Things You Should Know About Columbus
The Origins of Columbus Day
Columbus Day was the brainchild of New York state senator Timothy Sullivan, an archetypal Tammany Hall man who greased the wheels of New York City's notoriously corrupt political machine during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
A Man of Many Flags
Columbus was born to a humble family in Genoa, an Italian port whose sailors and trade fleets made the city one of the most important and powerful centers of medieval Europe. But the Mediterranean wasn't big enough for Columbus so he set about pitching his quest for Asia like a restless freelancer banging on the doors of disinterested editors. Neither Genoa nor its archrival, Venice, had much interest in the endeavor.
Cuba, China. What's the difference?
As many know, Christopher Columbus set out not to discover America but to find a path to Asia. China and India were said to be brimming with spices, people and gold — and given how great it would have been to be the first person to reach them by sea, one might forgive Columbus for insisting, for years, that he had reached the Far East when he in fact had landed in the Caribbean.
He Was Something of a Social Climber
Many accomplished men play down their achievements and shy away from glory: Christopher Columbus was not one of those guys. He seemed more the type who would, say, refer to himself in the third person. In a letter he wrote before his first voyage, this part of his character shines through.
He Set Some Bad Precedents
During his second expedition, launched after he promised the Spanish court to return with vessels piled high with gold, an exasperated Columbus decided to take out his frustrations on the natives. He reportedly corralled some 1,500 Arawak men, women and children, and selected 500 of them to be taken to Spain. Nearly half died during the voyage over and many more would perish soon after being put up for auction in Europe.
New World Goods: Tobacco, Corn, Syphilis?
There has long been suspicion that when Christopher Columbus returned to Europe, carrying plenty of intriguing spoils, he also took back a venereal disease that did plenty of spoiling of its own. Syphilis ravaged the Old World in the centuries after Columbus sailed, with the first epidemic occurring around 1495 — soon after he went back to Spain following his first voyage.
Columbus Did Not Rest in Peace
Columbus' travels were by no means over following his death in 1506. After breathing his last, he was first buried in Valladolid, Spain, at a Franciscan friary and later placed in a family mausoleum in Seville for about 20 years. Columbus' son Diego had, however, expressed wishes that his father be buried in his New World, specifically in Santo Domingo, so, eventually, back across the ocean Christopher went. His stay there lasted until 1795, when the colony was ceded to France. His bones, to be kept out of their hands, were then shifted to Havana in 1796, where what was left was placed in a cathedral wall and covered with a marble slab "of doubtful artistic taste,".
Then the Spanish-American War broke out, and when things didn't turn out so well for the Spanish in 1898, they decided to finally return his ashes home to Seville, this time to keep them away from detestable Yankee paws.
Sailing onto the Screen
There have been Columbus operas, plays, books, cartoons, TV series and films. There was an especially impressive rash in 1992, 500 years after that first voyage, when no less than four films were released: 1492: Conquest of Paradise; Carry on Columbus; Christopher Columbus: The Discovery; and, though it sounds like it might be about another kind of trip, The Magic Voyage. Supporting casts have included everyone from Marlon Brando and Tom Selleck to Sigourney Weaver and Faye Dunaway.
It's Him or the Vikings
A common objection to Columbus' achievements is that he was not the first to travel to America: the Vikings may have done so hundreds of years earlier. On Columbus Day in 1965, Yale University scholars announced that they had found an ancient map proving this, effectively relegating Columbus to a second-place finish. But this was not the kind of announcement Italian-Americans were ready to accept.
The Great Columbian Exposition
Four hundred years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he was still putting America on the map. Paris had held a very successful World's Fair in 1889, showing off the Eiffel Tower, and many other rising powers across the globe had put on their own exhibitions in the late 19th century — but not the United States. So Americans chose the 400-year anniversary of Columbus' discovery to hold their own World's Fair in Chicago, a city that had been famously aflame 20 years earlier. They called it the Columbian Exposition, and impress the world it did.
