[frickin_frackin]

Is that a bad thing? The history books gloss over his butchery. It wasn’t all gumdrops and unicorns.

[gusty]

OK wiseguy, why don't we all go back from where we came from. We will set the year back to 20,000 BC. I will go back to Europe, maybe to the Asian steppes. The Native Americans can join their cousins the Koreans, Mongolians and Chinese back in Siberia and Manchuria. Would that make you happier. The Native Americans were decimated by disease brought across the ocean from Europe. They died from bacteria and viruses for the most part. It was written in the cards. Eurasia and American were going to meet one way or another. Unfortunately for them, we made contact when medicine was primitive and virtually worthless.

[nickcarraway]

You are right. The U.S. is an evil country and the only way to atone is to embrace communism.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I used to have a book on Columbus with a description on how they saved some captive pregnant Awark women from the Carib (cannibal) Indians who liked cooked new born babies.

[CatherineofAragon]

"Is that a bad thing? The history books gloss over his butchery. It wasn’t all gumdrops and unicorns."

Yes, because we all know the peaceful, noble savage (sarc) was the victim of the evil marauding white man.

You have an interesting posting history indeed. I didn't know I should be mocking male Freepers' "manliness" for not liking mens' purses.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It’s indeed bad not to tell the whole story. Don’t idolize the man. He got egotistical and did things that his own church considered so bad that they had him brought back to Spain in irons.

Yet if we looked only at the bad, we’d be doomed not to honor anybody for anything. Columbus’ voyage encouraged Spain to continue sending people to the Americas. Their Christian practice, flawed as its Spanish Catholic implementation was, was what later forced the Mayans to stop their human sacrifices.

Not too many conquerers would even have as benign an overall impact as Columbus’ proved to be. If Columbus’ church hadn’t been looking over his shoulder, imagine the tyranny and carnage possible.