Columbus's brutality would have been replicated by any other Spanish/Portuguese conquistador of the 15th century.
Which hardly absolves him of it, it's much like saying if Hitler never came to power some other genocidal maniac probably would've, even if true (yes more of a stretch than this claim but the point is clear) it doesn't absolve Hitler of his crimes.
Nor does it make him any less of an idiot who was completely wrong about his beliefs about the globe while the people who shot his plan down were entirely correct. So yeah a HP and an idiot.
This is an area where South Dakota gets it right, Columbus Day there instead is "Native American Day".
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