Christopher Columbus: A Life From Beginning to End (Biographies of Explorers), by Hourly History.

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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: A LIFE

FROM BEGINNING TO END

(BIOGRAPHIES OF EXPLORERS),

by HOURLY HISTORY.

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Much sloppy writing, much evidence, of author of this volume being not only a rabid racist, but a complete ignoramus and a smug one at that.

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Author spends much of introduction asserting rights of exploration and stating that it's human nature to not stay in one place for long, before glorifying Columbus as a leader.

If all that were true and humanity were as nomadic as author claims, why would there be any architecture anywhere, much less monumental constructions - or anyone living outside green tropical regions with plenty of waters, bananas and coconuts?

Fact is, few people are nomadic by nature, despite the bias of biblical creeds. Most like a settled life and a homestead, and it was the 'tortured and oppressed' (as the Statue of Liberty says) of the European lands who needed to escape who spearheaded the large scale migration from need, whereas Vikings, interested in keeping their finds to themselves for benefit of rich fishing being kept secret so it wasn't shared by others, hadn't encouraged migration to continents they found in West.

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There's sloppy writing .

"Genoa at this time was a large city with a proud history. It had actively taken part in the Crusades in earlier centuries and had successfully participated in battles with other Italian seaports. Because of its enormous commerce, it had grown exceedingly wealthy; everywhere you looked, there was another beautiful marble church or palace.

"Christopher Columbus was just like any other boy of his time: someone destined to follow in his father's footsteps. He would have been very skilled in all aspects of wool weaving. It would have been easy for him to take his work to the wharves, where he could watch all that was going on with all of the sea vessels coming in and going out.

"This also gave Columbus the opportunity to talk to some of these sailors. He found out many of them had been to foreign lands and faraway places; while some had sailed all around Italy and its ports, others had ventured out into the Black Sea eastward, and a few had even passed through the great Straits of Gibraltar and seen the vast, unending ocean."

Surely the ocean looks just as "vast, unending" on Mediterraenean shores? Surely one can't see across to Africa except at Gibraltar? Surely it's only sailors and cartographer who might have a clue of more, and others take their word, until aircrafts and satellites era?

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"By 1422 there was a Portuguese captain who bravely pushed on and eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the rocky point of land where the Atlantic Ocean gives way to the Indian Ocean.

"It wouldn't be until after Columbus sailed for Western lands in 1492 that another explorer, this one with the name of Vasco da Gama, would round the Cape of Good Hope again and find his way to Calcutta, India."

Again, funny - Arabs had traded with southern west vast of India, why would Vasco de Gama go to Calcutta which then wasn't anything more than a temple on a large river?

No, the author is ignorant as usual with Hourly History, and is confusing British practice with normal trade before. Vasco de Gama, if anything, landed on South-West coast, somewhere between Goa to Kerala. Judging by his name, Goa it must be. But as per Wikipedia,

" ... Gama landed in Calicut on 20 May 1498. ... "

Oh, so author is too ignorant to know the difference! Calicut is in Kerala on West coast in South, now back to original name Kozhicode, while Calcutta is in East in Bengal.

And the city named Vasco in Goa has nothing to do with Vasco de Gama except Goa was colonised by Portugal.

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"By 1470 a Florentine astronomer had predicted that it would be easier to go west to find the Spice Islands (now known as the Maluku Islands). These lied near Indonesia and had always been known for their nutmeg, mace, and cloves cultivation. Also, sailors wanted another route to China, which was known as Cathay."

That should be 'lay', not "lied".

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Again, sloppy writing.

"Many Portuguese explorers developed a passage to India by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope (in actuality, the Cape is not the “official” bottom of Africa; you have to sail another hundred miles east to come upon Cape Agulhas, where the two oceans actually meet)."

Oceans aren't fenced, and the only way you make any sense there is to say, and know, that Cape Agulhasis the southernmost point of Africa, which isn't apparent to casual beachcombers or cruise tourists, but only to those measuring.

