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History Of Panama

History of Panama

Panama had a rich Pre-Colombian heritage of native populations whose presence stretched back over 12,000 years. The earliest traces of these indigenous peoples include fluted projectile points. Central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making villages in the Americas, such as the Monagrillo culture dating to about 2500-1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations that are best known through the spectacular burials of the Conte site (dating to c. AD 500-900) and the beautiful polychrome pottery of the Coclé style.

Post 1500s

In 1501, Rodrigo de Bastidas from Seville, who had accompanied Colombus on his second voyage to the Americas, sailed westward from the Atlantic side of present day Colombia in an attempt to reconnoiter the coastline of the Caribbean basin. Though the poor condition of his ships forced him to turn back and return to Santo Domingoto to effect repairs, de Bastidas would reach La Punta de Manzanillo on Panama's upper Caribbean coast before having to abandon his effort. He is acknowledged to be the first European to have claimed that part of the isthmus, which includes the famous San Blas region of the Cuna. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by Chibchan and Chocoan peoples, among whom the largest group were the Cueva (whose specific language affiliation is poorly documented). A year after de Bastidas's arrival to Panama and on his fourth trip to the Americas, Christopher Columbus would sail south to the isthmus from the northern, present day Central American states of Honduras and Costa Rica. Colombus produced hand drawn maps of Panama's coastline and unlike de Bastidas explored Panama's western territories. He landed at a place that is today called Almirante and proceeded along the coast to a part of the territory he would name Veragua meaning 'to see water'. He continued his coastal journey up to the River Chagres, taking refuge in a natural bay he christened Portobelo. This site would become a key port for colonial Spain in 1597 replacing Nombre de Dios which had burned and had proven to be vulnerable to attack. Colombus ended his exlorations at Del Retrete having spent just shy of two months in what would be Panama. Vasco Núñez de Balboa who had been aboard de Bastidas's ship in 1501, made a hard fought and tortuous trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1513 and was able to verify what indigenous people had reported, that the isthmus had another coast and that there was another ocean. Balboa would call it the South Sea though it was later renamed the Pacific. A recurring theme in Panama's history has been the relation of the isthmus to the emergence of a world economy. Balboa's verification that there was another ocean that could be reached by crossing the isthmus helped encourage Panama's use by colonial Spain as a crossroads and marketplace for seized Peruvian treasures, Spanish goods, contraband (goods and trade not approved by the Spanish crown) supplies, people, conscripted and enslaved labor, all of which were distributed throughout the Spanish colonial territories. The success of the Spanish was in stark contrast to the devastation of indigenous peoples. By the late 17th century, Cueva culture had all but disappeared. Mining techniques included the looting of Indian cemeteries for the pre-Colombian gold treasures they contained. Gold and silver were brought by ship from South America, hauled across the isthmus, and loaded aboard ships for Spain. The route became known as the Camino Real, or Royal Road, although was more commonly known as Camino de Cruces (Road of the Crosses) because of the frequency of gravesites along the way. Panama was part of the Spanish Empire for 300 years (1538-1821) and Panamanian fortunes fluctuated with the geopolitical importance of the isthmus to the Spanish crown. Panama's importance would would wane significantly towards the end of the 17th century and fade almost altogether by the middle of the 18th as Spanish influence and power in Europe decreased and as Spanish ships began to increasingly go round Cape Horn to reach the Atlantic. While the Panama route was short it was also labor intensive and expensive because of the loading and unloading and laden-down trek required to get from the one coast to the other. The Panama route was also vulnerable to attack from pirates (mostly Dutch and English) and from 'new world' Africans called Cimarrons who had freed themselves from enslavement and lived in communes or palenques around the Camino Real, in Panama's Interior and on some of the islands off Panama's Pacific coast. In 1821 the isthmus joined with Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador to form 'Gran' or Greater Colombia and became the Department of the Isthmus in the latter. This territory more or less corresponded to the old colonial administrative district called the Viceroyalty of New Granada. In September of 1830, under the guidance of General José Domingo Espinar, the local military commander who rebelled against the nation's central government in response to his being transferred to another command, Panama separated from Greater Colombia and requested that Simon Bolivar take direct command of the isthmus department. It made this a condition to its reunification with the rest of the country. Bolivar rejected Espinar's actions, and though he did not assume control of the isthmus he desired and called for Panama to rejoin the central state. Because of the overall political tension, Greater Colombia's final days were approaching. Bolivar's vision for territorial unity disintegrated finally when General Juan Eligio Alzuru undertook a military coup against Espinar's authority. By early 1831 with order restored, Panama had reincorporated itself to what was left of Greater Colombia, which had adopted the name the Republic of New Granada. By July 1831, as the new countries of the Venezuela and Ecuador were being established, the isthmus would again declare its independence, now under General Alzuru as supreme military commander. Abuses committed by Alzuru's shortlived administration were countered by military forces under the command of Colonel Tomás Herrera, resulting in the defeat and execution of Alzuru in August, and the reestablishment of ties with the rest of New Granada. In November 1840, during a civil war that had begun as a religious conflict, the isthmus under the leadership of now General Herrera declared its independence as did multiple other local authorities. Panama took the name of 'Estado Libre del Istmo', or the Free State of the Isthmus. The new state established external political and economic ties and by March 1841, had drawn up a constitution that included the possibility for Panama to rejoin New Granada, but only as a federal district. By the time the civil conflict ended and the government of New Granada and the government of the Isthmus had negotiated the Isthmus's reincorporation to the union the Isthmus had been independent for 13 months. Reunification happened on December 31 1841. Under a federalist constitution that was later brought up in 1858 (and another one in 1863), Panama and other constituent states gained almost complete autonomy on many levels of their administration, which led to an often anarchic national state of affairs that lasted roughly until Colombia's return to centralism in 1886 with the establishment of a new Republic of Colombia. As was often the case in the new world after independence, the local administrative and political structures were controlled by the remnants of the colonial aristocracy. In the case of Panama, this elite was constituted by a group of under ten extended families. Though Panama has made enormous advances in social mobility and racial integration, it is still true that much of Panama's economic and social life is controlled by a small number of families. The derogatory term rabiblanco ("white tail"), of uncertain origin, has been used for generations to refer to the usually Caucasian members of the elite families. In 1852 the isthmus would adopt trial by jury in criminal cases and 30 years after abolition would finally declare and enforce an end to slavery. In 1855, the first Transcontinental railway of the New World, the Panama Railway, was built across the isthmus from Colón to Panama City to transport fortune hunters who wanted quick passage to the gold fields of California. The existence of the railroad made speculation about a Panamanian canal feasible.

Building the Canal

Modern Panamanian history has been shaped by the reality of transisthmian commerce, and by the possibility of a canal to replace the difficult overland route. In the 1520s and 1530s, the Spanish crown ordered surveys of the isthmus to determine the feasibility of such a canal, but the idea was soon abandoned. From 1880 to 1889, the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique under the direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had successfully built the Suez Canal, attempted to construct a sea-level canal in the same general area as the present Panama Canal. The company faced insurmountable health problems such as yellow fever and malaria as well as engineering challenges caused by frequent landslides, slippage of equipment and mud. In the end the company failed in a spectacular collapse which caused the downfall and incarceration of many of its financial backers in France. A new company was formed in 1894 to recuperate some of the losses of the original canal company. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt convinced U.S. Congress to take on the abandoned works in 1902, but the Republic of Colombia balked at U.S. terms. With American connivance, a plot was hatched among the handful of Panamanian landholding families to detach themselves from Colombia. The USS Nashville was dispatched to local waters around the city of Colón to deter any resistance from Bogotà and so, on November 3, 1903, with United States' encouragement and French financial support, Panama proclaimed its independence. Less than three weeks later, Panama signed the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty with the United States. The treaty allowed for the construction of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land 10 miles wide and 50 miles long, (16 kilometers by 80 kilometers) on either side of the Panama Canal Zone. In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity." The Panama Canal was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914; the existing 83-kilometer (50-mi.) lock canal is considered one of the world's greatest engineering triumphs. On January 5, 1909 the government of Rafael Reyes in Colombia signed and presented to its Congress a treaty that would officially recognize the loss of its former province, but the matter was dropped due to popular and legislative opposition, without any ratification being achieved. Different negotiations continued intermittently until a new treaty was signed on December 21, 1921 which finally and formally accepted the independence of Panama.

