After sailing across the Atlantic ocean for over two months, on this day – October 12th – in 1492, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus finally saw an island that was actually now-thought to be in the Bahamas; he thought he had reached East Asia at the time though. As such, he and his sea crew immediately landed and claimed the island for the Spanish rulers, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, who had funded his journey to find a western route to China and India, along with the supposed rich islands of Asia filled with spices and gold.
Columbus was born in Italy, but not much is actually known about his early life. We know he worked as a sailor and later as a maritime business owner. We also know, he became obsessed with finding a new way to sail west to reach Asia. At that time, there was no known sea route to southern Asia, and many land routes were blocked by the Ottoman Empire, making it hard for Europeans to reach the East.
Despite what some myths suggest today, educated people in Columbus’ time already knew that the world was round. Columbus, like many others, thought the Earth was smaller than it actually is because they believed East Asia was located where North America actually is on the globe. The real problem? They didn’t know the Pacific Ocean existed yet!
Thinking that only the Atlantic Ocean stood between Europe and Asia, Columbus asked King John II of Portugal to support his plan, which he called “Enterprise of the Indies.” King John rejected the offer. Columbus then went to Spain, but he was also turned down – at least twice — by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. After the Spanish took control of Granada in early-1492, now flush with victory, the monarchs agreed to fund his voyage.
In early-August 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain with three ships: the now-famous Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. On October 12, they reached land, most likely an island in the Bahamas, which they thought was East Asia. Then, later in the month, they saw Cuba, which Columbus thought was mainland China. In December, they landed on Hispaniola, which he believed might be Japan, where he left 39 men to start a small colony there. Columbus returned to Spain in March 1493 with gold, spices, and captives. The Spanish court honored him greatly. In truth, he was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings had colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.
During his life, Columbus led four trips to the “New World.” He explored islands in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the mainland of Central and South America, but he never really found the western sea route to Asia that he had hoped for.
Columbus died in Spain in 1506, never fully understanding the importance of his discoveries. He had revealed a “New World” to Europe, which would soon make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. In 1937, Columbus was honored with a U.S. federal holiday.
Since 1991, many cities, universities, and states, have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day though. This holiday celebrates the history and contributions of Native Americans. It is usually observed on the same day as Columbus Day, the second Monday in October, and sometimes replaces it entirely. Some believe that Columbus Day ignores the harm he caused, including the enslavement of Native Americans, and the federal holiday wrongly credits him for “discovering” a place where people were already living. They say his voyages also began centuries of colonization, the transatlantic slave trade, and the deaths of millions of Native Americans from violence and disease.
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