Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for October 12, 2014

America was more likely named after Richard Amerike, Sheriff of Bristol, England, who sponsored John Cabot’s voyage to Newfoundland in 1497. If it was named after Vespucci (whose first name was probably Alberico, changed to Amerigo after his voyages, which were in 1499-1502), you would be living in Vespuccia.

Besides…. Columbus has plenty of namesakes… far more than that one city in Ohio…. especially considering that he didn’t actually “discover” any of them….

they were already inhabited.

From truer spellings of his name come, among other placenames, Colombia, the country, and Colón, the city.

From “Columbus” comes the faux Latin “Columbia” …the nickname of the United States….from which were named its capital district, lots of cities, and also, its early personification…the beautiful Colombia of art and song:

exoticdoc2: yes, about 100 BC. That’s why Portugal and Italy turned him down before Spain agreed.

Return to VespuccilandOn:2003-10-17http://howlandbolton.com/essays/read_more.php?sid=18

Columbus, of course, didn’t discover America: he didn’t intend to discover America, didn’t think he had discovered America and most decidedly wasn’t even the first European to reach America. So naturally we just celebrated Columbus Day—-presumably to help him get over the awful misery of his triple disappointment.  

Not only that, but it has just been revealed that, as is usual with almost anything that is widely accepted as an historical fact, the widely accepted derivation of the name “America” is utterly, utterly wrong. A couple of years ago a very sensible (by which I of course mean English) chap called Rodney Broome proved that all that rubbish about Amerigo Vespucci is way off—and I for one greet the news with glee, I mean I’ve never been completely happy referring to the States as “Vespucciland” but the alternative of calling them by his first name when I’ve never even seen the man, let alone been introduced to him, seems much too familiar. I mean to me, saying “America,” which doesn’t even get his first name right, sounds like I’m being rude and trying to be a bit more authentic by saying “Ameriga” sounds like I’m being rude and have bad a cold. Given these awful alternatives I am so happy to learn that the name “America” was actually applied to this continent (probably well before Columbus didn’t discover it) by merchants from the city of Bristol in the west of England as a compliment to a fellow merchant of Welsh extraction. And I’m absolutely delighted to hear that with absolute propriety they used his surname!Yes you can forget all that first-name-basis-bloody-casual-pretending-to-be-“jest-friendly-’Mercans” stuff, and pull your socks up and learn to be a bit more formal from now on, because America was not established as a continent on a first name basis but instead was named for the Anglo-Cymric Richard Amerike (or as his ancestors would probably have said in Welsh ‘Ap Merric look you’) using his last name. And (the gilt on the gingerbread), even though the continent didn’t use it, he did have a decent first name! Since Amerike apparently directly financed John Cabot’s voyage of discovery, America it turns out celebrates and commemorates one of it’s first financial backers rather than just someone who merely scribbled something on a map. Now that (considering the traditionally business friendly atmosphere here) is what I call appropriate. Oh! and before you start getting all PC at me, tut-tuting about my use of the word “discovery”, let me reassure you that discovery is essentially a European activity. Peoples have been wandering all over the world being the first to do something, or go somewhere, probably as long as there have been people, however it is a purely European weirdness to then go around claiming that you did it first and that your dad can beat up the other guy’s dad. Note, for example, that the most important act in the claim that Columbus discovered America was the printing and wide dissemination of a letter claiming that he’d done it and that his dad could beat up anyone else’s dad. And poor Richard Amerike missed out because the Bristol merchants didn’t print and widely disseminate anything claiming that they had ever done anything nor that their dads could beat up anyone Cheerio for nowfromRichard Howland-Bolton

FROM HIS OWN JOURNALS, we see Columbus revealed as a greedy, murderous, slave-trader who had hands cut off the natives if they didn’t bring him enough gold and handed out pre-pubescent girls as sex slaves to reward his immediate underlings.

This is not revisionism, just his own words and self-documented actions brought to light rather than just simply being swept under the rug. And let’s remember that “Columbus Day” was simply a bullsh*t holiday lobbied for by the Knights of Columbus back in the 1930s. It’s not like it has anything to do with real U.S. historical roots.

In short, the man was scum and his name should not be celebrated in any way, shape, or form. This isn’t about “political correctness”, this is about standards, about pride. Have some pride, America – get rid of the embarrassment that is Columbus Day.

So Columbus:Was wrong about the size of the earth.When he landed he was thousands of miles from where he thought he should be.Maintained his wrong beliefs even when proven wrong.He was a poor leader and administrator.Never sat foot on mainland America.And did it all on borrowed money.So to honor him government workers get the day off?

