I think, of all the things at school
A boy has got to do…
There's only one I've got just right -
That's 1492.
Columbus crossed the Delaware
In 1492.
We whipped the British, fair an' square,
In 1492.
At Concord an' at Lexington.
We kept the redcoats on the run
In 1492.
(Excerpt from: “Johnny's History Lesson” by Nixon Waterman)
Who does not identify with the thoughts of this schoolboy? The 1492 date seems to be imprinted on our brains…at least for those of us “of a certain age.” But the truth is that this is a very important date, marking a defining moment in history. Although most of us are familiar with the basics of the discovery of America, and its commemoration on October 12, the details are always fascinating.
Late on the night of November 11, 1492 Christopher Columbus, looking west from his ship, la Santa Maria, discerned a light in the distance that looked like a small candle moving up and down. Although the thought ran through him that this might be land, he ignored it, afraid to trust his own senses. Four hours later, at two in the morning, a cannon was fired—the prearranged signal for the sighting of land. A sailor on the companion ship Pinta had seen positive signs of land ahead, and excitedly yelled out: Tierra!
The three-ship fleet was in the warm, turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea after sailing westward for more than a month. On October 13, the day after the sighting, and exactly 37 days after leaving the port of Palos in Spain, the ninety crew members stepped onto the Bahamian island that Columbus named San Salvador—the holy savior.
Not only were they safely on land, but their arrival was a harbinger of great rewards. The Spanish monarchs had promised Columbus royal titles and a percentage of the goods they expected he’d bring back from the Indies—a general term then used for India and most of Southeast Asia—the intended destination. This was indeed what Columbus believed, that he had set foot on the shores of India, along a shorter sea passage to the land of spices, gold, tea, silk, and other riches. He had no idea that he had stumbled on a new continent, a fact he never learned in his lifetime.
Above is a map showing the world as Christopher Columbus envisioned as he sailed on his first voyage. He assumed, as other voyagers had during his time, that the ocean west of Spain would eventually lead to the Far East. What he could never have known was that between the continents of Europe and Asia, was another landmass—the unknown New World—the Americas.
Up until some 40 years prior, there was little reason to sail to Asia because there was a perfectly good land route: the Silk Road, made famous by Marco Polo. But when the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople in 1453, they forbade Christian traders along that route and finding an alternative path to the East became imperative.
Navigators in Europe had a fairly accurate idea of the circumference of the earth, but apparently Columbus did not. Latitude was measured in two ways: one developed by an ancient Greek, and another by the medieval Arabs. Columbus insisted on making his own calculations, using a combination of the two methods. The problem was that the miles in one did not correspond to the miles of the other, thus yielding the planet about 25 percent smaller than it actually is.
It had taken Columbus several years to get funding for his voyage. Italy, where he was born, had well-established Mediterranean trade routes to the Far East, and did not seem interested in new ones. England’s coffers were exhausted after their 30-year conflict, known as the War of the Roses. Portugal said no because they were satisfied with their trade in the Azores, and the coasts of Africa. The French actually had the right reason for refusing—their scientists thought Columbus’ calculations of the size of the earth were off.
And so Columbus courted the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, who showed interest, but lacked funds. Then in January of 1492, the army of Ferdinand defeated the Moors who had occupied their lands for 800 years, and expelled them from Spain. Aside from their moral victory, the monarchs could now concentrate their resources and efforts on overseas explorations, and invest in his voyage. Once he received the money and the ships, he still had a hard time finding a crew because many people believed the earth was flat. Sailors wove tales of waterfalls that would plunge a ship off the side of the earth.
Once on land, Columbus spent several months sailing from island to island in the Caribbean searching for the precious metals, spices, and commodities for which he had come. Although he found some gold and spices, it was not nearly what he had expected. Hoping to impress the Spanish monarchs, he brought some native birds and plants, and then kidnapped several people between the ages of ten and twenty-five, transporting them back as slaves. When he offered them as gifts to the royals, Queen Isabella was horrified. She considered any captives to be de facto subjects of Spain, and rejected his offer.
Columbus made three more voyages, in which he explored the shores of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Honduras and Panama but always believed that these were far-flung eastern shores of Asia. He never considered that this was an altogether new continent, and died in 1506 still believing the same.
It was up to another explorer, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci to declare that the lands were not part of Asia, but were a new continent. The new land, America, is named in his honor. Once the European powers realized that these were entirely new, uncharted lands, it became apparent that they could potentially “colonize” these new territories. It then became a race, and a land grab among three powers: the English, the Spanish, and the Portuguese, and the resulting colonial powers that took over the Americas.
And that is the legacy of Christopher Columbus discovery of the New World.
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