Editorial
What is happening to Colombus Day?
Macai Augustine
Volume 5 Issue 2
November 25, 2024
Image Provided by Max Ching
Did you know that Columbus Day is false? I mean, Columbus didn’t really discover America, so who did, and what's going to happen to Columbus Day?
Columbus Day celebrates Christopher Columbus discovering North America on October 12, 1492. That day been celebrated since 1932 and marks the year when it became an official United States holiday. So, what’s the pushback on this holiday, and why has it become so controversial?
Christopher Colombus was an Italian navigator and explorer born between August 26 and October 31, 1451, in Genoa, Italy. He later lived in Portugal, Porto Santo Island. As Columbus grew older and became a teenager, he obtained a job on a merchant ship until 1476 when a group of pirates overthrew his ship while it was sailing north along Portugal’s coast. The boat ended up sinking, but luckily, Columbus survived and floated back to shore. This was only the beginning because Columbus started to study cartography, navigation, mathematics, and astronomy.
At the time a new issue arrived in that Columbus strived to solve. At the end of the 15th century, it started to become nearly impossible to get from Europe to Asia. The Silk Road started to become extremely dangerous, and unsafe for travel, and the Ottoman Empire started to tax travelers to pass through. To solve this issue, Portuguese explorers sailed along West Africa’s coast. This method worked, but Columbus believes that it was unnecessary and knew that there had to be an easier way to get to Asia instead of sailing along the big continent of Africa. He had the idea that the size of the Earth was much smaller than believed and getting to Asia by sailing northwest could be easier. In 1492, he introduced his plan to officials in Portugal and England, and the Spanish monarchs were interested in Columbus’s idea. Columbus, Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish monarchs, also wanted to be famous and rich, so Columbus promised that he would split 10% of the treasure he found.
So, on August 3, 1492, he finally set sail. While at sea, he kept a diary to write down all his findings and ideas. When he finally reached, he was able to talk and trade with natives in North America. In Columbus’s diary, he also mentioned the idea of enslaving the people of the land. He knew that these people did not have all the riches and technology that the Europeans had. He wrote, “They have no iron…They would make fine servants…With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
The problem with Christopher Columbus is that he isn’t a very good man to celebrate, and we should be celebrating differently. Columbus may have helped colonize America, but his actual, often untold story is filled with fear and violence. This is why many cities and states are changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus