American Minute with Bill Federer Star Chamber Secret Trials, Jails, Persecution of Christians; Pilgrims Fled to Holland, then New England
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Write Side Blonde: An Interview with the creator of REDWHITEBLUE Magazine for Young Readers
Hal Shurtleff, host of the Camp Constitution Report, interviews Rachel “The Write Side Blonde”
From her website: https://www.writesideblonde.com/
Iowa Roots
Born and raised in the great state of Iowa — yes, on a farm — I have found a profound passion for learning politics and inspiring Americans to get involved. In Iowa, working hard is a given. You’re taught to take responsibility for your future, to be quiet and listen so you can better understand, but also to step up when necessary. Each is equally important. Too often we think we need to have things perfectly figured out before we take the first step. From here on out however, let’s all agree that in most cases, that mentality is outdated and extremely inefficient. All it takes is a little grit and some passion, and the rest will sort itself out.
My Educational Journey
I decided at the age of 18 to forego a journalism degree and instead received a master’s in Exercise Physiology with a focus on childhood obesity. After writing my thesis, and upon graduation, I realized the food here is not healthy and our “health” care system is set up for failure: for treatment, not for prevention. The most important thing I learned from grad school, aside from learning how to research, is the concept of “temporary truths.” One of my advisors introduced this notion in class, and it has stuck with me ever since. Things and people evolve, and as a result, can change an entire society’s perception of what is considered morally acceptable.
My Political Awakening
I voted for Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 and after not voting in 2012 due to my dislike of both candidates, I cast my vote for Donald J. Trump in 2016. I frequently discuss this shift and why I am proud to be a Trump supporter now. I hope my journey can help others see the heavy propaganda and other tactics used on us for many years. Inspiration from George I have every original George Magazine from 1995 to 2001 as well as both George books. Much like JFK Jr’s stance, politics is too important to be left to the politicians. We must learn to put our focus on what unites us, seek to understand our differences, and celebrate the passion we share for the future of our country. The Power of Free Speech I believe everyone deserves a voice, even those society deems dangerous or unworthy because in the end, I trust the American people to form their own conclusions. As Louis Brandeis put it in 1927, “If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” Join Me in Taking Action I hope you enjoy my site, but more importantly, I hope you to take action and get involved!
The United Nations: The House That Hiss Built It is Time for Us to Get Out
Sportswriter Fred Lieb coined the term “The House that Ruth built” referring to the old Yankee Stadium which opened in 1923. Not too far from Yankee Stadium is “The House that Hiss Built” which is the United Nations Headquarters. Alger Hiss was the UN’s first acting secretary who co-authored, with a Soviet national, the United Nations charter. He was also, as the world discovered a few years later, a Soviet agent during Stalin’s reign of terror. That is correct. The man who cowrote the U.N. Charter, who served as an advisor to Franklin Roosevelt, was a communist spy. Former Communist agent Whittaker Chambers exposed Hiss. He authored the book Witness to tell his story and his connection to Hiss. This and many other facts are kept from our nation’s government school children in their Model United Nations programs.
So, it should come as no surprise that the U.N. Charter and its Universal Declaration of Rights passed are diametrically opposed to the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence. In the United States, rights come from God and the main purpose of government is to protect those God given rights. The U.N.’s organic documents make no reference to God, and it implies that rights come from governments, and can be taken away by those same governments. The U.N’s Declaration of Rights grants the right of religion, the right of nationality, education, and even the right to leisure, but in Article 29, all of these government granted rights can be taken away:
“ In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order, and the general welfare in a democratic society.
These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.”
This explains why the U.N. membership is replete with despotic regimes.
October 24 marks the 80th anniversary of the United Nations. It was sold to a war weary world as Mankind’s last and best hope for peace. In reality, its purpose from its inception was to be a world government. The long-standing goals of the U.N. include a world army, a fully functioning world court, a world tax, world education standards, and world population control which is already being implemented in Third-World countries.
