Hello my Omschooligans! I want to tell you a funny story about how America was "discovered" and a less funny story why we call the first people who lived here "Indians." Indians of course, are people from India. The original people in the Americas were inaccurately called Indian by Christopher Columbus. And the legend has become one of the most notorious mistakes in history. Part of a series mistakes, as it happens. When Teacher Omi was a kid, we were drilled on Christopher Columbus (wrongly, in many cases such as where he was from). But nevertheless, we were taught about exploration which I'm not so sure gets as much coverage as it should, now. So I'm going fill you in.
Columbus's backstory
We're pretty sure Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa. Which was a city state in what we now call Italy. But he might have been Spanish, Portuguese or Greek. We do know he made several voyages, the best-known one being in 1492, in the very late Medieval period. Columbus was a cartographer (map maker). He was trying to map the world and to do that in those days, you had to go by the stars (so he was an astronomer, too). And to see them best, you had to go sailing. So he was a navigator, too. Or trying to be. There were some issues, given his lack of funding and major blunders which we'll explore later. But first, lets look at the cool old GPS tools like Columbus would have used.
Printable Navigation Tool Projects
The Astrolabe: * The
Institute of Astronomy provides a classic "build your own" paper astrolabe template that is very popular for educators.Stargazers Lounge often shares simplified versions that are easier for younger students to assemble.
Science Friday has a fantastic step-by-step guide to making a quadrant using just cardstock, a straw, and a piece of string with a weighted washer.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers a "Make a Cross-Staff" activity that is perfect for a classroom setting. It’s a bit more "mathy," but great for older grandkids!
National Geographic Kids has a simple tutorial on making a floating needle compass, similar to the early Chinese "wet compasses."
The Sextant (spoiler alert!) This didn't come around till the 18th century, so Columbus wouldn't have had it. But it is included in lists of antique navigational tools. Here's a download of a plan to make a sextant, from NASA.
The Spice Road (by sea)
A lot of people were exploring the world some just for fun and others with a purpose. Columbus's exploration was purpose-driven. He was looking for a new way to get to what they called the "East Indies" specifically China, India, Indonesia and Japan. These places had a lot stuff people in Europe wanted, like beautiful fabrics and spices. There was actually a "Silk Road" and a "Spice Road" which were itineraries people followed to get to places like Mongolia and what's now Uzbekistan. But they were both long and dangerous. And to follow the Spice Route, you had to go through the treacherous, landlocked "Stans" (central Asia.) So Columbus reasoned, why not avoid the middle man (central Asia), sail around them to Indonesia and Japan, nab the spices, and back home, no problem.
The Silk Road (The Red Lines): This was the legendary land route. It stretched thousands of miles across mountains and deserts, connecting China and the "Stans" to Europe. This is where silk, paper, and gunpowder traveled by camel and horse.
The Spice Road (The Blue Lines): Also called the Maritime Silk Road, these were the sea routes. Ships carried heavy goods like cinnamon, pepper, and cloves from the islands of Indonesia and the coasts of India up toward the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
💡 Teacher Omi’s "Aha!" Moment
When you show this to the kids, point out how the Silk Road goes right through the middle of land, while the Spice Road stays in the water.
But there was a huge problem. In fact, several.
1. The trip east by ship would be insanely long and probably even more dangerous.
2. He couldn't afford it. And no one wanted to chip in on his crazy scheme.
So he solved the second problem first, by hitting up crazy rich Spain, in the person of Queen Isabella for a loan. She was "on board" LOL for it, being very interested in the riches she hoped he'd find. He made several voyages, sailing from out of Portugal. The word Portugal means Port (or harbor) of Cale. He sailed from there because it was on the ocean. Now, to solve the first problem. Remember he was a map maker. And Columbus reasoned, well, if sailing east won't work, how about we just sail west and sooner or later we'll get to east.
The Flat Earthers
But that brings us to Columbus's third problem which was actually kind of also the first problem. Smart people like Columbus knew the earth was round. But a lot of people back then still thought the world was flat. They said "you're bonkers! You'll fall off the edge and be eaten by sea monsters!" Some even believed he was as heretic (one who denied God). But Queen Isabella said "it's so crazy it just might work!" (She really wanted those spices!) Even though, King Ferdinand was no on board. And Columbus finally after a lot of dithering and some failed attempts, did sail west. But there were some big plot twists in store for Columbus.
