The 15 th Century is a half a millennium ago now, but in the 21 st Century the famous navigator continues to make waves. The trans-Atlantic African Slave Trade began and the Native American populations were becoming displaced, assimilated, and killed either through war, disease, poverty, or combinations of all of the above. To others, his arrival represents the decimation of the native populations, their culture, and way of life since the Spanish presence quickly led to the arrival of conquistadors, such as Hernan Cortez, Francisco Pizarro, Juan de Onate, and others. He represents the triumphal spirit of exploration and the courage to face danger, opening a new hemisphere to contact with another. Since that time, Columbus has come to represent a number of things, depending on one’s perspective. Columbus miscalculated the size of the Earth and, perhaps stubbornly refusing to believe that “India” he found didn’t resemble the “India” he was supposed to find, went to his grave believing he had, in fact, come to Asia. Every schoolkid knows-or should know-that Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain financed Columbus’ voyages to discover a trade route to the Indies and he invertedly came to the Americas. Christopher Columbus, titled Admiral of the Ocean Sea, is believed to be Genoese, and the tradition holds, despite relatively little reliable biographical information available about the most famous explorer in history.
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