Columbus and the Winds of Providence

Columbus and the Winds of Providence
christopher_columbus1.jpg


Christopher Columbus felt that he was destined to do something grand. Something that would change the world forever. He did not know what he was destined to do, but he knew that when the time came he would be guided by Divine Providence. He was born in Genoa in 1451. Living in on of the multitude of Italian states he was almost bound to make a living by way of the sea. In his youth it is believed he sailed to many different places such as the Genoan colony of Chios, west Africa, and some believe possibly as far away as Iceland. What ever the case, this would all prepare him for the voyage of a life time.


In Europe the middle ages were just ending, the Renaissance was beginning, and the Europeans entered into their period as the dominate peoples of the world. The European monarchs were seeking ways of increasing their wealth and prestige. This was done through trade and colonizing. The Portuguese had several colonies along the African coast, and Italian sailors such as Marco Polo have sailed as far away as China. With the Ottomans controlling the silk road, the Europeans are eager to find a way to the east that by passes the Turkish Caliphate and will allow them to exploit the riches of the east.


Columbus scoured Europe looking for a monarch to serve as patron for a voyage he believed would solve Europe’s woes of trade. He believed that by sailing west he could get to the east Indies and have a faster rout to trade with the powers of the east. Most of the monarchs of Europe were not interested in such fool hardiness. Some believed that no ship could make a journey of that distance. Some even believed the world to be flat, but Christopher would continue his search.


In the end he would be hired by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Who had recently united their kingdoms by marrying. The queen presented Columbus’ plans to a committee who would examine the feasibility of it. After much discussion, in 1486 the committee recommended to the Queen that she pass on the plan. She did not want Columbus to leave for fear he might take his ideas elsewhere. He was allotted an allowance of 12,000 maravedis a year in order to keep him in Spain. After several years of lobbying he was finally successful in getting the green light to go ahead.


As we all know, in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He set out west in order to find a path to Asia. He set sail with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. He first stopped at the Canary Islands where he restocked the ships and made repairs. He set out on what would be a 6 week voyage across the Atlantic. 4 weeks into the journey the three ships were caught in a storm and were struck by powerful winds[1]. These winds would blow them northwest. On October 19th, 1492, a lookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana spotted land at about 4:00 am and immidietly alerted the crew with a shot. Columbus was informed of this, but he would later claim that he had already spotted land a few hours earlier, forever claiming rewards from the monarchs for being the first one to sight land.


They would not land on the shore until October 22nd. When they did, Columbus was the first to step ashore. At first he thought that he had landed somewhere on the continent of Asia, but as he and his men explored the landscape it did not match the descriptions of Marco Polo. It was a swampy wetland with a very humid climate. There was lush vegetation and a plethora of wildlife[2]. He did not know what to say of this land. It was not the land of great wealth described in the east, but at first glance was a land inhospitable for civilized peoples. None the less, he was grateful to have found land. He claimed this land in the name of Spain. He and his men would explore the coast of this continent, mapping it to the best of their abilities. When he would eventually return to Spain, queen Isabella would christen this new land “Columbia”.
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[1] this is the PoD
[2] instead of landing at Hispaniola, they land at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.
 
Me thinks Spanish colonization will be a lot more gradual given how inhospitable the Chesapeake Bay area was for European settlement. A lot of early settlers are going to die off to the diseases.
 
Ok, this is a two fer. First a bump to get more attention. Second, the Spanish language and culture are things I'm not too familiar with. I want to know how the Spaniards would name the indigineous tribes in north america.
 
They'd probably use endonyms as closely as they could figure them, but with spanish orthography. For example, wa->hua, ki->qui, etc.
For example, "Powhatan" would be "Pohuatan," "Pojuatan" or thereabouts
 
Why Columbia and not Colombia? Or if it must be alternate, Colonia (from Colón) or something from Cristóbal like Cristóballa or Cristocosta or Tierra Cristóbal?

