On August 3, 1492, Columbus left Spain with 87 men aboard three vessels. The three ships on his voyage were called the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Pinta, Spanish for “the painted one” or “prostitute.” The Santa Clara, meanwhile, was nicknamed the Nina in honor of its owner, Juan Nino. The Santa Maria was called by its official name, its nickname was La Gallega, after the province of Galicia in which it was built.
The main reason for his voyage was due to the critical sea lane at Constantinople being overtaken and controlled by the Turks, and a new route to Asia had to be discovered. At this time in history, most trade between Asia and European countries had to be done over land. Columbus was not the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Norse Viking Leif Eriksson did that around 1000 A.D., when he landed on Newfoundland. The Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.
Columbus left Spain on a southwestern course in August 1492. He stopped in the Canary Islands on his way across the Atlantic. He used celestial navigation using the stars and sun to chart his course. He used a quadrant to measure the distance of the sun or a star above the horizon. He also carried with him an almanac with 30 years of lunar predictions. His voyage made landfall in the Caribbean after 29 days at sea. When Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean, he believed it to be Asia--his intended destination.
The Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia; he was intending to chart a western sea route to China and India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas and landed on an in the Bahamas. He called the island San Salvador. I am sure that island was a sight for sore eyes.
The main reason for his voyage was due to the critical sea lane at Constantinople being overtaken and controlled by the Turks, and a new route to Asia had to be discovered. At this time in history, most trade between Asia and European countries had to be done over land. Columbus was not the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Norse Viking Leif Eriksson did that around 1000 A.D., when he landed on Newfoundland. The Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.
Columbus left Spain on a southwestern course in August 1492. He stopped in the Canary Islands on his way across the Atlantic. He used celestial navigation using the stars and sun to chart his course. He used a quadrant to measure the distance of the sun or a star above the horizon. He also carried with him an almanac with 30 years of lunar predictions. His voyage made landfall in the Caribbean after 29 days at sea. When Columbus made landfall in the Caribbean, he believed it to be Asia--his intended destination.
The Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia; he was intending to chart a western sea route to China and India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia; but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas and landed on an in the Bahamas. He called the island San Salvador. I am sure that island was a sight for sore eyes.
Columbus' flagship was the Santa Maria, but Nina was his favorite ship because it was of the latest design. The Santa Maria was shipwrecked on December 24, 1492 off the coast of Haiti, and Columbus returned to Spain aboard the Nina. He left 40 of his crewmembers in La Navidad to start the first European settlement. When Columbus returned there in 1493, none of his crew were still alive.
Columbus returned to the Americas three more times in the following decade. His other voyages took him to places such as the Caribbean islands, South America and Central America. Portugal, France and England actually refused to fund his voyage. He was financially backed solely by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It took Columbus six years to convince them of his venture.
Columbus’ governance of Hispaniola was often brutal and tyrannical. Native islanders who didn’t collect enough gold could have their hands cut off, and rebel Spanish colonists were executed at the gallows. Colonists complained to the Spanish monarchy about mismanagement, and a royal commissioner dispatched to Hispaniola arrested Columbus in August 1500 and brought him back to Spain in chains. Although Columbus was stripped of his governorship, King Ferdinand not only granted the explorer his freedom but subsidized a fourth voyage. Columbus took his last trip to the Caribbean in 1504. He returned to Spain at age 53 in poor health and nearly blind. He died in Spain on May 20, 1506 at the age of 55.
Following Columbus' death in 1506, he was buried in Valladolid, Spain, and then his remains were moved to Seville. At the request of his daughter-in-law, the bodies of Columbus and his son Diego were shipped across the Atlantic to Hispaniola and interred in a Santo Domingo cathedral. When the French captured the island in 1795, the Spanish dug up remains thought to be those of Columbus and moved them to Cuba before returning them to Seville after the Spanish-American War in 1898.
However, a box with human remains and the explorer’s name was discovered inside the Santo Domingo cathedral in 1877. Did the Spaniards exhume the wrong body? DNA testing in 2006 found evidence that at least some of the remains in Seville are those of Columbus. The Dominican Republic has refused to let the other remains be tested. It could be possible that, aptly, pieces of Columbus are both in the New World and the Old World.
Though Columbus did not really discover the New World--millions of people already lived there--his voyages did mark the beginning of centuries of trans-Atlantic exploration and colonization. Columbus achieve the monumental task of joining the two hemispheres doubling the size of the habitable planet, and establishing trade between the continents.
The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792, when New York's Columbian Order–better known as Tammany Hall–held an event to commemorate the historic landing's 300th anniversary. Taking pride in Columbus' birthplace and faith, Italian and Catholic communities in various parts of the country began organizing annual religious ceremonies and parades in his honor.
In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage with patriotic festivities, writing, "On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life."
Columbus Day became a federal holiday in America in 1937. In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday, largely as a result of persistent lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic fraternal benefits organization. Originally observed every October 12, it was fixed to the second Monday in October in 1971.
In many parts of the United States, Columbus Day has evolved into a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Local groups host parades and street fairs featuring colorful costumes, music and Italian food. In cities and towns that use the day to honor indigenous peoples, activities include pow-wows, traditional dance and lessons about Native American culture.
