Over 523 years ago, Christopher Columbus landed in the present-day Bahamas to initiate the European discovery of (or intrusion into) the New World, thinking he had found the coveted sea route to Asia. Over the next 10 years, Columbus made an additional three voyages to the Bahamas, and with each successive voyage came more and more controversy surrounding his actions, particularly his treatment of indigenous peoples.
The famed Colombian Exchange began shortly after the voyages of Columbus, which brought much prosperity to both the New and Old Worlds. The impact of the agricultural exchange was particularly demonstrated in the Irish Potato Famine, which caused the population of Ireland to decline by 20 to 25 percent. While beneficial, this exchange brought a host of devastating new diseases that indigenous peoples had little immunity to, including smallpox, measles and syphilis.
And while these detrimental consequences would have been inevitable even if Columbus was not one of the first to make contact, it is the actions he took in Hispaniola that lead to the "Columbus Controversy." In his quest for wealth and gold, Christopher Columbus extensively abused and enslaved the native peoples in forced conversion and slavery. The native Taino people's population decreased from 250,000 in 1492 to less than 500 people in 1548 due to a combination of disease and slavery. During his voyages, Columbus sent 500 slaves from Hispaniola to Queen Isabella. At one point, he was even stripped of his position as governor of Hispaniola and sent back to Spain in chains.
So why do we celebrate a tradition today in honor of a man that decimated native populations and wasn't even the first European man to land in the Americas? In the 1930s, the Knights of Columbus succeeded in lobbying the government to make Columbus Day an official day in the United States. As a Genoan, Columbus represented a hero to many Italian-Americans in his astronomical accomplishments in the European expansion into the New World. To many it is a celebration of Italian pride and heritage as a gateway for a group of immigrants discriminated against for their religion and ethnicity to be accepted into the American mainstream.
Recently nine cities across the United States have passed resolutions to abolish Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day. In elementary school, many of us were taught only of the great positive impact the voyages of Christopher Columbus had without regard for the atrocities he committed to native peoples. Today while many of us are given a day off from work or school, we're given a more complete picture of his deeds, and it's up to each of us individually to decide whether the holiday is a celebration of discovery or a celebration of genocide.
