   #copyright

Christopher Columbus

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geographers and explorers

   Cristoval Colon
   Christopher Columbus' portrait, painted by Alejo Fernández between 1505
   and 1536.
   Born c. 1451
   Unknown
   Died May 20, 1506
   Valladolid, Spain
   Occupation maritime explorer for the Crown of Castile

   Christopher Columbus is the incorrectly Latinized name of Don Cristoval
   Colon, the navigator and maritime explorer credited as the discoverer
   of the Americas. He was sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs and
   eventually became an admiral for the Crown of Castile. His voyages
   across the Atlantic Ocean began a European effort at exploration and
   colonization of the American continent. While history places great
   significance on his first voyage of 1492, he did not actually reach the
   mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Likewise, he was not the
   earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts
   of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. Nevertheless,
   Columbus' voyage came at a critical time of growing national
   imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states
   seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies.
   Therefore, the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian, and the
   anniversary of this event (vd. Columbus Day) is celebrated throughout
   the Americas and in Spain and Italy. However, as the legacy of
   colonialism in the Americas is today viewed somewhat more negatively
   than in the past, Columbus has become a divisive figure.

Life

   No authentic contemporary portrait of Columbus has ever been found;
   this late 19th-century engraving is one of many conjectural images
   Enlarge
   No authentic contemporary portrait of Columbus has ever been found;
   this late 19th-century engraving is one of many conjectural images
   Christopher Columbus, conjectural image by Sebastiano del Piombo in the
   Gallery of Illustrious Men (Corridoio Vasariano), Uffizi, Florence.
   Enlarge
   Christopher Columbus, conjectural image by Sebastiano del Piombo in the
   Gallery of Illustrious Men (Corridoio Vasariano), Uffizi, Florence.

Nationality

   The identity of Columbus is still unknown for certain, although it is
   most widely accepted that he was of Italian ancestry since he
   maintained this ethnicity throughout his life. More specifically he is
   believed to have been from the Republic of Genoa, in Italy , although
   it has been surmised he could have been from Catalonia, Spain instead.
   Certainly there were ties between Spain and the Italian nation-states.
   (King Ferdinand II of Aragon was also the King of Sicily.) His
   nationality is still debated, and many theories exist detailing his
   possible lineage. Aspects such as learned languages and DNA samples are
   being studied although no definitive answer has yet been revealed.

Early life

   According to generally recognized theory, Columbus was born between
   August and October 1451 in Genoa, one of the most ancient mariner
   communities of Middle Ages Europe. His father was Domenico Colombo, a
   middle-class wool weaver working between Genoa and Savona. Susanna
   Fontanarossa was his mother and Bartolomeo was his brother. Bartolomeo
   worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his
   adulthood.

   While information about Columbus' early years is scarce, he probably
   received an incomplete education. He spoke a Genoese dialect of speech
   . In one of his writings, Columbus claims to have gone to the sea at
   the age of 10. In the early 1470s, he was in the service of René I of
   Anjou in a Genoese ship hired to support his unfortunate attempt to
   conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Later he allegedly made a trip to Chios,
   in the Aegean Sea. In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by
   Genoa to carry a valuable cargo to northern Europe. On August 13, 1476,
   the convoy was intercepted by Portuguese ships near the Genoa coast.
   Columbus was wounded in the battle that ensued, but managed to land at
   the small town of Lagos.

Physical appearance

   Although an abundance of artwork involving Christopher Columbus exists,
   no authentic contemporary portrait of the man has been found. Over the
   years, artists who reconstruct his appearance do so from written
   descriptions. These writings describe him as having reddish hair, which
   turned to white early in his life, as well as being a lighter skinned
   person with too much sun exposure turning his face red.

   Despite the clear description of red hair or white hair, textbooks use
   the image on the right so often that it has become the face of Columbus
   in popular culture.

Background to voyages

Navigational theories

   Europe had long enjoyed a safe passage to China and India— sources of
   valued goods such as silk and spices — under the hegemony of the Mongol
   Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol peace"). With the Fall of
   Constantinople to the Muslims in 1453, the land route to Asia was no
   longer an easy route. Portuguese sailors took to traveling south around
   Africa to get to Asia. Columbus had a different idea. By the 1480s, he
   had developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughly as
   all of south and east Asia, by sailing directly west across the "Ocean
   Sea," i.e., the Atlantic.

