Happy Columbus Day; Unfair Criticism from the Left of Celebrating the Discovery Disproves the Alternate Discovery Theory from the Nationalist Right

           I wish everyone a Happy Columbus Day, as I do every year, as we celebrate the permanent joining of two hemispheres by Christopher Columbus, the Genoese sailor working for Spain who made landfall in the New World on October 12, 1492, which is observed with a federal and state holiday on the nearest Monday.

            Based on his observations, Columbus had theorized correctly that there was a continent inhabited by Asiatic people much closer to Europe than generally believed, the fact that his theory led him to believe the continent was Asia and the world thus smaller notwithstanding.  The Admiral of the Ocean Seas was able to join the two worlds because of his exceptional navigational skills that enabled him to know how far he was from Europe and how far north or south, which allowed him to return to home port and then return to the Western Hemisphere three more times and pointing others in the right direction in the meantime.  Therefore, unlike any previous discoveries of the New World, Columbus’ Discovery of the New World effected a permanent bridging of the two worlds.  His discovery was thus literally a true one, as it removed the cover of the Atlantic Ocean that had separated the two hemispheres.  Crediting Columbus for the Discovery does not detract from any earlier discoveries, including that of the Native Americans who crossed the land bridge from Asia in prehistoric times, as critics of the celebration of the Discovery erroneously believe because of not understanding the meaning of the word. 

            Columbus brought Christianity, Judeo-Christian ideas about equality and freedom and modern science to the New World from the Old World, as the peoples of the two worlds encountered and learned from each other and, in many cases, befriended and exchanged in commerce with each other. 

            In any exchange of people, there are always negative consequences because of human nature, along with the positive.  Those opposed to the celebration of Columbus Day emphasize the negative and ignore the positive or fail to recognize it entirely.  One of their major criticisms of the Discovery is the spread of contagious diseases because of the lack of immunity, especially of Native Americans.  But just as Native Americans would have been credited with the Discovery of the Old World had they sailed to Europe or Africa, the spread of contagious diseased would have been blamed on them through no fault of their own, just as it was no fault of Columbus and his crew and the later visitors from the Old World to the New.  The critics believe, as in regard to uncontacted people today, that there should be no Evangelization, no introduction to Western ideas or of modern technology to such fellow human beings, and, indeed, no friendship between them and the rest of humanity. 

            I had posted last year about how the celebration of Columbus Day was initiated at the turn of the Twentieth Century in order to counter the theory promoted by the Ku Klux Klan’s that the Vikings had discovered the New World before Columbus, which was based on their bigotry against Southern Europeans and Catholics.  Columbus Day was intended to recognize the contribution of immigrant peoples to America.  Although the Vikings had reached Greenland, which is geographically part of the continent of North America and the Western Hemisphere, it is uncertain how far, if at all, they had reached in the New World, while their contact with North America was of limited duration, preceded the settling of Greenland by the Inuit, and had become legendary before anyone ever tried to reach the Western Hemisphere again.  If they had reached as far into North America as legend and Viking theorists suggest, they would have contacted Inuit and Native Americans, among whom there would likely have been oral history, which there is not, and there certainly would have been the spread to the New World of contagious diseases for which the natives had no immunity.  As the Native Americans had developed no immunity by Columbus’ discovery, the spreading of disease from the Spanish discoverers and conquistadors, therefore, disproves the more extravagant claims of the Viking discovery. 

Thus, the unfair criticism from the Left against celebrating the Discovery that it lead to death from disease forms the basis for disproving the alternate theory of discovery by Northern Europeans from the white nationalist right. 

May Columbus Day be celebrated for the watershed event in human history that it was and may the peoples of the world who are descended from the same African ancestors continue to rediscover each other to their mutual benefit.