Not the most enlightened human but an outstanding navigator, Columbus (a.k.a. Cristobal Colon) made four voyages to this region. Initially rebuffed by Portugal (oops!), Italy's Columbus explored the Caribbean and Central & South American coastline, claiming it all for Spain. Here, he found the soon-to-be-doomed 'Indians' wearing large amounts of gold.In the early 1500s, the conquistadors followed: looting, destroying and colonizing the region. This ugly bunch of Spaniards were mostly young, illiterate criminals, searching for get-rich schemes. They formed independent factions, occasionally fighting each other. One of the meanest, Pedro de Alvarado, burnt indigenous captives alive or fed them to the dogs, shocking even Hernan Cortes, himself no nice guy.
Columbus remains a controversial figure but his name is absolutely everywhere: Columbus, OH, GA, IN, MS & WI; Columbia, SC, MD & MO; Washington D.C. (District of Columbia); Columbia Univ.; the country of Colombia; the city of Colon, Panama; Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. Even British Columbia was named by Queen Victoria after the Columbia River, which was named after a ship, which was named after Columbus. Too bad, really.
