REWRITING HISTORY
CHRISTOPHER Columbus statues have been toppled around the country as America continues to reckon with racial inequality.
After activists beheaded a statue of in Boston, Mayor Marty Walsh said on Wednesday the city will temporarily remove the monument and reassess its "historic meaning."
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Here's why there's been a nationwide push to get rid of statues dedicated to him and other symbols critics are calling racist.
Who is Christopher Columbus and what did he do?
Columbus was an Italian explorer who set out to find a direct ocean route from Europe to Asia.
The young navigator convinced Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile to support his journey of discovery, and in 1492 he and his crew set sail with three ships.
He is best known for kicking off the European exploration in the Americas, which led to an increase in the trade of food and other resources around the world.
Although he's remembered as a ground-breaking explorer, critics say his actions led to the transatlantic slave trade and the mass killing and exploitation of indigenous people.
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Why are statues of Christopher Columbus being removed?
The removal of Columbus statues is part of a growing movement to get rid of monuments deemed racist such as those dedicated to and symbols such as the .
NASCAR said on Wednesday it would after saying last week it "has to do better" in confronting racial inequality.
Activists around the country argue that Columbus represents genocide and slavery, and many point to his violent treatment toward Native Americans.
Hours after in , protesters in .
A Columbus statue was also toppled outside the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, reported.
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Who first discovered America?
Although Columbus is widely credited with discovering America, historians say Viking explorer Leif Eriksson was the one who led the first European expedition to the what would become the USA.
The Norse explorer reached the New World nearly 500 years before Columbus, around AD 1000.
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Who was America named after and why?
America got its name from Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci, who set sail to the New World from Portugal in 1501 and traveled along the South American coast.
In 1507, amateur cartographer Martin Waldseemüller was working with other scholars on what would be the first world map in history, according to the .
Waldseemüller proposed that an area of Brazil explored by Vespucci be named "America", a feminized version of Vespucci's first name, and it stuck.
In 1538, mapmaker Gerardus Mercator applied the name "America" to both of the New World's northern and southern landmasses, and the continents have been known as such ever since, according to
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What was America before 1492?
Before Columbus reached the New World, America was inhabited by Meso Americans.
Most of Central America, Mexico, and the southwestern US comprised the area now known as Meso America.
Meso American people had many aspects of shared culture, including pictographs and hieroglyphic writings, architecture, cloth weaving, and a diet of corn, beans, squash and chillies.
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