WHO
WHO-The World Health Organization- is a UN’ entity founded in 1948. It’s head, Dr. Tedius Ghebreyesuswas a senior member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front-a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group. He also has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This explains why WHO adopted the CCP’s Covid protocols which in turn the U.S. adopted. President Trump wisely got us out WHO for the second time but not before the damage was done.
UN “Peacekeepers”
One of the most Orwellian terms I know is “U.N. Peacekeepers.” They were first used in Katanga, a province in what was once called the Belgian Congo, now Zaire in the early 1960s. Soviet trained Patrice Lumumba became the leader of the nation. Dr. Moise Tshombe, a pro-Western Christian leader of Katanga seceded from the nation. In direct violation of its charter, the U.N. sent in its “peacekeepers” mainly white soldiers from Ireland-were sent to Katanga. They murdered, and raped civilians and bombed hospitals and radio stations. Their mission in Côte d’Ivoire from 2003-2017 was rife with sexual abuse of children. Other nations that experienced sexual abuse by U.N. Peacekeepers include Sri Lanka, Haiti. Sudan, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Bosnia, and Kosovo. U.N. troops tortured to death a Somali teenager, and the pro-U.N. American media outlets in the U.S. ignored this horror.
Agenda 21-2030
The UN’s tentacles aren’t in faraway nations; they are in our neighborhood. In 1992, it introduced Agenda 21, now Agenda 2030. President Bush signed on to it and President Clinton’s administration made it the policy of the U.S. Government. Today, hundreds of towns and cities including Wolfeboro and Concord, NH belong to another U.N entity, ICLEI-International Council for Local Environmental Initiative. No peacekeepers are needed. The policies of Agenda 21 are being implemented locally. Plastic bag and straw bans, bike lanes on busy streets, solar panels in what were once green fields, and climate change propaganda in our schools are just a few examples of the local implementation of Agenda 21. This is a quote from the “Father of Agenda 21, the late Maurice Strong, who was a billionaire oilman and New Age devotee:
“Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class — involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air conditioning, and suburban housing — are not sustainable.”
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has introduced the Disengaging Entirely from the United Nations Debacle (DEFUND) Act, which calls for the United States’ complete withdrawal from the United Nations. It is high time that we got out of the United Nations.
A book we recommend available at Camp Constitution’s on-line shop: https://campconstitution.net/product/inside-the-united-nations-a-critical-look-at-the-un-by-steve-bonta/
A Tour of the Forefathers Monument with Leo Martin
The Weekly Sam: Let the Counter-Revolution Begin! Implementing the Tea Party Agenda By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
(The following article is from Sam Blumenfeld’s archive written in 2012)
The first American Revolution officially began on July 4th, 1776, when the Thirteen
Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. And it didn’t end until 1781,
when General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris was signed
with Great Britain in 1783. In other words it took seven years of hard struggle before
the colonists could become the free and sovereign United States of America.
At first the new government was ruled by the Articles of Confederation, ratified by the
states in 1781, which provided virtually no power to the central government. The leaders
of the new confederation then decided to construct a more efficient and viable form of
government under a new Constitution. The result was a Federal Republic in which power
was effectively separated into three branches: the Executive headed by a President, the
Legislative composed of a Congress with a Senate and a House of Representatives, and
the Judiciary, a federal court system headed by the Supreme Court.
Thus, was formed a government of limited powers in which the basic freedoms of
American citizens were constitutionally protected against encroachment by any branch of
government. All of this worked fairly well until the turn of the last century when
socialists began a long-range conspiracy to change America from a Constitutional
Republic with limited powers into a European style Social Democracy with unlimited
powers, thus abolishing our God-given individual liberties. This was done through
incremental steps that expanded the power of the federal government in all areas
Which brings us to the present. The socialists finally took complete legislative power in
Washington with the election of Barack Obama as President and a Democrat controlled
Congress. Their plan was to end our Constitutional Republic. But what the socialists
didn’t count on was the rising up of the majority of the American people in opposition to
their scheme. That uprising became the Tea Party Movement, made up of ordinary and
extraordinary Americans who are determined to restore America’s form of government to
what the Founding Fathers gave us.
