Note: this topic is from 10/18/2006. Thanks blam.
Posted on 10/18/2006 6:07:39 PM PDT by blam
Who really sailed the ocean blue in 1492?
Spanish scholars are on a mission to demystify Christopher Columbus's life, long shrouded in a veil of mythic heroism.
By Lisa Abend and Geoff Pingree | Correspondents of The Christian Science Monitor
MADRID – Genovese nobleman or Catalan pirate? Adventurous explorer or greedy tyrant? What if the Italian gentleman who discovered America was in fact a brutal torturer and slave owner? And what if he wasn't even Italian? Schoolchildren may learn about a daring hero who proved the Earth wasn't flat, but because his biography is pocked with holes, Christopher Columbus is a figure around whom elaborate theories and enigmatic rumors have long circulated. This year, the 500th anniversary of his death, two Spanish scholars are working to clear up some of the mysteries.
José Antonio Lorente, a geneticist at the University of Granada, is attempting to resolve one of the greatest enigmas - the question of Columbus's origins. In 1927, Peruvian historian Luis Ulloa Cisneros claimed Columbus was from Catalonia - in what is today northwestern Spain - rather than from the Italian port city of Genoa.
Since then, theories have proliferated, some suggesting that Columbus was a Catalan nobleman who rebelled against King Ferdinand's father, King John II, by engaging in piracy on behalf of the French, and then hid his origins to win favor with the son. Others maintain that he was the illegitimate child of Prince Carlos de Viana, a Majorcan nobleman related to Ferdinand and Isabella. Still others suggest that Columbus was a Jew, whose family fled to Genoa to escape persecution.
A historian at the University of Seville asked Mr. Lorente (who had previously used genetic testing to determine that bones in the Cathedral of Seville belonged to Columbus's own illegitimate son), to help resolve. .
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
He was Genoese and was looking for a trade route to east Asia, India, that didn't go through bedouin territory. The voyage was for commercial purposes.
So then, using the same logic, and since France did not come into existence until 843, Charles Martel is not French (as the French claim) because he died roughly a hundred years or so before France became a nation.
Martel was born in what is now Belgium.
"Who Really Sailed The Ocean Blue In 1492"
Helen Thomas.
She wanted to do something special for her seventy fifth birthday
"So then, using the same logic, and since France did not come into existence until 843, Charles Martel is not French"
You meant 1843, of course. I agree, Martel was not French.
And Roger Staubach was not a Dallas Cowboy when he played for Navy, even though the Cowboys did exist at the time.
Ya gotta keep up with these things..."
That "generally accepted" notion probably came from Hollywood. There seem to be a half-dozen books out there now, or are on the way that indicate the only straight people in Hollywood during the 30s and 40s were John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, and Bogart.
Are you implying that Kerry sold his soul to Beelzebub while in Cambodia celebrating the birth of Christ? And all the time knowing the evil Richard Milhouse Nixon was about to be made his commander and chief. Now it makes sense, Rove planned this from the start.
So I guess his relatives Genoa are sadly mistaken.
Exactamundo!
"In the 4th century AD, Gaul's eastern frontier along the Rhine was overrun by Germanic tribes, principally the Franks, from whom the ancient name of "Francie" was derived. The modern name "France" derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris. Existence as a separate entity began with the Treaty of Verdun (843), with the division of Charlemagne's Carolingian empire into East Francia, Middle Francia and Western Francia. Western Francia approximated the area occupied by modern France." -- Source
P.S. Never, EVER talk about the Cowboys when discussing anything French...including French wine, French toast, or even French ticklers.
Note: this topic is from 10/18/2006. Thanks blam.
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