The memory of Christopher Columbus has suffered in recent times. In central Mexico City, a statue of the seafarer was removed after protests in 2020. In June 2021, protesters beheaded a likeness of him in Boston. And in Bolivia’s capital La Paz in the same year, unknown persons cut off the nose of a statue of Columbus and hung a rope around its neck. The “discoverer” of America was no longer well received in many places.
Christopher Columbus himself did not want to be an explorer, at least not in this sense. As is well known, when he set sail on August 3, 1492, 531 years ago today, he was not looking for a continent, but for an alternative sea route to Asia.
The day rearview mirror
This column, usually on anniversaries in the fields of science, technology, nature and medicine, appears every weekday in the Science section, also in the printed newspaper.
Even then, it was considered unlikely that one would only have to sail west for a few weeks to get back to the Far East. But Columbus relied on the calculations of the Persian geographer Al-Farghani, who centuries earlier – as we now know – had actually estimated the circumference of the earth very precisely. However, because Columbus confused the Arabian miles used by Al-Farghani with the much shorter Roman miles, the voyage seemed feasible to him.
Explorer with sword – depiction from the 19th century. © imago images/Collection Kharbine Tapabor
The continent, which happened to be waiting halfway, saved the lives of Columbus and his crew. For the Spanish crown, on whose behalf Columbus sailed, the subsequent colonization was both a curse and a blessing.
The gold and silver transports from America filled the treasury. Because the Spanish exchange rate was linked directly to the amount of gold, the gold glut also led to inflation, rising prices and comparatively cheap imports. This in turn weakened domestic industry – a phenomenon that economics today calls the “Dutch disease”.
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For the inhabitants of the so-called New World, the discovery meant a catastrophe. Alone in the following century fell loudly a study 55 million people fell victim to the war, disease and barely disguised slave labor that the European conquerors brought with them.
Christopher Columbus not only approved of this, but was also responsible for massacres and abducted people. Do you want to honor such a man? For quite a few people today the answer is: no.
Read all the episodes of the “Tagesrückspiegel” column that have been published so far here.
2023-08-03 07:59:43
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