And in November 2010 the Tea Partiers gained control of the House of Representatives,
marking the beginning of their Counter-Revolution. But the socialist revolutionaries
used the lame-duck Congress to push through as much of their agenda as possible.
What should the Tea Partiers do when they take their seats in Congress in January of
2011? First, they must repeal all of the socialist legislation that virtually ended our
Constitutional Republic. This initial effort may be vetoed by our Alinsky-trained
President.
But in 2012 the Tea Partiers may be able to get rid of this Marxist
revolutionary at the top. Next, they must begin to dismantle all of those federal
departments and bureaucracies created by previous liberal administrations to expand the
control of government over the lives and activities of the American people. But where
to start? A good place to start is by abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, created
by Jimmy Carter in 1979 via the Department of Education Organization Act, approved by
a liberal Congress.
Actually, a Department of Education had been created in 1867, but a year later was
reduced to a mere Office collecting education statistics, a minor bureau in the Department
of the Interior. In 1939, the bureau was transferred to the Federal Security Agency where
it became known as the Office of Education.
Upgrading the Office of Education into a cabinet level department was opposed by
Republicans who saw the Department as unconstitutional since the Constitution didn’t
even mention education. But when Ronald Reagan became President in 1981 and tried
to abolish the Department, he was prevented by a Democrat dominated House of
Representatives. He was also sabotaged by his own RINO statists.
During the 1980s, the abolition of the ED, as it is now called, was part of the Republican
Party platform, but President George H. W. Bush declined to implement the idea. In
1996, the Republican Party made abolition of the Department a cornerstone of their
campaign promises, calling it an unconstitutional federal intrusion into local, state, and
family affairs. The GOP platform stated:
“The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school
curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the
Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family
choice at all levels of learning.”
During Bob Dole’s run for the presidency in 1996, he promised to abolish the ED. And
in 2000, the Republican Liberty Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department.
But when George W. Bush became President, instead of initiating an effort to abolish the
Department, he joined with liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy to enact the No Child Left
Behind act, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
passed by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society administration.
It was George W. Bush’s big government Republicanism which disillusioned many
conservatives with the GOP and led to the election of Barack Obama. But what makes
the abolition of the Department of Education much more possible now are two things: the
huge federal debt and the need to cut the cost and size of government; and the fact that
the Department has not improved education. In fact, it has made it worse.
Indeed, it was Charlotte Iserbyt, a former Senior Policy Advisor in the Department of
Education during the Reagan years, who blew the whistle on the ED’s nefarious activities
by writing the Deliberate Dumbing Down of the American People, based on
documentation she found in the Department‘s own files. In her expose she proved that the
Department was financing the dumbing down of Americans through grants to socialist
academics in our universities. In other words, the Department of Education had become
destructive of the American mind, and therefore should have long been abolished for that
reason alone. (Iserbyt’s book can now be downloaded free of charge on the Internet https://deliberatedumbingdown.com/ddd/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/DDDoA.pdf
So there is now more than enough evidence that the Department of Education is a
destructive force with power to dictate what goes on in American schools. The sooner it
is gotten rid of, the sooner Americans will be able to achieve one of the Tea Party’s chief
goals: a free nation, enjoying the benefits of educational freedom, without federal control
over our schools.
Yet read the Constitution and you discover a document that carefully creates a national
government with limited and enumerated powers. In contrast to state governments,
federal authority is constrained. Washington does not have general jurisdiction, or the
so-called police power, authorizing it to intervene in any matter not explicitly barred by
law or constitution.
None of the 27 amendments expanded federal power in this regard. The 13th, 14th, and
15th Amendments, passed in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, did transform
federal-state relations: the United States went from being a plural aggregation to a single
unit. National power expanded insofar as it protected individual liberty in the states. The
constitutional changes did not expand Washington’s authority to infringe the liberty of the
same individuals.
