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Before First Contact - Background History, Part two

9/30/2015

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Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

PicturePortrait of Columbus - Wikipedia
1492 CE was the year when Pope Alexander VI ascended to the throne. In addition, the Torah was first printed on a press the same year. Also, although the Castillian language had been around for a while, the first Castillian language grammar book was published this year. Castillian is what Spanish was called before it was called Spanish. The Spanish Inquisition, which began fourteen years before, finally succeeded in converting the Jewish population into Christianity and taking over the Muslim (Moor) city of Granada earlier in the year, allowing King Ferdanan of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, who married back in 1474, extra capital to spend on exploration. Since the Muslums took over Constantinople, Castille had found themselves competing with Portugal for alternative routes to Asia. At Palos de la Frontera, on the 3rd of August, a Genoan Admiral named Christopher Columbus led a fleet of three ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, off on a voyage headed due west through the Ocean Sea (future Atlantic Ocean). Trusting the work of an astrologer named Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, he had greatly underestimated the size of the Earth and thought he had found an opportunity for riches. He wanted to reach Asia and establish trade there without having to go through the costly routes of the Middle East or around Africa.

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Iberian Peninsula, 1492 - geacron.com
After leaving shore, they headed southwest toward the Canary Islands, where Friar and someday Saint Diego of Alcala once spent many years as a missionary. Before arriving though, the rudder to one of Columbus’ smaller ships, the Pinta, broke down. They spent the rest of the month repairing the ship. They left again from the Canary Islands on September 6th and headed west. Nine days later, on the 15th, Columbus’ journal read:
“…in the early part of the night there fell from heaven into the sea a marvelous flame of fire…”
I can only think of two things they could have seen. It could have been either a lightning bolt, or a meteorite. Being stuck in a hot wooden ship in the middle of the ocean and religious, I’m sure witnessing this marvelous but sudden flame of fire was probably seen by the crew as a bad omen.
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LOL! - Memecenter
Columbus was afraid that if his crew knew the true distance they were traveling, the crew would mutiny, so he did two things to keep them calm. First, he would lie about the distance they had traveled day to day. For example, the next day, on the 16th, Columbus estimated they had traveled 39 leagues. He would record the correct distance in his personal journal, but in a second journal meant for the crew, he recorded the distance traveled that day as 36 leagues. For the 17th, they traveled 50 leagues, but recorded 47. This would continue until they found actual land.
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Replicas of the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria - Wikipedia
The other thing he would do is highlight almost any sort of activity as signs that they were near land. Clouds, floating weeds, sea life, and birds flying overhead were all signs “of the proximity of land”. On the 19th, two birds called “boobies” arrived at the fleet of ships (they were actually Albatross’ but after a month at sea, Columbus must have had other things in mind, hehe). These “boobies” excited Columbus who claimed to his crew that these types of birds don’t generally travel over 20 leagues away from land.
After 108 more leagues and many more spotted “boobies”, the captain of the Pinta, called that he had seen land. The crew from the Nina, then climbed the masts of their ship and confirmed what was seen. Everybody celebrated and altered course southwest, but after a day of traveling, they found that what they had seen were only distant or low clouds. They had come to believe that they had passed some islands following the clouds. Realizing that they had been out at sea much longer than anticipated, the crew began to speak of mutiny. They wanted to turn around and either head back to one of these islands, or back to Castile, fearing they would die at sea if they did not. Some of them plotted to throw the Admiral overboard.
Columbus continued with his course, lying about how much they had traveled and declaring everything that floats or flies as a sign of impending land. There was a reward from the Crown for the first person to spot land so the crew was alert. On the morning of October 7th, the Nina rode out ahead and claimed they had seen land. The other ships joined, but because of the haze, waited until the evening to look for what was seen, but I guess there was no land. They kept going for three more days before the Captains of the other ships confronted Columbus, telling their Admiral that they would go on for only three more days. In regards to Columbus’ reaction, the journal for October 10th states:
“But the Admiral cheered them up in the best way he could, giving them good hopes of the advantages they might gain from it. He added that, however much they might complain, he had to go to the Indies, and that he would go on until he found them, with the help of our Lord.”
This apparently pacified his men for now, but Columbus’ time was running out.
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That's a lot of distance for three little ships - Wikipedia
On the morning of the 12th, the Moon rose from the east at its third quarter. The crew of the Pinta, sailed ahead to look for land. A crew member named Rodrigo de Triana spotted a sandy island illuminated by the moonlight. A flag was raised and a gun was fired. Cries of “Terra, Terra!” rang. This time it was for real: They had indeed found land. They arrived at the island that morning. The first observation they made was of all the naked people who called the island “Guanahani”. The Christians brought out all of their flags and swords, gifts and gods at landing. They went on shore and performed a little ceremony on the beach, where they claimed the island in the name of the Castillian Crown and renamed it “San Salvador”.
PicturePortrait of Columbus taking possession of San Salvador - Wikipedia
There is no telling what was going through the minds of the natives of Guanahani, now San Salvador, who witnessed this ceremony. In a letter he later wrote to Luis de Santiangel, Columbus boasts that he took possession of the island in front of witnesses, native and otherwise, “and I was not gainsaid (challenged)”, despite the fact that he knew the natives didn’t speak Castillian and so had no idea he was usurping their territory for a crown of a distant land. After claiming the land, the Christians and the natives met for the first time and the Christians greeted them with small gifts, such as glass beads. Columbus treats these gifts like throw away items, as he highlighted how cheap they were in his journals. Seemingly relieved, the natives who called themselves the "Taino", came over to the enormous ships, bringing gifts of their own. Still thinking that they had landed in the East Indies, Columbus mistakenly referred to the natives in the region as “Indios”. Today the word is "Indian".

