Originally setting out to find an easier
path to Asia, he hoped to find a way
around the Muslim-dominated trade
routes of the Middle East. To do this he
sailed west across the Atlantic with all his
crew.
After sailing for 36 days,
on the 12th of October
1492 they reached
an island which
Columbus names
'San Salvador.'
They had reached
the Bahamas, and
upon doing so,
the explorer and
his sailors forced
the natives they
encountered into
slavery.
Columbus named the
natives 'Indians', as he believed he
had landed in 'the Indies.' At first some
Native American tribes were happy to see
new people and Columbus gifted them
with cheap presents and bells, while he
claimed their islands for Spain.
The arrival of Europeans also brought
infectious diseases to the indigenous
people, including smallpox and influenza,
which devastated the population.
Growing warfare between the Native
Americans and the colonist only
increased the number of deaths.
Columbus never set foot in North
America and unbeknown to
him, he was beaten to the
Americas over 500
years before by the
Vikings.
Even though
Columbus day
was made into a
national holiday
in 1937 in America,
Native Americans
have protested the
celebration of an event
that directly resulted
in the death of millions of
Native Americans.
In 2002 Venezuela renamed the holiday
Dìa de la Resistencia Indìgena ('Day of
Indigenous Resistance), to recognise
native people and their experience.
Columbus didn't discover a new world or
new land, he explored and exploited land
that was new to the Europeans.
12
ISSUE 97 / 2017
GUESTLIST
Christopher Columbus, born during the Renaissance in 1451,
would later become the man known for "discovering" the
'New World.'
COLUMBUS DAY, THE DAY OF
INDIGENOUS RESISTANCE
