There is a lot of controversy about the matter. I personally do not care either way. I think the exploration he and others carried out, like Magellan, who was Portuguese but was financed by the Spanish crown as well, was a consequence of how brave the people that populated the Iberian peninsula at the time.
You need to have into account that the same year that Columbus left for America, the last bastion of the Moors (Muslims) in Spain was conquered, after a war that lasted for more than 700 years. It was a very chivalrous war, though. Combat only happened from Monday to Thursday, as the sacred days of the other religions that inhabited the area at the time were respected.
Also, despite all the terrible myths that spread for many years (we Spaniards call it the Black Legend or "Leyenda Negra"), the "colonisation" of America was carried out in way very respectful way to the indigenous people. Right after America was discovered, the expansion was halted until the Catholic church decided that the indigenous were actually humans and that the first priority should be to evangelize them. The Crown then decided to grant them all the Castilian citizenship.
This respectful approach explains why the latin-american countries have mostly kept their local idiosyncrasies while adopting the Spanish culture, does it not? Also, latin american countries, as Spain BTW, are one of the most mixed-blood places in the world. We Spaniards are not very prejudicial people. We have Celtic, Greek, Phoenician, Roman, Moor, Jew and Germanic ancestry and we do not care about mixing a bit more.
The Black Legend it the oldest conspiracy I know and it was mostly motivated by political interests, as was the the appearance of Protestantism. But that is a story for another day...
There is a lot of controversy about the matter. I personally do not care either way. I think the exploration he and others carried out, like Magellan, who was Portuguese but was financed by the Spanish crown as well, was a consequence of how brave the people that populated the Iberian peninsula at the time.
You need to have into account that the same year that Columbus left for America, the last bastion of the Moors (Muslims) in Spain was conquered, after a war that lasted for more than 700 years. It was a very chivalrous war, though. Combat only happened from Monday to Thursday, as the sacred days of the other religions that inhabited the area at the time were respected.
Also, despite all the terrible myths that spread for many years (we Spaniards call it the Black Legend or "Leyenda Negra"), the "colonisation" of America was carried out in way very respectful way to the indigenous people. Right after America was discovered, the expansion was halted until the Catholic church decided that the indigenous were actually humans and that the first priority should be to evangelize them. The Crown then decided to grant them all the Castilian citizenship.
This respectful approach explains why the latin-american countries have mostly kept their local idiosyncrasies while adopting the Spanish culture, does it not? Also, latin american countries, as Spain BTW, are one of the most mixed-blood places in the world. We Spaniards are not very prejudicial people. We have Celtic, Greek, Phoenician, Roman, Moor, Jew and Germanic ancestry and we do not care about mixing a bit more.
The Black Legend it the oldest conspiracy I know and it was mostly motivated by political interests, as was the the appearance of Protestantism. But that is a story for another day...