By Wingspan Alumnus Josh LeGrand
On October 11, 2021, cities and towns across America observed Columbus Day. This day recognizes Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World. This is a very controversial holiday, due to the fact that during his travels, Columbus’s arrival led to the deaths of millions of Native Americans who had been living there for hundreds of years. Many states have officially changed the name of the holiday to “Indigenous Peoples Day”. This article will tell you the who, what, when, where, and why of Christopher Columbus’s life.
WHO: Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. He was the son of a wool merchant, and as a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until his ship was sunk by pirates off the coast of Portugal. He floated on a piece of driftwood until he reached Lisbon, where he studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and navigation.
WHAT: Christopher Columbus wanted to find a sea route to Asia that didn’t require a person to sail around the tip of Africa. He eventually thought of a solution: why not sail west, across the Atlantic Ocean? He argued that the Earth’s circumference was smaller than everyone said it was. This was incorrect, but after approaching many powerful people about his idea, he was finally able to sail across the Atlantic, a journey that was funded by the king and queen of Spain.
WHEN: On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain with a fleet of three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. He sailed for more than two months until October 12, when his ships landed in the New World. He made three more voyages in 1493, 1498, and 1502.
WHERE: Columbus landed in the Bahamas, most likely on the island of San Salvador, but Columbus was convinced that he’d reached the East Indies. He continued to sail around the Caribbean and founded a colony on the island of Hispaniola, or the modern-day nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He returned to Spain in January of 1493.
WHY: Columbus’s reasons to find a sail across the Atlantic were simple: he wanted fame and fortune, of which he got both. Things began to fall apart in 1493, when he sent some five-hundred enslaved indigenous people to Queen Isabella of Spain. Horrified, she promptly sent the gift back to Columbus because she thought that any people he discovered were Spanish citizens. During his third voyage in 1498, Columbus visited the settlement of Hispaniola to find that there had been a violent revolt against Columbus’s brothers’ brutal rule over the settlement. Spain had to send a new governor to Hispaniola due to the horrible conditions there. The population of indigenous people there had gone from an estimated 250,000, to only a few hundred. Columbus was arrested and sent back to Spain. He lost most of his power, but was cleared of the most serious charges. He was granted one more voyage to the New World in 1502, an expedition that ended unsuccessfully. He died in 1506.