Military Coups and Coalitions

From 1903 until 1968, Panama was a constitutional democracy dominated by a commercially oriented oligarchy. During the 1950s, the Panamanian military began to challenge the oligarchy's political hegemony. In October 1968, Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid, twice elected president and twice ousted by the Panamanian military, was again ousted as president by the National Guard after only 10 days in office. A military junta government was established, and the commander of the National Guard, Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos, emerged as the principal power in Panamanian political life. Torrijos' regime was harsh and corrupt, but he was a charismatic leader whose populist domestic programs and nationalist foreign policy appealed to the rural and urban constituencies largely ignored by the oligarchy. Torrijos died in a plane crash on August 1 1981. The circumstances of his death generated charges and speculation that he was the victim of an assassination plot. Torrijos' death altered the tone but not the direction of Panama's political evolution. Despite 1983 constitutional amendments, which appeared to proscribe a political role for the military, the Panama Defense Forces (PDF), as they were then known, continued to dominate Panamanian political life behind a facade of civilian government. By this time, Gen. Manuel Noriega was firmly in control of both the PDF and the civilian government, and had created the Dignity Battalions to help suppress opposition. On September 7, 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal and the fourteen US army bases from the US to Panama by 1999 apart from granting the US a perpetual right of military intervention. Certain portions of the Zone and increasing responsibility over the Canal were turned over in the intervening years. Despite undercover collaboration with Ronald Reagan on his Contra war in Nicaragua (including the infamous Iran-Contra Affair), which had planes flying arms as well as drugs, relations between the United States and the Panama regime worsened in the 1980s. The United States froze economic and military assistance to Panama in the summer of 1987 in response to the domestic political crisis and an attack on the U.S. embassy. General Noriega's February 1988 indictment in U.S. courts on drug-trafficking charges sharpened tensions. In April 1988, President Reagan invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, freezing Panamanian Government assets in U.S. banks, withholding fees for using the canal, and prohibiting payments by American agencies, firms, and individuals to the Noriega regime. The country went into turmoil. When national elections were held in May 1989, the elections were marred by accusations of fraud from both sides. An American, Kurt Muse, was apprehended by the Panamanian authorities, after he had set up a sophisticated radio and computer installation, designed to jam Panamanian radio and broadcast phony election returns. However, the elections proceeded as planned, and Panamanians voted for the anti-Noriega candidates by a margin of over three-to-one. The Noriega regime promptly annulled the election and embarked on a new round of repression. By the fall of 1989, the regime was barely clinging to power. When Guillermo Endara won the Presidential elections held in May 1989, the Noriega regime annulled the election, citing massive US interference. Foreign election observers, including the Catholic Church and Jimmy Carter certified the electoral victory of Endara despite widespread attempts at fraud by the regime. At the behest of the United States, the OAS convened a meeting of foreign ministers but was unable to obtain Noriega's departure. The US began sending thousands of troops to bases in the canal zone. Panamanian authorities alleged that US troops left their bases and illegally stopped and searched vehicles in Panama. During one such search, a firefight broke out between US Marines and Panamanian soldiers, a US Marine was killed. On December 20, 1989, the United States invaded. The U.S. troops involved in Operation Just Cause achieved their primary objectives quickly, and troop withdrawal began on December 27. The US was obliged to hand control of the Panama Canal over to Panama on January 1 due to a treaty signed decades before. Endara was sworn in as President at an US military base on the day of the invasion. Noriega is now serving a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking. Estimates as to the loss of life on the Panamanian side vary between 500 and 7000. There are also claims that US troops buried many corpses in mass graves or simply threw them into the sea. For different perspectives, see references below. Much of the Chorillo neighborhood was destroyed by fire shortly after the start of the invasion. The entire Panama Canal, the area supporting the Canal, and remaining US military bases were turned over to Panama on December 31 1999.

Politics and institutions after Noriega

On the morning of December 20 1989, a few hours after the beginning of the invasion, the presumptive winner of the May 1989 election, Guillermo Endara, was sworn in as president of Panama at a U. S. military installation in the Canal Zone. Subsequently, on December 27, 1989, Panama's Electoral Tribunal invalidated the Norieiga regime's annulment of the May 1989 election and confirmed the victory of opposition candidates under the leadership of President Guillermo Endara and Vice Presidents Guillermo Ford and Ricardo Arias Calderón. President Endara took office as the head of a four-party minority government, pledging to foster Panama's economic recovery, transform the Panamanian military into a police force under civilian control, and strengthen democratic institutions. During its 5-year term, the Endara government struggled to meet the public's high expectations. Its new police force proved to be a major improvement in outlook and behavior over its thuggish predecessor but was not fully able to deter crime. In 1992 he would have received 2.4 percent of the vote if there had been an election (according to a poll). Ernesto Pérez Balladares was sworn in as President on September 1, 1994, after an internationally monitored election campaign. Pérez Balladares ran as the candidate for a three-party coalition dominated by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), the erstwhile political arm of the military dictatorship during the Torrijos and Norieiga years. A long-time member of the PRD, Pérez Balladares worked skillfully during the campaign to rehabilitate the PRD's image, emphasizing the party's populist Torrijos roots rather than its association with Noriega. He won the election with only 33% of the vote when the major non-PRD forces, unable to agree on a joint candidate, splintered into competing factions. His administration carried out economic reforms and often worked closely with the U.S. on implementation of the Canal treaties. On May 2, 1999, Mireya Moscoso, the widow of former President Arnulfo Arias Madrid, defeated PRD candidate Martín Torrijos, son of the late dictator. The elections were considered free and fair. Moscoso took office on September 1, 1999. During her administration, Moscoso attempted to strengthen social programs, especially for child and youth development, protection, and general welfare. Education programs have also been highlighted. More recently, Moscoso focused on bilateral and multilateral free trade initiatives with the hemisphere. Moscoso's administration successfully handled the Panama Canal transfer and has been effective in the administration of the Canal. Panama's counternarcotics cooperation has historically been excellent (in fact, officials of the DEA praised the role played by Manuel Noriega prior to his falling-out with the U.S.) The Panamanian Government has expanded money-laundering legislation and concluded with the U.S. a Counternarcotics Maritime Agreement and a Stolen Vehicles Agreement. In the economic investment arena, the Panamanian Government has been very successful in the enforcement of intellectual property rights and has concluded with the U.S. a very important Bilateral Investment Treaty Amendment and an agreement with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The Moscoso administration was very supportive of the United States in combating international terrorism. In 2004, Martín Torrijos again ran for president but this time won handily.

Eternal links

- [http://www.skepticfiles.org/socialis/panamahs.htm THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF ANTI-U.S. SENTIMENT IN PANAMA: A BRIEF SUMMARY, 1825-1985] at [http://www.skepticfiles.org/ Skeptic Tank] ja:パナマの歴史

Pre-Colombian

The term Pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the New World in the era before significant European influence. While technically referring to the era before Christopher Columbus, in practice the term usually includes indigenous cultures as they continued to develop until they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or even centuries after Columbus first landed in 1492 CE. The term Pre-Columbian is used especially often in discussions of the great indigenous civilizations of the New World, such as those of Mesoamerica (e.g., the Aztec and Maya) and the Andes (Inca, Moche, etc).