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"By the 1480s the Columbus brothers had come up with a plan to do something entirely different. They wanted to sail west across the “Ocean Sea” which they also knew as the Atlantic. This would be another way to reach the Indies. However, now that sailing around the Cape of Good Hope had become a reality, Portuguese explorers decided to stick with that. And suddenly, Portugal was leading the European nations in maritime exploration.

"So, it's no small wonder that Christopher Columbus headed to Lisbon. This was the city in Portugal where anyone who wanted to learn all there was to know about ocean navigation would gather.

"Once Columbus had headed to Iceland, it is here that many believe he started hearing rumors about “land to the west.” Columbus' brother Bartholomew was a mapmaker, and the two brothers began looking into ocean navigation seriously. They either opened a book-and-map shop or worked in one, but neither one made any kind of profit off of these endeavors."

That, indeed, is the key to his sailing west.

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And now back to racism it is. US style, whereby the words "India", "Indian" are used as generic terms for anything not European, Chinese or African.

"One of the many people Columbus sought out to talk with was a mapmaker from Nuremberg in Germany, Martin Behaim. He had improved on navigational instruments such as the astrolabe, which was used to take the altitude of the sun, and by the time Columbus made his first voyage in 1492, Behaim had created a globe, the first of its kind. On it he showed how to get to places west of Europe and sail to Asiatic India."

The name India stems from the river Sindhu, which Europeans twisted to Indus, and was the easiest route in ancient era to the land across, bounded by Himaalaya to North and ocean on three other sides. The very name Sindhu literally means ocean, not because it's large as ri ers in India go, but because it came to flow in place of an ocean thst existed between India and Asia, before Himaalaya rose out of that ocean.

There's no other India and to give that name to natives or islands across Atlantic west of Europe is fraud perpetrated by Columbus, but there's no excuse other than a nazi level racism to continue perpetration of that fraud in an attempt to wipe out the very existence of an ancient land and her living ancient culture.

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"It is said although Columbus knew how to draw maps and make his own spherical globes, he had little scientific knowledge. He was smart enough to seek out those who had been to places he wanted to see, places such as the Azores and Madeira, places where he had heard fabulous stories of islands filled to the brim with lush landscapes and foods. He also heard these same men speak of lands beyond these places where no one had ventured to date.

"Columbus would have trouble initially gaining financial backing for his voyages; it seemed that most Catholic rulers still believed in a flat world, even though a world which was spherical had been practically proven by the ancients, men such as Aristotle and Ptolemy. Christian writers, such as St. Bede the Venerable, writing in the 8th century, also proclaimed the world to be round.

"Even in Columbus' time, the techniques of celestial navigation, or that which uses the sun and the stars to guide their way, had been in use for centuries. These techniques were starting to be used by sailors."

Does the author even realise the contradiction between first sentence and the last one there? Or who else, if not sailors, does author think can it mean when speaking of using sun and stars for navigation?

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"Most scholars reasoned that there was no sure way west from Europe to Asia. There was a ray of hope for Columbus, however. The Catholic monarchs of Spain, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, had just concluded an expensive war and were looking for a way to gain an edge over other European monarchs.

"Christopher Columbus' quest for an expedition heading west into the Atlantic Ocean to find new lands and new ways to Asia held great promise for the king and queen. Yet before he spoke with them, he had one more monarch to win over."

There's the largest reason for the voyage, which is here left unmentioned, which was inquisition. India had been a known refuge from fanatics persecuting those of other creeds, and not only Jews since several centuries ago but also Persians, then comparatively more recently fleeing religious persecution, had found a sanctuary in India.

Columbus wanted sanctuary from inquisition, for Jews of Europe, who were facing persecution of inquisition.

Hence search for a route via ocean to India.

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"“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”

"—Andre Gide"

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"Columbus’ crew believed they had reached some island off of the coast of Asia. Columbus had mistakenly believed that Asia lay much closer than it actually did. ... "

Columbus, according to some sources, did know he was nowhere near India, but made his men swear falsely.

West especially continues the fraud of nomenclature knowingly, which is due to sheer racism, and its no better than, say, all Asia calling every European - and descendents of European migrants elsewhere - English.

