***Columbus was a monster as well.***
The new world was going to be found, if not by Columbus, then by Pedro Álvares Cabral.
Think of Cabral, Ohio, Cabral South America, Cabral River...Cabral University..
“In 1500, to India, his due,
Cabral sailed the Ocean Blue...”
Quite a ring doesn’t it.
Yes, America would have been discovered within 8 years if Columbus had never lived, and the fate of the Indians would have been pretty much the same. Although I don’t know if the Portuguese had the fight in them the Spanish had. But you can’t tell the haters of Western Civ anything like the fact that stone-age people don’t fare well when confronted by more modern types.