Commentary In today’s world of political correctness and the historical ignorance that seems to accompany it, the driving forces in the critical year of 1492 remain mischaracterized and largely unrecognized. Columbus Day 2021 seems like the perfect day to revisit the Columbus narrative and the driving forces behind the discovery of the New World. Three Big Events of 1492 It’s important to recall that three very important events happened in 1492. First, Spanish forces, joined by other European Christians, kicked the last of the Muslim rulers off the Iberian Peninsula and out of Western Europe. After 800 years of occupation by Islamic invaders from North Africa, “Al Andalus,” as the Muslim Caliphate referred to the Spanish jewel in the Islamic empire, was gone. But Islamic attempts to conquer Europe would continue as late as Sept. 11, 1683 when they were defeated at the gates of Vienna. (A rather obvious coincidence—one …