John McManus writes:
For decades, our federal government has annually poured tens of billions into education
and the product continues to worsen. The same elected geniuses started a Department of
Energy when imports totaled 30 percent. The import total is now 70 percent. Federal
housing policies convinced many Americans they could own a home with little or no
down payment and the resulting housing crisis ushered in the current recession. Other
geniuses started providing food stamps for several hundred thousand in the 1960s while
assuring everyone that the number of recipients would never grow larger. Now, over 40
million — one in seven Americans — are on this form of handout. We could go on. But it
has to be obvious that whatever the Federal government undertakes beyond its
constitutionally authorized powers turns out to be a bust.
What Shall We Cut?
Abortion may soon be more readily available than ever before, thanks to a new
requirement from Planned Parenthood that more of its centers nationwide offer the
service. At least one local chapter so far has decided to withdraw from the network rather
than comply.
A local office of Planned Parenthood in South Texas is dropping out of the nationwide
network of “America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care” starting
January 1.
According to local news reports, Planned Parenthood is planning on standardizing all of
its agencies, which includes requiring that every single one offer abortion services. The
CEO of the Coastal Bend office, however, said in a media interview that her center has
never provided abortions in the past, and doing so now is unnecessary.
“Our position is that if that is a need in your community, fine,” said CEO Amanda
Stukenberg. “There are far greater needs in our area than abortion. We feel that women
here have options. We don’t need to duplicate services.”
When contacted by The Daily Caller, Lisa David, senior vice president of Health
Services Support for Planned Parenthood, said that the organization is implementing a
broad “new patient services initiative.”
“From well-woman exams to lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, more
patients will now have access to the full range of Planned Parenthood services,” said
David in a statement. “To meet the needs of our patients, Planned Parenthood affiliates
will now offer a unified set of core preventive services.”
In the next year, according to David, Planned Parenthood will expand immediate access
to testing for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI’s). During the next two years,
all Planned Parenthood centers will begin to “provide the full range of birth control
method options, such as the IUD, in addition to well-woman exams including critical
cancer prevention screenings.”
She went on to say that abortion services will be offered in at least one clinic per affiliate.
However, a waiver may be obtained in the case of “unique local circumstances.”
Some, however, argue that the expansion of abortion services is more about lining
pockets than making women feel safe and secure. “Planned Parenthood claims they’re
concerned with women’s health and family planning,” a spokesperson for the Family
Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advances “faith, family and
freedom,” told The DC.
“We’ve been hearing rhetoric lately that abortion should be safe, legal and rare, but [with
this requirement] we can see the writing on the wall. The bottom line is there is no place
in the U.S. where a woman would have difficulty getting abortion if they want to.”
The spokesperson went on to say, “This is about expanding services and bringing in more
money…they try to create a public image where everything focuses on STD’s, family
planning, etc, but abortion is a profitable endeavor.”
Right now, Planned Parenthood has 817 health clinics throughout the U.S. One hundred
seventy-three of those already perform surgical abortions, and 131 perform chemical
abortions. The Planned Parenthood network is made up of 87 locally-government
regional centers, which then oversee hundreds of other clinics.
Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood released its 2008-2009 Annual Report, revealing
that it received $363 million in federal funding that fiscal year.
The Blumenfeld Archives
Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown October 19, 1781
Washington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army of around 5,000 men, to block Cornwallis’ escape from Yorktown by land. In the meantime, Washington’s 2,500 troops in New York were joined by a French army of 4,000 men under the Count de Rochambeau. Washington and Rochambeau made plans to attack Cornwallis with the assistance of a large French fleet under the Count de Grasse, and on August 21 they crossed the Hudson River to march south to Yorktown. Covering 200 miles in 15 days, the allied force reached the head of Chesapeake Bay in early September.
