Member-only story
Discovering Why the USA Has A Columbus Day, When Columbus Never Set Foot in the USA.
With about six thousand various sites around the United States named or referencing Christopher Columbus, it does appear unusual to someone looking at the United States from the outside, that so much is dedicated to an explorer who never set foot in the United States.
In fact, Columbus had departed his earthly life some sixty years before there was a permanent European settlement anywhere in the United States.
The Spanish settlement of St. Augustine, way down in Florida was the first permanent European settlement, eventually becoming a place runaway slaves could find refuge.
Did Columbus “Discover” the Americas?
No, the whole continent of America, from the lower Arctic regions to the Southernmost tip near Antarctica, was occupied by functioning societies that traded with each other.
Some had built great empires and cities, some had formed alliances with other tribes, some fought to subjugate other tribes and regions. The Indians from the South moved North and inhabited the Caribbean Islands, rarely if ever, trading with Indians on the USA mainland. But that is a whole other story.
