In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, rammed right into the Americas and is now best known for his infamous imperialization of Native American land. Christopher Columbus may be immortalized for his exploration of the New World with a national holiday, but the massive deaths and concurrent destruction of native cultures has marred his historical image. And the meaning of the holiday commemorating the man has become as convoluted as the history lessons Americans have been teaching their children about the explorer.
Originally, Columbus Day was a holiday for Italian-Americans to honor the great Italian explorer who opened the door to the New World with his expedition. History textbooks have been written about Columbus in a favorable light, focusing on the voyage of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria in the toilsome journey across the Atlantic. Information about the atrocious treatment of natives once they reached land is widely unknown and therefore ignored.
At the time, Columbus didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong. Explorers from a bevy of European countries were sailing the globe in search of new land and the notion of taming “savages” outside of European borders was widely accepted. Imperialization was an attractive prospect for leaders looking to expand the reach of their empire and, after all, everybody else was torturing and killing “savages,” too.
Instead of doing away with Columbus Day altogether, as some critics suggest, perhaps as a society we should use the holiday as a reminder of how far we’ve come as humanitarians.
The quest for imperialization has now transcended into a vision of globalization, although people argue about which is worse. As a modern society, we’ve changed the way we “civilize” foreign cultures, and we now seek to understand them. In hindsight, Manifest Destiny was not the ideal it was created to be.
The celebration of Columbus Day should be focused on our commonalties as a global community. We should acknowledge Columbus’ efforts — both noteworthy and unfortunate — because everyone needs to be taught the truth about our country’s origin, no matter how difficult the conversation may be.
This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to [email protected].