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"By October 28, Columbus had sailed on to the island of Cuba and explored the northeast coast. He and the Pinzon brothers continued to explore islands in search of gold; Columbus sailed to the northern coast of Hispaniola, landing there in early December. They kept looking for cities made of marble, for they thought they were near to China, but all they kept encountering were little villages of huts and natives who would run away when they would appear.

"Columbus noted in his diary that these natives had a funny custom of rolling up large dry leaves, which they called tobago. They would light one end of the rolled up leaf and smoke it. Instead of continuing westward, where Columbus might have learned about a land which we know as Florida, he instead headed east. Still looking for gold, spices and pearls, he asked many natives if they knew where any of these riches were."

"Word spread like wildfire throughout Spain and the rest of Europe that Columbus had seen the New World. It was March 15, 1493, ... "

"Columbus had proof of his findings in the New World: his six prisoners, whom he called “Indians”, along with parrots, flamingos, an iguana, and tropical plants. Townspeople figured he had gold too, but was not showing it as he traveled."

Again, that's no different from say, Chinese calling all Europeans, and descendents of European migrants too, including US citizens - Russian.

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"Travelling along the northern coast of Hispaniola, Columbus established another new settlement, which he named La Isabela. Because of its poor location, La Isabela didn't last long."

Whether that means name changed, or the island sank, is unclear, and so is the relevance of "its poor location" in the matter.

That was another example of bad writing by author of this volume of Hourly History.

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"Columbus' second voyage; no gold, no riches of any kind, captive natives, and a visit with a friendly “king” who had helped them when the Santa Maria had grounded the year before. Most of all, Columbus and his sailors encountered the wrath of the island peoples – people who were really not willing to help out the Spaniards in any way.

"Many on this voyage had become ill, and Columbus was among them. He really didn't know what to tell the king and queen of Spain about this voyage; what was there to say about island after island, and animosity towards their seeming hospitality? What Columbus didn't realize was that just beyond these Caribbean islands lay an enormous land yet to be discovered."

" ... During this second voyage, Columbus believed that Cuba was Asia, and was going to write to the king and queen saying so. It was the natives who finally wised him up to the fact that Cuba was an island. He was again greatly disappointed."

But he did know he was nowhere near Asia, much less India. Why then continue abuse of the name of India? Racism, pure and simple.

After all, he hadn't called the natives he captured "chinamen", despite being aware thst sailing west from Europe he'd arrive at shores of China long before he was anywhere near India. Knowing he wasn't near China, yet, why abuse name of India?

Only as lure of gold and wealth to be looted as promised by the name, so finance and men for future expeditions would be easy?

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"Surprisingly, by April 2, 1502, Columbus was allowed to sail yet again. Along with his brother Bartholomeo and his 13-year-old son Fernando, he commandeered his ship, the Santa Maria, and arrived on the island of Martinique on June 15. He then made his way along the island chains to Hispaniola and made a brief stop on the island of Jamaica.

"From there Columbus sailed to Central America. For all of November and December, Columbus sailed along the coastline. In Panama, Columbus heard about gold, but was advised not to travel upriver to find it.

"He wasn't looking for gold this time, but rather for a way to another ocean which native peoples said existed. He would not find it. By January 1503, Columbus decided to establish a fort on the Belen River in Panama. They were attacked by natives, and some of their ships were damaged.

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" ... As the 15th century was coming to a close, there were a number of European countries that were ready to sail beyond the horizon's edge.

"One of these countries was Spain. Another was England. As the Renaissance had created wealth throughout the lands of Europe, many were now looking beyond their borders for ever greater power and riches. Economic competition was growing fiercer by the day, and powerful nation-states knew they had to reach beyond what was visible to places not yet known to them."

But Vikings had not only known of the continent across the pond, they had a settlement for centuries, with trading posts as far south as Watertown in Massachusetts.

And a monk from s monastery in Ireland had traveled across, lived there for three years and returned. When excommunicated, he'd traveled to Vatican and presented his testimony with evidence, resulting in withdrawal of his excommunication and an injunction to not speak of it, his documents kept by Vatican since.

