Friday, May 06, 2016

Columbus sought South Asia?

If we go by the California school bureaucracy,  Christopher Columbus hoped to discover a sea route to South Asia.  Or did he?
E.g.:  "It seems clear that the Spanish monarchs also shared at least a part of Columbus’ enthusiasm for spreading the message of Christ. The first entry in Christopher’s journal of the maiden voyage stated, “Because of the report that I had given to Your Highnesses [Ferdinand and Isabella] about the lands of India and about a prince who is called ‘Grand Khan’... Your Highnesses . . . lovers and promoters of the Holy Christian faith . . . thought of sending me, Christobal Colon, to the said regions of India to see the said princes and the peoples and lands .. . to see how their conversion to our Holy Faith might be undertaken” (Dunn and Kelly 17,19...)" (via https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/christopher-columbus-latter-day-saint-perspective/years-spain-columbus-finds-sponsor.).
The Dunn and Kelly reference is to a translation of what remains of Columbus' diary from his first voyage- "The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492-1493".  You can get a preview on books.google.com, and the book has the original text there as well as a translation into English.  What is "India" in the translation is "Yndia" in the original text.

So are students in California going to be taught that Columbus was looking for "South Asia" (a term that did not exist until relatively recently when some European university or the US Department of State or such invented it)?

If Americans are going to sacrifice the understanding of their own history in the name of some political correctness misbegotten among the leftists of the Indian immigrant community, aided by Harvard honchos,  they probably deserve the President that they are about to get.

And while they are at it, are they going to try to rename the Indian Ocean?