Meanwhile, a British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves failed to break French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes on September 5, denying Cornwallis his expected reinforcements. Beginning September 14, de Grasse transported Washington and de Rochambeau’s men down the Chesapeake to Virginia, where they joined Lafayette and completed the encirclement of Yorktown on September 28. De Grasse landed another 3,000 French troops carried by his fleet. During the first two weeks of October, the 14,000 Franco-American troops gradually overcame the fortified British positions with the aid of de Grasse’s warships. A large British fleet carrying 7,000 men set out to rescue Cornwallis, but it was too late.
On October 19, General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders. As the British and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British band played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.”
Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, the Patriot victory at Yorktown effectively ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation after eight years of war.
This is from This Day in History: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cornwallis-surrenders-at-yorktown
The Associated Clergy of Cape Ann: Serving ‘No Kings’ — Not the King of Kings by Alex Destino
The following was reposted with permission.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an openly atheist organization and a major funder of the national “No Kings” movement. For decades, this same group has fought to remove prayer from schools, crosses from public property, and any mention of God from public life.
And yet, right here in Gloucester, the Associated Clergy of Cape Ann — a group of local ministers and priests — has chosen to partner with them. This same clergy group is sponsoring the “No Kings” event this Saturday, standing with those who reject the very faith they claim to represent.
If you claim to follow Christ, you cannot walk with those who seek to erase Him from our culture or from our children’s hearts. You cannot serve two masters.
Scripture calls believers to be bold in faith. The Constitution guarantees our freedom to live that faith openly. Yet these clergy stand with those who reject both — abandoning their duty as shepherds and citizens.
Where were they when Biden’s FBI spied on Catholics and Christian parents? When Christian pregnancy centers were firebombed? When Obama sued the Little Sisters of the Poor? When chaplains were punished for praying in Jesus’ name, or crosses stripped from federal sites? When the Obama administration ordered Christian schools to open girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms to biological males — in direct violation of Christian teaching and parental rights?
It seems the only thing this clergy group truly shares with the atheists at the FFRF is their hostility toward President Trump.
People of faith across Cape Ann — it’s time to wake up. Stand for truth. Stand for life. And stand with Christ, not with those who deny Him.
Alex Destino is a businessman who is life long resident of Gloucester, MA.
Get Your Children Out of Public Schools Warns A Public School Teacher: An Interview with Ramona Bessinger
Hal Shurtleff, host of the Camp Constitution Report, interviews Ramona Bessinger, a long-time public-school teacher who is now speaking out against public schools. From her website: Teacher Ramona Bessinger July 2021, I spoke out against the harmful anti-American curriculum platforms that had entered Rhode Island Schools and k12 schools across the nation. It is my sincere hope to raise awareness and educate parents on what precisely is happening in their children’s schools and to offer solutions and ways to work with schools to mitigate any harm that may come to any child affected by these changes. https://www.ramonabessinger.com/
Columbus Day Celebration Hosted by Pine Tree Institute- New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women
This event took place at Murphy’s Taproom and Carriage House Bedford, NH Columbus Day Monday October 13, 2025. It began with a reading of President Trump’s Columbus Day Proclamation. Speakers included Drew Cline of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, NH State Senate Tim McGough, Hollie Noveletsky, Business owner, and candidate for U.S House of Reps, Scott Brown, former U.S. Senator and Ambassador to New Zealand, Lily Tang Williams, candidate for Congress, NH State Rep. Brian Cole, and Christine Peters of the New Hampshire Federated Republican Women. The MV was Bill O’Brien, former NH Speaker of the House.
Miscalculation of Global Proportions led Columbus to attempt a a westward voyage – American Minute with Bill Federer
Miscalculation of Global Proportions led Columbus to attempt a a westward voyage
Columbus was looking for a SEA route to India and China because nearly 40 years earlier Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453 cutting off the LAND routes.
A biography of Columbus was written by Washington Irving in 1828, titled A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.