Pottery

Pottery is a form of ceramic technology, where the clay is formed into vessels, generally with utilitarian purposes in mind. The production of pottery is a process where wet clay is shaped and allowed to dry. The formed clay, or piece, may be "bisque fired" in a kiln to harden it, and then fired a second time after adding a glaze or a piece may be once fired by applying appropriate glaze to the dry unfired clay and firing in one cycle.

Types of pottery

Aesthetic and artistic considerations have often been part of the formation of the pottery vessels, however modern mass production techniques have replaced the traditional role of pottery with mechanized reproduction, which has in turn caused the potter to be more focused on the aesthetic than the utilitarian in industrialized nations. Traditionally, different world regions have produced different types of clay, also called bodies, with the potter digging clay out of natural banks in his own 'back yard.' In modern times, potters will often combine different clays and minerals to produce clay bodies suited to their specific purposes. Pottery that is fired at temperatures in the 800 to 1200 °C range, which does not vitrify in the kiln but remains slightly porous is often called earthenware or terra cotta. Clay formulated to be fired at higher temperatures, which is partially vitrified is called stoneware. Fine earthenware with a white tin glaze is known as faience. Porcelain is a very refined, smooth, white body that, when fired to vitrification, can have translucent qualities. Complex extremely high-fired ceramics, where the glaze and body fuse completely, are generally referred to as "products of ceramic technology." Ceramic technology is used for items such as electronic parts and Space Shuttle tiles.

Techniques

Space Shuttle).]] A person who makes pottery is traditionally known as a potter. The potter's most basic tool is his or her hands, however many of their tools have been created over the long history of pottery, including the potter's wheel, various paddles, shaping tools (or ribs), slab rollers, and cutting tools.

Forming techniques

There are three basic categories of forming techniques used in pottery—handwork, wheel work, and slipcasting. It's very common for wheel-worked pieces to be finished by handwork techniques. Slipcast pieces tend not to be, as that negates one of the prime advantages of casting. Handwork methods are the most primitive and individual techniques, where pieces are constructed from hand-rolled coils, slabs, ropes, and balls of clay, often joined with a liquid clay slurry. No two pieces of handwork will be exactly the same, so it is not suitable for making precisely matched sets of items such as dinnerware. Doing handwork enables the potters to use their imagination to create one-of-a-kind works of art. These methods are often referred to as "handbuilding". art.]] The potter's wheel can be used for mass production, although often it is employed to make individual pieces. The process of making ceramic ware on the potter's wheel is called "throwing" or "turning." A ball of clay is placed in the center of a turntable, called the wheel head, which is turned chiefly using foot power (a kick wheel or treadle wheel) or a variable speed electric motor. Oftentimes, a disk of plastic, wood, or plaster is affixed to the wheel head, and the ball of clay is attached to the disk rather than the wheel head so that the finished piece can be removed easily. This disk is referred to as a bat. The wheel revolves rapidly while the clay is pressed, squeezed, and pulled gently into shape. The process of pressuring the clay into a radial symmetry, so that it does not move from side to side as the wheel head rotates is referred to as "centering" the clay—usually the most difficult skill to master for beginning potters. Wheel work takes a lot of technical ability, but a skilled potter can produce many virtually identical plates, vases, or bowls in a day. Because of its nature, wheel work can only be used to initially create items with radial symmetry on a vertical axis. These pieces can then be altered by impressing, bulging, carving, fluting, faceting, incising, and other methods to make them more visually interesting. Often, thrown pieces are further modified by having handles, lids, feet, spouts, and other functional aspects added using the techniques of handworking. Pottery that is thrown on the wheel is often finished in a process known as trimming. The thrown piece is first allowed to dry to the leather-hard state then it is returned to the potter's wheel, usually with the rim down. The piece must be re-centered to allow trimming of the foot of the pot to create a smooth and well-defined surface. There are two related techniques that improve repeatability of wheelwork. A jigger is a mould that is slowly brought down onto the outside of an object, while it is being turned on a wheel. A solid mould is used to form the inside of the piece. Similarly, a jogger is used to shape the inside of a piece, pressing the outside against a solid mould. Although these techniques have been in use since the 18th century, they are usually considered minor "industrial" methods by modern studio potters. There is contention among potters over whether a "jigged" piece can be considered "hand-produced." Slipcasting is probably the easiest technique for mass-production, especially for shapes not easily made on a wheel. A liquid clay slip is poured into plaster moulds and allowed to harden slightly. This slip can be formulated to mature at a variety of temperatures. Once the plaster has absorbed most of the liquid from the outside layer of clay the remaining slip is poured back into the storage tub, and the piece is left to dry. Finally, the finished piece is removed from the mould, "fettled" (trimmed neatly), and allowed to air-dry. This method is commonly used for smaller decorative pieces such as figurines, which have many intricate details. In the United States, moulds and their slipcast pieces are primarily an industrial product, and are usually called "ceramics" to distinguish them from other pottery.

Decorative and finishing techniques

ceramics.]] Additives can be worked into moist clay, prior to forming, to produce desired characteristics to the finished ware. Various coarse additives, such as sand and grog (fired clay which has been finely ground) give the final product strength and texture, and contrasting colored clays and grogs result in patterns. Colorants, usually metal oxides and carbonates, are added singly or in combinations to achieve a desired colour. Combustible particles can be mixed with clay or pressed into the surface to produce texture. Shredded fiberglass can be used as an additive to improve tensile strength in the finished piece. However, the resulting clay contains sharp fibers, is hard to work with and must be carefully handled. Throughout history, potters have used a mixture of coloured clays as a distinctive decorating technique. In traditional studio pottery in Great Britain, these techniques were known as agateware. The name is derived from the agate stone, which shows bands of colours. In Japan, various techniques for combining coloured clay on the potter's wheel are jointly known as "neriage." An analogue of marquetry can also be made, by pressing small blocks of coloured clays together, and using the resulting mosaic to create distinctive patterns. The Japanese term for this technique is nerikome. Agateware and the other varieties of 'mottled' ware are made by combining two or more colours or varieties of clay into one completed piece. Different colours of clay are lightly kneaded or slapped together before being formed into a vessal or decorative item. This method is most commonly used for handbuilt pieces. Coloured clay can also be added to a base clay after it is centered on the wheel. Although in principle any clays can be combined, differing rates of drying/shrinkage and expansion in firing create structural difficulties. It is best to select a light neutral clay body, and then add a colourant to separate portions of the same body. The different coloured clays can then be joined without significant structural problems. Members of commercial clay 'families' often have a similar chemical composition and a similar shrinkage rate, and can be used together. Burnishing, like the metalwork technique of the same name, involves rubbing the surface of the piece with a polished surface (typically wood, steel, or stone), to smooth and polish the clay. Finer clays give a smoother and shinier surface than coarser clays, as will allowing the pot to dry more before burnishing, although that risks breakage. metalwork To give a finer surface, or a coloured surface, slip can be coated onto the leather-dry clay. Slip produced to a specific recipe is sometimes called an engobe. Slips or engobes can be applied by painting techniques, or the piece can be dipped for a uniform coating. Many pre-historic and historic cultures used slip as the primary decorating material on their ware. Sgraffito involves scratching through a layer of coloured slip to reveal a different colour or the base clay underneath. If done carefully, one colour of slip can be fired before a second is applied prior to the scratching or incising decoration. Often slips/engobes used in this process have a higher silica content, sometimes approaching a glaze recipe. This is particularly useful if the base clay is not of the desired colour or texture.

