Without Columbus, the European exploration of the Americas may have been delayed for many years.
Columbus deserves his place in history, for while there were others after him who committed unjust acts and atrocities, he helped reunited humanity after melting glaciers submerged the land bridge connecting Asia and the Americas thousands of years before.
Reunification, after more than 10 millennia of separation, was arguably the single most transformative event in history of mankind.
And the world was never the same.