Should Columbus Have a Holiday?

Christopher Columbus: navigator, colonizer, explorer and credited with the discovery of the Americas to boot. The question is whether or not this man, whom undeniably had a hand in the shaping of the world we live in today, should be praised or mourned. Additionally we must look at the day given to him and decide whether or not the Columbus Legacy deserves a holiday of its own.  Columbus never actually understood the meaning of his discovery, or that he even discovered a new continent, nor did he realize the extent of the damage he caused upon an entire race of people.  Without question his landing in the Americas played a crucial role in events to come, but that does not mean that he is deserving of a holiday because he was neither morally or intellectually fit to be immortalized in such a way.

Image via Wikipedia

Columbus’ tomb

Columbus, a devoutly religious man, landed in the “West Indies” 33 days after departing in 1492.  How was he so sure that he would hit a new continent just 3000 miles out?  How was he able to estimate the size of the world?  What caused his great success?  In one word: Luck.  Columbus, although a very capable navigator, was no mathematician, and he miscalculated and underestimated the size of the world.  He claimed that Japan was a mere 3,500 miles from Europe.  The actual distance is closer to 12,000.  If it was not for running head first into the Americas at 3000 miles, his crew would have first mutinied and then, as supplies grew scarce, resorted to cannibalism.

 Christopher Columbus set out on his voyage with a main goal in mind.  He wanted to secure Jerusalem in one last ditch effort against the Muslims.  He wanted one more glorious crusade with the help of the Asians to prepare the world for 1000 years of ruling by the Son of Man.  When he got there he made a huge discovery… “little men” that he called Indians.  At first, the noble Christopher Columbus, aspired to convert these ignorant humans to the religion that would one day bring back Christ and create a Utopian world for all to prosper in but these “Indians” soon became nothing more than slaves to him, because they chose not to convert and then were deemed less than human by Columbus and his men.  This sheer ignorance by Columbus help decimate nearly an entire culture of natives because they refused to blindly conform to the ideas of invading colonists.  A man should not be praised for his “discovery” of a pre-discovered continent when the cost of this rediscover came at the cost of thousands of lives.  The ends, despite Machiavelli’s beliefs, does not justify the means in this case.