Glazing and firing techniques

Glazing is the process of coating the piece with a thin layer of a glassy material (often a mix of dolomite, frit, silica/flint, feldspar, sodium borate, clay and whiting plus metal oxides or carbonates). This is important for functional earthenware vessels, which would otherwise be unsuitable for holding liquids due to porosity. Glaze may be applied by dusting it over the clay, spraying, dipping, trailing or brushing on a thin slurry of glaze and water. Brushing tends not to give very even covering, but can be effective with a second coating of a coloured glaze as a decorative technique. With all glazed items, a small part of the item (usually on the base of the piece) must be left unglazed, else it will stick to the kiln during firing. Glazes can be formulated to melt within the kiln at various temperatures called cones and denoted by a small triangle and a number, which run upwards from cone 1 at 1154 °C and backwards with a preceding 0. Cone 06, for example, is a lower temperature than cone 1 at approximately 999 °C. Glazes formulated to melt between cone 09 (~923 °C) and cone 01 (~1137 °C) are often referred to as "low fire", while glazes which melt between around cone 6 (~1222 °C) and cone 12 (~1326 °C) are called "high fire". Those which melt in the intermediate range are called "mid fire". The temperature within the kiln is often identified using small triangular Pyrometric cones of carefully formulated chemical mixtures which melt within a specific temperature range and begin to bend slightly—hence the term "cones" being used to denote temperature. Some clays and glazes are oxygen-sensitive, most notably those containing iron and copper, and will change colour depending on the presence of oxygen during the firing. Kilns can either be "oxidized" by opening a port to allow oxygen into the interior or "reduced" by closing off the kiln from outside air to attain colors as desired. A number of various firing techniques can be used in addition to normal glaze-firing. Most of these involve heating the kiln to a high temperature and then delivering an amount of dry chemical into the kiln's interior. Sulfur is commonly used, as are various salts or ashes. Such substances will stick to pieces within the kiln and melt onto their surfaces, often resulting in a mottled texture which has a distinctive "orange peel" feel. Colors generally depend on what chemical is added to the kiln. These techniques can have very unusual and frequently unexpected results whether used on an unglazed piece or in combination with normal glazing. Wood firing is another type of firing which involves using wood, rather than gas or electricity as in most modern kilns, to heat the kiln's interior. An example of a wood fired kiln is the Chinese Anagama, also adopted and used by Korean and Japanese potters. Wood firing is frequently time-consuming, as the kiln must be stoked for days, but the pieces which emerge often have characteristic patches of orange color on the clay itself, known as "blushing". The Western adaptation of Raku firing, a traditional Japanese technique, has enjoyed a deal of popularity due to its relative ease. The kiln is heated to a low temperature, usually no higher than cone 06, and then ware is pulled out of the kiln while still hot (using tongs, of course) and smothered in ashes, paper, or woodchips. This can be done in an enclosed container, which allows the supply of oxygen to be cut off and reduction to take place. The finished products of this process are not suitable for functional use, as the clay remains porous and may have some toxic chemicals held within it as a result of burning the surrounding woodchips or paper used to smother it. However, because of the low temperature, it is an extremely quick and easy technique to do, and the clay has a distinctive black color.

Production stages

All pottery items go through a series of stages during construction. # The raw clay is wedged to make its moisture and other particle distribution homogeneous and to remove air bubbles. It is then shaped either by hand or using tools such as a potter's wheel, an extruder, or a slab roller. Water is used to keep the clay flexible during construction and to keep it from cracking. # Work that is thrown on the wheel often needs to be trimmed or turned to make its thickness uniform and/or to form a foot on the piece. This process is done when the piece has stiffened enough to survive manipulation. This condition is called leather hard. # The piece is allowed to air dry until it is hard and dry to the touch. At this stage it is known as greenware. Items of greenware are very brittle but they can be handled with care. Greenware items are often sanded with fine grade sandpaper to ensure a smooth finish in the completed item. # Sometimes the greenware is given a coating of a liquid clay slip. This is most often done to give a coloured base for decoration, other than the colour of the main clay. # The greenware is often given a preliminary lower range firing in a kiln. Once it has been fired, the clay is known as biscuit ware or bisque. # Biscuit ware is normally a plain red, white, or brown colour depending on which type of clay is used. This is decorated with glaze and then fired again to a higher temperature. # Some pieces are not bisque-fired before being glazed. These pieces are called once-fired.

History

once-fired, Japan.]] Pottery is an ancient technology, and is one of the key technologies in the formation of civilization. The creation of pottery has been advanced as new tools became available to the potter, such as the electric potter's wheel and the electric kiln. Potters also take advantage of more modern innovations in the fields of chemistry and plastics. Broken pottery in archaeological sites, called potsherds, help identify the resident culture and date the stratum, by the formation style and decoration. The relative chronologies based on pottery are essential for dating the remains of non-literate cultures and help in the dating of some historic cultures as well.

Palaeolithic pottery

Pottery found in the Japanese islands has been dated, by uncalibrated radiocarbon dating, to around the 11th millennium BC, in the Japanese Palaeolithic at the beginning of the Jomon period. This is the oldest known pottery. In Europe, burnt clay was already known in the late Palaeolithic (Magdalenian) and was used for female figurines, like the "Venus" of Dolni Vestonice, as well as figures of animals.

Neolithic pottery

In Palestine, Syria, and south-eastern Turkey, the earliest finds of clay pots date from Neolithic times, around the 8th millennium BC (black burnished ware). Before that, clay had been used to make statuettes of humans and animals that were sometimes burned as well. In the preceding pre-pottery Neolithic, vessels made of stone, gypsum, and burnt lime (vaiselles blanches or white ware) had been used. Sometimes a mixture of clay and lime was used—not very successfully—in the earliest pottery.

Reference

- Hamer, Frank and Janet, The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques, A & C Black Publishers, Limited, London, England, Third Edition 1991. ISBN 0-8122-3112-0.
- Rice, Prudence M. Pottery Analysis – A Sourcebook. London and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. ISBN 0226711188.

The Americas

The Americas refers to the American landmass, comprised of the entirety of the North American and South American continents and associated lands. The term is a relatively recent and less ambiguous alternative to the name America, which may refer to either the whole American landmass or the United States of America. The former, and original, usage is now often considered archaic in English-speaking nations, but still in use in other areas, in which the Americas is often considered to form a single continent, and therefore called America (singular). An analogous term to America or (the) America(s) as used to mean a "twin (or double) continent" is the use of Eurasia.

Peoples of the Americas

Names

Main article: Use of the word American Many people living in the Americas refer to themselves as American. Meanwhile, in most of the English-speaking world (e.g., Canada), this will only refer to a citizen of the United States of America.

Ethnology

The American population is made up of the descendents of three large ethnic groups and their combinations: the native inhabitants of the Americas, being "Indians" (or "Native Americans" or "Amerindians"), Eskimos, and Aleuts; Europeans (of mainly Spanish, British, Irish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Dutch, origin); and black Africans. There are also more recent immigrants, such as from the Balkan, Central Europe and Central and Eastern Asia. The majority of the American people live in Latin America. Most of Latin America is Spanish-speaking, with Portuguese-speaking Brazil as the major exception. Canada and the United States are linguistically, culturally and economically quite different from Latin America, with the whites being more predominantly of North European ancestry. As part of the more prosperous northern world, the United States especially has long overshadowed and attempted to manipulate southern Latin America, most notably during the Cold War.

Languages

Various languages, both European and native, are spoken in America. Primary:
- - spoken by approximately 350 million people in many nations, regions, islands, and communities throughout the continent.
- - spoken by approximately 300 million in the United States, Canada, Belize and islands of the Caribbean
- - spoken by approximately 185 million in Brazil
- - spoken by approximately 7 million in Québec and 2 million in the rest of Canada; in the Caribbean, especially in Haiti; and in French Guiana.
- (avañe'ẽ) - native language spoken by approximately 6 million people in Paraguay, and regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil.
- Mapudungun (or Mapuche) - native language spoken by approximately 440,000 people in Chile and Argentina. Others:
- Aymará - native language spoken in the Andes, especially in Bolivia.
- - spoken in the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, and Suriname
- Quiché and other Maya languages - native languages spoken in Guatemala and southern Mexico.
- Quechua - native language spoken in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile and Argentina.
- - creole language, based in French and various African languages, spoken by 7.8 million in Haiti.
- Nahuatl - native language of central Mexico with 1.5 million speakers Most of the non-native languages have, to different degrees, evolved differently from the mother country, but are usually still mutually intelligible. Some have combined though, which has even resulted in completely new languages, such as Papiamentu, which is a combination of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch (representing the respective colonisers), native Arawak, various African languages and, more recently, English. Because of immigration, there are many communities where other languages are spoken from all parts of the world, especially in the United States and Canada, two important destinations for immigrants.

