Opinion Discovery of the “New World”. Who was Columbus and what did he really achieve? – Part 2 Barbados Today28/10/20230902 views By Alessandro Giustolisi The Pizzigano map, dated 1421, contains islands in the North Atlantic Ocean in the west of Spain and Portugal including Portuguese discoveries and legendary islands such as Antillia. Detail of north Atlantic islands in the 1421 map of Pizzigano which depicts Antilia (large red rectangle). The Cantino planisphere, completed in 1502, depicts the world as it became known to the Europeans after the great exploration voyages to the Americas, Africa and India. This 1542 map shows the world with a clear coast of Australia that was officially only discovered after 1700. A statue of Christopher Columbus in Cuba, Portugal. Alessandro Giustolisi is a former travel industry executive and the owner and operator of Antillean Atlantic. Editor’s Note: The so-called “discovery” of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492, a pivotal event in world history with far-reaching implications, should be viewed in its proper historical context. The lands Columbus encountered in the Caribbean had already been inhabited by diverse indigenous civilisations for millennia. Further contact, and later subjugation of indigenous peoples through European colonisation in North, Central and South America, revealed civilisations of remarkable diversity and complexity from hunter-gatherer groups to complex cities. Historians generally accept that “Os Barbados” was so named by the Portuguese Pedro Campos on a voyage to Brazil in 1536. The process of DNA verification of Christopher Columbus which began in 2003 with confirmation of the explorer’s remains and his relatives is ongoing, depending on advances in forensic science, and is not yet complete. DNA scientists have said they expect to reach irrefutable conclusions this year when Columbus’ established biography as either Genovese or elsewhere in southern Europe will either be confirmed or debunked.