Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Columbus Didn’t Know He Discovered the New World


Columbus Day is one of the Monday holidays mandated by the federal government in 1970. It occurs on the second Monday of October that will fall this year on the 13th. Next year the holiday will come on the exact date Christopher Columbus landed on what he thought was the East Indies, 523 years ago on October 12, 1492.

The expedition of three small ships with a crew of 90 men landed at what we now call Haiti in the Dominion Republic. Columbus claimed the land for the King and Queen of Spain. He named it Espanola. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella funded the cost of the voyage after Columbus made several, persistent requests to the Spanish royalty.

A faster way to sail to the East Indies and China was tempting to any nation that wanted to get the spices and gold available there. Spices from the East often were more valuable than gold.  Columbus’ theory was to sail westward across the ocean to reach the riches of the East.

His idea had at least two major flaws. The earth is much larger than he realized, and such a trip would take at least 5,000 miles longer than his calculations indicated. Also, nobody knew about the two land masses that exist across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus eventually bumped into both of them—North America and South America.

Columbus began his career when he went to sea as a 14-year-old boy.  He became an expert in navigation. As a ship’s captain, he often was credited as having a keen sense of understanding the influences of weather in changing ocean conditions. These abilities helped him make the first trip from Spain across the ocean.

During the two-month trek, the crewmen begged Columbus to turn back. That uncharted part of the ocean was called the Sea of Darkness. Superstitious sailors believed in sea monsters and whirlpools that could swallow ships.  Just two days before making land, some men threatened mutiny.

Columbus held the crew under control by constantly insisting that they would find land in just a few days.  He also explained that only he knew the way home to Spain, and he wasn’t going to turn the ships back.

The expedition landed on an inhabited island in the Bahamas. Natives welcomed the travelers who thought they found the East Indies. In a short ceremony, Columbus claimed the island for Spain. He completely ignored the ownership of the natives, because he needed to start paying tribute to his patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

Columbus and his crew members were welcomed warmly by the natives who gave them food and shelter. The locals wore ornamental gold that was found in shallow mines. Gold had no value to the natives except as jewelry. They eagerly traded the precious metal for feathers and beads.

The Santa Maria, the fleet’s flagship, sank after making landfall. Columbus sailed the two other ships, the Nina and the Pinta, on the trip back to Spain to show the king and queen the spoils from what he was convinced was part of the East Indies. The smaller ships were too crowded and thus prohibited thirty-nine crewmen from leaving. They became the first colony established for Spain.

Columbus was greeted as a hero by the royalty and the populace of Spain. The gold he brought back impressed Ferdinand and Isabella who immediately began assembling an armada of ships to take workers and colonists to the discovered land.

The Spanish travelers landed at the site of the first colony in September, 1493. None of the thirty-nine men survived. They were killed by the native population during an uprising against the harsh rule imposed by the Spanish invaders.

Greedy for gold, the sailors in the colony chained and beat the natives to make them mine more gold. The crew men, greatly outnumbered, were killed. Their bodies were left hanging in trees for Columbus to find. 

Columbus with the soldiers in the new expedition killed hundreds of native men, women and children to revenge the death of the crew. Slavery became the order of the day as Columbus looked to find more gold for Spain. Lives of the native population were regarded as disposable.

The third trip Columbus made from Spain involved his colonizing land in San Salvador in the Bahamas. Again, the Spanish colonists took charge of local natives and demanded gold. The promises of becoming rich from gold discovery were exaggerated, and the Spanish explorers were disillusioned about how rich they could get.

After the third trip from Spain, Columbus came back dishonored and rejected by the king and queen. His health started to deteriorate as he clung to the false belief that he found the route to the East.

One last voyage in 1502 put Columbus in the middle of several uprisings from the numerous colonists that sailed there in the second and third waves of ships. So-called settlers were eager to leave for home.

Ferdinand and Isabella felt compassion for their former hero. They made sure he had enough money to survive. Columbus died in December, 1504. He never stopped insisting that he found the westward route to the riches of the East Indies and China. Ironically, he wasn’t able to realize that his greatest accomplishment was in making the first lasting European exploration, conquest and colonization of The New World.

Thank you for reading this blog. Check this space later this month to read about the meaning of our flag’s colors.

Visitwww.joevlatino.com to read a new piece of flash fiction.  You can also find a link to my book, "The Device."




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