Columbus is honored today NOT because he "Discovered America" ~ the Western Hemisphere...
But rather because of what came next.... which was the wide scale colonization of the "New World" by the major European powers...and for the first time the accurate mapping of the world.
Alas, the "Indians" where not from India...! There were two huge continents between Europe and Asia...which were totally unknown...The "New World."
Likely others from Europe and elsewhere got here first..accidentally and by pure chance...the Chinese for example may have been to California...the Vikings are well documented in parts of Canada...
But Columbus came here by designed...and after his "discovery" nothing was ever the same again...
So there is more to it than just bringing Smallpox to the native Americans...
