Christopher Columbus: Not a Good Man, but Not as Evil as Many Say

So yesterday another Columbus Day came and went and not without its usual controversy. Whereas Christopher Columbus used to be regarded as a heroic explorer, he has come to be known more and more as a genocidal madman. Protests erupted in multiple cities and many want the day replaced with Indigenous People's Day. 

Howard Zinn, a highly questionable, Marxist historian, seems to in large part responsible for this about face.

I went through this evolution myself. My earliest memory of hearing about him in elementary school was as an explorer who treated the Native Americans well. Then early in High School I believe, I was told about how he was basically the personification of pure evil. The truth, it would seem, is somewhere in the middle.

The Spanish certainly were brutal, but Columbus wasn't especially so. And it's not like the Native Americans were peaceniks. The Aztecs, for example, sacrificed some 20,000 people a year! The worst governors of Hispaniola (the first Spanish outpost) came after Columbus. Most notably, Nicolas de Ovando who put down a rebellion there with a series of brutal massacres. And at least some of the atrocities were exaggerated in the Black Legend which was pushed be Protestants to delegitimatize Catholic countries; especially Spain. 

The Youtuber Knowing Better has a pretty good video sort of defending the 15th century explorer and conqueror called "In Defense of Columbus: An Exaggerated Evil." It's worth checking out to get a more balanced view of the man.