   Following Washington Irving's myth-filled 1828 biography of Columbus,
   it became common supposed knowledge that Columbus had difficulty
   obtaining support for his plan because Europeans believed that the
   earth was flat. In fact, few people at the time of Columbus’s voyage,
   and virtually no sailors or navigators, believed this. Most agreed that
   the earth was a sphere. Indeed, knowledge of the Earth's spherical
   nature was not limited to scientists: for instance, Dante's Divine
   Comedy is based on a spherical Earth. Columbus put forth arguments that
   were based on the circumference of the sphere. Most scholars accepted
   Ptolemy's claim that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the
   time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of the
   terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water.

   Columbus, however, believed the calculations of Marinus of Tyre that
   the landmass occupied 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water.
   Moreover, Columbus believed that one degree represented a shorter
   distance on the earth's surface than was commonly held. Finally, he
   read maps as if the distances were calculated in Italian miles (1,238
   meters). Accepting the length of a degree to be 56⅔ miles, from the
   writings of Alfraganus, he therefore calculated the circumference of
   the Earth as 25,255 kilometers at most, and the distance from the
   Canary Islands to Japan as 3,000 Italian miles (3,700 km). Columbus did
   not realize that Al-Farghani used the much longer Arabic mile of about
   1,830 meters.

   The problem facing Columbus was that experts did not accept his
   estimate of the distance to the Indies. The true circumference of the
   Earth is about 40,000 kilometers, and the distance from the Canary
   Islands to Japan is 19,600 kilometers. No ship in the 15th century
   could carry enough food to sail from the Canary Islands to Japan. Most
   European sailors and navigators concluded, correctly, that sailors
   undertaking a westward voyage from Europe to Asia non-stop would die of
   starvation or thirst long before reaching their destination. Spain
   however, only recently unified through the marriage of Ferdinand and
   Isabella, was desperate for a competitive edge over other European
   countries in trade with the East Indies. Columbus promised them that
   edge.

   Columbus' calculations were inaccurate concerning the circumference of
   the Earth and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan. However,
   almost all Europeans were mistaken in thinking the aquatic expanse
   between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted. Although Columbus died
   believing he had opened up a direct nautical route to Asia, in fact he
   had established a nautical route between Europe and the Americas. The
   route to America, rather than to Japan, gave Spain a competitive edge
   in developing a mercantile empire.

Campaign for funding

   In 1485, Columbus presented his navigation plan to the court of
   Portugal. The king's experts believed that the route would be longer
   than Columbus thought and denied Christopher Columbus’s request . He
   then tried to get backing from the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and
   Isabella I of Castile, who had united the largest kingdoms of Spain by
   marrying and were ruling together.

   To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, he was put on a
   salary for seven years. After continually lobbying at the Spanish
   court, he finally had success in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just
   conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula,
   and they received Columbus in Córdoba, in the Alcázar castle. Isabella
   turned Columbus down on the advice of her confessor, and he was leaving
   town in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabella then sent a royal
   guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for
   being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered". King
   Ferdinand is referred to as "losing his patience" in this issue, but
   this cannot be proven.

   About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors,
   whom Columbus had already lined up. Financially broke after the Granada
   campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds
   among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was
   to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all
   profits. The terms were unusually generous, but as his own son later
   wrote, the monarchs did not really expect him to return.

   According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and
   Queen Isabella, if Columbus discovered any new islands or mainland, he
   would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he would be given
   the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and appointed
   Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands. He has the right to nominate
   three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any
   office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10 percent of all the
   revenues from the new lands in perpetuity; this part was denied to him
   in the contract, although it was one of his demands. Finally, he would
   also have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial
   venture with the new lands and receive one-eighth of the profits.

   Columbus was later arrested in 1500 and supplanted from these posts,
   which led to Columbus's son taking legal action to enforce his father's
   contract, who was also arrested. Many of the smears against Columbus
   were initiated by the Spanish crown during these lengthy court cases
   (pleitos de Colón).

Voyages

First voyage

   First voyage.
   Enlarge
   First voyage.
   A ship replica of the Santa Maria.
   Enlarge
   A ship replica of the Santa Maria.
   A depiction of Columbus claiming possession of the New World in a
   chromolithograph made by the Prang Education Company in 1893.
   Enlarge
   A depiction of Columbus claiming possession of the New World in a
   chromolithograph made by the Prang Education Company in 1893.

   On the evening of August 3, 1492, Columbus departed from Palos with
   three ships; one larger " Carrack", the Santa Maria and two smaller "
   caravels", the Niña and the Pinta (The ships were never officially
   named) . The ships were property of Juan de la Cosa and the Pinzón
   brothers ( Martin Alonzo and Vicente Yáñez), but the monarchs forced
   the Palos inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. Columbus first
   sailed to the Canary Islands, which was owned by Castile, where he
   restocked the provisions and made repairs, and on September 6, he
   started what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.