Columbus Day was the brainchild of New York state senator Timothy Sullivan, an archetypal Tammany Hall man who greased the wheels of New York City's notoriously corrupt political machine during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
A Man of Many Flags
Columbus was born to a humble family in Genoa, an Italian port whose sailors and trade fleets made the city one of the most important and powerful centers of medieval Europe. But the Mediterranean wasn't big enough for Columbus so he set about pitching his quest for Asia like a restless freelancer banging on the doors of disinterested editors. Neither Genoa nor its archrival, Venice, had much interest in the endeavor.
Cuba, China. What's the difference?
As many know, Christopher Columbus set out not to discover America but to find a path to Asia. China and India were said to be brimming with spices, people and gold — and given how great it would have been to be the first person to reach them by sea, one might forgive Columbus for insisting, for years, that he had reached the Far East when he in fact had landed in the Caribbean.
He Was Something of a Social Climber
Many accomplished men play down their achievements and shy away from glory: Christopher Columbus was not one of those guys. He seemed more the type who would, say, refer to himself in the third person. In a letter he wrote before his first voyage, this part of his character shines through.
He Set Some Bad Precedents
During his second expedition, launched after he promised the Spanish court to return with vessels piled high with gold, an exasperated Columbus decided to take out his frustrations on the natives. He reportedly corralled some 1,500 Arawak men, women and children, and selected 500 of them to be taken to Spain. Nearly half died during the voyage over and many more would perish soon after being put up for auction in Europe.
New World Goods: Tobacco, Corn, Syphilis?
There has long been suspicion that when Christopher Columbus returned to Europe, carrying plenty of intriguing spoils, he also took back a venereal disease that did plenty of spoiling of its own. Syphilis ravaged the Old World in the centuries after Columbus sailed, with the first epidemic occurring around 1495 — soon after he went back to Spain following his first voyage.
Columbus Did Not Rest in Peace
Columbus' travels were by no means over following his death in 1506. After breathing his last, he was first buried in Valladolid, Spain, at a Franciscan friary and later placed in a family mausoleum in Seville for about 20 years. Columbus' son Diego had, however, expressed wishes that his father be buried in his New World, specifically in Santo Domingo, so, eventually, back across the ocean Christopher went. His stay there lasted until 1795, when the colony was ceded to France. His bones, to be kept out of their hands, were then shifted to Havana in 1796, where what was left was placed in a cathedral wall and covered with a marble slab "of doubtful artistic taste,".
Then the Spanish-American War broke out, and when things didn't turn out so well for the Spanish in 1898, they decided to finally return his ashes home to Seville, this time to keep them away from detestable Yankee paws.
Sailing onto the Screen
There have been Columbus operas, plays, books, cartoons, TV series and films. There was an especially impressive rash in 1992, 500 years after that first voyage, when no less than four films were released: 1492: Conquest of Paradise; Carry on Columbus; Christopher Columbus: The Discovery; and, though it sounds like it might be about another kind of trip, The Magic Voyage. Supporting casts have included everyone from Marlon Brando and Tom Selleck to Sigourney Weaver and Faye Dunaway.
It's Him or the Vikings
A common objection to Columbus' achievements is that he was not the first to travel to America: the Vikings may have done so hundreds of years earlier. On Columbus Day in 1965, Yale University scholars announced that they had found an ancient map proving this, effectively relegating Columbus to a second-place finish. But this was not the kind of announcement Italian-Americans were ready to accept.
The Great Columbian Exposition
Four hundred years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he was still putting America on the map. Paris had held a very successful World's Fair in 1889, showing off the Eiffel Tower, and many other rising powers across the globe had put on their own exhibitions in the late 19th century — but not the United States. So Americans chose the 400-year anniversary of Columbus' discovery to hold their own World's Fair in Chicago, a city that had been famously aflame 20 years earlier. They called it the Columbian Exposition, and impress the world it did.
Source: TIME
