The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and “Indian” captives in March 1493, and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court.

He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. On October 12, the expedition sighted land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas, and went ashore the same day, claiming it for Spain. On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where he was also rejected at least twice by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his “Enterprise of the Indies,” as he called his plan. However, Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world’s size, calculating that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed). Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus’ day did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire, as were many land routes. He became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China), India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. Little is known of his early life, but he worked as a seaman and then a sailing entrepreneur. He explored the West Indies, South America and Central America, but died a disappointed man, feeling he had been mistreated by his patron, King Ferdinand of Spain.Ĭolumbus was likely born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Columbus was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century. The Columbus Controversy demonstrates aspects of critical teaching about Columbus, some of it described in Bill Bigelow’s article, “ Discovering Columbus: Re-reading the Past,” and can be used in middle school, high school, and teacher education classes.On May 20, 1506, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain. The Columbus Controversy also features Zinn Education Project co-director Bill Bigelow - then a teacher at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon - who “steals” a student’s purse and engages his class in reflecting on the problematic use of the word “discovery” to describe Columbus’s arrival in the Americas and his occupation of Taíno land.

The film contrasts the views of Seneca historian, writer, and activist John Mohawk and University of Chicago historian William McNeill, who reflect on the legacy of Columbus. The Columbus Controversy: Challenging How History Is Written is a short film released during the Columbus Quincentenary in 1992. “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” But then what?

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