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Drawing of Columbus meeting the Taino or the "Indians". Notice them raising the cross to the left. - State Archives of Florida
In the closest surviving thing to his journal, which is actually a third hand account, Columbus speculated that the Indians of the region would make great servants and could easily be converted into Christians. He saw some wounds on a few natives and asked them how they got them. They told him that they had a battle with people from a nearby island. He noticed a lack of metal weapons, and when he showed them a sword, they grabbed it by the blade end, accidentally cutting their hand in the process. He also noted:
“It appeared to me to be a race of people very poor in everything…They have no iron, their darts being wands without iron… They should be good servants and intelligent, for I observed that they quickly took in what was said to them, and I believe that they would easily be made Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no religion… I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses, that they may learn to speak.”
It appears he actually took about three that day, and one even had to be carried off by force, though this is not mentioned in the journal until days later. The Christians and their native captives returned to the ship that night with canoes arriving at the ship the next day. According to the log, there was a trading extravaganza at the ship as cotton and skins were traded for caps and beads. However, neither Columbus nor his men were looking for skins. They were looking for gold, and like a detective, he picked up on the clues. He noticed a few small gold nuggets attached to the noses of some of the natives and asked the Taino where they got them. He learned of a king to the south who had cups full of these pieces. He tried to get them to lead him to this king, thinking it might be the Khan in Marco Polo's book, but the natives weren’t interested in taking him.
Their arrival well known to the Indians now, the Christians continued to sail on the 14th. All along the shore as they followed the coast, natives would come to the shore, bearing gifts and begging them to come to shore. Some natives believed they had come from heaven, as Columbus and his men understood it. In his journal, the Admiral reiterates the inferiority of the Indians:
“…(T)hese people are very simple as regards the use of arms, as your Highnesses will see from the seven that I caused to be taken, to bring home and learn our language and return; unless your Highness should order them all to be brought to Castile, or to be kept as captives on the same island; for with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them… The natives make war on each other, although these are very simple-minded and handsomely-formed people.”
Just one day before, he was hoping to pick up six natives, unless there is a mistranslation in the journal, now it seems he wants seven. A canoe followed the Nina that night and seeing his chance, one of the native captives jumped ship and swam to the canoe. The canoe then sped away. The next day, Columbus continued on his voyage, landing on another island he named “Santa Maria de la Concepcion”.
“For the people I had taken from the island of San Salvador told me that here they wore very large rings of gold on their arms and legs.”
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Columbus' first voyage - Wikipedia
On the way, a second canoe pulled up, prompting another Indian to jump ship and escape. When the third canoe arrived with a man wishing to trade cotton, they took no chances and told him to climb aboard. When he didn’t, a few men jumped in and seized him and his canoe by force. He was brought to Columbus, where he gave the man some beads, bells, and a cap. Seeing that he was just looking to trade, Columbus then ordered the native's canoe returned to him and for his men to let him go with his gifts and his cotton. Then, he decided to let the remaining native go. It is here when his journal just happened to mention that they had forcefully carried that one away before.
His mercy was for appearances though, because he bragged in his journal about how he got the natives to see them as good people in anticipation that they would be friendly to him when he returned. He had already negotiated the governorship of any land he found before the voyage even started, so all he needed was to find a source of gold and he could become a very rich man. As he hopped from island to island, he picked up more natives.
Next, he headed for a really long island that he called “Fernandina”. Here, Columbus’ journal notes a native who bartered in dried leaves that he found valuable, possibly tobacco! (You're welcome smokers) The man was taken on board, fed, given gifts and released to win his favor. Columbus continued to circle islands and trading with the natives. Most of his journal entry for October 17th, talks of the interesting wild life and how similar, yet different they are to the wild life in Castile. When he saw a man with an especially large piece of gold on his nose, he mistook it for a form of currency and in his words, “quarreled with these people because they would not exchange or give what was required”, whatever that means.
