Episode 7: The Name is America
March 5, 2025
In our last episode, we talked about how Columbus brought back the good news after his first voyage to the west: not far from Europe, lies “India”.
The Spanish royals and commoners were suspicious, though. The gold and the Indians that Columbus brought back with him just didn’t seem to be from the legendary India. But India or not, there was a piece of land over there, and there was gold in that land—that part was very true.
Soon enough, great interest in travelling westward arose in Spain.
Several months later, Columbus convinced the Spanish Monarchs to commission his second voyage. This time, with increased faith from his investors, his fleet expanded to 17 ships and over 1000 crew members—the largest fleet out of his four voyages to America.
It was on this voyage that he built a fortress and named it “La Isabela” in what is now the Dominican Republic, south of Cuba. This was the first Spanish colony as well as the first European colony in America.
On May 30th 1498, he began his 3rd voyage, only this time he didn’t intend to return to Europe after landing in central America. Hardly surprising! In the Americas, he was like a king, but in Europe, not only did he not hold a high position in court, he surely also felt cornered and blushed with embarrassment when repeatedly questioned by Queen Isabella ”where exactly is this India you have been talking about?” More and more evidence suggested the land he had found was not India.
Then in 1500, according to historical records, there was civil unrest in the colony he governed. Soon after he was charged of poor administration and was deprived of all his title and property by a royal commissioner sent by the Spanish King. He was then taken back to Spain and thrown into prison.
When reading books, we need to pay attention to the details. In this case, it is the ‘timing’ we should focus on. If you remember Da Gama, you should know that he discovered the shortest route to Asia in 1498. Then, in Sept 1499, he brought 28 tons of spices from the real India back to Portugal, causing an instant sensation.
In the following year, 1500, Columbus and his two younger brothers were arrested. They were sent back to Spain and were charged with some arbitrary crime.
Therefore, the reason for his arrest was simple: the Spanish monarchs finally confirmed that Columbus had been fooling them all along and that the place he had reached was definitely not Asia. At that time in the Americas, large gold/silver mines were not yet discovered, and massive plantations didn’t exist either. All it had were some natives who could barely be used as slaves and the occasional appearance of some gold jewelry.
Columbus had to pay for his lies. Even though he was released from the prison soon after, he never regained his property or power.
At this point, almost all of the explorers and upper classes in Europe had come to realize one thing: Columbus’s India was a land that Europeans had never known about before.
Under these circumstances, the Spanish royals tasked Columbus with looking for India once more. After all, according to their agreement, Columbus’s mission was to travel west to find India and he hadn’t yet accomplished it.
Unfortunately, due to the technological limitations of the time, it was impossible to cross the land of the Americas, which was filled with crisscross rivers, to reach Asia.
Not surprisingly, once again, Columbus returned empty-handed.
He was laid to rest with only a cassock and six thin planks—a very miserable ending. It is said that he maintained his belief that the place he had reached was India until the day he died.
A great explorer with strong faith passed away quietly.
A year after his death, the continent Columbus discovered was officially named, yet it had nothing to do with him. Why? To explain, let’s first introduce another person.
Amerigo Vespucci, born in Florence in March 1454, was also an Italian. In 1499, at the age of 45, he and some of his friends went to explore the new continent, following Columbus’s footsteps. He was very certain that the new land was not Asia, and there had to be a large body of water in between this new continent and Asia. Today we all know that he was right and that body of water is the Pacific Ocean.
Statue of Amerigo Vespucci in Florence
Amerigo was a learned man who liked to write in his spare time. During his travels, he wrote letters to his family members, who had strong business sense. These letters were edited into two pamphlets, The New Continent and The Fourth Voyage, and upon publication, became quite popular in Europe.
In 1507, 15 years after Columbus landed on the new continent and one year after his death, Mr. Waldseemüller, principal of an academy located in a small town in France, decided to publish a book on world geography. But there was one question: what should be done about the new continent in the west? Should it be given an official name, and if so, what should it be?
Someone proposed that it should be named after the person who made the most contribution to the discovery and exploration of the new land. This, of course, seemed like a good idea.
But who was this person?
History here showed its sense of humor and carelessness.
The principal quickly thought of the two pamphlets, The New Continent and the Fourth Voyage, both written by Mr. Ameigo.
“Let’s just use his name, or better yet, use the Latin version of Ameigo, America, so it would sound more elegant.”
No one objected, it was just a name. Problem solved, and they could go home early to eat and sleep, which was far more important.
The name of the new land debuted for the first time, and it spread quickly, continuing to be in use to this day.
This was the original version of the name for America and, of course, for the United States of America as well.
Now, we can answer the question from our last episode: Why was there no accurate record of Columbus’s birthdate? The answer is simple. Before his death, to his contemporaries, his discovery didn’t hold much value. What the Spanish government—and all of Europe—valued the most was the shipload of wealth and tons of spices.
So, how should we comment on Columbus?
To be continued in our next episode.