Naming of America

African languages The earliest known use of the name America for the continents of the Americas dates from 1507. It appears on a globe and a large map created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, explains that the name was derived from the Latinized version of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form, America, as the other continents all have Latin feminine names. However, as Dr. Basil Cottle (Author, Dictionary of Surnames, 1967) points out, new countries or continents are never named after a person's first name, always after their second name. Thus, America should really have become Vespucci Land or Vespuccia if the Italian explorer really gave his name to the newly discovered continent. Christopher Columbus, who had first brought the continents' existence to the attention of Renaissance era voyagers, had died in 1506 (believing, to the end, that he'd discovered and conquered part of India) and could not protest Waldseemüller's decision. A few alternative theories regarding the continents' naming have been proposed, but none of them have any widespread acceptance. One alternative first proposed by a Bristol antiquary and naturalist, Alfred Hudd, was that America is derived from Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497. Supposedly, Bristol fishermen had been visiting the coast of North America for at least a century before Columbus' voyage and Waldseemüller's maps are alleged to incorporate information from the early English journeys to North America. The theory holds that a variant of Amerike's name appeared on an early English map (of which however no copies survive) and that this was the true inspiration for Waldseemüller. Another theory, first advanced by Jules Marcou in 1875 and later recounted by novelist Jan Carew, is that the name America derives from the district of Amerrique in Nicaragua. The gold-rich district of Amerrique was purportedly visited by both Vespucci and Columbus, for whom the name became synonymous with gold. According to Marcou, Vespucci later applied the name to the New World, and even changed the spelling of his own name from Alberigo to Amerigo to reflect the importance of the discovery. Vespucci's role in the naming issue, like his exploratory activity, is unclear. Some sources say that he was unaware of the widespread use of his name to refer to the new landmass. Others hold that he promulgated a story that he had made a secret voyage westward and sighted land in 1491, a year before Columbus. If he did indeed make such claims, they backfired, and only served to prolong the ongoing debate on whether the "Indies" were really a new land, or just an extension of Asia.

External links

- [http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html The Naming of America]
- [http://texashistory.unt.edu/permalink/meta-pth-2422 America noviter delineata / M. Merian, fecit.] 1633 Map of North and South America, hosted by the Portal to Texas History. Category:Americas zh-min-nan:Bí-chiu ko:아메리카 ja:アメリカ州 simple:The Americas th:ทวีปอเมริกา

Rodrigo de Bastidas

Rodrigo de Bastidas (c. 1460 - July 28, 1527), Spanish conquistador and explorer. Bastidas sailed to New World from Cádiz in October, 1500, with two ships, the San Antón and the Santa Maria de Gracia. He was accompanying on this voyage by Juan de la Cosa and Vasco Núñez de Balboa.

External links

- [http://www.bruce.ruiz.net/PanamaHistory/rodrigo_de_bastidas.htm Bruce C. Ruiz on Rodrigo de Bastidas] Bastidas, Rodrigo de Bastidas, Rodrigo de Bastidas, Rodrigo de

Chibchan

Chibchan languages (also Chíbchan, Chibchano) are a language family indigenous to Colombia and Central America. The name is derived from the name of an extinct language called Chibcha or Muisca, spoken by the people who lived in the city of Bogotá at the time of European invasion. However, genetic and linguistic data now indicate that the original heart of Chibchan languages and Chibchan-speaking peoples may not have been in Colombia at all, but in Costa Rica and Panama, where one finds the greatest diversity in Chibchan languages. The Costa Rican linguist Adolfo Constenla Umaña (1981, 1991, 1995) has created a detailed classification of Chibchan languages. Most of these fall into the Southern Chibchan subgroupings of Votic, Isthmic, and Magdalenic. The following list is a slight modification of Constenla's groupings. Northern Group
- Pech (Paya, Taya, Tawka, Seco) north-central Honduras Votic Subgroup (named for the extinct Votos of northern Costa Rica)
- Rama southeastern Nicaragua
- Voto Costa Rica, extinct
- Maleku (Guatuso), north-central Costa Rica
- Corobicí northwestern Costa Rica Isthmic Subgroup
- Hüetar (Güetar), Costa Rica, extinct
- Bribri (Talamanca), Costa Rica
- Cabécar (Talamanca), Costa Rica
- Boruca (Brunca, Brunka), Costa Rica, nearly extinct
- Chánguena Costa Rica & Panama, extinct
- Teribe (Térraba, Tiribi, Teribe, Norteño, Quequexque, Naso), Panama and Costa Rica
- Movere (Move), central Panama
- Ngabere (Western - Guaymí, Valiente, Chiriquí, Ngábere; Eastern - Tolé, Chiriquí, Ngobere, Ngäbere'), Costa Rica and Panama
- Buglere (Bokota, Bogotá, Bofota, Bobota, Bukueta, Buglé, Nortenyo, Murire, Sabanero, Veraguas Sabanero), Panama
- Dorasque Panama, endangered
- Kuna (Cuna, San Blás Kuna, Paya-Pucuro Kuna, Caiman Nuevo, Dulegaya), Panama and Colombia Magdalenic Subgroup
- Chibcha (Muisca, Mosca) Colombia, extinct
- Tunebo (U'wa) Colombia
- Guamaca (Guamaka, Malayo, Marocacero, Marocasero, Maracaserro, Sancá, Sanja, Sanka, Arosario, Arsario, Wiwa, Huihua) Colombia
- Damana Colombia
- Atanques Colombia
- Ica (Arahuaco, Aruaco, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Bintucua, Ica, Ijca, Ijka, Ika, Ike, Bíntucua, Bintuk, Bíntukua, Pebu) Colombia
- Cogui (Coghui, Cagaba, Kogi, Kogui, Kaggaba, Kagaba) Colombia
- Malayo (Arsario) Colombia and Venezuela Southeastern Group
- Bari (Motilón, Motilone, Dobocubi), Colombia and Venezuela
- Chimila (Caca Weranos, San Jorge, Shimizya), Colombia Possibly related
- Cueva Panama, extinct
- Zenú (Sinú), northern Colombia
- Cofán (Kofán, Kofane, A'i), Ecuador and Colombia
- Yanomam Venezuela Constenla argues that Cueva, the extinct dominant language of pre-Colombian Panama, was Chocoan, not Chibchan, but there is little evidence to support its classification either way. Constenla also disagrees with Greenberg's (1987) classification of Yanomam as Chibchan. Cofán has been included in Chibchan due to borrowed vocabulary. Bogotá speakers assert that their language is different from Buglere and wish to be seen as a separate people (meeting of the Coordinadora Nacional de Pueblos Indigenas de Panama, 2003). A family called Macro-Chibchan is also hypothesized, which would contain the Misumalpan languages, Lenca languages, Tarascan languages, Xinca languages, Cuitlatec language, and Yanoama languages; it is argued by Joseph Greenberg to fall together with the Paezan languages in what he terms the Chibchan-Paezan subfamily of Amerind. However, many linguists regard the concept of "Macro-Chibchan" (let alone higher-level groupings) as overly hypothetical and therefore of limited value. The most significant neighboring linguistic groups, with which there are important relationships, are Misumalpan languages (to the north) and Choco languages (to the south). Needless to say, most of these indigenous languages are severely endangered and all of them require greater study and documentation.