On October 23, he set out for an island that the Indians called “Cuba”, which since he thought he was in the West Indies, thought it might be where the island of “Cipango”(Japan) was. He made it there on the 28th and was amazed at the plant life and natural harbors of the island. He would later state that the island was bigger than England and Scotland combined, which was not true at all. He was still looking for this king with cups full of gold, or at least a gold mine but couldn't find it there. He named the island "La Isla Juana".
While on another island on November 12th, Columbus relays the following sadness:
"Yesterday a canoe came alongside the ship, with six youths in it. Five came on board, and I ordered them to be detained. They are here now. I afterwards sent to a house on the western side of the river, and seized seven women, old and young, and three children. I did this because the men would behave better in Spain if they had women of their own land, than without them... The same night, the husband of one of the women came alongside in a canoe, who was father of the three children... He asked me to let him come with them...They are now all consoled at being with one who is a relation of them all."
I thought he only wanted six or seven natives, but I guess sixteen is close enough.
To calm the captives, they were led to believe that they would be released once the Christians found gold. Two youths escaped the Nina five days later. While exploring, Columbus would also have his men cut down trees to make large crosses out of them and leave them on each island.
On December 5th he landed on Hispaniola, which now holds Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He described the landscape as a marvel and spoke about how the rivers and streams carried gold. He left some men behind, but took more natives. He found an island full of turtles and named it "Tortuga"(aww). On December 17th, near the Island of Tortuga, he finally got a real taste of what he was looking for.
"They saw one man... with a piece of gold leaf as large as a hand, and it appears that he wanted to barter with it. He cut the leaf into small pieces, and each time he came out he brought a piece and exchanged it. When he had no more left, he said by signs that he had sent for more, and that he would bring it another day."
Later that day, a group of Indians from Tortuga arrived, but the man with the gold leaf berated the group and sent them away, throwing rocks at their canoe as they left and encouraging the Spaniards to join in. The next day, they met with the king of the Indians that were from the Island of Hispaniola. After referring to their nakedness for about the fiftieth time, Columbus had dinner, exchanged gifts and became quick friends with these Natives. That night, with their help, the Spanish erected a wooden cross on the Island.
They found a large port of another island they dubbed Santo Tomas on December 20th. Columbus was once again awe-struck by it's natural beauty. The next day he and his men went on shore and did their usual gift exchanges. They sent a few Christians to check out their villages and he spent a few pages describing it all. This happens again on the 22nd and by the 23, his ships were surrounded by over a hundred curious canoes.
They spent Christmas day (December 25th) navigating the waters. With the waters calm that night, Columbus went to bed on his flagship, the Santa Maria. With the night so calm, the journal claims that "the sailor who steered the ship thought he would go to sleep, leaving the tiller in (the) charge of a boy". While they slept, the water current took the Santa Maria and gently beached it on a sandbank and the ship began to take in a rush of sea water. Though the beaching was hardly felt, Columbus quickly awoke and went to work trying to save his ship, but to no avail. He had tried to get some of his men to take a boat out to lay an anchor towards the sea, but they instead took a boat and tried to seek refuge on one of the other ships.
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Painting of the Santa Maria being beached with men trying to escape - .independent.co.uk
Columbus was lucky to have made friends with the Natives of that island, who helped him unload his old ship, for it saved him and his men a lot of time, and staying there gave them great insights in their quest for gold. From then on, Columbus would finish his voyage on the Nina. Finally finding a gold source, he orders a fort to be built with the intention of leaving a few men behind, under the protection of the local king there.
On January 4th, Columbus and his ships departed the island, but it seems as though there was some drama between him and his men which actually delayed their trip back east a few more days. They finally got underway on January 16th and made it back home on March 13, 1493. When Columbus returned to Castile, with the natives and other treasure, he was sure that he had found a new path to the Indies and thus had immortalized himself in history. Columbus returned a hero.
PictureIs this joke dated yet? - Memecenter.com
Indeed, he was immortalized, but not for reaching the east coast of Asia. When word had gone out that a western path to the Indies had been established, Pope Alexander VI released the "Discovery Doctrine". It decreed that lands void of Christians was available for discovery. Also, all "discovered" land east of the new lands be given to Portugal, which will give them a sizable chunk of land as well. Either way, the Castillian Crown was given full authority of any lands found west of the islands, including the authority over non-Christians in the hopes of converting them. This opened the door for a new age of "discoverers" called the "Conquistadors".