In it, Irving created an imaginative dialogue of Europeans arguing over whether the Earth was round or flat. His book was so popular, that people actually thought such a debate took place when it had not.
Washington Irving was known for mixing entertainment with history and legend.He wrote Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hallow, and Diedrich Knickerbocker’s A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, filled with tales of visits from St. Nick coining to New York City, which he nickname “Gotham.”
Europeans knew the Earth was round.Pythagoras had speculated that the earth was a sphere in the 6th century BC, and Aristotle validated it in the 4th century BC.
In the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes computed the circumference of the earth with amazing accuracy.
He had heard that at Aswan, Egypt, the sun cast no shadow down a well at noon on the summer solstice, June 21, yet at the exact same moment in Alexandria, Egypt, a column cast a shadow with a 7.2 degree angle.
7.2 degrees is 1/50th of a 360 degree circle.
It was known that the distance between Alexandria and Aswan was 5,000 stadia, approximately 500 miles, or 800 kilometers.
All Eratosthenes had to do was multiply 500 miles times 50, which equals 25,000 miles, just 99 miles off from the Earth’s actual circumference of 24,901 miles (or 800 km x 50 to equal 40,000 kilometers, just 75 kilometers less than the actual 40,075 km circumference).
Eratosthenes also calculated distance to the sun and moon, the tilt of the earth, and created the first world map with parallel latitude and meridian longitude lines.
In the 1st century BC, Posidonius used stellar observations at Alexandria and Rhodes to confirm Eratosthenese’s measurements.
In the 2nd century AD, astronomer Ptolemy had written a Guide to Geography, in which he described a spherical earth with one ocean connecting Europe and Asia.
St. Isidore of Seville, Spain, wrote in the 7th century that the earth was round.
Around the year 723 AD, Saint Bede the Venerable wrote in his work Reckoning of Time that the Earth was spherical.
The Book of Isaiah 40:22 states:
“It is He that sitteth upon the globe of the earth.” (Douay-Rheims Bible)
Columbus knew the Earth was round, but the question was, how far around.
The confusion was over the length of a mile.
Columbus read Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly’s “Imago Mundi,” which gave Alfraganus’ estimate that a degree of latitude (at the equator) was around 56.7 miles.
What Columbus did not realize was that this was expressed in longer Arabic miles rather than in shorter Roman miles.
Therefore Columbus incorrectly estimated the Earth to be smaller in circumference, about 19,000 miles, rather than the actual nearly 24,901 miles.Columbus knew there was land to the west, as he may have read Ptolemy’s account, written in 150 AD, of the Greek sailor named Alexander, who visited the Far East port city of Kattigara, beyond the Malay Peninsula — Golden Chersonese.
He could have heard of the Roman traveler, during the reign of Roman Emperors Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius, who made his way to the court of the Chinese Emperor of the Han Dynasty.Indeed, Roman glassware and medallions dating from this period were found at Guangzhou along the South China Sea, and at Óc Eo in Vietnam, near the Chinese province of Jiaozhi.
Great amounts of Roman coins were found in India, indicating there was Roman sea trade.
Columbus most likely heard the story of Irish monk St. Brendan, who sailed west in 530 AD to “The Land of the Promised Saints which God will give us on the last day.”Columbus would have known of the Christian Viking Leif Erickson’s voyage in the year 1000 to Vinland (Newfoundland), called Markland in the Nordic Grœnlendinga Saga.
A Dominican friar in Milan, Italy, named Galvaneus Flamma, wrote an essay titled Cronica universalis, c.1345, in which he referred to the Icelandic description of a wooded land far to the west called Marckalada.
Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s travels to China and India in 1271.He studied Pliny’s “Natural History,” Sir John Mandeville, and Pope Pius II’s “Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum.”
There were accounts that after the Crusades had ended, some Swedes in 1362 sailed to Greenland, and possibly beyond to North America, being the alleged background for the Kensington Runestone.
