CHAPTER ONE DISCOVERING THE AMERICAS There is a popular account of the Americas discovery As the story goes Europeans in 1492 thought the world was flat But Italian explorer Christopher Columbus had a theory He believed that Earth was actually round He thought he could reach China and India by traveling west instead of east This would prove the world was round In 1486 Columbus approached King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain He asked them to fund his journey They said Images of Christopher Columbus sometimes show him as a hero
no at first but eventually agreed As the story goes Queen Isabella had to sell some of her jewels to come up with the money Columbus set sail in August 1492 with three ships These ships were the Niña Pinta and Santa María By October he reached land He was in a new place He had discovered the Americas THE TRUTH ABOUT COLUMBUS The story of Columbus and his discovery is one of the most famous tales in history But the popular telling of it is also problematic Columbus did not discover the Americas Indigenous peoples had been living there long before Columbus arrived He also wasn't the first European to visit the Americas A group of Norse people called the Vikings had made the trip 500 years earlier Queen Isabella did not sell her jewels to pay for the voyage The monarchs borrowed money to pay for it Columbus even contributed some of his own money Columbus also wasn't the first person to suggest that
the world was round Many educated Europeans already knew this Columbus was also not the hero that many stories make him out to be On the Caribbean island of Hispaniola Columbus met the Taino people They treated him with kindness and generosity He seized their land for Spain Many Taino people PERSPECTIVES THE FATHER OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION Columbus's story is filled with mistakes and cruelty But Columbus's flawed legacy lives on in many ways Several other European nations made the journey to the Americas after Columbus France Great Britain and the Netherlands also colonized the region Today many places bear Columbus's name For example the US capital is called Washington DC DC stands for the District of Columbia It is named for the famous explorer For better or worse Columbus changed history were killed in this process Those who survived were forced into slavery Columbus's arrival was marked by cruelty and terror
