The true origin of Columbus Day (easy Spanish)
Christopher Columbus brought European languages to America, including the Spanish language. What's the true story behind his trip? Did the people of Christopher Columbus' time believe in a flat Earth? Did Christopher Columbus prove that the Earth is round when he discovered America?
No. In the sixth century B.C.E., some Greeks had already realized that the Earth is round. In the third century BCE, the Greek Eratosthenes calculated the size of the Earth, and the value he calculated is quite close to the true value. By the first century of our era Romans like Pliny the Elder speak in their books of a round Earth as something completely natural.
Within the Church it was also known and accepted that the Earth is round. By the time of Christopher Columbus everyone in Europe knew that the Earth is round. People had already known it for about two thousand years, so it was nothing new.
So why didn't some people want to give Christopher Columbus support for his voyage? The problem was that Columbus wanted to reach Asia by sailing west. The people of that time did not know of the existence of America. The sea between Europe and Asia was too big.
So why was Christopher Columbus so sure that he was not going to starve to death and that he was going to reach the mainland?
The Italian Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli believed that Asia was much longer than it actually is. Furthermore, Columbus believed that the Earth itself was smaller than it actually is. According to his own calculation, the distance between Europe and Asia was not that great. People knew that Columbus' calculation of the size of the Earth was wrong, so that's why they didn't want to give him support for his voyage.
In any case, Columbus convinced the kings, left saying he was going to Asia, and arrived in what we know today as America.
So where did the legend come from that the people of Columbus' time believed that the Earth was flat, and that Columbus proved otherwise? This legend was born little by little, but the first version is in a book by Washington Irving, a writer from the United States. In 1828, Irving presented a book about Christopher Columbus called "A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus".
According to Irving's book, at a meeting in Salamanca, some of the wise men of Spain did not want to support Columbus because for them it was impossible to believe that there could be people living on the other side of the Earth, because then those people would not be children of Adam. According to Irving, these wise men used the Bible to deny the idea that the Earth was round.
This never happened. Over time the story about Columbus' voyage became more and more distorted. John William Draper, a professor at New York University, presented in 1874 a book called "History of the Conflict between Religion and Science". According to this book, the reason for not wanting to give support to Columbus' voyage was one hundred percent religious, by religious people who believed that the Earth is flat and who used the Bible to defend this position.
Andrew Dickson White, founder of Cornell University in New York, presented in 1896 a book called "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom". According to White, the world knew Columbus' warfare well: How the wise men of Spain confronted him with quotations from the Psalms, the Apostle Paul and Augustine. How his voyage proved that the Earth is round and despite this triumph the Church continued to say otherwise.
Why did Irving want to present Columbus as a hero? Nationalism.
The United States was a new country. It was literally a group of states that were united, but not so united. This country needed its own heroes, its own national icons, its own history to create an identity of national unity.
One of those icons was the goddess Columbia, as we saw in an earlier video. And the name Columbia came from Columbus, that is, Christopher Columbus. So it's easy to understand why an American would want to portray Columbus as a hero. So even though Columbus never set foot in what is now the United States, he became a hero of the United States.
Although Christopher Columbus was seen as a hero of the United States, there was also racism against Italian immigrants. In 1891 a group of 11 Italians died at the hands of a mob in New Orleans. Italy severed diplomatic relations with the United States. As part of his effort to appease the Italians, President Benjamin Harrison had the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by the Italian Christopher Columbus celebrated throughout the country in October 1892. In other words, that was the first nationwide Columbus Day in the United States.
Watch video The true origin of Columbus Day (easy Spanish) online without registration, duration hours minute second in high quality. This video was added by user Spanish Input 10 October 2021, don't forget to share it with your friends and acquaintances, it has been viewed on our site 4,142 once and liked it 114 people.