He is far from distinguished in that endeavor. What makes him relevant to history is the part where he found people to brutalize, way the fuck elsewhere.

The Mongols just saw some towns out across the grasslands and said "I'll have that." Ad nauseum.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Technically, he didn't even find them first. Not only did Christopher Columbus never step foot on the NA continent, but Norsemen such as Leif Erikson were there before him centuries earlier. John Cabot made a much larger contribution to that.

[–] mindbleach 5 points 6 months ago

Historical nitpicks and footnootes. The unambiguous inflection point for all of Europe going "holy shit, new lands" was that Italian schmuck and his three boats.

Leif and company went "hey look, more Greenland" and barely amounted to Discovery channel dramatization. The century after Columbus's return transformed three continents.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I was about to chime in with an "Ackshually!", but yeah.. fair enough, all of your statements are true. I just want to point out that he also kidnapped a lot of the ones that weren't murdered.

I will, however, concede that he was a very good navigator, and that's the only positive thing I will say about him.