Bibliography

- Constenla Umaña, A. (1981). Comparative Chibchan Phonology. (Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia).
- Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1991). Las lenguas del Área Intermedia: Introducción a su estudio areal. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, San José.
- Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. (1995). Sobre el estudio diacrónico de las lenguas chibchenses y su contribución al conocimiento del pasado de sus hablantes. Boletín del Museo del Oro 38-39: 13-56.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- A journal of Chibchan linguistics Estudios de Lingüistica Chibcha is published by the Universidad de Costa Rica.

Enlaces externos

- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90455 Ethnologue: Chibchan Familily]
- Category:Indigenous languages of the South American Northwest

Chocoan

The Choco languages (also Chocoan, Chocó, Chokó) are a small family of Native American languages spread across Colombia and Panama. They consist of the following groups:
- Emberan languages, with over 60,000 speakers mainly in Colombia (a fairly mutually intelligible set divided into 6 languages by the Ethnologue)
- Woun Meu language, or Wounaan, with some 6000 speakers on the Panama-Colombia border
- Anserma language (extinct)
- Runa language (extinct)
- Arma language (extinct)
- Cenu language (extinct)
- Cauca language (extinct) They are classified by Joseph Greenberg as Nuclear Paezan languages - most closely related to the Paezan and Barbacoan families - while others, seeing his conclusions as over-hasty, prefer to consider them an isolated group.

Bibliography

- Loewen Jacob, 1963. "Choco I & Choco II ", IJAL 29.
- Mortensen, Charles A. A Reference Grammar of the Northern Embera Languages. Studies in the Languages of Colombia 7. SIL Publications in Linguistics 134, 1999
- Licht, Daniel Aguirre. Embera. Languages of the World/Materials 208. LINCOM 1999.

External links

- [http://www.sil.org/americas/colombia/Language/engl_lang.htm SIL in Colombia] (includes bibliographies for several) Category:Language families Category:Indigenous languages of the South American Northwest

Christopher Columbus

__NOEDITSECTION__ :For information about the film director, see the article on Chris Columbus. Christopher Columbus (1451 – 20 May 1506) (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, Cristóvão Colombo in Portuguese, Χριστόφορος Κολόμβος in Greek, Cristòfor Colom in Catalan) was an explorer and trader who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the Americas on October 12, 1492 under the flag of Castile. History places a great significance on his landing in America in 1492, with the entire period of the history of the Americas before this date usually known as Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event, Columbus Day, celebrated in many countries in the Americas. Although there is evidence of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, and it is questionable whether one person can "discover" a place which is inhabited by other people, Columbus is often credited as having discovered America. His voyage marked the beginning of the Spanish and European colonization of the Americas. He was most likely Genoese, although some historians claim he could have been born in other places, from the Crown of Aragón to the Kingdoms of Galicia or Portugal, or in the Greek island of Chios among others.

Background

Chios Columbus believed that the Earth was a relatively small sphere, and argued that a ship could reach India via a westward course. The widespread notion that Columbus encountered opposition based on the idea that the Earth was flat is a literary myth created by Washington Irving. Educated people in Columbus's time agreed that the earth was round; anyone familiar with seafaring certainly knew it, since the roundness of the Earth forms the basis of celestial navigation. The main debate was over whether a ship could circumnavigate the planet without running out of food or getting stuck in windless regions such as the Sargasso Sea. Columbus was not the first European to reach the continent. Most historians today acknowledge the fact that Leif Ericson had traveled to North America from Iceland in the 11th century and set up a short-lived colony at L'Anse aux Meadows. There are also many theories of expeditions to the Americas by a variety of peoples throughout time; see Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact, one of the most consistent is the exploration (before 1472) of two, led by João Vaz Corte-Real to Terra Verde (today's Newfoundland). Giovanni Caboto (better known as John Cabot) was first to reach the American mainland (which Columbus did not reach until his third voyage). However, there is one thing that sets off Columbus' first voyage from all of these: less than two decades later, the existence of America was known to the general public throughout Europe. This is likely due to the invention of the printing press. Additionally, although Columbus is credited in Western classical education as the "discoverer of America" , the two continents are named after Amerigo Vespucci, who reached what is now the coast of Brazil in 1501 and whose name was first applied to the map by cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. Columbus landed in the Bahamas and later explored much of the Caribbean, including the isles of Juana (Cuba) and La Española (Hispaniola), as well as the coasts of Central and South America. He never reached the present-day United States where "Columbus Day" (The second monday of October, with 12 October being the anniversary of Columbus' landing in the Bahamas) is celebrated as a holiday. Unlike the voyage of the Icelanders, Columbus' voyages led to a relatively quick, general and lasting recognition of the existence of the New World by the Old World, the Columbian Exchange of species (both those harmful to humans, such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites, and beneficial to humans, such as tomatoes, potatoes, maize, and horses), and the first large-scale colonization of the Americas by Europeans. Columbus remains a controversial figure. Some – including many Native Americans – view him as responsible, directly or indirectly, for the deaths of tens, if not hundreds, of millions of indigenous peoples, exploitation of the Americas by Europe, and slavery in the West Indies. Others honor him for the massive boost his explorations gave to Western expansion and culture. Italian Americans hail Columbus as an icon of their heritage. It has generally been accepted that he was Genovese, although doubts have persistently been voiced regarding this. His name in Italian is Cristoforo Colombo, in Spanish is Cristóbal Colón, in Catalan it is Cristòfor Colom and in Portuguese Cristóvão Colombo. Columbus is a Latinized form of his surname. The Latin roots of his name can be translated "Christ-bearer, Dove". Columbus' signature reads Xpo ferens ("Bearing Christ"). Columbus claimed governorship of the new territories (by prior agreement with the Spanish monarchs) and made several more journeys across the Atlantic. While regarded by some as an excellent navigator, he was seen by many contemporaries as a poor administrator and was stripped of his governorship in 1500.

Early life

There are various versions of Columbus's origins and life before 1476. (See Columbus's National Origin.) The account that has traditionally been supported by most historians is as follows: Columbus was born between August 26 and October 31 in the year 1451, in the Italian port city of Genoa. His father was Domenico Colombo, a woollens merchant, and his mother was Susanna Fontanarossa, the daughter of a woollens merchant. Christopher had three younger brothers, Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo, and a sister, Bianchinetta. Bartolomeo In 1470, the family moved to Savona, where Christopher worked for his father in wool processing. During this period he studied cartography with his brother Bartolomeo. Christopher received almost no formal education; a voracious reader, he was largely self-taught. In 1474, Columbus joined a ship of the Spinola Financiers, who were Genoese patrons of his father. He spent a year on a ship bound towards Chios (an island in the Aegean Sea) and, after a brief visit home, spent a year in Chios. It is believed that this is where he recruited some of his sailors. A 1476, commercial expedition gave Columbus his first opportunity to sail into the Atlantic Ocean. The fleet came under attack by French privateers off the Cape of St. Vincent, Portugal. Columbus's ship was burned and he swam six miles to shore. By 1477, Columbus was living in Lisbon. Portugal had become a center for maritime activity with ships sailing for England, Ireland, Iceland, Madeira, the Azores, and Africa. Columbus's brother Bartolomeo worked as a mapmaker in Lisbon. At times, the brothers worked together as draftsmen and book collectors. He became a merchant sailor with the Portuguese fleet, and sailed to Iceland via Ireland in 1477. He sailed to Madeira in 1478 to purchase sugar, and along the coasts of West Africa between 1482 and 1485, reaching the Portuguese post of Elmina Castle in the Gulf of Guinea coast. Columbus married Felipa Perestrello Moniz, a daughter from a noble Portuguese family with some Italian ancestry, in 1479. Felipa's father, Bartolomeu Perestrelo, had partaken in finding the Madeira Islands and owned one of them (Porto Santo Island), but died when Felipa was a baby, leaving his second wife a wealthy widow. As part of his dowry, the mariner received all of Perestello's charts of the winds and currents of the Portuguese possessions of the Atlantic. Columbus and Felipa had a son, Diego Colón in 1480. Felipa died in January of 1485. Columbus later found a lifelong partner in Spain, an orphan named Beatriz Enriquez. She was living with a cousin in the weaving industry of Córdoba. They never married, but Columbus left Beatriz a rich woman and directed Diego to treat her as his own mother. The two had a son, Ferdinand in 1488. Both boys served as pages to Prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, and each later contributed, with fabulous success, to the rehabilitation of their father's reputation.

