Christopher Columbus and The Caribbean Region

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“Tell me, what do you see?” asked Columbus, shooting a glance out of a window. Sánchez pausing to look then answered, “I see rooftops, I see palaces, I see towers, I see spires that reach... to the sky! I see civilisation!” Many people largely believe that Christopher Columbus was the first to discover the Americas in 1492. However, from a Eurocentric point of view, a white race of Europeans known as the Vikings or the Norsemen which means ‘people of the north’ discovered the Americas in 1000 AD long before Columbus in 1492. Furthermore, considering world civilisation defined as a global linkage of countries through knowledge, trade, discovery, interaction and culture. An analysis of the Vikings versus Christopher Columbus discovering the Americas reveals that the Caribbean region was formerly part of world civilisation before 1492.

To begin with, the last Moorish province in Spain, Granada dramatically yielded to the conquering forces of Ferdinand and Isabella on January 2nd, 1492. This marked the end of 800 years of Moorish enlightenment and the beginning of the Columbian era. Nine months later on October 12th, 1492, Christopher Columbus Italian ‘Admiral of the ocean seas’ had some ineffectual occasions persuading King John II of Portugal to finance his plan of sailing west to reach the riches of the east, and to Christianized the unbelieving inhabitants in those strange lands, but had failed in his many attempts. In fact, the Portuguese Bishop of Ceuta argued that there could be no inhabitants on the other side of the world because the Bible said so. But back in Spain, Columbus cleverly presented his argument to Ferdinand and Isabella and was successful in his attempt. Hence they authorized his plan. So in early August 1...

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...n 1492, what did Columbus really do?

Available from http://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/CX5032-Columbus.htm (October 14, 2011)

Brian L. Moore, B. W. Higman, Carl Campbell, and Patrick Bryan,

Slavery, freedom and gender: the dynamics of Caribbean Society, pg. 285-286,

(October 16, 2011)

The First Canadians, Who discovered North America? Part 2 Explorers of Canada - A. Early

Exploration, Available from http://www.odawa.org/CFPJr/index.php/A._Early_Exploration, (October 19, 2011)

Early Atlantic Explorers, the Viking Age: 793 – 1066 AD,

Available from http://www3.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/site9/Jeff/vikings_homeland_is_scandinavian.htm, (October 19, 2011)

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact,

Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_trans-oceanic_contact, (October 19, 2011)

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