Introduction: Columbus—The Man, the Voyages, the Legacy

Abstract

We have all heard of Christopher Columbus. Everyone knows that he led three small Spanish ships across the Atlantic in 1492 and reached the West Indies. October 12, the date of his landing there, is celebrated as a holiday in the United States, where he ranks as a national hero on a par with the most revered presidents and civic leaders. Although he is famous throughout Europe and Latin America, only in the United States is he accorded special honor as one of the nation’ s founders: Every schoolchild there is taught the date of his voyage and the names of his ships. But the significance of his voyage resonates far beyond the United States: It was a decisive turning point in the history of the entire world. It represented the real start of European colonization in the Americas; the earlier Viking settlements in North America had quickly withered away. The voyage completely changed European notions of geography and confronted Europeans with a host of alien peoples and cultures, forcing them to reappraise their notions of what constituted a civilized society. It marked the most critical moment in European overseas expansion, for it united Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas in a single world system for the first time, inaugurating the global era in which we live today. Columbus’ s intrepid voyage across uncharted seas, and the momentous consequences that flowed from it, have made him a historic figure of mythic proportions.