What happened in 1492?

I put this question to my class the other day and was encouraged to see several hands shoot straight up in the air. The first answer was the one I had expected...

‘Christopher Columbus discovered America!’ Well, a fair answer and generally believed. Although what Leif Ericson and his band of Norsemen from 500 years earlier might have had to say about it is another matter. Let alone the people who already lived there...

I allowed myself a little digression at this point and posed another question...

‘So what exactly did Columbus discover?’

This time there was less of a show of hands. In fact there were very few hands at all.

‘America?’, ‘American people?’, ‘New York?’

It’s an interesting but lesser known fact that the land Columbus discovered in 1492 was an island called San Salvador in what is now the Bahamas. It took him a total of 10 weeks to get there after setting sail from Palos de la Frontera in Andalucia – a middle ages version of a Caribbean cruise. Luckily Columbus was partly funded by Ferdinand II, the King of Spain.

But back to the matter at hand...

‘Ok what else happened in 1492?’ A difficult question perhaps as many things happened that year. I thought I had best narrow the options down a bit and explained that it was something that happened in Spain just before Columbus departed on his famous voyage. Indeed if it had not then Columbus would never have gone.

This provoked a lively debate...it never ceases to amaze me the fantastic ideas that can be produced with a simple question. We entertained several intriguing possibilities before one of the boys in the class shouted out...

‘A war!!’

Now we were getting somewhere. Although it wasn’t so much a war as the end of one. A war that had gone on for 781 years. Now that really got their attention. I carried on and told the class how in 1492 the combined forces of Castile and Aragon captured the Emirate of Granada. It’s an exciting story and a significant one too as this victory signaled the end of Islamic rule in Iberia, something which had started all the way back in 711.

But what does that have to do with Columbus...what indeed.

Columbus had in fact spent years trying to fund his expedition without success. His intention was to find a new passage to Asia and open up a new trade route. In fact right up until his death Columbus actually believed that the land he found was Asia and not the Americas…it was an impressive feat nonetheless. But it wasn’t until the fall of Granada in 1492 that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received Columbus in Cordoba and actually agreed to fund his daring exploration (they turned him down at first but that’s another story!) It was to prove an historic decision.

So what did happen in 1492 – the end of Islamic occupation in Iberia, the emergence of Spain as the first world power and the discovery of the ‘new world’. It’s a lot to happen in one year and a fascinating time in history.

Granada is still there of course and the Moorish influence is obvious in the architecture, perhaps nowhere more so than in the Alhambra – the Moorish palaces built for the last Emirs.

And as for Columbus…well after his voyages, a stint as governor, a year stranded on Jamaica and 6 weeks in jail he finally died aged 55 in Valladolid. It is perhaps fitting that even in death the great explorer travelled on and his remains were moved to the Dominican Republic and Cuba before finally coming to rest. You can still visit his grave today...in the Cathedral of Seville in Andalucia all the way back to where his first voyage began.

If you’re interested in taking a trip to Andalucia then why not visit http://www.equityschooltravel.co.uk/schooltrips/spain/andalucia for more information or contact us.