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"This would be the time known as the European colonization of the New World. Where kings and explorers once went in great array into neighboring countries to plunder and conquer, now they would turn their sights on foreign lands, all for whatever “gold” lay undiscovered there.

"They would do this through establishing trade routes into places not seen yet. There were countries and lands such as the Americas that had not been seen by Europeans yet, and were still unnamed by anyone. North and South America, and all of the Caribbean islands, were simply there, waiting for something to happen."

Is the author nullifying the then local populations of the continent across the Atlantic, all of them - because they were not European?

Height of racism.

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"Christopher Columbus was not the first explorer to ever reach the far shores of North America; as far back as the 11th century the Vikings, headed by Leif Erikson, had skirted the shores of Greenland and the eastern provinces of Canada. In centuries past, the Vikings had raided parts of Scandinavia, and the British Isles relentlessly.

"They never established colonies in the “New World”; merely using their superior sailing skills had been enough for the Vikings to see these lands with their own eyes. It would take another time and place for the European expansion to begin."

No, that's false. Norumbega Tower in Waltham, MA is testimony to Viking establishments along the coast.

Colonies, no, but trading posts, yes.

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Author spends rest of introduction asserting rights of exploration and stating that it's human nature to not stay in one place for long, before glorifying Columbus as a leader.

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"What is factually known about Christopher Columbus' early years is scarce indeed. He was born before October 31, 1451, in the Republic of Genoa, which is in modern Italy. Over a dozen towns have claimed to be Columbus' birthplace, but Genoa seems to be the most authentic. Columbus' father had a little house there.

"Some say he was born in the city of Genoa and others say it was the province of Genoa. Even Columbus says in his diary that he was born in the city itself and even today there is a house with an iron tablet placed on it which says in Latin “no house is more to be honored than this, in Christopher Columbus spent his boyhood and his early youth.”"

Herein author discourses on how life was then miserable - until Black Death came and ravaged Europe.

"Where once there were more than enough people to do a job, now there were very few. This meant better opportunities for everyone. Skilled crafts flourished while now there was an abundance to eat and harvest. Suddenly, people had money in their pockets. In order to spend that money, they needed new goods and services to be created.

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"Thus was born the Renaissance, or re-birth. This period in history, which began in Italy and spread to all of Europe, was marked by a desire everywhere to make life better for everyone. Slowly, a middle class was emerging, one that was different from peasant life and which became vital in the new ways that towns and cities were organized.

"During the 14th to the 16th centuries, many new inventions and discoveries would be created. Not only was life being made easier, but now man's quest for greater things outside his scope was beginning to emerge like never before. New ways of doing things were being introduced into everyday life; paper, printing, painting, learning, music, and literature were all being transformed by masters who had the vision and fore-thought to create new realities."

Here author fails to acknowledge debt to the traders of silk route who had brought a number of manuscripts from India, and Arab and Jewish scribes who had copied manuscripts and preserved them.

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"This was the new world that Columbus was born into. Italy, being a seafaring land because of its many ports all along the Mediterranean Sea, meant that sailing and the quest for new adventures was always on someone's mind.

"Columbus' father, Domenico Columbo, was a middle-class wool weaver. He also owned a cheese stand where Christopher helped out when he was growing up. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. Almost nothing is known of her life aside from the fact that she bore her husband five children: Cristoforo, Bartolomeo, Giovanni, Giacomo, and Bianchinetta."

Seriously?

What else is known of most women of the time, or for that matter, of era before say, Marie Curie?

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"Just prior to this time, of course, most people believed the world was flat. From early Greek and Roman days, the belief in a round world had been introduced, yet anyone who said so in the 15th century would have been looked on as quite mad."

Because church had taken the European civilisation back to a primitive state where they could terrorise populations into imposed creeds.

"As with most ideas, everything old is new again, and suddenly the idea of a round world was becoming more popular. Who better to talk to about this than the actual sailors who sailed the seas? It is very possible that Christopher picked up many of his ideas from these seafaring men. Obviously, this idea stuck with him, as he would make every effort in his life to prove it true.

