Seems like a weird thing to be proud of. "We found this whole new continent, sparsely populated and rich with all kinds of resources, but only explored a tiny piece of it and then basically ignored it/forgot about it."
I suppose it's better than "We found a whole new continent, killed vast numbers of inhabitants, and then brought over millions of others to subject to horrific abuse".
Didn't Columbus die without ever claiming or even knowing that he found a whole new continent? As far as he was concerned, he succeeded in finding another trade route to Asia.
Yeah, though that was hardly the worst of it. He himself was personally involved in horrific abuse of the natives -- so much so that the Spanish imprisoned him over it.
Lots of other people realized what Columbus had found, even though he never did. He was wrong about the size of the earth, and everybody knew it. So he managed to find something he had no reason to expect, and didn't understand it. Others did.
I suppose it's better than "We found a whole new continent, killed vast numbers of inhabitants, and then brought over millions of others to subject to horrific abuse".