Columbus and the New World

Today is the 519th anniversary of Columbus (or a crew member on one of his three sailing vessels) sighting the New World--initially the Bahamas, but that led to the discovery of two previously unknown continents, and it heralded the rise of European dominance in the world economy, which was uncontested until WWII. Almost 500 years, which is quite a good run. So I don't get why America celebrates Columbus Day--it really should be those that benefited.
Sure, Leif Erikson and the Vikings stumbles upon North America while out looking for places to ransack (which in Icelandic is translated as 'investigate'. Not a gentle people, those Vikings). His wife, Thorgunna, was probably the first European to give birth in the New World. But the real change came with the newly made ships of the late 15th century. While uncompetitive with the earlier Chinese ocean going vessels, the ability of Europeans to more or less accurately navigate the oceans changed their countires quickly and dramatically. It wasn't the settlements of Virginia and New England that turned the tide--they came much later, and had little impact on anyone but those of us who are related to those settlers, and American Revolution history buffs. What changed the world was the discovery of unprecedented amounts of silver, some in Mexico, but the mother lode came from Potosi, in the mountains of what is now Bolivia. I have not been there for 25 years, but when I was there the inhabitants say that enough silver left Potosi to build a bridge from the Andes to Spain--which is believable, because silver changed the rules of trade world-wide. It became the world currency, and propelled Spain onto a world stage.
Silver was not humanely mined--in fact, nothing about the Spanish invasion was all that kind. They came as invaders, not as settlers. They enslaved the native population, impregnated the women, and killed off 90% of them with diseases they had no immunity to--the later was bound to happen, no matter what--the isolation of North and South America was not going to last, and the herd immunity that the Europeans had was hard earned--at least half of Europeans died when the Monguls brought new diseases their way. But the former two were choices. choices made easier when most of your opponents are ill, dead, or grieving those who have died.
So maybe it isn't exactly the stuff that celebrations are made of--but it was a discovery that changed the economy of Europe. If we go about judging the behavior of Columbus and those who followed him in the light of the 21st century, harsh conclusions are appropriate, but he was a 15th century man and the truth is, he was no different than his peers. Except that he changed the world forever.