"Radio Voice Italia: Christopher Columbus University" is an online podcast narrated by Robert Petrone, Esq., a civil rights author and attorney, and local Philadelphia expert on Christopher Columbus. Below are bullet points to one of his episodes. If you want to hear more on the topic please click on the Episode ## link provided to listen to his podcast.
The following notes are from Episode 40
Columbus detractors love to say that Columbus didn't discover anything and that he stole native land and cheated the Indians in trade. These are lies.
Columbus never claimed to be the first one to arrive in the New World. In his writings he openly spoke of the tribal peoples he encountered already living there. It was his contemporaries, including De las Casas, that described his achievement as a discovery. And from a European/Asia/African perspective, they were right; Columbus DID discover new lands because none of the old world civilizations knew those lands existed before Columbus. No Old World map had those lands depicted or marked.
He brought the Americas to light to the rest of the world.
The real cheaters are the ones who try to diminish Columbus' accomplishments by corrupting the meaning and definition of discovery.
All civilizations both in the old world and the new world took part in colonization. Even the Native Americans were not indigenous to the Americas. They crossed the land bridge from Asia to colonize the Americas during the Ice Age.
Archaeological sites in Clovis New Mexico revealed there were indigenous people living in the Americas 11-12,000 years ago long before the colonists (who later called themselves the Taino, Cherokee, Aztecs, Iroquois, Soux, etc..) ever got there.
Constant tribal warfare existed in the Americas before Columbus arrived.
Mark OneWolf of the Native American Guardians Association notes his tribal people's original name was Chiricahua. A rival tribe called them "Apache" (meaning "enemy") and that's the name that took among European settlers.
Columbus was not interested in displacing existing tribal peoples. He worked with the Tainos to find an unoccupied patch of land for his men to create his first settlement, La Navidad.
Columbus went around on his voyages giving gifts to the natives and always instructed his men to trade fairly with the Indians.
Several quotes from Columbus' diary are mentioned in the podcast to show Columbus did not want the Spaniards to take advantage of the natives who wanted to trade with them.
The hidalgos constantly revolted against Columbus because he wouldn't let them cheat, mistreat or enslave the tribal people.
Columbus ultimately fathered what we call the "Colombian Exchange" where Europeans brought to the tribal people things like citrus, grapes, peaches, honey bees, cattle, horses, etc.. and the rest of the world received pineapples, avocados, sweat potatoes, tomatoes, and more.
The Colombian Exchange initiated more than 500 years of cultural, economic, and political relations between the Old and New World. An exchange that exists to this day.
[In conclusion the lies that Columbus detractors spread about his stealing land and swindling the natives have no merit. These cheaters want to diminish his accomplishments and discovery by saying he deserves no recognition because there were people already here, or because a viking already landed in New Newfoundland. But it's not about who landed in the Americas first. It's who's landing made the biggest contribution to history. Columbus' discover united the world and he wins, hands down, every time! That's ONE of the reasons we celebrate Columbus Day!]