why do we americans observe Columbus Day? He didn't discover America?

Answer 1

Good question.
Columbus wasn't the first. He landed in the Western Hemisphere after the Vikings, Chinese, an Irish Monk, a Welshman, the Polynesians, the Olmec culture and the Native Americans.
So! Why dose he get the credit?
The main reason was that Johannes Gutenberg had invented the printing press about fifty years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In other words he got better coverage.
His sailing westward to prove that the world was round. And if you sailed west, you could find the riches of the Orient.
The word was out. Maps were rewritten.
Other European countries sailed west to the Americas.
History in the Americas depict Columbus as a heroic conqueror who bravely sailed into the unknown and discovered the New World.
In Spain he would be proclaimed a hero and given Royal Title of "Admiral of the Ocean Sea". That's what they called the Atlantic.
Then he was chastised as a swindler and thrown in prison where he died, not knowing he had not been to Japan.
Columbus discovered America over 500 years ago and it has been less than one hundred years that others have proven that the Vikings and the Irish Monk and all the others came before him.
So for four hundred we were told Columbus was first. And we carry on the tradition by celebrating Columbus Day on Oct 12th.
The down side is that the day he set foot on Hispaniola, it was the end of virtually all Native American Cultures in the Westren Hemisphere.

Answer 2

Scores of Italian Americans in the US celebrated this day, and this helped convince others to make it a national holiday.
The Italian Columbus, working for Spain, "discovered" America for the Europeans, because Europe was ignorant of its presence (the Vikings had likely landed in America earlier, but they kept their find secret--therefore, they did not, for Europe at least, "dis-cover" anything, they kept it covered). The Spanish, then the French, then the English, Germans, and other Europeans came and took it over, making way for present-day America. Columbus Day is definitely a holiday that looks more at the European origins of America and not the Native American origins.
Although virtually all educated people in Europe had known the Earth was spherical since ancient Greek times, Columbus proved the Earth was considerably larger than had previously been thought.

Answer 3

But he DID discover America. Maybe he wasn't the first one to find it, but he was the first one to go back and tell people what he found. That is what makes a discovery. The Vikings didn't discover it, because they didn't spread word of their find, leaving it to be found anew. The Natives didn't discover it, because they simply moved in, they didn't spread the word either.

Why do so many people seem to have trouble with this distinction?

Besides, it doesn't matter that others had found it first, as far a Columbus and his people were concerned, it did not exist, so he was still sailing into the unknown. An impressive discovery either way.

Answer 4

Correct ! That's why it is celebrated

To Gammy:
So sorry, but Columbus did not discover the USA. Those were the Cabot brothers in 1497. According to that, people of the usa should be called cabotians

Answer 5

YES, he did discover América: a whole NEW CONTINENT for the Europeans in 1492 (though it was already inhabited).
The truth is that Europe invented the book, so they started to write the History themselves, and Native Americans weren't that advanced in that way (though they created such wonderful things like the Mayan Temples, similar to the Pyramids in Egypt). Years later, the name for this CONTINENT came from Américo Vespuccio.
So, no matter who put his foot first on this continent (China, Italy, Spain, etc), for the "civilized" world (Europe), this was a REAL discovery. And ,by the way, AMÉRICA is NOT a country, it is a CONTINENT (U.S.A. is a country with a confusing name for the rest of the world, except for you, I guess).

Answer 6

Columbus may not have been the one that actually found the USA...however he did arrive here and stated the claim
"look at what I found"
he sat out to prove that the Earth was round....and he needed a shorter route to his destination. He found the USA by accident.
We celebrate him in honor of all the great things that he did.

Answer 7

I guess for the same reason we observe St. Patrick's Day--when Patrick is no longer a saint.

Columbus is to the Italians what Patrick is to the Irish. Though this land was already inhabited, and Natives lived here...it's tradition.

Answer 8

its their way of celebrating the invasion, theft of resources, and genocide of the natives. All things americans love.