Columbus sailed the ocean blue…

October 12th is the traditional Columbus Day.  It is the day that an Italian Navigator landed on the islands of the Caribbean.  Christopher Columbus was funded by Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.  Spain needed riches and just the thought of a way to the treasures of  the Indies was enough encouragement.  These people were looking for a good PR event in the middle of financial problems, wars and  typical minority issues – like the Moors!  Since a week-end is involved, we celebrate the famous “1492”  holiday – today the 11th!

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/queenisabella.htm

Some people seem to think that October 12th was the birthday of Christopher Columbus…that is wrong.  http://thinkexist.com/birthday/august_26/

Actually, Columbus and Queen Isabella were born the same year 1451.  An interesting note in all of this is that the “Spanish Inquisition” was button-holed right in the middle of finding the “New World”.  The “Santa Hermandad”…or handpicked rabinical brotherhood was established basically to rid the Spanish Royals of  bothersome nobles that didn’t fully approve of their various policies.  It was also easy to then appropriate their lands, riches and any other property while questioning and testing their religious zeal.  http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westeurope/spaninqui.html

A few years back there was a huge controversy about  Italians, Columbus Day celebrations and the like.  How anyone can blame the messenger for the problems of the world seems ludicrous…but palpable in a world that seems to find victimization around every corner.  In Godfather II, a Senator praised the contributions  of Italian Americans including the work of Enrico Fermi.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Fermi

All in all, there are plenty of real culprits to blame, in a world loaded with essential problems.  We should probably start the process by blaming the Dutch Slavers, who were the first to bring  their human cargo kidnapped on the west coast of Africa to the community of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619.  They found a wanting group of English businessmen and Landowners that needed to outsource their labor needs in an unhospitable “New World”.    It was the first attempt at “Trickle Down Economics”.  The English created something called “Mercantilism”.  It was maybe the first Hedge Fund…so they could control trade to and from the New World.  The basis of that business model was the buying and selling of slaves!  The Arabs had been doing this for hundreds of years…and it was a proven method that also seemed to work great, without much personal exposure or danger of bad public relations issues.  Pay off some professional soldiers to go into villages in Africa, steal everything and kidnap the people and take  them to the “New World” which needed workers!  http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/chapter5section4.rhtml

By the founding of the 13 Original Colonies in America,.everyone had been founded and had survived and flourished on Slavery!  You have to wonder whether Christopher Columbus was blamed in the press?  You have to give those Colonists some credit however;  Life was not easy….moving the Native populations off their land, so that they could make a buck.  No pun intended!  The truth of the matter is that twice as many settlers died at the hands of American Indians, than soldiers and civilians that perished in our great Civil War!  Moving people off their land can be a costly and bloody endeavor.  The Apaches, Sioux, Commanche, Iraquois and others proved that!

The Western Expansion, the Louisiana Purchase, The Mexican War, The War of 1812, The Purchase of Alaska in 1867….all these things can be blamed on Columbus…but then “no good idea goes unpunished” they say!

Finally, Queen Isabella passed away in 1504…Columbus 1506.  Their fates seemed intertwined in some way.  http://columbus-day.123holiday.net/christopher_columbus.html

So, as we celebrate what some seem to think is just another excuse for a bank and post office holiday….the true meaning might be  a little deeper!  “Vidi, Veni, Vici”  was placed on every Marlboro cigarette pack:  “I came, I Saw, I Conquered!”  Don’t forget Virginia was the home of American Tobacco which was a huge cash crop that was sent to the Old  World.   The entire history of America is based on what Christopher Columbus accomplished.  It seems Chris will never get the real credit he deserves!  But we can easily blame that on British Mercantilism!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism

Happy Columbus Day Pisan!