gerry
Private Eye
Posts: 453
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Post by gerry on May 13, 2007 6:09:49 GMT -5
I heard that in discovering the new world, Columbus called the people Indians, not because he thought he was in India, but is was a bastardization through out the centuries of him calling them "people of god" ie, en dios
Does anybody know if this is true?
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Post by CK-- on May 13, 2007 11:24:36 GMT -5
Here is the origin of the Name Indians...as told by the Wikipedia web encyclopedia. This is also taught in schools here (at least it was many years ago) The term Indian is commonly thought to have been born of the misconception by Christopher Columbus that the Caribbean islands were the islands in Southeast Asia known to Europeans as the Indies, which he had hoped to reach by sailing west across the Atlantic. Even though Columbus' mistake was soon recognized, the name stuck, and for centuries the native people of the Americas were collectively called Indianssince most of the European explorers thought of the indigenous peoples of America as "godless Savages" I doubt that Columbus or any other explorer would have referred to them as "People of God" (after all they sent countless missionaries over to "convert" these people to Christianity) History shows countless times that explorers and folks moving to a new place have little tolerance for peoples who have different beliefs that their own (even when they themselves are fleeing intolerance) I do like your explanation for the word better gerry...but unfortunately I don't think that it is true
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Post by Girl Power on May 13, 2007 16:00:50 GMT -5
I heard that in discovering the new world, Columbus called the people Indians, not because he thought he was in India, but is was a bastardization through out the centuries of him calling them "people of god" ie, en diosDoes anybody know if this is true? This would certainly be a more pleasant explanation than the one we've always heard about Columbus thinking he'd found India. But since he killed so many of the native people he found, it's hard to give the guy much credit.
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