Columbus' idea

Christian Europe, which had long enjoyed safe passage to India and China — sources of valued goods such as silk and spices — under the hegemony of the Mongol Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol peace"), was now, after the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire, under complete economic blockade by Muslim states. In response to Muslim domination on land, Portugal sought an eastward sea route to the Indies, and promoted the establishment of trading posts and later colonies along the African coast. Columbus had a different idea. By the 1480s, he had developed a plan to travel to the Indies (then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia) by instead sailing west across the "Ocean Sea" (the Atlantic Ocean). It is sometimes claimed that the reason Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan was that Europeans believed that the Earth was flat. This myth can be traced to Washington Irving's 1828 novel, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. What was at issue was not the shape but the circumference of the earth. The fact that the Earth is round was evident to most people of Columbus' time, especially to sailors, explorers and navigators. Indeed, Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) had already in ancient Alexandrian times accurately calculated the Earth's circumference. Most scholars accepted Ptolemy's claim that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water. Columbus, however, accepted the calculations of Pierre d'Ailly, that the landmass occupied 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water. Moreover, Columbus believed that one degree represented less distance on the earth's surface than was commonly believed. Finally, he read maps as if the distances were calculated in Roman miles (1524 meters, or 5,000 feet) rather than in nautical miles (1,853.99 meters, or 6,082.66 feet, at the equator). He therefore calculated the circumference of the Earth as at most 30,600 km (19,000 modern statute miles), and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan at 2,400 nautical miles (some 4,444 km). The problem facing Columbus was that experts did not agree with his estimate of the distance to the Indies. The true circumference of the earth is some 40,000 km (24,900 statute miles of 5,280 feet each), and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan is some 10,600 nautical miles (19,600 km). No ship in the fifteenth century could carry enough food or sail fast enough from the Canary Islands to Japan. Most European sailors and navigators concluded, correctly, that sailors undertaking a westward voyage from Europe to Asia would die of starvation or thirst long before reaching their destination. Those experts were right, but Spain, only recently unified through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, and Christianized through the expulsion of the Muslims and Jews, was desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries, in trade with the East Indies. Columbus promised them that edge. Columbus was wrong about the circumference of the earth and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan. But all Europeans were wrong in thinking that the aquatic expanse between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted. Although Columbus died believing he had opened up a direct nautical route to Asia, he in fact established a nautical route between Europe and the Americas. It was this route to the Americas, rather than to Japan, that gave Spain the competitive edge it sought in developing a mercantile empire.

Columbus' campaign for funding

nautical mile Columbus first presented his plan to the court of Portugal in 1485. The king's experts believed that the route would be longer than Columbus thought (the actual distance is even longer than the Portuguese believed), and denied Columbus's request. It is probable that he made the same outrageous demands for himself in Portugal that he later made in Spain, where he went next. He tried to get backing from the monarchs of Aragon and Castile, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who, by marrying, had united the largest kingdoms of Spain and were ruling them together. After seven years of lobbying at the Spanish court, where he was kept on a salary to prevent him from taking his ideas elsewhere, he was finally successful in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, and they received Columbus in Córdoba (in the monarchs' Alcázar or castle). Isabella finally turned Columbus down on the advice of her "think tank" and he was leaving town in despair when Ferdinand lost his patience. Isabella sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered." About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, which Columbus had already lined up. Financially broke from the Granada campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made Admiral of the Ocean Sea and granted an inheritable governorship to the new territories he would reach, as well as a portion of all profits. The terms were absurd, but his own son later wrote that the monarchs really didn't expect him to return.

Voyages

First voyage

Alcázar Alcázar The year 1492, on the evening of August 3, Columbus left from Palos with three ships, the Santa Maria, Niña and Pinta. The ships were property of Juan de la Cosa and the Pinzón brothers (Martin and Vicente Yáñez), but the monarchs forced the Palos inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. He first sailed to the Canary Islands, fortunately owned by Castile, where he reprovisioned and made repairs, and on September 6 started the five week voyage across the ocean. A legend is that the crew grew so homesick and fearful that they threatened to sail back to Spain. Although the actual situation is unclear, most likely the sailors' resentments merely amounted to complaints or suggestions. After 29 days out of sight of land, on 7 October 1492 as recorded in the ship's log, the crew spotted shore birds flying west and changed direction to make their landfall. A comparison of dates and migratory patterns leads to the conclusion that the birds were Eskimo curlews and American golden plover. American golden plover Land was sighted at 2 AM on October 12 by a sailor aboard Pinta named Rodrigo de Triana. Columbus called the island he reached San Salvador, although the natives called it Guanahani. The Native Americans he encountered, the Taíno or Arawak, were peaceful and friendly. He wrote with such awe of the friendly innocence and beauty of these Indians that he inadvertently created the enduring myth of the Noble Savage. "These people have no religious beliefs, nor are they idolaters. They are very gentle and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others, nor steal; and they are without weapons.". No blood was shed on this first voyage; he believed conversion to Christianity would be achieved through love, not force. On this first voyage, Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba (landed on October 28) and the northern coast of Hispãniola, by December 5. He believed the peaks of Cuba were the Himalayas of India, which gives one a sense of just how lost he was and how long it took the peoples of the world to map the Earth. (The vast interior of the North and South American mainlands would of course be largely mapped with the leadership of native guides and interpreters.) Here the Santa Maria ran aground and had to be abandoned. He was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus founded the settlement La Navidad and left 39 men. On January 4, 1493 he set sail for home, not yet understanding the elliptical nature of the trade winds that had brought him west. He wrestled his ship against the wind and ran into one of the worst storms of the century. He had no choice but to land his ship in Portugal, where he was told a fleet of 100 caravels had been lost. (Astoundingly, both the Niña and the Pinta were spared.) Some have speculated that landing in Portugal was intentional. The relations between Portugal and Castile were poor at the time, and he was held up, but finally released. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe. He did not reach Spain until March 15, when the story of his journey was in its third printing. He was received as a hero in Spain, and this was his moment in the sun. He displayed several kidnapped natives and what gold he had found to the court, as well as the previously unknown tobacco plant, the pineapple fruit, the turkey and the sailor's first love, the hammock. Naturally, he did not bring any of the coveted Indian spices, such as the exceedingly expensive black pepper, ginger or cloves. In his log he wrote "there is also plenty of ají, which is their pepper, which is more valuable than [black] pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome" (Turner, 2004, P11). The word ají is still used in South American Spanish for chili peppers.