   Land was sighted at 2 a.m. on October 12, by a sailor named Rodrigo de
   Triana (also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermejo) aboard Pinta. Columbus
   called the island (in what is now The Bahamas) San Salvador, although
   the natives called it Guanahani. Exactly which island in the Bahamas
   this corresponds to is an unresolved topic; prime candidates are Samana
   Cay, Plana Cays, or San Salvador Island (named San Salvador in 1925 in
   the belief that it was Columbus' San Salvador). The indigenous people
   he encountered, the Lucayan, Taíno or Arawak, were peaceful and
   friendly.

   Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba (landed on October
   28) and the northern coast of Hispaniola, by December 5. Here, the
   Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas morning 1492 and had to be
   abandoned. He was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave
   him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus founded the
   settlement La Navidad and left 39 men.

   Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into Lisbon. He
   anchored next to the King's harbour patrol ship on March 4, 1493 in
   Portugal. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail
   for Spain. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout
   Europe. He reached Spain on March 15.

Second voyage

   Second voyage.
   Enlarge
   Second voyage.

   Columbus left Cádiz, Spain, on September 24, 1493 to find new
   territories, with 17 ships carrying supplies, and about 1,200 men to
   peacefully colonize the region. On October 13, the ships left the
   Canary Islands as they had on the first voyage, following a more
   southerly course.

   On November 3, 1493, Columbus sighted a rugged island that he named
   Dominica; later that day, he landed at Marie-Galante, which he named
   Santa Maria la Galante. After sailing past Les Saintes (Todos los
   Santos), he arrived at Guadaloupe (Santa Maria de Guadalupe), which he
   explored between November 4 and November 10, 1493. The exact course of
   his voyage through the Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely
   that he turned north, sighting and naming several islands including
   Montserrat (Santa Maria de Monstserrate), Antigua (Santa Maria la
   Antigua), Redondo (Santa Maria la Redonda), Nevis (Santa María de las
   Nieves), Saint Kitts (San Jorge), Sint Eustatius (Santa Anastasia),
   Saba (San Cristobal), Saint Martin (San Martin), and Saint Croix (Santa
   Cruz). He also sighted the island chain of the Virgin Islands, which he
   named Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgines, and named the islands of
   Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and Peter Island (San Pedro).

   He continued to the Greater Antilles, and landed at Puerto Rico (San
   Juan Bautista) on November 19, 1493. The first skirmish between
   Americans and Europeans since the Vikings took place when his men
   rescued two boys who had just been castrated by their captors.

   On November 22, Columbus returned to Hispaniola, establishing a new
   settlement at Isabella – on the north coast – where gold had first been
   found. However, it proved a poor location and the settlement was
   short-lived. He left Hispaniola on April 24, 1494, arrived at Cuba
   (naming it Juana) on April 30, and reached Jamaica on May 5. He
   explored the south coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula
   rather than an island, and several nearby islands including the Isle of
   Youth (La Evangelista), before returning to Hispaniola on August 20 and
   then finally returning to Spain.

Third voyage and arrest

   Third voyage.
   Enlarge
   Third voyage.
   Location of city of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, the starting point for
   Columbus' third journey.
   Enlarge
   Location of city of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, the starting point for
   Columbus' third journey.

   On May 30, 1498, Columbus left with six ships from Sanlúcar, Spain, for
   his third trip to the New World. He was accompanied by the young
   Bartolomé de Las Casas, who would later provide partial transcripts of
   Columbus' logs.

   Columbus led the fleet to the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, his
   wife's native land. He then sailed to Madeira and spent some time there
   with the Portuguese captain João Gonçalves da Camara before sailing to
   the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. Columbus landed on the south coast
   of the island of Trinidad on July 31. From August 4 through August 12,
   he explored the Gulf of Paria which separates Trinidad from Venezuela.
   He explored the mainland of South America, including the Orinoco River.
   He also sailed to the islands of Chacachacare and Margarita Island and
   sighted and named Tobago (Bella Forma) and Grenada (Concepcion). He
   described the new lands as belonging to a previously unknown new
   continent, but he pictured it hanging from China, bulging out to make
   the earth pear-shaped.