In the end, Columbus did seem to actually discover something that nobody knew about before. Those were the trade winds that blew him across the expanse of the Ocean Sea and back. It would send many more people across the ocean from here on.

Stay Tuned for Background History, Part three coming October 15, 2015

Sources:

Columbus' Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus

Columbus' Journal:
http://www.americanjourneys.org/pdf/AJ-062.pdf
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Last eclipse for the year

9/28/2015

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Took this from my place last night. Hope you all enjoyed the eclipse like I did...
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Before First Contact - Background History, Part one

9/14/2015

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Ancient Times

A 7th century Chinese book named “The Book of Liang” told of a land to the east on the other side of the Pacific Ocean named “Fusang”, after a popular plant that was found there and used by the natives of that region. The land was described as arid, but full of native people with traditions that were nothing like the Chinese had ever witnessed, though it is doubtful that this land was in the Americas, for the text speak of a bronze age culture, while the natives of North America were closer to stone. Thousands of years later, from the other side of the ocean, near the future Colorado River in North America, there was a legend told by the natives of men in ships with golden figureheads. The men claimed they had come from the other side of the ocean. Though it is entirely possible that people have been visiting the America’s since ancient times, there is no concrete evidence that Fusang was the name they used for San Diego, or California. Still, it is intriguing to note.
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Some believe Fusang is located in modern day British Columbia. - From Wikipedia.com
Real quick, why are we going back so far? The simple answer is that I would like to bring not just San Diego's history into focus, but the history that would create San Diego's culture and mythos. Here, you'll not only learn how San Diego and California were "discovered" by the Spanish, but where all these names came from, and other cultural aspects that will come together here. I'm going to speed through much of this history, but slow down enough here and there to focus on at least three areas: Columbus' voyages, Cortez's conquest of Mexico, and Cabrillo's voyage.

Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl means “feathered serpent” in Nahuatl, which is the ancient language of the Mexicas. However, it is also the name of a god was born to a virgin named Chimalman. There are many variations of his story, but according to the myths, the Mexicas, later known to the rest of the world as the Aztecs, believed that time was cyclical, not linear, that there had been four previous suns and worlds, which had been destroyed. From his own blood and the bones of the dead, Quetzalcoatl created humans and the fifth sun from the location of an ancient city named Teotihuacan. He then taught the humans in the area how to plant maize (corn), write and tell time. It is unclear if he was for or against human sacrifice. After becoming drunk and sleeping with a priestess, Quetzalcoatl felt bad and burned himself to death, which I have no choice but to conclude was an overreaction. His heart rose to the sky, glowing brighter and brighter, eventually becoming the morning star.
PictureStatue of Xu Fu - From Wikipedia.com
Ancient times once hinted at the possibility of the discovery of the western United States coast by the Chinese. Mythological accounts believed that from the East Coast of China, there was land on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. This land in the other side of the ocean was believed to be ruled by a volcano god who possessed the elixir of life. A Chinese court sorcerer named Xu Fu, set out on two separate expeditions to find this elixir, first in 219BCE and again in 210BCE, but was never seen again after the second expedition. Though some believed he may have made it to the west coast of the Americas, the general consensus is that he actually made it to Japan and proclaimed himself King there. In Japan, Xu Fu may have contributed to their ancient societies. He was later worshiped by the Japanese as the gods of farming, medicine and silk.

PictureAncient city of Teotihuacan today - Wikipedia.com
On the actual other side of the ocean, the Aztec culture grew from the older Toltec culture, which emerged in Central America around 200BCE. Unlike the Ipai and Tipai in the north, the Toltec had agriculture, commerce and architecture. Like the Maya in the south, they mined metals, though it wasn't the backbreaking work they would be later used to. Their main city, the largest in the Americas at the time, was located just northeast of a large ancient lake named “Texcoco” and called Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was established about 100BCE and was believed to be a multi-ethic city, with representatives from across Central and South America. The city was large and contained many step pyramids made of stone, which is thought to represent various gods. One of the gods represented there was Quetzalcoatl.

 Eventually, the Toltec culture in the Americas began to dwindle. Around 550CE, parts of ancient Teotihuacan were burned to the ground and in time, the great city was abandoned. It is unknown why.
When the Aztecs came around, they saw the great ruins of Teotihuacan and believed it to be the center of the Universe. They adopted much of the old Toltec culture and worshiped their gods, including Quetzalcoatl, associating him to the year “Ce Acatl”, and re adapting the story to where Quetzalcoatl was a priest who was tricked by a god into getting drunk and sleeping with his sister, this made people lose favor with him. Soon, other bad gods send the city into chaos, leaving Quetzalcoatl no choice but to abandon the city. He and his followers head east until they reach the beach. They built a boat out of snakes and head out into the open sea, vowing to return to resume his place in the year Ce Acatl. According to people much smarter than I am, the year Ce Acatl or “One Reed” is associated with the Julian year of 1519CE. That info will become handy later... 1519.
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From vanvelding.com
The Aztecs would grow a new city on a marshy island in the middle of Lake Texcoco around 1386CE named "Tenochtitlan" and while continuing some of the traditions of the Totecs, began to grow a new empire.
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Quetzalcoatl - Wikipedia.com

Europe, 395 - 500CE

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Height of the Roman Empire at 395CE - From Wikipedia.com
PictureArcadius - Wikipedia
By around 390CE, the mighty Roman Empire, which ruled from Iberia to Asia Minor, and from England to Egypt, was struggling to stay intact. On 395CE, the last Emperor to rule a united Roman Empire died. When that happened, his sons took over the Empire, but split it in half. The Eastern half, which held Constantinople, was ruled by Arcadius, while the Western half, which held Rome, was ruled by a ten year old named Honorius. Meanwhile, in the east, a Gothic man named Alaric became angry when neither emperor offered him a command, so he raised his own army and became the first king of the Visigoths. They then began to invade surrounding lands.