"By the time he was fourteen, Columbus was hired on as a sailor for intermittent trips for the Centurione family. In between, he would help his father in the wool business. By 1473, Columbus was an ordinary sailor on a Mediterranean ship heading for the Greek island of Chios, which was owned by Genoa. In May 1476, he was part of an armed group that carried valuable cargo to northern Europe. While on this trip, he saw England and Ireland.

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"In the following year, 1477, he may have gone as far as Iceland. In this year he also sailed on a Portuguese ship from Ireland to Portugal. Here he ran into his brother Bartolomeo, and both brothers continued sailing for the Centurione family.

"Sailing on the highs seas in the fifteenth century was hard and dirty work. For any young boy who ventured to sea, he learned how to be a man very quickly. Carrying cargo was a troublesome business; shipowners hired out their crafts and crew to anyone for just about anything. From kings who were at war with one another to the slave trade and fighting pirates, being on board a vessel in these days could very well mean your life."

Author describes his moving to Spain and settling in Lisbon.

"It was very advantageous for Columbus that he was now based in Lisbon. Every time he looked out on the waters, he saw the vast Atlantic Ocean. At this time it was called the “Sea of Darkness,” so unknown was it to anyone."

Or, for the simpler reason that it was West.

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"Even though Columbus had no formal education, it was at this time that he read numerous books and taught himself Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian. He also read everything he could find about astronomy, geography, and history. These included works by Ptolemy and Marco Polo. It was as if this man was readying himself for something much bigger than even he could have imagined"

Clear hero worship there and based only on the falsehood taught at school about his having 'discovered the continents across Atlantic, whereas it's now known that he wasn't even the first European to have done so - even if, as per racist version of history, natives of the continent are pretended to be non-existent - or of no more account than flora and fauna.

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"Long before Christopher Columbus was even born, there was another Portuguese man who sought waterways to distant lands. His name was Henry the Navigator. There were many who believed that if a sailing vessel went too far into the oceans that it would be lost forever and never return to land. Others believed ships would fall off at the horizons.

"Henry believed none of this and set out to prove himself correct. He established an observatory in the most southwesterly part of Portugal, then invited esteemed astronomers, scientists, and geographers to come see. From here he sent out sailors equipped with the best navigational instruments of the day, so they need not fear the waters’ edge.

"These early expeditions began fifty years before Columbus ever set foot in Portugal. Most of Henry's sailors sailed south; they found the Azores and Madeira Islands and made their ways down the western coast of Africa. He believed, as did many learned men in Europe, that there was a way to India without heading into the Atlantic Ocean."

But India was known to be in East, before China, so why would they confuse it with crossing Atlantic?

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"By 1422 there was a Portuguese captain who bravely pushed on and eventually rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the rocky point of land where the Atlantic Ocean gives way to the Indian Ocean.

Again, funny - Arabs had traded with southern west vast of India, why would Vasco de Gama go to Calcutta which then wasn't anything more than a temple on a large river?

" ... Gama landed in Calicut on 20 May 1498. ... "

Oh, so author is too ignorant to know the difference! Calicut is in Kerala on West coast in South, now back to original name Kozhicode, while Calcutta is in East in Bengal.

And the city named Vasco in Goa has nothing to do with Vasco de Gama except Goa was colonized by Portugal.

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"So Columbus was enlivened by all that Henry the Navigator had brought to the ideas of lands far away over the oceans. He would be determined to find a water route once and for all time.

"Europeans had always enjoyed a safe land route to the Indies and China, known as the Silk Road. This was where valuable goods, spices, silks, as well as exotic fabrics and foods, were brought back by explorers as they made their ways over land through these regions. Then in 1453, the city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire, making the Silk Road a dangerous and difficult journey. Now it was up to sailors to find another route."

But, with rare exceptions of Marco Polo and two of his family members, European travellers or traders did not until then travel this route, only Arabs or other Asians did!

Is author, of this volume too, really a high school dropout?

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That should be 'lay', not "lied".

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Again, sloppy writing.

