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Highlights for October 12
1492 COLUMBUS REACHES THE NEW WORLD:
After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain, who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.
Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early life, but he worked as a seaman and then a maritime entrepreneur. He became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China), India, and the gold and spice islands of Asia. At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire, as were many land routes. Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus' day did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh century. However, Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world's size, calculating that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed).
With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his "Enterprise of the Indies," as he called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where he was also rejected at least twice by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage.
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña. On October 12, the expedition reached land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and "Indian" captives in March 1493 and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.
During his lifetime, Columbus led a total of four expeditions to the New World, discovering various Caribbean islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South and Central American mainlands, but he never accomplished his original goal--a western ocean route to the great cities of Asia. Columbus died in Spain in 1506 without realizing the great scope of what he did achieve: He had discovered for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.
Foot Note
Why would anyone want to celebrate Columbus Day considering who Columbus was and what he did?
The event for Columbus' "Discovery" (see America before Columbus) is fraught with misinformation. Let us start with the voyage itself. Contrary to the myth the weather was quite good and the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria had clear sailing. This is confirmed by Columbus' own journal. Second, the ships themselves were fully suited for their purposes and hardly the small tiny ships that we have been led to believe. Third, the crew was not on the verge of near mutiny but were simply getting on each others' nerves. The Columbus biographer Samuel Eliot Morison confirms this. But all of this misinformation perpetuates the great man theory we learned in school and so is still taught.Upon arriving the natives went out to meet Columbus. They were friendly and gregarious. How did Columbus react? Well he said, "I could conquer them with fifty men and govern them as I please." So he kidnapped several of them and took them back to Spain where they met the queen. This was enough, along with the promise of gold, to finance another voyage by Columbus.
When Columbus returned he demanded gold. To ensure cooperation those who refused or committed a minor offense had their nose and ears cut off. His men demanded their women for sexual purposes and raped them. Finally, the Arawaks had enough and resisted. This turned into an outright slaughter by Columbus. He turned his attack dogs loose who ripped the resisters apart. Finding no gold he captured about 1,500 natives, took them from their families and set off to Spain where 500 of them would die along the way. Now Columbus brought the name of God into the picture, "In the name of Holy Trinity, we can send from here all the slaves and brazil-wood which could be sold." Nice man, this Columbus.But the worst was yet to come and Columbus instituted a reign of terror. He demanded that the natives pay the crown a tribute. Those who did not had their hands cut off. Pedro de Cordoro wrote back to the King about what was happening and said, "As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they have endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide." He went on to say that, rather than give birth, women killed themselves and their newborn infants. The men of Columbus brought with them diseases as well. This was an ecological disaster that caused the death of over 3,000,000 Arawaks in the course of fifty years. To fill the vacancy left by this, Columbus brought slaves from Africa. So, Columbus was directly responsible for the introduction of the slave trade to the New World. This was the start of capitalism. The Catholic Church backed this genocide and European rule replaced a Utopia. These are not my thoughts but those of Sir Thomas More who challenged European hierarchy with the examples of the native Americans.
But many of our leaders despite recorded history speak fondly of Columbus. "Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to the World, but also set an example for us by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance of faith." Is that so? Well I, for one, do not wish to celebrate the invasion of tyrants and terrorists. How do you think Jewish people would feel if we had Hitler Day Parade? Do you think they would be upset? In many ways, Columbus invented racism. So should we celebrate that? I think not. So what I ask you is this: Why on earth do we have a holiday for this terrorist?
Sources: Columbus Day By Denis Mueller
James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me
Howard Zinn, A Peoples History of the United States
1915 British nurse executed in World War I
British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I.
The 49-year-old Cavell first entered the nursing profession in 1895, and in 1907 she became the matron of the Berkendael Institute in Brussels. Following the German invasion of neutral Belgium, Cavell sheltered British, French, and Belgian soldiers at the Institute before helping them escape to Holland. In August 1915, Cavell and several others were arrested and tried by a court-martial. Cavell made a full confession and was sentenced to death on October 9. Despite protests from neutral governments such as the United States and Spain, which thought a death sentence too harsh, German authorities carried out the execution.
Cavell was idealized as a hero by the Allied press and was honored with a statue in St. Martin's Place, just off London's Trafalagar Square.
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-Mail me.
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