Columbus's Great Math Mistake
Columbus knew that if you sail in one direction on a circle, you eventually come back to where you started. However, he made two major errors in his calculations:
The Earth was too big: Columbus believed the Earth was much smaller than it actually is. He relied on older maps that underestimated the Earth's circumference by thousands of miles.
Asia was too wide: He thought the "Indies" (Asia) stretched much further East than they really do.
That's what happens when you trust "influencers" instead of GPS
- Ptolemy’s Underestimation
Columbus used maps based on the work of Claudius Ptolemy, a 2nd-century mathematician. Ptolemy was brilliant, but he made a massive error in the Earth’s circumference. He thought the world was about 25% smaller than it actually is.
When you start with a "small" world, everything on the map has to be squeezed together. To Columbus, this meant the gap between Europe and Asia was much narrower.
2. Marco Polo’s "Stretched" Asia
Columbus was an avid reader of Marco Polo, who had traveled to China (Cathay) and Japan (Cipangu) two centuries earlier.
The Land Distance: Polo’s exaggerated descriptions of the vast distances across the Silk Road led mapmakers to believe that Asia stretched much further East toward the horizon.
The Island Gap: Polo also wrote about thousands of islands off the coast of Asia. Columbus believed that once he sailed a certain distance West, he would start hitting these islands, which would serve as "stepping stones" to the mainland.
The Global Mix-Up
Because Columbus believed the Earth was smaller and Asia was wider, his math told him that the "East Indies" were right where the Caribbean actually is. And In his mind, the distance between Portugal and Japan was only about 2,400 miles. In reality, it is over 10,000 miles!
There's something in the way?
The biggest reason Columbus thought his plan would work is that he—and everyone else in Europe—had no idea the Americas existed. Imagine you are running a race and you think the finish line is just around the corner. You don't realize that there's an extra part that doesn't show (North and South America) and a whole second ocean (the Pacific) standing in your way. Until you run smack dab into it.
The Beach Ball Demonstration
Take a plain colored beach ball and draw a quick outline of Europe and then Japan on the other, but leave a huge blank space in between.
Ask them: "If I want to get from Europe to Japan, which way is faster?"
They will see that going "West" looks like a shortcut!
Then, take a marker and draw the Americas right in that blank space. Now they can see why Columbus was so surprised!
To be fair...
This is a reconstruction of the type of map Columbus likely relied on—specifically based on the theories of Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli.
It’s fascinating to see why he was so confident. Looking at this, you can clearly see:
The "Small" World: Europe is on the far right, and "Cipangu" (Japan) and "Cathay" (China) are on the far left.
The Missing Americas: There is nothing but open ocean between them!
The Stepping Stones: You can see plenty of small islands scattered in the middle, which gave Columbus hope that he could stop for supplies along the way.
He still didn't get it!
In going west to get to east, Columbus famously banged into islands in the Caribbean which he didn't know were in the way. So he "discovered" north and south America, so to speak. But he was so convinced by his own math that he assumed he must be on the outskirts of India or Japan. He called the people he encountered, "Indios" because he could not wrap his head around the fact that he was not in the Indies.
Indians or not?
The name Indians stuck for a number of reasons. Europeans didn't worry about who the people they thought of as "savages" really were. Or what they called themselves. So what do we call these first people, 500 years later? This is a great question that even major museums (like the
American Indian: Surprisingly, many Indigenous people—especially from older generations—actually prefer "American Indian" because it is a legal term used in treaties and federal law.
Native American: This term gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s as a more respectful alternative to just "Indian."
It is widely accepted today as a general umbrella term. But it's not used by the actual "native Americans" themselves. Indigenous: This is currently the most preferred global term. It acknowledges that these people are the original inhabitants of the land and connects them to other first-nations peoples around the world, such as the aboriginal Māori.
What do the people wish to be called?
That is the most important question. And the most respectful way to refer to anyone is by their name. In the case of the original people in the Americas, use their specific Tribal Nation (like Lakota, Cherokee, or Anishinaabe) whenever possible.