   Columbus returned to Hispaniola on August 19 to find that many of the
   Spanish settlers of the new colony were discontent, having been misled
   by Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the new world.
   Columbus repeatedly had to deal with rebellious settlers and natives.
   He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. A number of returned
   settlers and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court,
   accusing him of mismanagement. The king and queen sent the royal
   administrator Francisco de Bobadilla in 1500, who upon arrival ( August
   23) detained Columbus and his brothers. They had them shipped home,
   during which he wrote a long and pleading letter to the Spanish
   monarchs. They accepted his letter and let Columbus and his brothers go
   free.

Fourth voyage

   Fourth voyage.
   Enlarge
   Fourth voyage.

   Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search of the Strait of
   Malacca to the Indian Ocean. Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and
   his 13-year-old son Fernando, he left Cádiz, Spain on May 11, 1502,
   with the ships Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína and Santiago de Palos. He
   sailed to Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue the Portuguese
   soldiers who he heard were under siege by the Moors. On June 15, they
   landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). A hurricane
   was brewing, so he continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola.
   He arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port, and the
   new governor refused to listen to his storm prediction. Instead, while
   Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the Jaina River, the first
   Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane. The only ship to
   reach Spain had Columbus's money and belongings on it, and all of his
   former enemies (and a few friends) had drowned.

   After a brief stop at Jamaica, he sailed to Central America, arriving
   at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras
   on July 30. Here Bartolomeo found native merchants and a large canoe,
   which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. On
   August 14, he landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near
   Trujillo, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coasts of
   Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay,
   Panama on October 16.
   The Four Voyages of Columbus 1492-1503
   Enlarge
   The Four Voyages of Columbus 1492-1503

   In Panama, he learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another
   ocean. After much exploration, he established a garrison at the mouth
   of Rio Belen in January 1503. On April 6, one of the ships became
   stranded in the river. At the same time, the garrison was attacked, and
   the other ships were damaged. He left for Hispaniola on April 16, but
   sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to
   travel any farther, the ships were beached in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica,
   on June 25, 1503.

   Columbus and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year. Two
   Spaniards, with native paddlers, were sent by canoe to get help from
   Hispaniola. In the meantime, in a desperate effort to induce the
   natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, he
   successfully intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar
   eclipse, using astronomic tables made by Rabbi Abraham Zacuto who was
   working for the king of Portugal. Help finally arrived on June 29,
   1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain on November
   7.

Governorship

   During his time as governor and viceroy, Columbus ruled his domain
   tyrannically. Francisco de Bobadilla, a member of the Order of
   Calatrava, and Columbus' successor as Governor from 1500-1502, was
   charged with investigating Columbus' rule in the name of the Spanish
   Crown. His 48 page report — derived from the testimonies of 23 people
   who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his
   brothers — had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered
   in 2005 in the Spanish archives in Valladolid. It proved to contain an
   account of Columbus' 7 year reign as the first Governor of the Indies.
   According to his report Columbus was known both by friends and enemies
   for the atrociously harsh punishments he imposed on his subjects.

   Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him
   [Columbus] had to admit the atrocities that had taken place."

Later life

   A statue of the Santa Maria, Columbus' flagship in his first voyage.
   The statue is at the House of Columbus in Valladolid, Spain, the city
   where Columbus died.
   Enlarge
   A statue of the Santa Maria, Columbus' flagship in his first voyage.
   The statue is at the House of Columbus in Valladolid, Spain, the city
   where Columbus died.

   While Columbus had always given the conversion of non-believers as one
   reason for his explorations, he grew increasingly religious in his
   later years. He claimed to hear divine voices, lobbied for a new
   crusade to capture Jerusalem, often wore Franciscan habit, and
   described his explorations to the "paradise" as part of God's plan
   which would soon result in the Last Judgement and the end of the world.

   In his later years, Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him
   10% of all profits made in the new lands, pursuant to earlier
   agreements. Because he had been relieved of his duties as governor, the
   crown did not feel bound by these contracts, and his demands were
   rejected. His family later sued for part of the profits from trade with
   America but ultimately lost some 50 years later.
   Columbus' tomb in the cathedral of Seville. It is borne by four statues
   of kings representing the Kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and
   Navarre.
   Enlarge
   Columbus' tomb in the cathedral of Seville. It is borne by four statues
   of kings representing the Kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and
   Navarre.

