Columbus Day to you.