Columbus may have possibly seen maps, rumored to have been in Portugal’s royal archives, from China’s treasure fleets which were sent out in 1421 by Ming Emperor Zhu Di, led by Admiral Zheng He.Columbus corresponded with Florentine physician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who suggested China was just 5,000 miles west of Portugal.
Based on this, Columbus estimated that Japan, or as Marco Polo called it “Cipangu,” was only 3,000 Roman miles west of the Canary Islands, rather than the actual 12,200 miles.
Since no ship at that time could carry enough food and water for such a long voyage, Columbus would have never set sail if he had known the actual distance.
As a young man, Columbus began sailing on a trip to a Genoese colony in the Aegean Sea named Chios.
In 1476, he sailed on an armed convoy from Genoa to northern Europe, docking in Bristol, England, and Galway, Ireland, and even possibly Iceland in 1477.
When Muslim Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453 and hindered land trade routes from Europe to India and China, Portugal, which had been freed from Islamic occupation for two centuries, began to search for alternative sea routes.
W.L. Grant, Professor of Colonial History, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, wrote in the introduction of The Voyages
and Explorations of Samuel de Champlain (published 1911, The Courier Press, A.S. Barnes Company):
“The history of Western Civilization begins in a conflict with the Orient, a conflict of which it maybe the end is not yet.
But the routes between East and West have been trodden by the caravans of trade more often even than by the feet of armies.
The treasures of the East were long brought overland to Alexandria, or Constantinople, or the cities of the Levant, and thence distributed to Europe by the galleys of Genoa or of Venice.
But when the Turk placed himself astride the Bosporus, and made Egypt his feudatory, new routes had to be found.”
Socialist historian Howard Zinn admitted in A People’s History of the United States (1980):“Now that the Turks had conquered Constantinople and the eastern Mediterranean, and controlled the land routes to Asia, a sea route was needed.
Portuguese sailors were working their way around the southern tip of Africa.
Spain decided to gamble on a long sail across an unknown ocean.”
Portugal, under Prince Henry the Navigator, led the world in the science of navigation and cartography (map-making), and developed a light ship that could travel fast and far, the “caravel.”
During Portugal’s Golden Age of Discovery under King John II, Columbus sailed along the west coast of Africa between 1482-1485, reaching the Portuguese trading port of Elmina on the coast of Guinea.
In 1498, Portuguese sailor Vasco de Gama did make it around South Africa to India.
But six years before that, in 1492, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella defeated Muhammad XII of Granada and drove the last of the Islamic Nasrid Dynasty out of Spain.
The Spanish Monarchs then joined the quest for a sea trade route to the India and China.
They backed Columbus’ plan.Though Columbus was wrong about the miles and degrees of longitude, he did understand trade winds across the Atlantic.
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail on the longest voyage to that date out of the sight of land. Trade winds called “easterlies” pushed Columbus’ ships for five weeks to the Bahamas.On OCTOBER 12, 1492, Columbus sighted what he thought was India.
He imagined Haiti was Japan and Cuba was the tip of China.He called the first island he saw “San Salvador” for the Holy Savior.
W.L. Grant continued in the introduction of The Voyagesand Explorations of Samuel de Champlain (1911, The Courier Press, A.S. Barnes Co.):
“In the search for these were made the three greatest voyages in history, those of Columbus, of Vasco da Gama, and greatest of all of Magellan.
In his search for the riches of Cipangu (Japan), Columbus stumbled upon America.
The great Genoese lived and died under the illusion that he had reached the outmost verge of Asia; and though even in his lifetime men realized that what he had found was no less than a new world.”
In his journal, Columbus referred to the native inhabitants as “indians” as he was convinced he had successfully arrived in India:
“So that they might be well-disposed towards us, for I knew that they were a people to be … converted to our Holy Faith rather by love than by force, I gave to some red caps and to others glass beads …
They became so entirely our friends that … I believe that they would easily be made Christians.”
Reposted with permission of American Minute