2-991-212 - Heritage Imagined/Heritage Images

AI IMAGE - Portrait of Christopher Columbus, 1490s, (2023). Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer, navigator and colonist who was sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. His voyages to the 'New World' led to the European colonisation and exploitation of the Americas. The settlers killed huge numbers of Amerindians in conflicts, and by spreading disease, which reduced the indigenous population by 90% in the century following Columbus's initial journey to the Americas and Caribbean in 1492. Long claimed as the 'Discoverer of America', it is now recognised that it's not possibly to 'discover' territory that is already inhabited.