MYTHBUSTERS:
SHOWING
THE MAN…EXPOSING THE MYTHS
Columbus on the History Channel
• Columbus on the History Channel
In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus
sailed the ocean blue…
• So what was happening 500 years ago in the year 1492 in
Europe? The Spanish Inquisition was happening.
• Beginning in Spain in 1480 the Inquisition was a response to early
Protestants like Wycliffe and Hus, Jewish attempts to convert
believers, and the Moorish occupation of Spain.
• On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
demanded that all heretics be expelled from Spain. The edict
especially targeted the 800,000 Jews who had never converted,
and gave them four months to pack up and get out.
• The Jews who were forced to renounce Judaism and embrace
Catholicism were known as "Conversos," or converts. There were
also those who pretended conversion, practicing Catholicism
outwardly while covertly practicing Judaism, the so-called
"Marranos," or swine.
The Inquisition Cont’d
• Cruel Punishments: During the inquisition people who were
suspected of heresy depending on the crime, faced severe
punishment. The most merciful punishment was being hanged. Other
punishments ranged from cutting off criminals’ heads, arms, legs,
hands, or feet to being burned at the stake in front of large audiences.
Myth 1. Round Earth Discoverer
• Myth: Columbus was first to
think that the Earth was
round, all others thought
Earth was flat (Began in
Washington Irving’s
biography of Columbus in
1828)
• Truth: There is evidence that
this was known by the
Egyptians thousands of
years ago and also more
evidence provided by Greek
mathematician Pythagoras
in the 6th century B.C.E.
Science vs. the Church
• Galileo Galilei was summoned before the Roman
Inquisition in 1632 to explain his public defense of the
Copernican system, earlier deemed heretical by the
church. He was condemned to perpetual house arrest and
silence on the issue.
• Trials like Galileo’s shows the conflict between scientific
reason/free speech and the Catholic church.
• Philosopher Giordano Bruno wasn’t as lucky as Galileo;
he was burned at the stake for his radical ideas about the
possibility of an infinite universe with multiple worlds.
The Church’s Views on the Scientific
Revolution
Myth 2. He was the
first to sail to the New
World
• Myth: Sea exploration began with Europeans in the 1400’s…
• Fact: There is evidence of many other cultures exploring the
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world by ship before Columbus’s time.
Evidence that Egyptians and Phoenicians sailed around Africa
in 600 B.C.E.
Accounts of two Native Americans shipwrecked in Holland in
60 B.C.E.
The Viking expeditions to Greenland, Iceland around 1000
Indigenous peoples living in Americas when Columbus landed.
Myth 2 Continued...
• Altogether, Columbus sailed on four
voyages to the new world.
• The first voyage, Columbus reached an
unknown Caribbean Island in October
1492 which he named Hispanola. (Modern
day Haiti)
• Each subsequent voyage were to islands
in the Caribbean or what was then called
the West Indies.
Myth 2 continued…
• Strong evidence that West Africans arrived in Mexico as early as 900 B.C.
exists in the presence of Olmec heads.
• 17 Olmec heads made of basalt each standing approx 3 meters tall are all along the
eastern coast of Mexico dated around 900 B.C.
• When Columbus reached Haiti, the Natives had spear points made of guanine
(identical to a material made by West Africans) of which they told Columbus they
had received from black traders
• Traces of diseases common in Africa have been detected in corpses in Brazil, dating
before Columbus
These rock
heads are called
Olmec heads and
are located in
Mexico
So apparently Columbus was NOT the
first to discover America!
 How can you really discover something that is already
populated and owned by people??
A Life in Controversy: Other Theories on
Christopher Columbus
Facts about life are very uncertain
• Historians debate that Columbus
might been originally Jewish but
converted to Christianity
• He is said to have been born in
Genoa, Italy but some historians
suggest he may have been from
Portugal
• Could not write in Italian
• In his last will and testament he asked
for one tenth of his wealth to be given
to poor Jews in Lisbon
 After asking other countries like his own
native country Italy to sponsor his voyage and
being denied, Columbus finally received the
financial backing from King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabel of Spain for a voyage. Yet during
this time period Ferdinand and Isabella were
hosting the Inquisition which openly targeted
Jews. Based on this information many suspect
Columbus might have secretly been Marranos.
Myth 3. Columbus went in search of spices
Columbus upon arrival immediately began
searching for gold and personal exploits.
When Columbus could not locate gold, he created
a tribute system.
 Every three months, every person of 14
years old or upward had to pay so much gold
dust or 25 pounds of cotton. If the native did
so, he received a brass or copper token to
wear around his neck.
 If an indigenous person was found without
the medallion he was punished.
 In 1501, Columbus sent slaves from Haiti to Spain. Even more
were made slaves for colonists in Haiti.
Slavery was not uncommon during this time. Many Native Americans had
slaves, as did Africans, and Europeans. However, this did cause other
countries to become interested in capturing the American indigenous
people to sell for slavery.
Although Columbus viewed the Natives favorably,
his motives for them were not
October 12, 1492:
They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat
very quickly what we say to them. I think they can easily be
made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases
Our Lord, I will take six of them to your Highness when I
depart.
 Columbus first read to the Natives what was called the Requirement, a
document that all Spaniards read after landing on an island, justifying their
later treatment of these people:
I implore you to recognize the Church as a lady and in the name of the Pope take
the King as lord of this land and obey his mandates. If you do not do it, I tell you
that with the help of God I will enter powerfully against you all. I will make way
everywhere and every way that I can…The deaths and injuries that you will receive
from here on will be your own fault and not that of his majesty nor of the
gentlemen that accompany me.
Reality of Columbus’ Voyage to the
New World…
• In Haiti, the indigenous population before Columbus
arrived was 8,000,000
• By 1555, the indigenous population was gone.
Reasons: Disease from the Europeans (Smallpox); Indians
forced into hard labor in mines rather than in fields to grow
their foods; Many of the indigenous people committed suicide
because of poor condition.
 Tonight:
Read primary source
document on the Wikispace by
Bartolome De Las Casas. (This
must be done outside of class
because the activity & your grade
will be based on this reading)
 Tomorrow:
We will go over the effects of
Columbus’s “discovery” of America.
References
• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557573/Spain
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/70387/The-Spanish-Inquisition
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Inquisition.aspx
http://www.ancient.eu/article/672/
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/
http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbuscontroversy