I think it takes a certain amount of bravery to sail an unchartered ocean even if it was motivated by greed and ego. They are not incompatible qualities.
I don’t think Columbus deserves the whipping boy status some like to give him. If he hadn’t discovered America, somebody else would and the result would have been EXACTLY the same.
And much of the result was the largest UNINTENTIONAL genocide in history.
Smallpox, measles, etc.
Though the Indians did have the minor revenge of introducing syphilis to the Europeans.
Much of the Native American population of North America had already been wiped out by smallpox introduced by the Spanish in 1500’s. By the time the English and French arrived in the United States and Canada, many Native American populations were already greatly reduced.
The pre-Columbian Native American population exceeded that of Europe. Fully 95% of that population was gone by 1700.
Then add the fact that Native American populations existed essentially at the Bronze Age level and their doom was sealed.
And even if it hadn’t come from the west, it would likely have come from the east eventually.
Even if Indians had developed weapons tactics similar to those of Europe, they were doomed by disease.
Can’t blame Columbus for something he could not possibly have known about.
I basically agree that we shouldnt blame the ills of what befell indigenous people onto Columbus- but man Columbus was one crappy dude…oversaw rape, torture, mass murder, enslaveement, child sex traficking, various other atrocities etc… I mean he wasn’t just bad by our standards- the Spanish themselves hated Columbus as a tyrant.