The Life of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus, Cristobal Colon or Cristofo Colombo all refer to the same man who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in search for gold and other valuable treasures for the kingdom of Spain. His intentions were to reach India and China, something that Marco Polo had achieved centuries earlier by traveling along the Silk Road. Polo was merely an observer of the cultures he encountered and he also created excellent relations with the far eastern governments.

But Columbus had other goals in mind. He wanted to be the "Christ-Bearer", to spread the Christian faith to all corners of the world and to become something like Jesus Christ himself. By doing this he wanted to raise the name of Columbus to nobility and make himself one of Spain's most prominent figures. He wanted to exceed Marco Polo's achievements by reaching India and China by sea and thus reaching his destination far faster than Polo. But as we all know now he mistakenly confused the Americas for India and thus today we call the natives of the Americas "Indians".

Even though Columbus is the best know western explorer of the New World, he was not the first. According to Badertscher, the Vikings lead by Leif Erikson had established a small colony on Labrador called "Vinland" approximately in 1000 A.D. The misconception that Columbus was the man that discovered the Americas is still a huge problem today. The fact is that the Americas were inhabited by the indigenous people way earlier than Columbus was even born.

Before the year of 1492, the year the first Europeans set foot on the Americas, the "New World" had a larger population than Europe, with Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) being the largest and most advanced city. Unlike European cities Tenochtitlan had fresh running water, botanical gardens and perfectly clean streets for its time. In the eye of the natives Columbus was an ignorant man who was blinded by his own goals and dreams to commit such a mistake of ignoring the beauty of the indigenous cultures that had flourished in the Americas for thousands of years.