Discovery of America

We explain what the discovery of America was like, its history, causes and consequences. Also, why is it called America.

What was “the discovery of America”?

When we talk about the “discovery of America”, we refer to the first time European explorers reached the shores of the American continent which until then they were unaware of.

This historic event took place on October 12, 1492 when an expedition of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, led by the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time and set foot on American soil.

The arrival of Columbus and other European explorers began a process of profound political, economic, social and cultural transformation in both American and European societies. For this reason, some historians mark with this event the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Age.

Why is it called “discovery”?

At the moment, The concept of “discovery of America” is under debate for several reasons. On the one hand, because talking about “discovering” implies knowing something that until then was unknown.

However, the continent was widely populated; It is estimated that the American population was around 50 million people. On the other hand, there is material evidence that Nordic European peoples would have sailed between the islands in the north of the continent, and even inhabited some of them, from the 10th century onwards.

The voyages of Christopher Columbus

During the 15th century, the different European powers competed with each other both for access to new natural resources and to goods produced in other parts of the world. In this context, the exploration of the unknown world, both for the conquest of territories and for The creation of new trade routes became especially important.

Until mid-century, Spices, silks and other luxury goods were brought from the East (China and India) through the well-known “silk road”; However, this road was disabled when the Ottoman Empire conquered the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453.

The navigator Christopher Columbus wanted to find a new route to China and India. At the time, some calculations estimated that the Earth's diameter was small enough to navigate. Columbus believed that if he sailed steadily westward, he could circumnavigate the world and reach the East.

In order to carry out his expedition, he went to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, who decided to finance his trip and grant him three ships: the caravel Niña, the caravel Pinta and the ship Santa María.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus's expedition set out from the Port of Palos, in southern Spain. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean and, after two months, found himself in American territory. On October 12, the sailors arrived at the island of Guanahani, which they later named San Salvador.

From there, They continued exploring the Caribbean region, reaching Cuba and later the island of Hispaniola (which currently makes up the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). On December 24, the caravel Santa María ran aground on its coast, and explorers used its remains to build the first construction on American soil, which they called Fort Navidad.

The first Christian Spaniards living on American soil were left in this first settlement. In January 1493, the troops began their return to Spain, believing that on their journey they had reached the East and without knowing that, in reality, it was another continent.

The success of his first voyage assured Columbus that the Catholic Monarchs would finance another voyage with the aim of establishing Spanish rule over the discovered territories and continuing on the path towards China and India. The second expedition left on September 24, 1493 and, after two months, arrived at the American Islands. Its crew members toured the archipelago of the Lesser Antilles and named some of its islands “La Deseada”, “Dominica”, “Guadalupe” and “Antigua”.

Upon landing on Santa Cruz Island, the Spanish were attacked by Carib warriors. Upon reaching Hispaniola, the sailors found that Fort Navidad had been burned and the Christian Spaniards had been executed, under the command of the Carib chief Caonabo. Columbus ordered a new foundation, which he called La Isabela, and the construction of another fort that was also destroyed by the Carib Indians.

Then, they toured the islands of Juana (today Cuba) and Santiago (today Jamaica) and headed south. In March 1496, after some problems with its crew and looting of American populations, the expedition finally began its return to Europe.

In 1498 Columbus undertook a third voyage this time he arrived on the island of Trinidad around the month of July. He visited the Gulf of Paria and the mouth of the Orinoco River (today in Venezuela), landscapes that he described in his diary with enormous surprise due to their beauty.

Later, he toured the Venezuelan islands of the Nueva Esparta State (today Margarita, Coche and Cubagua), where he founded the pearl settlement of what later became the city of Nueva Cádiz. Upon his return to Hispaniola, Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains by sailors dissatisfied with his command.

Columbus's fourth and last voyage to America took place between 1502 and 1504 with a prohibition on setting foot on Hispaniola and the mission to find a strait on those new coasts that would allow the way to China and India. By then, the Spanish still believed that these territories were part of Asia.