Sorry, I'm just annoyed when Columbia is used for Spanish colonies or as the Spanish name for the New World. Other than that, I think this has promise. I'll be interested in what happens in this world with a Spanish east coast.

They'd probably use endonyms as closely as they could figure them, but with spanish orthography. For example, wa->hua, ki->qui, etc.
For example, "Powhatan" would be "Pohuatan," "Pojuatan" or thereabouts
And, IchBinDieKaiser, make sure to look up native tribes' actual names rather than the names that were totally made up for them. Cherokee comes from Tsalagi which is their native name. That's one of the less-mutated ones, and actually did evolve from the endonym, but still, use the native name. The Spanish would probably call the Cherokee 'Chalagui".
 
The Spanish would probably call the Cherokee 'Chalagui".

The Spanish actually referred to the Cherokee as Chalaque.

Another thing to remember is that a lot of tribes didn't move into the areas they live in today until after European contact. The Comanche didn't move into Texas until the 1700s, IIRC. Their aquiring of the horse meant that they could move and hunt more efficiently on the plains, so they moved there. There was a similar situation with the Sioux moving west on to the Great Plains, I believe.
 
Yeah, finding the native names and the original locations of the tribes is a tad difficult. The best I have to go off of is wikipedia or an old National Geographic map of all the different native cultures and the tribes from the 70's. Anybody know a good source for these things?
 
Yeah, finding the native names and the original locations of the tribes is a tad difficult. The best I have to go off of is wikipedia or an old National Geographic map of all the different native cultures and the tribes from the 70's. Anybody know a good source for these things?
Search for the fake/Englicized names on Wikipedia and usually they have the native names.
 
i'm going to be watching this.

also, from the little spanish i know (anyone who's had a conversation with me knows that i am fluent in spanglish however ;)) i think i might be able to help with sounds

w does not exist. instead ua or hua would be used to replicate that sound.

b and v are interchangeable

x can make the sh sound (not in spanish, but when applied to tribes like the mexica)

j makes the h sound

two l's makes the y sound

i=ee

u=oo

ei=ai

ai=long i (like I or eye)

h is silent

also, just as a formatting note, when you have it centered like that it is a tad hard to read
 
and Italian sailors such as Marco Polo have sailed as far away as China.

actually Marco Polo walked as far as China. He did sail most of the way back though.

Also, I don't think it will be long until they discover the Caribbean, maybe as early as one of the follow-up voyages of Columbus (the wind can't blow him off course every time)
 
i'm going to be watching this.

also, from the little spanish i know (anyone who's had a conversation with me knows that i am fluent in spanglish however ;)) i think i might be able to help with sounds

w does not exist. instead ua or hua would be used to replicate that sound.

b and v are interchangeable

x can make the sh sound (not in spanish, but when applied to tribes like the mexica)

j makes the h sound

two l's makes the y sound

i=ee

u=oo

ei=ai

ai=long i (like I or eye)

h is silent

also, just as a formatting note, when you have it centered like that it is a tad hard to read
actually in 1492
x=sh
j sounds like english j.
 
actually Marco Polo walked as far as China. He did sail most of the way back though.

Also, I don't think it will be long until they discover the Caribbean, maybe as early as one of the follow-up voyages of Columbus (the wind can't blow him off course every time)

You are right. I just wanted this first voyage to reach the Chesapeake in order to have a Spanish east coast.
 
i'm going to be watching this.

also, from the little spanish i know (anyone who's had a conversation with me knows that i am fluent in spanglish however ;)) i think i might be able to help with sounds

w does not exist. instead ua or hua would be used to replicate that sound.

b and v are interchangeable

x can make the sh sound (not in spanish, but when applied to tribes like the mexica)

j makes the h sound

two l's makes the y sound

i=ee

u=oo

ei=ai

ai=long i (like I or eye)

h is silent

also, just as a formatting note, when you have it centered like that it is a tad hard to read

In addition to / to further describe what Errnge said:

The vowels are as follows:
a - ah in bought, bazaar, car, Argentina.
e - e in egg, bet, bed, said, medic.
i - ee in beet, seat, meat, Argentina.
o - oh in boat, coat, note, but without the oo sound at the end. Say boat slowly: b-oh-oo-t. In Spanish it's just the bare o.
u - oo in newt, poo, woo. It NEVER has the y sound in front of it like it mute, dispute, or union.

