Christopher Columbus
Technically, Christopher Columbus did not discover the Caribbean because indigenous people had lived in the Caribbean islands before his arrival. Dozens of indigenous communities lived in the Carribean islands where they invaded by the Europeans. In fact, artifacts suggest that the earliest inhabitants of the Carribean islands settled in 5000 BC. Therefore, it is more appropriate to credit the ancestors of the indigenous people with discovering the Caribbean islands. Nevertheless, it is factually correct to state that Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover the Carribean islands when he arrived at the island of San Salvador on October 12, 1492. The arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Carribean Islands was followed by the massacre of entire indigenous cultures that had lived in the islands before the intrusion by Europeans. Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover the Carribean islands and lead to cultural destruction that changed the region forever.
Primitive is a racially derogative term used to describe early inhabitants before their interaction with European culture. The term primitive suggests that the indigenous people were backwards, which has real and dangerous implications on the value placed on their culture. Many anthropologists would argue that it is inaccurate and offensive to describe the earliest inhabitants of the Caribbean as primitive. Considering that the word “primitive” is usually placed inside quotation marks indicates the unsure ground upon which the description rests as a label for early inhabitants of the Caribbean. Perhaps it might have been acceptable for early explorers to describe the early inhabitants as primitive. However, science has matured over the millennia to develop more appropriate terms for the early inhabitants. Finally, it is inaccurate to describe the indigenous people as primitive because these indigenous people had well-developed systems of culture, language, religion, and social structure. Therefore, the Europeans have no right to describe the indigenous people as primitive just because they have different social structures