Guanahani

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Columbus lands on Guanahani (woodcut)

Guanahani is the name of the island in the area of ​​today's Bahamas , on which Christopher Columbus first set foot in America on October 12, 1492 . He gave the island, which according to his information was called Guanahani by the locals , the new name San Salvador (Spanish for: Holy Redeemer , Savior ) out of gratitude for the successful crossing . He communicated peacefully with the Indian inhabitants and their chief ; the crew of his three ships did some bartering with them. From Guanahani explorers sailed to the large Antilles -Insel Hispaniola , which is 500 km south.

Identity of the island

With the Spaniards not populating the island and fully enslaved the indigenous people by 1520, the island's identity continues to be the subject of scientific controversy . In 1925 the House of Assembly decided to give the Bahamas Parliament back to the island of San Salvador , now called Watling Island , the name Columbus had chosen, and to equate it with the island of Guanahani. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the island known today as Cat Island was called San Salvador .

The National Geographic Society recalculated the route in 1986 with the help of computer programs based on Columbus' logbook and came to the thesis that Samana Cay was the island that Columbus discovered on October 12, 1492. Since then, however, investigations carried out according to the same principle have repeatedly come to completely different results, since the logbook of the first trip is only preserved in a copy made by Bartolomé de Las Casas , which in addition only reproduces its content in large parts in a summarized manner and thus different There is plenty of room for interpretation.

See also

literature

  • David Henige: In search of Columbus: the sources for the first voyage. Tucson, Arizona, 1991 (English).
  • Wolfgang Köberer: Where did Columbus end up in the “New World”? In: Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 15 (1992), pp. 9–42.
  • Ricardo Cerezo Martinez: La identificación geográfica de la primera isla des descubrimiento. In: Revista de Historia Naval, 13 (1995), No. 49, pp. 77-103 (Spanish).
  • Stefan Rinke: Columbus and the day of Guanahani. 1492: a turning point in history. Theiss, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-8062-2813-7 .
  • Louis De Vorsey, John Parker: In the Wake of Columbus. Islands and Controversy. Detroit 1986 (English).

Web links

Commons : Guanahani  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Colman Barry: Upon these rocks. Catholics in the Bahamas . St. John's Abbey Press, Collegeville 1973. ISBN 0-8146-0812-4 . P. 123.
  2. ^ Colman Barry: Upon these rocks . P. 122.