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Roman Empire splitting in half in 396CE - From http://geacron.com
By 400CE, the Visigoths reached northern Italy intending to settle, but were temporarily stopped on 402CE at the Battle of Pollentia. The treaty that came from that battle forced King Alaric to leave northern Italy, but he returned five years later and marched toward Rome. The Visigoths were given gold, silk, leather and pepper to go away this time and they did again. temporarily.  The Visigoths weren't looking for gold however, they were looking for land. Just a few years later, Alaric threatened Honorius, who was now an adult, asking for a large swath of the eastern lands. When Honorius refused, the Visigoths traveled to Italy and embargoed Rome, hoping to starve out the Roman citizens.
PictureThe Sack of Rome by the Visigoths on 24 August 410 by J-N Sylvestre (1890) - Wikipedia
Before Alaric and his men arrived at Rome, Honorius was moved to Ravenna. Soon, after Alaric took over Rome, other men would declare themselves Emperor in Gaul and Hispania. The Visigoths would burn parts of Rome to the ground, "sacking" the city on 410CE. Not since 387BCE had Rome been sacked, and though it wasn't a huge sacking, it haunted Romans psychologically. After Rome, the Visigoths tried to attack Africa, but a storm wrecked their ships, so they changed their minds. Alaric died soon after, and so Ataulf took his place as the Visigoth King. The Eastern Roman Empire was interested in Gaul, so they sent an army to capture their Emperor and succeeded in doing so. Afterwards, Ataulf decided to travel back up Italy before settling into southern Gaul by 413CE, but Ataulf died by 415CE. Ataulf's replacement's replacement named Wallia, decided he wanted to make peace with Honorius.

PictureThis guy! - Wikipedia
Germanic tribes like the Vandals had found their way into the Iberian Peninsula, and so Wallia made a deal with Honorius which teamed the Romans with the Visigoths against the barbaric tribes in Iberia. In return, the Visigoths would have southwestern Gaul. By this time, the western half of the Iberian Peninsula was broken up into four kingdoms: the Suebi, Bracara Augusta, Alans, and the Vandals. On 418CE, Ravenna, now the Capitol of the Western Roman Empire, made a temporary peace with an empire to the north which required exchanging dignitaries. From the this treaty Ravenna received a 12 year old boy named Attila... the Hun. Yeah, that guy! 

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Europe in 418CE- From http://geacron.com
Meanwhile, the Vandals had taken over much of Hispania. By 429CE, they had decided to abandon Hispania and then sailed across the Mediterranean into north Africa, taking Carthage by 431CE. Once the Vandals abandoned Hispania, the Suebi took over western Hispania. On 445CE, with Attila the Hun, all grown up and threatening their borders, the Bishop of Rome, now named Leo I, became the first Pope by order of the Emperor of Constantinople.  Leo was tested in 449CE when a Bishop in the Eastern Empire named Theodosius tried to usurp his power by calling him a heretic and excommunicating Leo. In response, Leo excommunicated Theodosius back. Complication after complication is weaved into what happens in the meantime, but in the end, Theodosius had died, and Attila begins to march west towards Rome, sacking the city of Metz on the way.
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Europe in 445CE- From http://geacron.com
PictureLeo and Atilla's meeting, painted by Raphael. - Wikipedia
A coalition of Romans, Visigoths in Hispania, and a group later known as the Franks were sent to stop the Huns. By 451CE, they battled the Huns in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Attila and his men retreated and Gaul was saved, but not without a lot of lost lives. Attila, pissed over the defeat, waited for all of the allies to leave before returning to Italy, taking the northern area by 452CE. With nobody able to stop the Hun advance, Leo decided to travel north to meet with Attila. However, after their meeting, Attila surprisingly stood down and left, he would be dead by 453CE and his empire would die soon after.

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Europe in 475CE- From http://geacron.com
The success of Leo I pretty much turned him into Leo the Great. On 455CE, the Vandals enter Rome, and in 14 days, cause so much damage to the city that their name, "Vandal" became a word associated with "Plunder". They then begin settling in islands across the Mediterranean. By 475CE, a man named Orestes raised an army and entered the Roman Capital of Ravenna, causing the Emperor to flee. Orestes put his ten year old son on  the throne but a year later, Orestes died in a revolt lead by another Gothic chieftain named Odoacer. He and his men conquered Italy, and he made himself King. Odoacer, leader of the Ostogoths, then turned his attention on obtaining more land for his people, which began to freak out the Eastern Empire. In 486CE, they began to threaten Constantinople. In 493CE, Odoacer was killed by his co-ruler, Theoderic. He was an "eh" ruler. He visited Rome once in like 500CE, but the prestige that was once there had disappeared.
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Europe in 493CE- From http://geacron.com
After much struggle, the Franks would go on take over the former lands of Gaullia, which would soon become known as France. Meanwhile, the Suebi had lost half of their land to the Visigoths. There were two large cities in the Iberian Peninsula, Corduba was established in 206BCE as the Roman capital of Hispania and Bracara Augusta, now in Subi lands, was established in 20BCE.
Rome had greatly influenced cultures all over its former empire. Some of these cultures will survive through the generations and become part of San Diego's culture. The Roman language, Latin, would become the root language of Italian, Castillian (future Spanish), French, Portuguese and Romanian. English and Germanic languages would come from Germania, which were the tribal groups who managed to resist Roman rule. Another thing the Romans left was their religion, Christianity, which people continued to practice, and even built upon it, leading up to Leo the Great becoming the first Pope.

