Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Geoffrey Symcox, Blair Sullivan
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 207876
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 200
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5
ISBN: 0312410212
Dewey Decimal Number: 970.015092
EAN: 9780312410216
ASIN: 0312410212
Publication Date: January 26, 2005
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Condition: This book has typical wear and tear from daily usage. It may contain highlighting and/or underlining. Online access codes (i.e. Infotrac) and other media may or may not be valid or included.
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Product Description
In 1492, previously separate worlds collided and began to merge, often painfully, into the world-system in which we live today. Columbus's four Atlantic voyages (1492-1504) helped link Africa, Europe, and the America. These carefully selected documents describe the voyages and their immediate impact on Europe and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. Symcox and Sullivan's engaging introduction presents Columbus as neither hero nor villain, but as a significant historical actor who improvised responses to a changed world. Document headnotes provide context for understanding Columbus's voyages within the broader context of Fifteenth-Century Europe and the policies of the Spanish crown.
Book Description
Columbus's four Atlantic voyages (1492-1504) helped link Africa, Europe, and the Americas in a conflicted economic and cultural symbiosis. These carefully selected documents describe the voyages and their immediate impact on Europe and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.
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Columbus Day Celebrates Founding of America. October 9, 2005
1 out of 18 found this review helpful
It is said that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. At least that is what all elementary school children were always taught: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Of course, Columbus never did "discover" North America, and the regions he did explore were already inhabited. Nova investigated the history and authenticity of the Vinland Map, a document believed by some to be the first to depict America, and to date to 1440, half a century before Columbus' famous voyage. There are accounts the Vinland Sagas, 13th-century chronicles that relate Leif Erikson's discovery of Vinland.
He only discovered them from the viewpoint of the Europeans. Yet his first voyage did prove one thing for sure, that the earth was not only round, but that it was bigger than he had thought, Eratosthenes notwithstanding. In Washington state, the 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man was a rare find. Only a handful of skeletons this old had ever been found in North America.
One of the first known celebrations marking the discovery of the "New World" by Christopher Columbus was in 1792, when a ceremony organized by the Colombian Order was held in New York City honoring Columbus and the 300th anniversary of his landing in the Bahamas. The Bahamas, a group of 700 islands, dot the Atlantic Ocean from Florida almost to Haiti. Only 30 of the islands are inhabited. When Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492, the Arawak Indians were the only inhabitants there.
On October 12, 1866 the Italian population of New York organized the first celebration of the discovery of America. Three years later, in 1869 Italians in San Francisco celebrated October 12 calling it C-Day. How did Christopher Columbus find his way to the "New World"? He used maps, of course. There was just one problem. His maps were wrong!
The year is 1492. In three frail boats, Christopher Columbus heads west across the Atlantic Ocean. Half a world away, on the South China Sea, another ship embarked on a very different kind of journey. In its hold lay the riches of the Far East: intricately embroidered silks and the finest vessels of delicately painted porcelain. These were the treasures that Columbus could only dream of and only China could create.
Between the 13th and the 16th century, China was the greatest industrial power. Not only in Asia, but I would think in the world. The quality of what China was producing during that period was simply staggering to the vast majority of the consumers in the known world at the time.
On August 2, 1492, Columbus set sail in search of the East Indies. The voyage was financed by Ferdinand and Isabella by making the city of Palos pay back a debt to the crown by providing two of the ships, and by getting Italian financial backing for part of the expenses. The crown had to put up very little money from the treasury.
Columbus and 90 crewmen boarded the three ships that were to make the first voyage to the New World, the Nina, Pinta, and the flagship, Santa Maria. On October 12, 1492, Columbus first saw the islands of the new world, landing in the Bahamas. Later in the month, he would sail to Cuba, and to Hispaniola (now Haiti). He thought he had reached the East Indies, the islands off Southeast Asia.
All educated individuals in the 15th century, and especially sailors, already knew that the earth was round. What was not realized by Columbus, however, was just how big a globe it was. Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the planet.
On Christmas Day, 1492, the Santa Maria sank off Haiti. Columbus departed for Spain on January 16, 1493 on the Nina, arriving there on March 4. Columbus made three additional voyages to the New World. The second voyage set sail in September, 1493, with 17 ships. During his expeditions, he helped to colonize Hispaniola, and discovered the South American mainland.
He did not, however, see mainland North America during any of his voyages. He returned to Spain for the last time on November 7, 1504. He died at Valladolid, Spain on May 20, 1506, at the age of 55.
Much controversy exists over Columbus' expeditions and whether or not one can "discover" an already-inhabited land. The natives of the Bahamas and other islands on his journey were peaceful and friendly. Yet many of them were later enslaved by the Spanish. Also, it is known that the Vikings explored the North American coast 500 years before Columbus.
To mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyage, in 1892, President Benjamin Harrison made a commemorative proclamation. But it was Colorado, in 1905, that became the first state to observe a Columbus Day. Since 1920 the day has been celebrated annually, and in 1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every October 12 as Columbus Day. That's where it remained until 1971 when Congress declared it a federal public holiday on the second Monday in October.
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