Category: Pre-American History
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The Encomienda
A New System for the New World The Encomienda system was established during the second voyage of Columbus to help facilitate mining and other needs. The term comes from the spanish word for “to entrust” and was essentially slavery with extra steps. Although they would never call it slavery because again the queen did not…
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Other Voyages & Legacy of Columbus
The Second Voyage (1493-1496) After a brief trip back to Spain following his first voyage, Columbus set sail back to what he believed to be islands off the coast of Asia with a fleet of 17 ships. On this journey back the Spanish were loaded down with more men, equipment, and dogs (Mastiffs used by…
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The First Voyage of Christopher Columbus
The Man from Genoa The first big thing I learned about Columbus that I was never taught in school is that he is not Spanish. He is technically Genoese, which is now part of Italy. While that isn’t particularly important to the overall story, I thought it was interesting. During the Age of Exploration, when…
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Some Spanish Context
Pre-Colonial Spain I wanted to study a little bit of Spain before I started really looking into Columbus and his voyage to the new world. I figured it might add some helpful context to why Spain was expanding and what was going on in the world at the time. I was surprised to learn that…
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The Age of Exploration
Europe is ready to get out there In the 15th and 16th centuries there was a massive amount of interest around European countries to start exploring more of the world. Whether motivated by money, fear of Ottomans, desire for religious conquest, or genuine curiosity about the world, many countries began sponsoring sailors and explorers to…
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Indigenous People of the Americas
Who really discovered America? In school we hear a lot about Christopher Columbus and how he made an incredible discovery when he sailed west and found what is now America. There is a decent amount wrong with that idea we’re all taught, but the main thing for this post is that you cannot discover a…
Badly Explained US History 