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"So, it's no small wonder that Christopher Columbus headed to Lisbon. This was the city in Portugal where anyone who wanted to learn all there was to know about ocean navigation would gather.

That, indeed, is the key to his sailing west.

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And now back to racism it is. US style, whereby the words "India", "Indian" are used as generic terms for anything not European, Chinese or African.

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Columbus wanted sanctuary from inquisition, for Jews of Europe, who were facing persecution of inquisition.

Hence search for a route via ocean to India.

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"Finally, in 1486, Columbus had sought and received an audience with the monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. He presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who promptly turned them over to a committee. This council too declared that Columbus' figures were wrong and that his calculations were very underrated. They advised the queen to forget about funding Columbus' dream. Strangely enough, the queen did give Columbus funds to live off of, and a letter which he could use in any town or city, saying all food and lodging was to be free. They really didn't want him to go too far away."

"All Columbus could do was to wait patiently. He continued to lobby the Spanish court and was most insistent on speaking again with the monarchs. Most people who had heard of Columbus' plans thought him either a fool or a heretic; certainly, someone who was out for the king's money. However, there were a few who became his good friends. One was a learned scholar monk, named Diego de Deza. Another powerful friend who interceded for Columbus was the Marchioness of Moya, who was Queen Isabella's dearest friend.

"In 1488, Columbus was ready to take himself back to King John of Portugal. When Ferdinand and Isabella heard about this, they feared he would take his good idea away from them, and they convened a hearing where all of Spain's most educated men would hear about Columbus' plan to sail westward. If enough of them agreed that this venture sounded like a good one, the king and queen would give Columbus his ships and crew. Just as the meeting was to get underway, it was postponed, due to other pressing government affairs."

" ... At last in April of 1492, Columbus signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. This granted the titles of Admiral of the Ocean Sea, the Viceroy, the Governor-General, the honor of the title of Don, and the tenth part of all riches to be obtained to be kept by Columbus.

"Perseverance had won the day. Years of waiting and hoping and gaining new friends had paid off at last. Christopher Columbus would travel to Palos, a small town in southwest Spain, where his three ships awaited him. His dream was about to come true."

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"“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”

"—Andre Gide"

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"The Spanish crew had little to no experience venturing out into any waters past the Azores. They had no schooling at all, like those sailors Columbus had encountered in Portugal; men who had been going out on sailing expeditions for seventy years or more, always venturing just a little further."

" ... Some of the first to enlist were criminals, who felt it better to take their chances on the high seas, where they might be devoured by some ocean monster than to rot away in a Spanish prison. They had been told that their sentences would be commuted to the time they spent on the voyage and for two months afterward.

"Some of the more respectable sailors were reluctant to join this crowd, but were finally persuaded by one of the monks in the region. At last, Columbus had his crew and his three caravels. These were small, roundish craft, very popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They had double towers in their sterns and single ones in the bows. Columbus wanted smaller vessels, because he knew these would be better at navigating close to shores and travelling up rivers."

" ... August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos. His instruments included a lodestone, a compass, and an astrolabe, which helped him take the altitude of the sun. Beyond this, Christopher Columbus had his knowledge of astronomy and only his experiences observing wind and water aboard previous voyages. Once past the Azores, these three little clunky ships would be on their own. There was no calling home!"

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"On September 6, the three ships departed the islands and sailed out into the “Ocean Sea.” A strong storm delayed their heading out as Columbus desired, but at last they were truly on their way. Into the middle of September they sailed, and according to Columbus’ diary, the crew saw a brightly-colored bird one day and seaweed another day; these things gave them hope they were not far from land.

"By the end of September the ships had sailed into the Sargasso Sea. This sea has no coastlines and sits in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, adrift with seaweed and other drifting vegetation. This again reassured the crew, as they believed they were coming ever closer to land. By September 25 Martin Pinzon, the captain of the Pinta, called out that he saw land. Columbus, hearing this, fell on his knees in thanks, then proceeded to look for the land proclaimed.