On this occasion, Columbus explored the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, territories where he established contact with the Mayan peoples, who introduced him to cocoa.

The Columbian expeditions were often marked by conflict between their crew members and the scarcity of resources. They were, furthermore, expeditions to conquer territories that were populated and that often offered resistance.

After those four great voyages, other so-called “minor voyages” were made, thanks to which the Venezuelan coast was explored. In them, Amerigo Vespucci understood that it was an entire continent, different from Asia and not just a group of islands.

These “minor voyages”, also called “Andalusian”, were not commanded by Columbus, but by other sailors with whom the Spanish crown wanted to snatch Columbus's monopoly over the new continent. Among these sailors, Pedro Alonso Niño, Andrés Niño, Bartolomé Ruíz, Alonso Vélez de Mendoza, Diego García de Morguer, Juan Ladrillero and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, among others, stood out.

What was there in America when Columbus arrived?

When the European explorers arrived, The American continent had been populated for more than 15,000 years. By the end of the 15th century, hundreds of cultures inhabited the north, center and south of the continent. The attitude of the American settlers towards the Spanish navigators was not uniform; rather it depended on one's own visions and needs. On many occasions the Europeans were attacked and the local tribes resisted the construction of Spanish forts and settlements on their lands.

The Spanish explorers and navigators led by Columbus did not get to know the Aztec Empire that inhabited Central America nor to the Inca Empire of the Andes. They believed that these “West Indies,” as they were called, were Asian islands near China.

Causes of the discovery of America

The factors that motivated the arrival of the Spanish to America were economic, political and social, and had to do both with what was happening in Europe and with distant events in the Middle East. Among the main causes, we can find the following:

• Spain's need to find a direct trade route to Cathay (China) and India, to have access to spices, incense and other goods highly valued in Europe, but which were only accessible through the Silk Road.
• The growing influence of the Ottomans in the Middle East, which, after their conquest of Constantinople, made any attempt at a commercial route through the Middle East more expensive, which limited Europe's commercial possibilities with eastern nations.
• The context was conducive to navigators and explorers, whom the different European states financed with the aim of extending their own influence beyond their territories.
• The competition of the Spanish crown with the Portuguese, since this nation of sailors had discovered, through numerous voyages across the Atlantic, the Azores and Madeira islands. Part of this competition between the two kingdoms was also the Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands.

Consequences of the discovery of America

Following the arrival of European explorers to the American continent, different consequences developed that in the following centuries transformed the world as it was known until then, both in America and in Europe, Africa and Asia:

• The conquest of America. European exploration of American territory and its subsequent colonization began, which led to bloody wars of conquest that decimated the native American population, toppled local empires (particularly the Aztecs and the Incas) and forever changed destiny. of America.
• European colonial expansion. Initially, the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal were those who claimed the largest lands in America. Spain installed three viceroyalties, and created a large colony on the continent. Then, the British Empire conquered the northern lands of the continent, and other colonial empires (such as France, Holland, Sweden and Germany) also took over smaller portions of the new American lands.
• Refinancing of the Kingdom of Spain. The Spanish monarchy had access to unexpected riches, thanks to the tons of gold, silver and other materials extracted from America after the conquest, as well as the commercial control of its American colonies. These riches allowed Spain, among other things, to become involved in the wars it subsequently waged against its European rivals.
• The development of the Atlantic African slave trade. Once America was conquered, the European colonial system lacked manpower, and they supplied it with people snatched from the African continent as slaves. These individuals, coming from different ethnicities, nations and traditions, contributed a unique cultural background to the nascent American culture.
• The food exchange. The incorporation of the numerous foods and edible materials of America into the European and global diet revolutionized the culinary culture of the West forever. Potatoes, corn, cocoa, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, peanuts, vanilla, chili peppers, avocados, tobacco and rubber were products that America contributed to the entire world. In turn, American cultures inherited European foods and ways of eating, such as wheat, oats, barley, rye, and sugar cane.
• The incorporation of new animal species. With the conquest, species never before seen locally arrived in America, such as the horse, donkey, beef, sheep, pig, chicken and rabbit. This caused the extinction of some local species and the incorporation of many of these new species into the American ecosystem.
• The foundation of Latin American culture. With the arrival of Columbus and the violence that followed, the cultural process was born that, over 500 years, would give rise to the culture and nations of Latin America, unique in the world for their combined heritage of American traditions, African and European.