Whenever i or u are next to another vowel, they are not the stressed one. Whenever u and i are next to each other, u turns into w as an English speaker would think of it. For example, fui, meaning I went. It's pronounced fwee.

Whenever letters have accent marks over them, they are the stressed one. When there's no accent mark, usually the second to last syllable is stressed. Unless the word ends in a consonant other than n or s--then the last syllable is stressed.

The letter g is pronounced as it is in golem and God before o, a, and u. It is pronounced like an h before e and i. Sometimes it is still pronounced like an h even if before o, a, and u, or made completely silent.

j sounds like english j.

Actually it was more like zh back then. So it's like the English j without the d sound in front of it.
 

Sandmannius

Banned
i'm going to be watching this.

also, from the little spanish i know (anyone who's had a conversation with me knows that i am fluent in spanglish however ;)) i think i might be able to help with sounds

w does not exist. instead ua or hua would be used to replicate that sound.

b and v are interchangeable

x can make the sh sound (not in spanish, but when applied to tribes like the mexica)

j makes the h sound

two l's makes the y sound

i=ee

u=oo

ei=ai

ai=long i (like I or eye)

h is silent

also, just as a formatting note, when you have it centered like that it is a tad hard to read

A few nitpicks would be that the "w" does excist, albeit very faintly, take the word "guapo" for instance, you'd literally say "gwuapo" or "guwapo" in Spanish, although I suppose your right it can be completely substituted for "ua".

The "j" does not make the "h" sound in Iberian Spanish (only in Latin American Spanish), it instead makes the "g" sound, similar to the one used in the Netherlands. Take the word "Jerez", it would be pronounced "Gerez".

"X" can also make the "ch" sound in Catalan and Valencian parts of Spain, as in the towns of Villamarchante, Cheste and Chativa can also be spelled as Villamarxant/e, Xest/e and Xativa for people from those regions.

I'd also say that the "ll" makes more of a "j" sound than "y", take the words "Jordan" and "happy", the "j" in "Jordan" is pronounced as "juh" and in happy, the "y" is pronounced as "ie/ee".

That's all. :)

Edit: no idea about back in 1492.
 
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It was a swampy wetland with a very humid climate. There was lush vegetation and a plethora of wildlife[2]. He did not know what to say of this land. It was not the land of great wealth described in the east, but at first glance was a land inhospitable for civilized peoples
You are right. I just wanted this first voyage to reach the Chesapeake in order to have a Spanish east coast.
I don't think this would be enuff. If He discovers the Caribbean & Gold on the 2nd voyage, there will be little reason for Spanish to settle north.
 
I don't think this would be enuff. If He discovers the Caribbean & Gold on the 2nd voyage, there will be little reason for Spanish to settle north.

I thought there wasn't much gold in the West Indies in the first place. Most of that was actually from Mesoamerica?
 
I thought there wasn't much gold in the West Indies in the first place. Most of that was actually from Mesoamerica?
IIRC He found the natives in Hispaniola using a little Gold Jewelry, Why his settlement was on Hispaniola, and not the larger Cuba.
The Spanish would spend the next years before Mexico, looking for the Mother Lode Mine, instead of the little scratch mines of the Natives.
There was no contact between the Carib Natives and MesoAmerica.
 
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IIRC He found the natives in Hispaniola using a little Gold Jewelry, Why his settlement was on Hispaniola, and not the larger Cuba.
The Spanish would spend the next years before Mexico, looking for the Mother Lode Mine, instead of the little scratch mines of the Natives.
There was no contact between the Carib Natives and MesoAmerica.

I'm pretty sure there was some trade between the West Indies and Mesoamerica, or at least the Maya.
 
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