Europe, Medieval

On 535CE a volcano in Indonesia named Krakatoa erupted, causing a cloud of ash to wrap around the world taking about 18 months to settle. Once the dust settled, on 542CE the black death (Bubonic plague) spread in Constantinople, killing thousands and would spread as far as Gaul. On 551CE, The Eastern Roman Empire decided to team up with the Lombards to take back Ravenna and Rome. The battle was a success and thus most of Italy was taken back by the Eastern Roman Empire. The next year, the Eastern Empire was also able to take the southern coast of Hispania.
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Europe in 535CE- From http://geacron.com
On 561CE, Frankish King Chlothar I died and his lands were split between his four sons. On 567CE, the second oldest brother died and the surviving sons sucked up his kingdom. Trying to further establish his claims, one of the king, the Austrasian one, sent a large dowry to the Visigoth king to secure a marriage between him and the a Visigothic princess. A second brother, the Neustrian one, asked for the sister of THAT princess in marriage, apparently trying to keep up with his bother. Both proposals were accepted.
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By 575CE, the Neustrian was was dead, leading to a seven years war between Neystria and Austrasia before assassins killed the Austrasian King, followed by more fighting. By 591CE, Italy was broken up between the Lombards, the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Duchies of Spoieto and Benevento. The new Pope was a former monk named Gregory I. In 593CE, the Lombards and Duchies began marching towards Rome. Gregory, with his church funding, paid the Roman troops and then negotiated a peace with the Lombard King, making him "Gregory the Great". On 599CE, Neustria would join forces with Burgundy to defeat the Austrasia King. They then divided his land among themselves.
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By 600CE, Britannia was broken into several kingdoms, when Gregory sent Augustine I to the island to convert the people there into Christianity, and in Mecca, a man named Muhammad would have a vision that will launch him into the role of a religious prophet. The Visigoths, losing their capital city of Toulouse to Burgundy (Now the Orleans in these maps), they had been completely pushed into the Iberian Peninsula. In 612CE, the three kings of the Frankish Kingdom were still spatting among themselves. Neustria joined Orleans and took the rest of Austrasia, uniting the land of the Franks under King Chlothar II.
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By the second half of the century, the followers of Muhammad would grow into an empire and take over the entire Arabian Peninsula, then heading east to Indian lands, absorbing the Persian Empire along the way and trying to take Constantinople but failing, before turning back and conquering Egypt and then the rest of  north Africa. By 711CE, the Muslims defeated the Visigoths in the battle of Guadalete, giving them the Iberian Peninsula, but were defeated by the Franks in the battle of Toulouse on 721CE, stopping the Islamic advance. Hispania had become the Islamic Emirate.
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However, there was a small band of resisters to the north called the Asturians. Over the next decades, they'll grow into their own state. On 756CE, Abd al-Rahman I defeated the existing Muslim rulers, becoming Prince of the area and turning the Islamic Emirate into the Emirate of Cordoba. Most of the Iberian Peninsula would be under Muslim rule for the next 700 years.
Picture
Europe in 800CE - From http://geacron.com
At this point, we'll slow down a bit and shrink the scale to the individuals.

