{"id":2061270,"date":"2023-10-09T20:53:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T00:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-left-is-wrong-about-christopher-columbus\/"},"modified":"2023-10-09T20:58:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T00:58:17","slug":"the-left-is-wrong-about-christopher-columbus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-left-is-wrong-about-christopher-columbus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Left&#8217;s Misconceptions on Christopher Columbus"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-left-is-wrong-about-christopher-columbus%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2061270&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The Left Is \u200bWrong About Christopher Columbus<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Leftist \u201ceducators\u201d have indoctrinated several \u200cgenerations of American students into believing a false \u200c\u201coppressor-oppressed\u201d narrative of U.S. history.<\/p>\n<p>That dichotomous narrative \u2014 false because overly simplistic \u2014 would\u2062 reduce the great Genoese explorer \u2064Christopher Columbus\u2062 to a mere invader, an\u2062 agent of exploitation and a harbinger \u200dof genocide.<\/p>\n<p>The annual return of Columbus Day should encourage us\u2064 to resist such historical\u2062 and \u200dcivic malpractice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Two basic reasons induce us to defend both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/replacement-columbus-statue-unveiled-monument-black-icon-plays-audio-recordings-queen-latifah\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Columbus<\/a> and the holiday Americans \u2064have long devoted to his\u200b commemoration.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<h3>Columbus&#8217; Monumental\u2062 Legacy<\/h3>\n<p>First, Columbus and his monumental\u2062 legacy do not\u2062 fit the oversimplified narrative.<\/p>\n<p>For\u2062 William J. Connell, the La Motta \u200dChair\u200d in\u200c Italian Studies at Seton Hall \u2062University, Columbus\u2019\u200d unprecedented and consequential achievement makes all the difference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dIt\u2019s a question\u200c of the contact that matters\u201d Connell said in a 2000 interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/10\/08\/nyregion\/in-person-in-defense-of-columbus.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New\u2062 York Times<\/a>. Indeed, Columbus\u2019 \u200carrival in the New World constitutes the moment \u201cwhere we as a country and as a hemisphere began our\u200c identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, \u2063as a\u2062 historical figure Columbus\u200c defied the\u2064 simple leftist caricature of a \u200dgreedy and evil European. He did not set out \u200bto <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/caribbean-nations-seek-formal-apology-33-trillion-slavery-reparations-crime-huge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enslave<\/a> \u200d and exploit natives.<\/p>\n<p>As John Hirschauer observed \u2064in a \u20642019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2019\/10\/columbus-day-a-defense-of-christopher-columbus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Review<\/a> essay, Columbus did have\u200d detractors \u200cin his day.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, Francisco de Bobadilla, Columbus\u2019 \u2062\u201cforemost \u2062political adversary,\u201d compiled what Hirschauer called \u201csalacious and uncorroborated allegations\u201d against \u200cthe\u200c explorer. Today,\u2063 those allegations constitute the \u201ccorpus of the modern revisionist\u2019s attack\u201d\u2063 on Columbus.<\/p>\n<p>The Catholic writer \u200bGerald Korson, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kofc.org\/en\/news-room\/columbia\/2017\/september\/christopher-columbus-fake-history.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted<\/a> that one prominent contemporary\u2062 wrote glowingly of the explorer. Bartolom\u00e9 de las Casas, \u2062perhaps the most\u2064 famous chronicler of Spain\u2019s early experience in the New World, described the \u201csweetness and benignity\u201d of Columbus\u2019 character.<\/p>\n<p>Korson also cited the work of Carol Delaney, former Stanford and \u2064Brown University professor. According to Delaney, Columbus regarded the Indians as \u201cvery intelligent\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-left-is-wrong-about-christopher-columbus\/\" title=\"The Left's Misconceptions on Christopher Columbus\">maintained generally \u201cbenign\u201d relations<\/a> with them.<\/p>\n<p>Delaney\u2019s broader\u2064 defense \u200dof <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/town-perfect-solution-washington-columbus-jefferson-statues-targeted-woke-nyc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Columbus<\/a> involves \u2064a rejection of\u200b the modern tendency to oversimplify his legacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe dominant \u2064picture holds him responsible for \u200ceverything\u200b that went wrong in the New World,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3>The Lies of the Leftist Historical Narrative<\/h3>\n<p>Our \u200csecond reason for defending both Columbus and \u200dhis holiday has to do with the lies we must believe in order to accept the modern leftist historical narrative.