Hey, they made a movie about him titled 1948. I bet it has a lot of facts in it. Why don’t you whining winos go watch it.

O…..H………I…..O

@Dr Toon. Leif YES!!!!!

Good morning Galliglo…

Columbus, the prototypical politician, went on a trip knowing where he was going, once there, did not know where he was, and he used other people’s money for the whole thing.

@Clark Kent; There is only one “America” and that is the country also known as The United States. North America and South America are continents, Central America is simply a region, set apart for some geographical conveniences. North America is actually 42 countries.

@ All; Yes, all educated people in Columbus’s time believed that the Earth was round. The reason he had difficulty getting funding for his trip is that all the experts (correctly) believed that he had drastically under-estimated the circumference.

In other news, it’s also an urban legend that Queen Isabella hocked her jewels to fund the trip. Most of the funding was provided by one of her advisors.

I really like the expression JJ drew on the bearded guy’s face with the red clothes on in the boat. It perfectly emotes the guy’s disdain and disbelief… his eyes, the countenance of his beard and mustache all together very successfully relay the emotions of the fellow. Very wonderful job.

Columbus didn’t know where he was going, didn’t know where he was when he got there, didn’t know where he’d been when he got back and did it all on borrowed money.

Nothing new there. What I do find interesting is the ‘disapproving tone’ of so many of these remarks. That’s how it went down in the books, good or bad right or wrong that’s how it’s written.

It’s funny, just before I took a look at the comics this morning I was reading about the animals in the mid-east selling girls & women after killing their husbands, fathers & brothers.Nothing new there either… Just human.

What could be more American than setting off on a trip not knowing where you are going, not knowing where you are when you get there, and doing it all on borrowed money?

So should we go back to calling them the Sandwich Islands after the moneylender instead of Hawaii after the (Polynesian) discoverers?

For several years I’ve been dressing up in the Indianest-looking outfit I have on “Columbus” Day. (BTW, some Native Americans like to be called Indians, and I’ll just go along with that.) I was doing that after learning about all the genocide, promise-breaking, etc., but afterward found out one of my great-great-great-great grandfathers was a Coree Indian in North Carolina. Funny, I’m such a paleface I’m almost transparent.

I believe the comic, “Betty,” speaks to this comic and its comments.Whaddya think sirs?;)

Christopher Columbus did not prove that the world was round.

As early as the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras — later followed by Aristotle and Euclid — wrote about Earth as a sphere, and historians say there is no doubt that the educated in Columbus’s day knew quite well that the Earth was round. Columbus in fact owned a copy of Ptolemy’s Geography, written at the height of the Roman Empire, 1,300 years before Chris Columbus set sail.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/14/christopher-columbus-3-things-you-think-he-did-that-he-didnt/

" For the usa to call itself america is a bit conceited.".It’s hard to NOT be conceited when you’re an American. Our ancestors had enough sense to leave where they were and come here or welcome the interlopers when they came..Canadians don’t want to be called Americans.Mexicans don’t want to be called Americans.Columbians don’t want to be called Americans.It’s not like we’re stealing something from people who want to use the name.And we share it, we let Hawaiians call themselves Americans and would let Puerto Ricans do so if they wished..We areTHAT generous.Americans are the goodest folks on Earth.

@MeGoNowNo. We’re talking about a man who executed members of his own crew for daring to so much as suggest that he might not, in fact, have reached the East Indies. There are precious few times and places in history where that’s been regarded as behaviour becoming of a great man.

We’re the only country here with “America” in its name. You don’t see a “Canada of America”, or a “Mexico of America”, do you? Nor is there a “Peru of America” nor a “Brazil of America”. Nope, just the “United States of America”. That’s why not only we citizens, but most of the world calls us “Americans”.

Here we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day — not Colombus Day.

Ushindi: Official names show USA is hardly unique. United States (in one language or another) apply to Mexico, Brazil, Malasia, and probably a few others with political subdivisions called states.

@Ushindi

Our country’s name is America. Individually, and collectively, we are the united states, of America. When referring to our country as a single entity, rather than the collection of states that it is, we should always be called America. Calling us the US/USA/United States is just one of those incorrect things that everybody got used to and stuck with.

1492 Was the also the end of the Arabic occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. The two countries, Portugal and spain, were really quite violent cultures after that long period of warfare. So while we consider Italian, he really was a product of his culture.