Second voyage

clove Columbus left from Cádiz, Spain for his second voyage (1493-1496) on September 24 1493, with 17 ships carrying supplies and about 1200 men to assist in the subjugation of the Taíno and the colonization of the region. On October 13 the ships left the Canary Islands, following a more southerly course than on the first voyage. On November 3 1493, Columbus sighted a rugged island which he named Dominica. On the same day he landed at Marie-Galante (which he named Santa Maria la Galante). After sailing past Les Saintes (Todos los Santos), Columbus arrived at Guadaloupe (Santa Maria de Guadalupe), which he explored from November 4 through November 10. The exact course of his voyage through the Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that Columbus turned north, sighting and naming several islands including Montserrat (Santa Maria de Monstserrate), Antigua (Santa Maria la Antigua), Redonda (Santa Maria la Redonda), Nevis (Santa María de las Nieve or San Martin), Saint Kitts (San Jorge), Sint Eustatius (Santa Anastasia), Saba (San Cristobal), and Saint Martin or Saint Croix (Santa Cruz). Columbus also sighted the island chain of the Virgin Islands, (which he named Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgines), and named the islands of Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and Peter Island (San Pedro). Columbus continued to the Greater Antilles and landed at Puerto Rico (San Juan Bautista) on November 19 1493. On November 22, he returned to Hispaniola, where he found his colonists had fallen into dispute with Indians in the interior and had been killed. He established a new settlement at Isabella, on the north coast of Hispaniola where gold had first been found but it was a poor location and the settlement was short-lived. He spent some time exploring the interior of the island for gold and did find some, establishing a small fort in the interior. He left Hispaniola on April 24, 1494 and arrived at Cuba (which he named Juana) on April 30 and Jamaica on May 5. He explored the south coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula rather than an island, and several nearby islands including the Isle of Youth (La Evangelista) before returning to Hispaniola on August 20. Before he left on his second voyage he had been directed by Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly, even loving relations with the natives. However, during his second voyage he sent a letter to the monarchs proposing to enslave some of the native peoples, specifically the Caribs, on the grounds of their aggressiveness. Although his petition was refused by the Crown, in February, 1495 Columbus took 1600 Arawak as slaves. 550 slaves were shipped back to Spain; two hundred died en route, probably of disease, and of the remainder half were ill when they arrived. After legal proceedings, the survivors were released and ordered to be shipped back home. Some of the 1600 were kept as slaves for Columbus's men, and Columbus recorded using slaves for sex in his journal. The remaining 400, who Columbus had no use for, were let go and fled into the hills, making, according to Columbus, prospects for their future capture dim. Rounding up the slaves resulted in the first major battle between the Spanish and the Indians in the new world. The main objective of Columbus's journey had been gold. To further this goal, he imposed a system on the natives in Cicao on Haiti, whereby all those above fourteen years of age had to find a certain quota of gold, which would be signified by a token placed around their necks. Those who failed to reach their quota would have their hands chopped off. Despite such extreme measures, Columbus did not manage to obtain much gold. One of the primary reasons for this was the fact that natives became infected with various diseases carried by the Europeans. In his letters to the Spanish king and queen, Columbus would repeatedly suggest slavery as a way to profit from the new colonies, but these suggestions were all rejected: the monarchs preferred to view the natives as future members of Christendom.

Third voyage and arrest

Haiti Haiti, in Andalusia.]] On May 30, 1498, Columbus left with six ships from Sanlúcar, Spain for his third trip to the New World. He was accompanied by the young Bartolome de Las Casas, who would later provide partial transcripts of Columbus's logs. After stopping in the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of Trinidad on July 31. From August 4 through August 12, he explored the Gulf of Paria which separates Trinidad from Venezuela. He explored the mainland of South America, including the Orinoco River. He also sailed to the islands of Chacachcare and Margarita Island and sighted and named Tobago (Bella Forma) and Grenada (Concepcion). Initially, he described the new lands as belonging to a previously unknown new continent, but later he retreated to his position that they belonged to Asia. Columbus returned to Hispaniola on August 19 to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were discontent, having been misled by Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the new world. Columbus repeatedly had to deal with rebellious settlers and Indians. He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. A number of returned settlers and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him of mismanagement. The king and queen sent the royal administrator Francisco de Bobadilla in 1500, who upon arrival (August 23) detained Columbus and his brothers and had them shipped home. Columbus refused to have his shackles removed on the trip to Spain, during which he wrote a long and pleading letter to the Spanish monarchs. Although he regained his freedom, he did not regain his prestige and lost his governorship. As an added insult, the Portuguese had won the race to the Indies: Vasco da Gama returned in September 1499 from a trip to India, having sailed east around Africa.

Fourth and final voyage

India Nevertheless, Columbus made a fourth voyage, nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his thirteen-year old son Fernando, Columbus left Cádiz, Spain on May 11, 1502. On June 15, they landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). A hurricane was brewing, so Columbus continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. Columbus arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port. Instead, the ships anchored at the mouth of the Jaina River. After a brief stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras on July 30. Here Bartholomew found native merchants and a large canoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. On August 14, Columbus landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near Trujillo, Honduras. Columbus spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay, Panama on October 16. In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. After much exploration, he established a garrison at the mouth of Rio Belen in January 1503. On April 6, one of the ships became stranded in the river. At the same time, the garrison was attacked, and the other ships were damaged. Columbus left for Hispaniola on April 16, but sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel any farther, the ships were beached in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on June 25, 1503. Columbus and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year. Two Spaniards, with native paddlers, were sent by canoe to get help from Hispaniola. In the meantime Columbus, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, successfully intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse, using the Ephemeris of the German astronomer Regiomontanus. Grudging help finally arrived on June 29, 1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on November 7.

Later life

November 7] While Columbus had always given the conversion of non-believers as one reason for his explorations, he grew increasingly religious in his later years. He claimed to hear divine voices, lobbied for a new crusade to capture Jerusalem, often wore Franciscan habit, and described his explorations to the "paradise" as part of God's plan which would soon result in the Last Judgement and the end of the world. In his later years Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands, pursuant to earlier agreements. Because he had been relieved of his duties as governor, the crown felt not bound by these contracts and his demands were rejected. His family later sued for part of the profits from trade with America, but ultimately lost some fifty years later. On May 20, 1506, Columbus died in Valladolid, fairly wealthy due to the gold his men had accumulated in Hispaniola. He was still convinced that his journeys had been along the East Coast of Asia. Following his death, the body of Columbus underwent excarnation - the flesh was removed so that only his bones remained. Even after his death, his travels continued: first interred in Valladolid and then at the monastery of La Cartja in Seville, by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola, the remains were transferred to Santo Domingo in 1542. In 1795 the French took over, and the corpse was removed to Havana. After the war of 1898, Cuba became independent and Columbus's remains were moved back to the cathedral of Seville, where they were placed on an elaborate catafalque. However, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus' and containing fragments of bone and a bullet was discovered at Santo Domingo in 1877. To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics were moved to Havana and that Columbus is still buried in the cathedral of Santo Domingo, DNA samples were taken in June 2003 (History Today August 2003). He was canonized by the antipope Gregory XVII, leader of the breakaway Palmarian Catholic Church.

Columbus' national origin

Serious doubts have been expressed regarding Columbus's national origin. Although in the popular culture he is generally assumed to be Italian (Genoese), his actual background is clouded in mystery. Very little is really known about Columbus before the mid-1470s. It has been suggested that this might have been because he was hiding something—an event in his origin or history that he deliberately kept a secret. The issue of Columbus's 'nationality' became an issue after the rise of nationalism; the issue was scarcely raised until the time of the quadricentenary celebrations in 1892 (see World's Columbian Exposition), when Columbus's Genoese origins became a point of pride for some Italian Americans. In New York City, rival statues of Columbus were underwritten by the Hispanic and the Italian communities, and honourable positions had to be found for each, at Columbus Circle and in Central Park. One hypothesis is that Columbus served under the French corsair Guillaume Casenove Coulon and took his surname, but later tried to hide his piracy. Some Basque historians have claimed that he was Basque. Others had said that he was a converso (Spanish Jew converted to Christianity). In Spain, even converted Jews were forced to leave Spain after much persecution; it was suggested that many conversos were still practicing Judaism in secret and their success created much envy. Another theory is that he was from the island of Corsica, which at the time was part of the Genoese republic. Because the often subversive elements of the island gave its inhabitants a bad reputation, he would have masked his exact heritage. A few others also claim that Columbus was actually Catalan (Colom). Catalan Documents found in the Alentejo region of Portugal suggest he may have been born there. In accordance with this theory, h

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