Happy Columbus Day?
In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue....
Above is the course he sailed on the misadventure that brought him to the Caribbean. Never mind that he thought he had landed in India and, in typical European (imperial) fashion, named the natives he met (discovered) there "Indians". And the rest, as we say, is HIStory.Americans have been celebrating Columbus Day for centuries. But it wasn’t until 1971 that the U.S. Congress declared the second Monday in October a federal holiday in honor of this sea-faring Italian.
Meanwhile, many other countries throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean, mark a similar holiday in his name. But click here for a 1-page account that puts Columbus into historical (even if politically-incorrect) perspective.
Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day
posted by ALH ipinions at 10/09/2006 05:51:00 AM
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2 Comments:
While it's pretty clear that Columbis didn't quite discover the New World, there is also some evidence pointing to the Chinese having spent a lot of time in the New World in the mid century, just a few years before Columbus.
There also seems to be evidence that the Europeans had access to this Chinese information, by way of information exchange from India.
Check out the book "1421", or http://www.1421.tv/
But, for the moment, we all remember Columbus because those in power get to write the history.
Fair point Clabbe
Actually, I've read some of Commander Gavin Menzies's accounts proffering Zheng He as having "discovered" the New World 72 years before Columbus. Which only provides originating evidence for what is now a painful historical fact: Where the Chinese sought friendship and assimilation in the New World, the Europeans sought conquest and dominion.
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