   On May 20, 1506, Columbus died in Valladolid, fairly wealthy from the
   gold his men had accumulated in Hispaniola. He was still convinced that
   his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia. Following his
   death, his body underwent excarnation—the flesh was removed so that
   only his bones remained. Even after his death, his travels continued:
   first interred in Valladolid and then at the monastery of La Cartuja in
   Seville, by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of
   Hispaniola, his remains were transferred to Santo Domingo in 1542. In
   1795, the French took over, and his remains were removed to Havana.
   After Cuba became independent following the Spanish-American War in
   1898, his remains were moved back to the Cathedral of Seville, where
   they were placed on an elaborate catafalque. However, a lead box
   bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus" and
   containing fragments of bone and a bullet was discovered at Santo
   Domingo in 1877. To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics were moved
   to Havana and that Columbus is still buried in the cathedral of Santo
   Domingo, DNA samples were taken in June 2003 (History Today August
   2003). Results announced in May 2006 show that at least some of
   Columbus' remains rest in Seville, but authorities in Santo Domingo
   have not allowed the exhuming of the body.

Legacy

   Bronze statue at Central Park, New York City by Jerónimo Suñol, 1894
   Enlarge
   Bronze statue at Central Park, New York City by Jerónimo Suñol, 1894

   Columbus is often viewed as a hero, and also of faith by most in the
   United States because of his pivotal role in U.S. history. He has had a
   cultural significance beyond his actual achievements and actions as an
   individual, becoming a symbol and figure of legend. Numerous stories
   about Columbus have cast him as an archetypal figure for both good and
   for evil.

   While other discoverers and immigrants had come to the new world of the
   Americas before Columbus and it had already been "discovered" many
   times, Columbus's impact and significance in history has more to do
   with his time and its effects. His journey came when technical
   developments in sailing techniques and communication made it possible
   to report his voyages easily throughout western Europe. In this way
   Europe was reacquainted with the Americas, and this was followed by
   many more voyages seeking wealth and expansion.

19th century

   The nascent countries of the New World, particularly the newly
   independent United States, seemed to need a historical narrative to
   give them roots. This narrative was supplied in part by Washington
   Irving in 1828 with The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which
   may be the true source of much of the associations held about the
   explorer.

   Hero worship of Columbus perhaps reached a zenith around 1892 when the
   400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas occurred.
   Monuments to Columbus like the Columbian Exposition in Chicago were
   erected throughout the United States and Latin America extolling him.
   Numerous cities, towns, and streets were named after him, including the
   capital cities of two U.S. states (Columbus, Ohio and Columbia, South
   Carolina). The story that Columbus thought the world was round while
   his contemporaries believed in a flat earth was often repeated. This
   tale was used to show that Columbus was enlightened and forward
   looking. Columbus' apparent defiance of convention in sailing west to
   get to the far east was hailed as a model of "American"-style can-do
   inventiveness.

   The admiration of Columbus was particularly embraced by some members of
   the Italian American, Hispanic, and Catholic communities. These groups
   point to Columbus as one of their own to show that Mediterranean
   Catholics could and did make great contributions to the U.S. The modern
   vilification of Columbus is seen by his supporters as being politically
   motivated.

Modern day

   A bronze statue of Columbus sits among the flowers and trees of
   Belgrave Square, London.
   Enlarge
   A bronze statue of Columbus sits among the flowers and trees of
   Belgrave Square, London.

   Culpability is sometimes placed on contemporary governments and their
   citizens for ongoing acts of genocide against Native Americans during
   the time of Christopher Columbus. Columbus myths and celebrations are
   generally a positive affair, making less room for this concept in
   history books. Ward Churchill, an associate professor of Native
   American Studies at the University of Colorado and a leader of the
   American Indian Movement, has argued that

     Very high on the list of those expressions of non-indigenous
     sensibility which contribute to the perpetuation of genocidal
     policies against Indians are the annual Columbus Day celebration,
     events in which it is baldly asserted that the process, events, and
     circumstances described above are, at best, either acceptable or
     unimportant. More often, the sentiments expressed by the
     participants are, quite frankly, that the fate of Native America
     embodied in Columbus and the Columbian legacy is a matter to be
     openly and enthusiastically applauded as an unrivaled "boon to all
     mankind." Undeniably, the situation of American Indians will not—in
     fact cannot—change for the better so long as such attitudes are
     deemed socially acceptable by the mainstream populace. Hence, such
     celebrations as Columbus Day must be stopped.

   Columbus' colonization of the Americas, and the subsequent effects on
   the native peoples, were dramatised in the 1992 feature film 1492:
   Conquest of Paradise to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his
   landing in the Americas. In 2003, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
   urged Latin Americans to not celebrate the Columbus Day holiday. Chavez
   blamed Columbus for leading the way in the mass genocide of the Native
   Americans.
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