A Difficult Legacy: Christopher Columbus in the Perspective of Polish and Italian Science and Education in the 21st Century

Abstract

Actually, Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the New World and the godfather of American Indians (Native Americans), never set foot on the territory of the contemporary United States. However, since 1937, Americans have been celebrating the federal holiday named Columbus Day. From the 1960s, commemoration of October 12 has been subject to gradually increasing criticism by ancestors of Native Americans. On the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the New World the counterproposal was presented to commemorate this day as the Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In the 21st century, Columbus has become for many the symbol of extermination performed by white colonizers in the New World during the Age of Discovery. His monuments were stained with red paint as a symbol of blood shed by colonizers. According to some opinion poll from 2017, the US society is divided almost in half on which of these two holidays should be commemorated. The purpose of this paper is to present the changes regarding the image of Columbus and the history of colonialism by comparing scientific and educational perspectives in Italy and Poland in the 21st century.