Why was it called America?

The Spanish came to America thinking they were in India. In fact, for a long time this continent was called the West Indies.

The name America began to be used in 1507, in honor of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci thanks to its introduction in the cartographic treatise Cosmographiae Introductio by Mathias Rigmann and Martin Waldseemüller. Initially, the name applied only to South America.

Prominent figures of the discovery of America

Some prominent figures in the discovery of America were:

• Christopher Columbus (1451-1506). Italian navigator and cartographer, later admiral, viceroy and governor general of the West Indies in the service of the Crown of Castile, he was the “discoverer” of America. His idea of ​​reaching the Far East through the sea was what allowed the arrival of Europeans to the “New World”.
• The Catholic Monarchs. Isabel I of Castile (1451-1504) and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) were kings of Spain in the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age, after uniting their crowns and beginning the Spanish Monarchy. During his reign, the conquest of the Kingdoms of Granada (Nasrid) and Navarra, the Canary Islands and Melilla was achieved, and practically the territory that the Spanish nation has today was reached. It was they who financed Columbus's expedition to the Far East.
• Americo Vespucci (1454-1512). Famous explorer, merchant and cosmographer of Florentine origin (later nationalized as Castilian) he participated in at least two of the “Minor Voyages” to the American continent, which today pays tribute to him with his name. His enormous fame is also due to his major cartographic works, such as Mundus novus (1503) and Letter to Soderini (1504).
• Rodrigo de Triana (?-1526 or 1535). Really named Juan Rodríguez Bermejo, this Spanish sailor was part of Columbus's crew on his first voyage to America, and he is credited with the first glimpse of the new continent, which he announced under the cry of “Earth in sight!” or “Earth, earth!” Much is unknown about this character, who is believed to have been the son of a Moorish nobleman dedicated to pottery, or perhaps a citizen of the Triana neighborhood in Seville.

race day

Traditionally, in Latin America (and also in the United States) The day of Columbus's arrival to the continent is commemorated on October 12 of each year. This custom was inaugurated in the 20th century and had as its initial motivation the celebration of a new cultural identity: Latin American, the result of the synthesis between Spain, Africa and the native American peoples.

Although its traditional name has been “Race Day,” There is a debate about what this commemoration should be called which varies by country and culture. For example, in Spain the name “Hispanic Day” or “National Holiday Day” is chosen, while in the United States it is called “Columbus Day” (“Columbus Day”).

Among Latin American nations, the choice is usually made between “Day of the Meeting of Two Worlds”, a concept widely criticized for alluding to a kind of idyllic or friendly meeting, when in reality it turned into a bloody war; the “Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity”, with a more conciliatory tone ; or the “Day of Indigenous Resistance”, in frank commemoration of the peoples defeated during the war of conquest.

References

• “Discovery of America” on Wikipedia.
• “The discovery of America” on TVP Argentina.
• “The discovery of America” (video) on Academia Play.
• “The discovery of America” (video) in Classroom 365.
• “The arrival of Europeans to America” in National Geographic.
• “Christopher Columbus” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Raiter, B., and Rizzi, A (2008). A story to think about. Modern and Contemporary. Kapelusz Publishing House, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Laguna, JGR (2018). Brief history of Columbus's voyages. Nowtilus.
• Carmagnani, M. (2016). The other West: Latin America from the European invasion to globalization. Economic Culture Fund.