<\/p>\n<p>Many people\u200d would replace Columbus Day with something they call \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/elizabeth-warrens-attempt-commemorate-indigenous-peoples-day-didnt-go\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Indigenous \u200cPeoples\u2019 Day<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is sheer patronizing nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>For one\u2062 thing, as Connell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kofc.org\/en\/news-room\/columbia\/2020\/september\/why-the-knights-of-columbus.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explained<\/a> in 2020, \u2062the original Columbus Day \u2014 proclaimed Oct. 12, 1892, by President Benjamin Harrison,\u200c recognized\u2063 \u201cboth Native Americans, who were here before Columbus, and the many immigrants who were then\u200c coming \u200bto\u2063 this country in astounding numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More importantly \u2014 in my view, far \u2062more importantly \u200b\u2014 the so-called \u201cIndigenous Peoples\u201d never viewed \u200bthemselves as \u201cIndigenous Peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That \u200dfact alone carries such significance that without it the \u2062entire history of \u200cthe European <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/years-churches-burned-retaliation-dig-finds-no-human-remains-supposed-site-mass-grave\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">colonization<\/a> era makes no sense.<\/p>\n<p>Hernan Cortes\u200d and his Spanish conquistadors would \u2064never \u2062have\u2062 toppled \u2062the vast and mighty Aztec \u2063Empire in 1521 without decisive\u200d support from weaker tribes whom the Aztecs had treated as vassals and fit subjects for human \u200bsacrifice.<\/p>\n<p>On Good Friday in 1622, Opechancanough, paramount chief of \u2064the Powhatan Confederacy, launched a surprise attack that nearly wiped out English settlements in Virginia. A friendly\u2062 Indian\u200b boy sounded the alarm and saved Jamestown \u200dfrom\u2062 annihilation.<\/p>\n<p>During King Philip\u2019s War of 1675-76, the combined forces of\u2063 the Wampanoags\u200d and Narragansetts inflicted heavy casualties on New England. From the west, the Mohawk came to the aid of the English.<\/p>\n<p>In short, every major colonial conflict, including the French and Indian War (1754-63), involved a mixture of Europeans\u2063 and their Indian allies.<\/p>\n<p>After the\u200b American Revolution, President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/providence-jefferson-adams-died-50th-anniversary-declaration-independence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Jefferson<\/a> called for Indians and\u200b white\u200d Americans to become \u200cpart of the \u200dsame nation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn truth the ultimate point of rest &#038; happiness for \u2063them is to let our settlements and theirs meet and blend \u2064together, to \u2063intermix and become one people, incorporating themselves with \u2064us as citizens of the \u2063US,\u201d Jefferson <a href=\"https:\/\/founders.archives.gov\/documents\/Jefferson\/01-39-02-0456#:~:text=I%20consider%20the%20business%20of,aid%20and%20encourage%20it%20liberally.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> in a \u2063private letter in 1803.<\/p>\n<p>Europeans and Indians\u200b did intermarry. They learned from one another. In many places, they coexisted for decades without conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Indians made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/start-war-recapping-attacks-israel-past-weekend\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">war<\/a> on other Indians just as\u2063 Europeans made war on other Europeans.<\/p>\n<p>One wonders, in fact \u2014 at least, I\u2063 have often wondered \u2014 how the \u2064history of the New World might have \u2064been different were it not for\u2063 the exchange of microbes that\u200b decimated Indian\u2063 populations.<\/p>\n<p>There still would have been war, \u2063exploitation, slavery and all other crimes that occurred in that era.\u2063 But those things \u2062have occurred in \u200bevery era. Contact between Europeans and Indians did not introduce misery into\u200d human experience.<\/p>\n<p>Had \u200cEuropean diseases not produced an Indian biological apocalypse, would anything have changed? Might the sheer size of Indian communities have forced Europeans to engage with their neighbors on terms\u200b of\u2062 mutual interest \u2063or \u200beven to amalgamate as Jefferson hoped?<\/p>\n<p>We need not be pollyannish \u200babout it, of course. Even under the\u200d best of Earthly conditions, Indians \u2062and Europeans eventually would have slaughtered one another as we do now.<\/p>\n<p>Neither, though, should \u2062we indulge in\u200b any \u201cConquest of Paradise\u201d rubbish. Pre-contact Native\u200b America\u200b bore no resemblance to the utopia of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/lgbt-leftists-allege-betrayal-muslim-city-council-pride-flag-ban-stabbing-us-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leftist<\/a> imaginations.