It was on this day in 1492 that the Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus made his landfall in the New World. Backed by the Spanish monarch King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, he had set sail two months earlier, to find a sea route to China, India and fabled gold and spice islands.
Instead he landed in the Bahamas and became the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.
In the same month, Columbus sighted Cuba which he believed to be China. In December, the expedition found Hispaniola which he thought might be Japan. There, he established Spain’s first colony in the Americas with 39 of his men. In March, 1493, the explorer returned to Spain in triumph bearing gold, spices and “Indian” captives.
Most educated Europeans during the days of Columbus understood that the world was round but they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed. As a result Columbus and his contemporaries assumed that only the Atlantic lay between the Europe and the riches of the East Indies. So he called the indigenous people he met on the island “Indians”.
He crossed the Atlantic several more times before his death in 1506. By his third trip he realised he had not reached Asia but had stumbled upon a continent previously unknown to Europeans.
Many countries celebrate the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas as an official holiday as a way of honouring Columbus’ achievements. The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792. In many parts of the Americas, Columbus Day has evolved into a celebration of the Italian-American heritage. Local groups host parades and street fairs, featuring colourful costumes, music and Italian food.
However, there are many who are opposed to the celebration of Columbus Day. Several anti-immigrant groups in the USA have rejected the holiday because of its association with Catholicism. Native Americans and others protest the celebration of an event that had indirectly resulted in the colonisation of the Americas and the death of millions of indigenous people by diseases brought in by European settlers, warfare, slavery, massacres and torture.
Columbus’ landing is also observed as the Day of the Race in Latin America, as the Day of Indigenous Resistance in Venezuela, and as Discoverers’ Day in Hawaii and the Bahamas.
