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08-10-2012, 11:25
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Now based on Florida's West coast
Boat: Pearson 34-II
Posts: 2,467
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Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
In roughly 1000 AD, Leif Erickson established a base at L'Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland and probably traveled as far south as Chesapeake Bay. Prior to that, the Vikings had established colonies in Greenland and Iceland. In 1424, Portuguese cod fishermen had sailed the waters of the New World as revealed in a new map/chart www.americanheritage.com/.../was-america-discovered-columbus discovered recently by cartographers. Columbus sailed to the New World (Bahamas-probably Semana Cay) in 1492. Why does History teach that Columbus discovered the New World when, in fact, others had been there before him? Does it matter?
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08-10-2012, 11:33
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 382
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
And of course First Nations have been living here since time immemorial. We don't have Columbus Day up here but continuing the myth is ridiculous IMHO. Time to tink about renaming this holiday I think... Lots of incredible Americans and true history to be acknowledged/ celebrated.
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08-10-2012, 11:39
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hayes, Virginia
Boat: 1962 28' Pearson Triton
Posts: 289
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
I've helped develop about eight history courses, from kindergarten to high school, and we never say Columbus discovered America. Or the New World. His arrival in the New World, however, IS an important event in history.
__________________
Jay White
S/V Dove
1962 Pearson Triton, #318
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08-10-2012, 11:42
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#4
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Marine Service Provider
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: north carolina
Boat: command yachtsdouglas32
Posts: 3,113
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triton318
I've helped develop about eight history courses, from kindergarten to high school, and we never say Columbus discovered America. Or the New World. His arrival in the New World, however, IS an important event in history.
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Depends on what side of the Atlantic you are indigenious too!..
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08-10-2012, 11:48
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: U.S., Northeast
Boat: Contessa 32
Posts: 1,594
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
And why all this talk about the Vikings and Portuguese fishermen? People have migrated accross the Bering land bridge and established colonies in the Americas as early as 30,000 BC!
The significance of Columbus is that his voyages of discovery were well documented and publicized and opened the door for the European colonization of the Americas. Neither the Vikings nor the other pre-Columbian "discoverers" have accomplished this and so their historical impact was much less significant.
__________________
... He knows the chart is not the sea.
-- Philip Booth, Chart 1203
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08-10-2012, 11:49
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: ontario canada
Boat: grampian 26
Posts: 1,743
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triton318
I've helped develop about eight history courses, from kindergarten to high school, and we never say Columbus discovered America. Or the New World. His arrival in the New World, however, IS an important event in history.
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Especially if you happen to be Native American. 
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08-10-2012, 11:58
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Hayes, Virginia
Boat: 1962 28' Pearson Triton
Posts: 289
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Quote:
Originally Posted by tropicalescape
Depends on what side of the Atlantic you are indigenious too!..
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Not really. Regardless, it was an historically important event. True...if you were a Native American, the results were tragic.
__________________
Jay White
S/V Dove
1962 Pearson Triton, #318
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08-10-2012, 12:41
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: St. Georges, Bda
Boat: Rhodes Reliant 41ft
Posts: 4,131
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Not bad recognition when you consider:
A. He couldn't get his own country to support him
B. He was "contracted" by a foreign power
C His basic exploratory concept was incorrect
D He didn't land in the country which is the only one that honors him
and E--its named after an Italian. Ciao!!
__________________
so many projects--so little time !!
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08-10-2012, 12:42
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between the devil and the deep blue sea
Boat: a sailing boat
Posts: 20,412
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
IMHO it is fair to say he did. Sort of like the modern history of Americas took off with his navigations.
b.
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08-10-2012, 13:23
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Maryland
Boat: Valiant 42
Posts: 284
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Columbus Day Holiday was created in 1937 as a way for Roosevelt to shore up the Italian American vote. There has been a suggestion to change the name to ' explorers day'.
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08-10-2012, 13:25
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#11
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cruiser
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Tampa Bay area
Boat: Hunter 31'
Posts: 5,731
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy
And why all this talk about the Vikings and Portuguese fishermen? People have migrated accross the Bering land bridge and established colonies in the Americas as early as 30,000 BC!
The significance of Columbus is that his voyages of discovery were well documented and publicized and opened the door for the European colonization of the Americas. Neither the Vikings nor the other pre-Columbian "discoverers" have accomplished this and so their historical impact was much less significant.
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It's "history by sound bytes."
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08-10-2012, 13:51
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#12
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Moderator... short for Cat Wrangler

Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: San Francisco
Boat: Cal 28 Flush Deck
Posts: 5,559
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Quote:
Originally Posted by svpattyd
Columbus Day Holiday was created in 1937 as a way for Roosevelt to shore up the Italian American vote. There has been a suggestion to change the name to ' explorers day'.
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Around here it's Indigenous People's Day
Indigenous People's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
__________________
Sara
ain't what ya do, it's the way that ya do it...
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08-10-2012, 13:57
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#13
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cat herder, extreme blacksheep
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: furycame alley , tropics, mexico for now
Boat: 1976 FORMOSA yankee clipper 41
Posts: 18,967
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
columbus plundered in the name of spain and the church. as the church wrote the history books, there was praise for columbus who did his privateer job quite well for queen isabella and the catholic church. sad thing he did.
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08-10-2012, 13:59
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: NZ
Posts: 44
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Columbus (or at least his reputation) seems to have been very lucky in how well history had treated him.
He was apparently a good sailor although not a very pleasant person to serve under. Probably James Cook was better in both respects.
There seem to have been the Irish Papars living in Iceland before the Norse arrived (nothing to do with the reputed Brendan the navigator).
There's also indications the Chinese may have found North America before Columbus.
Some evidence too that Polynesian navigators may have visited South America and possibly North America well before Columbus. They certainly colonized Easter Island, which looking at a map, must have been a pretty remarkable undertaking. Easter Island, or Rapanui, was for years said to have been "discovered" by the European Jacob Roggeveen, although more lately he's just acknowledged as the first European visitor. Columbus wasn't even that for North America, perhaps he was for the Caribbean Islands and a bit of the South American coast.
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08-10-2012, 14:27
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Philippines in the winters
Boat: It’s in French Polynesia now
Posts: 11,358
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Re: Columbus Day: The Myth Continues
Here in Seattle it's just a day off for the post office and bankers. 
But down in Ballard it a whole different story. 
.
__________________
Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend, but the Kisses of the Enemy are Deceitful! ........
The measure of a man is how he navigates to a proper shore in the midst of a storm!
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