In 1492, Columbus
sailed the ocean blue. After 33 long days at sea, his three small ships, a
minuscule Spanish Armada, hit land on an island in the West Indies.
The world would never be the same.
The Grand Jouney
In 1492, Columbus
sailed the ocean blue. After 33 long days at sea, his three small ships, a
minuscule Spanish Armada, hit land on an island in the West Indies.
The world would never be the same.
Christopher Columbus thought he had found a new trade route
to the profitable ports of Asia, famed for such luxuries
as gold, gems and spices, with their terrific mark-up potential. But ‘twas not
so – Instead Columbus had landed with his band of about 90 sea-hardened men on
the tiny Bahamas island of San Salvador, initiating the “Columbian Exchange,”
an earth-shattering convergence of Old World and New that transformed biology,
society, religion and culture in just about every conceivable way.
Of course, the Old World of Europe, Asia
and Africa had been charted by geographers in ancient
times, but the everyday person in these Old World
continents knew little of the world outside their immediate neighborhood.
Visits and news from distant parts was rare and precious, and the lands far
from home were often imagined as exotic, if not magical, places.
People understood even less about the world that lay beyond
the long blue horizon of the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
The first great sea voyages of the early 15th Century came from the
Portuguese, and their attempts led them to discover new routes around Africa,
thereby allowing them to avoid paying high caravan prices for eastern goods.
This new “Age of Exploration” led to similar attempts by other European powers
to find sea route directly to ports in Asia.
Columbus had a
plan. He, like all other educated Europeans of the time, knew that the world
was round, but he theorized incorrectly about the size of the earth. Thus he
thought he could reach Asia with a relatively short sea
journey to the west.
He may have been wrong, but his mistake – which continues to
be both praised and vilified today – had an enormous impact, an impact which
continues to the present day.
Travel's Easier Today
When Columbus
sailed, he used a tool called a quadrant, a forerunner of the astrolabe. This
simple navigational device helped Columbus
determine ship’s latitude by keeping its sight set on the North Star.
Luckily for you, there’s now GPS systems to do the trick.
Columbus Day Questions
I didn't get the day off ... did you??
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