By Team Zeteo
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
“The original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.”
That’s how the White House lauded none other than Christopher Columbus in Donald Trump’s official proclamation last year to rename the second Monday in October ‘Columbus Day.’
The holiday has become one of Trump’s obsessions on his anti-woke warpath, as he declared last year that he would bring it “back from the ashes.” It’s a direct attack on efforts to rename it “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” in recognition of the natives who suffered at the hands of colonists’ violence.
But while Trump attempts to sanitize the person behind this day, there is no running away from the horrible record Columbus holds. Facts, after all, don’t care about your feelings, right?
So here’s a list of seven shocking things you may not know about Christopher Columbus:
1. Columbus didn’t actually discover anything new
Surprise!
While history textbooks often credit Columbus as the first European to reach or ‘discover’ the Americas, the truth is that it was actually ‘discovered’ by Europeans about 500 years before Columbus even set sail. And that’s even if we entertain the idea that nothing existed until a European ‘discovered’ it.
Around 1,000 CE, Viking explorer Leif Erikson was blown off course en route to Greenland, instead arriving in North America. There, he established a settlement called “Vinland,” which is now recognized as Newfoundland, Canada.
But what about the United States? Well, Columbus never actually set foot on North American soil, with Oct. 12 instead marking the day Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas.
So much fuss for a guy who didn’t actually ‘discover’ North America.
2. Columbus set the transatlantic slave trade into motion
But look, we give credit where credit is due. And Columbus should be credited with helping initiate… the transatlantic slave trade!
On his first day in the Americas, Columbus ordered six natives to be enslaved as his servants. He would later enslave many others who were forced to search for gold or work on plantations.
As he prepared to return to Spain from his second trip in 1495, Columbus rounded up over 1,500 Taínos and brought 550 of the “best males and females” aboard the ship in hopes of selling them when he arrived.
Only 300 ended up surviving the journey.
3. Columbus is responsible for the genocide of the Indigenous people
When slavery did not pay off – largely due to the resistance by the Spanish Crown – Columbus turned to a tribute system, forcing every Taíno who was 14 or older to fill a hawk’s bell with gold every three months. If they couldn’t, Columbus ordered that they be punished by having their hands chopped off or chasing them with attack dogs.
In response to the inhumane treatment, the native people organized a mass resistance. Columbus ramped up the violence, ordering mass killings and parading their dismembered bodies through the streets. It was so bad that many of them committed mass suicide to avoid being captured.
A whopping 60 years after Columbus’s arrival, the Taíno population was left largely decimated. Of the estimated 250,000 original inhabitants on Hispaniola, only a few hundred remained.
4. He engaged in and encouraged sexual abuse against Indigenous women
Here’s an excerpt from Italian nobleman Michele de Cuneo’s journal, which speaks to the vile treatment of women under Columbus’s rule:
“While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful woman, whom the Lord Admiral [Columbus] gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked – as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling…, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears…”
But Columbus didn’t just encourage rape; he became a major force behind sex trafficking in the Western world. In one of his journals, Columbus himself writes, “A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.”
Yes, you read that right. Columbus was selling girls as young as 9 years old into sex slavery.
5. He introduced a host of new diseases that wiped out Indigenous communities
We can also thank Columbus for transferring smallpox, measles, malaria, bubonic plague, along with a whole host of other diseases, to the Americas.
Prior to his arrival, it is well-documented that Indigenous people lived in a “relatively disease-free environment.” But that was quickly put to an end when Columbus brought over new people, plants, and domesticated animals that created the perfect breeding ground for diseases, which the Indigenous population had no immunity to whatsoever.
And while the exact numbers of deaths from exposure to these diseases are uncertain, one estimate found that a “typical society” lost roughly 90% of its population.
6. It wasn’t just the ‘natives’ who hated him
Karma caught up to Columbus because, soon enough, he was hated by not just the natives, but his own friends, too.
Upon becoming governor of Santo Domingo in 1496, he struggled to gain the trust of his fellow colonists. His governance was an utter disaster, failing to make social progress and provide economic gains for the Spanish.
Fellow settler Friar Bartolomé de las Casas argued that his management of Hispaniola went way too far: “I saw here cruelty on a scale no living being has ever seen or expects to see.”
7. He was even arrested by the Spanish government
Several reports of Columbus’s tyranny and sheer brutality were made to Spain’s king and queen. And after an investigation, he was arrested and sent back to Spain.
Columbus was eventually freed, but lost his titles, the governorship of Hispaniola, and a share in profits. It was a move many critics view as nothing more than a slap on the wrist, as the Spanish Crown still decided to fund his next expedition.
It’s a classic example of failing upward. And perhaps that’s why resurrecting Columbus Day is the latest pit-stop on Trump’s mission to sanitize and rewrite history.
Should we be surprised that the US president has a soft spot for an incompetent and racist leader who engaged in war crimes and sexual abuse?
Melanie Riehl and Akshay Gokul contributed to this piece.
Editor’s note: This piece was originally published in 2025.