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Many people in the United States
and Latin America
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have grown up celebrating the anniversary
of Christopher Columbus's voyage,
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but was he an intrepid explorer
who brought two worlds together,
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or a ruthless exploiter who brought
colonialism and slavery?
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And did he even discover America at all?
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It's time to put Columbus on the stand
in "History vs. Christopher Columbus."
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Order, order in the court.
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Wait, am I even supposed to
be at work today?
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Cough
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Yes, your honor.
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From 1792, Columbus Day was celebrated
in many parts of the United States
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on October 12th,
the actual anniversary date.
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But although it was declared
an official holiday in 1934,
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individual states aren't required
to observe it.
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Only 23 states close public services,
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and more states are moving away
from it completely.
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Cough
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What a pity.
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In the 70s, we even moved it to the
second Monday in October
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so people could get a nice
three-day weekend,
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but I guess you folks
just hate celebrations.
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Uh, what are we celebrating again?
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Come on, Your Honor,
we all learned it in school.
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Christopher Columbus convinced the King
of Spain to send him on a mission
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to find a better trade route to India,
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not by going east over land,
but sailing west around the globe.
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Everyone said it was crazy because they
still thought the world was flat,
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but he knew better.
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And when in 1492 he
sailed the ocean blue,
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he found something better
than India:
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a whole new continent.
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What rubbish.
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First of all, educated people knew
the world was round since Aristotle.
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Secondly, Columbus didn't
discover anything.
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There were already people living here
for millennia.
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And he wasn't even
the first European to visit.
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The Norse had settled Newfoundland
almost 500 years before.
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You don't say, so how come we're not
all wearing those cow helmets?
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Actually, they didn't really
wear those either.
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Cough
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Who cares what some Vikings did
way back when?
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Those settlements didn't last,
but Columbus's did.
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And the news he brought back to Europe
spread far and wide,
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inspiring all the explorers and settlers
who came after.
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Without him, none of us
would be here today.
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And because of him, millions of
Native Americans aren't here today.
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Do you know what Columbus did
in the colonies he founded?
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He took the very first
natives he met prisoner,
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and wrote in his journal about how easily
he could conquer and enslave all of them.
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Oh, come on. Everyone was fighting each
other back then.
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Didn't the natives even tell Columbus
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about other tribes raiding
and taking captives?
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Yes, but tribal warfare
was sporadic and limited.
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It certainly didn't wipe out 90%
of the population.
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Hmm. Why is celebrating this Columbus
so important to you, anyway?
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Your Honor, Columbus's voyage
was an inspiration
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to struggling people all across Europe,
symbolizing freedom and new beginnings.
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And his discovery gave our grandparents
and great-grandparents
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the chance to come here and build better
lives for their children.
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Don't we deserve a hero to remind
everyone that our country
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was build on the struggles of immigrants?
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And what about the struggles
of Native Americans
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who were nearly wiped out
and forced into reservations,
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and whose descendants still suffer from
poverty and discrimination?
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How can you make a hero out of a man
who caused so much suffering?
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That's history. You can't judge a guy
in the 15th Century by modern standards.
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People back then even thought spreading
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Christianity and civilization
across the world was a moral duty.
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Actually, he was pretty bad,
even by old standards.
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While governing Hispaniola, he tortured
and mutilated
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natives who didn't bring him enough gold,
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and sold girls as young as nine into
sexual slavery,
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and he was brutal even to the other
colonists he ruled,
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to the point that he was removed
from power and thrown in jail.
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When the missionary,
Bartolomé de las Casas,
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visited the island, he wrote,
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"From 1494 to 1508,
over 3,000,000 people had perished
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from war, slavery and the mines. Who in
future generations will believe this?"
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Well, I'm not sure I believe
those numbers.
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Say, aren't there other ways the holiday
is celebrated?
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In some Latin American countries,
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the celebrate the same date under
different names, such as Día de la Raza.
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In these places, it's more a celebration
of the native and mixed cultures
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that survived through the colonial period.
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Some places in the U.S. have also
renamed the holiday,
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as Native American Day,
or Indigenous People's Day,
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and changed the celebrations accordingly.
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So, why not just change the name
if it's such a problem?
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Because it's tradition.
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Ordinary people need their heroes
and their founding myths.
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Can't we just keep celebrating
the way we've been doing for a century,
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without having to delve into all this
serious research?
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It's not like anyone is actually
celebrating genocide.
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Traditions change, and the way
we choose to keep them alive
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says a lot about our values.
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Well, it looks like giving tired judges a
day off isn't one of those values, anyway.
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Traditions and holidays
are important to all cultures,
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but a hero in one era
may become a villain in the next
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as our historical knowledge expands
and our values evolve.
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And deciding what these
traditions should mean today
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is a major part
of putting history on trial.