Venice, Italy

PictureLook at that old picture of Marco Polo! - From Wikipedia.org
Our modern story begins about 1300CE. Pope Boniface VIII had formalized a year-long celebration started in Roman times called the Jubilee, where every 50 years, prisoners were freed and debts were forgiven. To the north, Amsterdam was first declared an official city. Also, a book called “Book of the Marvels of the World” was published. Dictated to his cellmate while imprisoned, the book describes the extravagant travels of a man named Marco Polo through the Middle East and the orient, including his time with Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire. The book also speaks of a large ancient city that lay to the islands east of the Empire named "Cipango". Cipango is Japan. It became a bestselling and widely influential book. Travels to the Far East became more frequent for trading exotic objects such as silk. With the increase of demand, routes through the Middle East, later known as the Silk Road, became more expensive to cross.

Picture
Euasia from 1300CE - from http://geacron.com
Picture
Iberian Peninsula in 1300CE - From http://geacron.com

Kingdom of Seville, Castile

On 1400CE, Kingdoms in Romania were resisting Ottoman invasions, and all of Europe had an estimated population of 52 million people. In Castile, there existed a kingdom named Seville, said to be founded in ancient times by Hercules himself after sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar. Within that Kingdom was a small village named San Nicolás del Puerto. Within that village was a pious couple who had just added to the population by giving birth to a healthy baby boy. Rather than name the child Santiago, after the patron St. Iago (St. James of Spain), they decided to name the boy a shorter and more masculine version of it: Diego, or Didacus. There really isn’t much known about Diego, and he wasn’t a large figure in life. Never-the-less, long after death, his actions in life will someday allow him to receive one of the highest honors a pious human could achieve.
Picture
Iberian Peninsula in 1400CE. Apologies for the misspelling. - From http://geacron.com
PictureSt. Diego of Alcala - from Wikipedia.org
Diego was a rather quiet boy who ended up embracing the hermit life and finding religion in his adulthood. He soon became a lay brother at the Order of Friars Minor. On 1445CE, he was sent to the Canary Islands, a group of islands just west of the African coast which had just been rediscovered, to help convert the natives in the area to Christianity. Diego later returned to Castille on 1450CE to share in Pope Nicholas V's Jubilee Year celebrations and attended the canonization of Bernardine of Siena. Diego then spent about three months at the Basilica of Santa Maria, caring for the sick, where it is told that many miraculous cures took place and were recorded. He spent the remainder of his life in solitude at the Friary of Santa Maria de Jesus in Alcala. An abscess took Diego's life on November 12, 1463. However, the smell that emitted from his infection and from his corpse was of a pleasant fragrance and he didn’t begin to rot or undergo rigor-mortis for days afterwards, according to accounts.

Picture
Iberian Peninsula in 1463CE - From http://geacron.com
PictureKing Henry IV - From Wikipedia.org
This wouldn’t be the last time Diego's remains made headlines. Shortly after his death, while on a hunting trip... anywhere between 1463 and 1474CE I guess, King Henry IV of Castile had fallen off of his horse and hurt his arm. The pain was so intense, that he didn't know what to do and nobody knew how to treat his pain, so apparently in his agony, and remembering the stories of miraculous cures, he decided to head to Alcala and pray to Diego. They even removed Diego’s remains from the casket so that the King could kiss his body and place his skeletal remains of a hand on his injured arm. It apparently worked, according to the King. Henry's pain went away and Diego was placed back into rest. A chapel was later built on 1485 and 1514CE in his hometown. His remains are kept at a Cathedral in Alcala de Hernares in Madrid, and it is put on display every year during the time of his feast: November 13th.

Years had gone by since Diego’s death, yet his popularity only grew. Within thirty years of his death, the world would be rocked to its foundations with a discovery on the other side of the Ocean Sea and it would change the course of human history. It's so important, the next couple of parts will be completely dedicated to it.

Stay Tuned for Background History, part 2 coming October 1, 2015

Sources:

Fusang:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusang

Quetzalcoatl:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatl

Xu Fu:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Fu

Teotihuacan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan

Aztecs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec

Marco Polo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo

Didacus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didacus_of_Alcal%C3%A1

Henry IV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV,_Duke_of_Brunswick-L%C3%BCneburg

Books:
History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer

Teaching Company Course:
The Other 1492: Ferdinand, Isabella, and the Making of an Empire.
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