Whether we like it or not, Christopher Columbus is a part of Jamaica's history and the fact that he made some colossal navigational errors does not alter his impact. From all accounts he thought he had reached the west coast of mainline China, hence, the misnomer "West Indies." Today that term is used mainly to describe a cricket team, a university of which we are familiar and immigrants from the Caribbean who live in England. Born in Genoa, Italy on October 30, 1451, Columbus lived less than 55 years as he died on May 20 1506. An explorer and a trader, he first reached this side of the
world on October 12, 1492. It was on his second
voyage that he washed up on Jamaica's shores on May 3, 1494. On his third voyage he entered the Gulf of Paria between Trinidad and Venezuela. But who Columbus
saw when he arrived here is still a topic of controversy: some historians believe that he saw Arawak settlers, others say they were Tainos. The closest researchers have come to confirming who were the "real settlers" were the matching of the remains of skulls in relatively recent times. The remains were found to be that of Tainos from South America and not the Arawaks. On Columbus' fourth and final voyage, he was stranded in Jamaica for a year - the longest period he ever spent anywhere on any of his
voyages to the so-called "new world." The
navigator, who became seriously ill during his stay in Jamaica, spent the time in Maima (the Taino name for the settlement) which is located near St Ann's Bay. The area was later re-named "Seville' by the Spaniards when they finally settled in Jamaica in 1510.
According to Olive senior in her book A-Z Jamaica Heritage, it was the Porras brothers, who were part of Columbus' crew, that mistreated the aborigines in their demands for food for Columbus and the shipwrecked crew. It is mainly for this reason that there is a statue of Columbus at Seville. Readers are entitled to their opinions as to whether or not Jamaica has made good use of this historical fact when marketing its tourist product. Columbus, despite his many faults, was an avid reader of the Bible. According to Encyclopedia Britannica (1969), Columbus saw himself as the person spoken of in the Book of Isaiah 11:10 which reads "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Can any other navigator make the claim of uniting the
people "from the four corners of the earth"? But there is definitely evidence that persons from Africa were in this part of the world long before those that the explorers saw in the late 15th century. The proof is in the pyramids of Egypt (which is on the continent of Africa) and those in Peru and Mecca ... they were obviously designed by the same people. But the original Africans and their successors, the native Americans, did not bring together the people all over the world. It was after Columbus' voyages that people in one part of the world knew about the existence of people and places in the other. And that, despite whatever he may have done wrong, was the navigator's lasting impact on history from the late 15th century onwards. What Columbus is detested for is the fact that the aftermath of his voyages meant colonization and slavery. But it should be noted that Columbus was already dead four years when the Spanish settled in Jamaica in 1510. It should be noted however, that Jamaica was never directly colonized by the Spanish. This island was granted to Diego Columbus, the grandson of the explorer, as a bequest of the King and Queen of Spain. It is for that reason that the Encomienda System was never really enforced in Jamaica ... the Encomienda System was once used in colonies of Spain where the slaves were to be treated according to a code of rules. Families were encouraged and also Christianity. Similarly there was the Code Noir in the French territories but that is not applicable here since Jamaicver a colony of France. There was no equivalent of either the Encomienda System or the Code Noir in English colonization. On May 10, 1655, an English expedition led by Admiral Penn and General Venables, landed in Jamaica and captured the island in the name of Oliver Cromwell, then then ruler of England. He ruled with an iron fist between the death of of King Charles I, who was beheaded, and the accession to the throne of Kings Charles II.
More summaries about the 500 years after the death of Christopher Columbus