You're mistaken, Columbus took part in all those atrocities. But it doesn't mean he shouldn't be remembered for his accomplishment, he was the first in his culture to succeed in crossing the Atlantic ocean. Of course, the world was much larger than his calculations, and he only ended up discovering America by accident - but think of the amazing discovery that there was an entire half of the world that Europeans at the time were unaware of. That's more astonishing than finding life on another planet. The Spanish at the time were conquistadors, their main goal was to conquer - something that whites today seem to be embarrassed by.