Anyone who's ever studied Latin or done a couple of crossword puzzles knows that Caesar even bragged about it. So instead of praising Columbus for his discovery, or damning him for his conquest, it might be more appropriate simply to recognize him as history's most aggressive tourist. The wave of aggressive European tourists that followed Columbus is often criticized for having brought war and pestilence to the primeval bliss of the Americas. This is unfair. War and pestilence already existed throughout the New World, but her peoples had not yet become sophisticated enough to commercialize them.
Human history is just the side-effect of our gradually improving ability to kill one another.
Aggressive European tourists helped the budding civilizations of the New World acquire in decades what it had taken Western Civilization centuries to develop on its own. Many readers have expressed concern about the stock market's performance in the month of October. They wonder if these might be cautionary precedents. I have done some research on this matter. It is true that the market crashed in October 1929 and again in October 1987.