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"Slowly they scanned the horizon, but there was no land to see. All the next day they kept looking at land which never seemed to get any nearer. Then by days’ end the “land” rose up; it was nothing but low-lying clouds. There was no land the next day or the next; the crews began grumbling, and one morning when Columbus came on deck he realized that his helmsman had turned the Santa Maria eastward and all the crew was standing there looking most disgusted.

"No one was hurt, no one was hanged, no one was thrown overboard, and the crisis died down. By October 10, they were seeing birds flying over their ships. Martin Pinzon had noticed that the birds were coming from the southwest, and suggested to Columbus that he change his course, which he did. Then there were branches seen floating by, and during the night of October 11, Columbus thought he saw a light from afar; he called a few sailors to verify, and one agreed, while another did not. Columbus reminded the crew that the first one of them to spot land would be rewarded with money from the monarchs.

"It was 2:00 a.m. on October 12, when a lookout from the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana, cried out “land! land!” and land there was. As dawn became brighter, it revealed a pretty green island ahead of them. Columbus remembered that he had first seen a light the night before, so he was the one who claimed the pension money promised by the king and queen to the first person to spot land.

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"Columbus’ crew believed they had reached some island off of the coast of Asia. Columbus had mistakenly believed that Asia lay much closer than it actually did. ... "

Columbus, according to some sources, did know he was nowhere near India, but made his men swear falsely.

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"Word spread like wildfire throughout Spain and the rest of Europe that Columbus had seen the New World. It was March 15, 1493, ... "

Again, that's no different from say, Chinese calling all Europeans, and descendents of European migrants too, including US citizens - Russian.

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"No sooner had Christopher Columbus finished being celebrated in Barcelona as the hero of the New World, plans were on for a second, and more grand, voyage. Columbus wanted to get underway as quickly as possible, but one thing or another delayed their departure, from not finding the right supplies to shipowners bargaining for a better deal because it was Columbus they were selling to.

"This time around it seemed as if everybody wanted to be a passenger. Two thousand people applied for the ocean voyages and Columbus reportedly interviewed every one, thus causing more of a delay.

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"Finally on September 24, 1493, the second voyage got underway. This caravan was seventeen ships strong, with approximately 1500 men. On the shores behind them, were the cheering crowds happy to be seeing off a great explorer and his retinue.

"Passengers included priests, farmers, and especially those who were looking for gold. Many of them would be the colonists of the New World. Some of the voyagers included free black Africans who arrived in the Indies before the slave trade started a decade later.

"Upon leaving Spain, Columbus again headed for the Canary Islands, as he had on the first trip. There he loaded up on goats, pigs, and other domestic animals, which would help to stock the new lands. Then they were off in a more southwesterly course, heading for the Caribbean islands.

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" ... By Sunday, November 3rd, they spotted land. This island Columbus named Domenica, Latin for Sunday. Later in the day, he landed at an island just to the north and claimed it, along with five or six others, for Spain."

Because natives were considered non-human, consequently up for ownership on par either land, flora and fauna, by Europe? Of course!

"For about a week Columbus explored the island of Guadalupe. There didn't seem to be anyone but women and children here, and to their utter disgust, Columbus and his crew discovered there was cannibalism on these remote islands. "

Did anyone ever think of asking natives, how disgusting they found the presumptuous new arrivals who took prisoners to carry them back as trophies? Not to mention "claming" their land for Spain!

"Instead of proceeding south, the fleet turned north, and Columbus came upon a number of islands, many of which he named. Some of the islands Columbus named are Montserrat (named for a monastery in Spain), Antigua (named for a church in Seville, Spain), Redonda (named for the island's round shape), Nevis (named for Our Lady of Snows), Saint Kitts (for St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers and sailors), Saint Eustatius (named for the Roman martyr), Saba (named for the Queen of Sheba), Saint Martin and Saint Croix (meaning cross)."

"They found La Navidad a blackened ruin, and there were a few dead bodies lashed to poles, which gave Columbus and his crew some idea of what had happened there. They eventually came upon 11 corpses of the 39 people who had been left there. Columbus was understandably upset, but continued on anyway.