<\/p>\n<p>For good and ill,\u200c Columbus brought two \u2062worlds together.<\/p>\n<p>We should acknowledge and commemorate that achievement in both thoughtful \u2064and\u200d truthful ways.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/left-wrong-christopher-columbus\/\">The Left Is \u200dWrong About Christopher Columbus<\/a> appeared\u200b first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> In what \u200cways did Columbus see himself as a &#8220;protector&#8221;\u200c of the natives in the New World?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  Aney\u2064 even \u2062argued that Columbus saw himself as a \u201cprotector\u201d of the natives and believed it\u200d was his duty to spread Christianity and \u200bcivilization to the\u200d New\u2064 World.<\/p>\n<p>This more nuanced view of Columbus contradicts the\u2064 simplistic portrayal of him as a \u2062ruthless oppressor. It shows that \u2063he \u2064was\u200c a complex\u2063 figure who had both admirable\u200c qualities \u2062and\u200d flaws, like any other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donor-family-sues-college-for-stripping-ancestors-name-from-campus-chapel\/\" title=\"Donor family sues college over ancestor's chapel name removal.\">historical \u200bfigure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<li>\n<h3>The Importance of Historical Accuracy<\/h3>\n<p>The \u2063second \u200creason\u200c to defend Columbus and his holiday is the importance of historical accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>The\u200d left&#8217;s narrative of Columbus\u2063 as\u200d a genocidal invader is not\u200c supported by the historical evidence. In fact, as Hirschauer points out, there is no historical consensus on\u2064 the number \u200cof indigenous deaths that can be \u200battributed to Columbus or \u200cthe Spanish\u200b Empire.<\/p>\n<p>Claims that \u200cColumbus personally orchestrated mass killings or \u2062engaged in\u200d genocide are based on biased and exaggerated interpretations\u200b of historical \u2062events.<\/p>\n<p>It \u200bis \u200bimportant\u200c to critically evaluate historical figures and events, but this should be done based \u200don an objective examination of the\u2062 evidence, not on ideological assumptions or political agendas.<\/p>\n<p>Denigrating Columbus based\u2063 on an oversimplified \u2064and distorted\u2062 version of history is not only \u200dintellectually \u200bdishonest but also undermines the pursuit of truth and historical understanding.<\/p>\n<p>History \u200bis a complex and multidimensional discipline. \u200cIt requires a nuanced and contextual analysis of\u2064 events, taking into account different perspectives and interpretations.<\/p>\n<p>By reducing Columbus to \u2064a one-dimensional representation of evil, the\u200c left fails\u200b to \u2064acknowledge the complexities\u200d and contradictions inherent in human history.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, \u2062historical\u200d accuracy \u2063is crucial for a society to\u2062 learn \u200cfrom its past mistakes and progress towards a better future. Misrepresenting\u2063 historical figures and events\u200d only perpetuates\u200b ignorance and \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fetterman-sinks-to-all-time-low-repeats-wild-antics-with-dems-face-taped-to-shirt\/\" title=\"Fetterman hits rock bottom: Repeats outrageous behavior with Dem's face on shirt.\">prevents meaningful dialogue<\/a> and understanding.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In conclusion, the left&#8217;s portrayal\u2064 of Christopher Columbus as a ruthless\u2064 invader and genocidal oppressor is based on a simplistic and \u2062distorted view of history. Columbus&#8217; monumental legacy and \u200cthe importance of \u200dhistorical accuracy compel \u2063us to defend both him and the Columbus Day holiday. History should be approached\u2062 with nuance\u200d and critical thinking, not with ideological bias.\u200c By\u200c engaging in an honest and balanced exploration of \u200dour \u2063past, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves \u2063and work \u2064towards\u200d a more \u200denlightened \u200cfuture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leftist educators have successfully indoctrinated generations of American students with a distorted &#8220;oppressor-oppressed&#8221; version of U.S. history. This oversimplified narrative diminishes Christopher Columbus, portraying him as a mere invader, exploiter, and catalyst for genocide. The significance of Columbus Day should be reconsidered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2056,"featured_media":2098265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2061270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2061270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2061270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2098265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2061270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2061270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2061270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}