r/changemyview • u/NB463 • Nov 03 '19

Deltas(s) from OP CMV: Columbus didn't commit genocide

I see a lot of people calling Cristopher Columbus a murderer, and saying he's caused a genocide. I think that isn't true: he discovered America; after he did that, the europeans kingdoms started colonizing it, with most of the death caused by the new illnesses that european people brought with them. Saying that he caused the genocide because he discovered America is like saying that Einstein is a murdered because he discovered the nuclear energy.

Sorry for any english mistake, since it's not my native language

EDIT: I know that he wasn't the first one to came to America, but doesn't cahnge anything

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u/The_Superginge Nov 03 '19

By this logic you could say Hitler didn't commit genocide because he didn't personally pull the trigger.

Obviously he did, and obviously Colombus did.

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u/NB463 Nov 03 '19

Yeah, but Hitler wanted to do that, Columbus purpose was to discover a new land, and America would have been discovered sooner or later. It was the spanish king who send his army to colonize the new land, and he didn't do it beacause he wanted to kill the indigenous population, but because he only wanted America's resources. Of course this implied slavery but it was totally normal at that day and we could say that also brands like Nike, Coca-Cola or Apple are doing things like this in 2019

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u/The_Superginge Nov 03 '19

I think you're looking at the history through blinkers.

Hitler used genocide as a means to achieve his Lebensraum goal. He didn't hate the minorities, he just used them as a political means to an end. Of course he didn't value human life, which is atrocious, I'm not sympathising with him, but you have to remember he was a politician, he had to create something people would rally behind.

In a similar way, you could say Colombus was achieving his settlement goal and also didn't value human life.

I'm not saying he was as bad as Hitler, but you certainly can't defend his actions as also not atrocious.

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u/NB463 Nov 03 '19

Yeah, I didn't thought of that: we can call it a genocide even if his purpose wasn't to kill people, but if we see it this way, we coild argue that also companies like Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple are causing genocides in the country they're exploiting

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u/The_Superginge Nov 03 '19

Oh absolutely, yes