By not viewing it in a purely euro-centric way is not disparaging to Columbus in my view. There is little doubt to the significance of Columbus. Indeed, historians view the modern world era as essentially begining with his discoveries. The brutal excesses of the conquistadors who followed him have been lamented by history, but as JEKing points out the brutality of at least some of the indigenous indian societies to each other was in some cases worse than those spanish excesses. What Pizarro did to the Incas was criminal. But Cortez thought he walked into hell when he saw the horrors of the Aztec religion. Indeed, to paraphrase William H. Prescott, who would ever regret the end of that monstrous civilization?