This is  part 2 of a 4 part series on Oped News  on the 'Columbus Discovered America' myth. Part one dealt with the nature of the world and people Columbus intruded on, debunking the Eurocentric myth that Columbus "discovered" a land that was barely populated, undeveloped, and an untamed wilderness despite millions of people already living there for thousands of years.

Part 2 here debunks the Columbus-as-hero myth by examining how his genocidal attacks on the indigenous populations of the Caribbean led to the opening of the African slave trade, which is covered in part 3 and how and why all this has been justified over the centuries. Part 4 focuses on the indigenous populations of what came to be the United States and attempts to assess how the European conquest of the Americas can be judged.