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.
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.
Statue 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.
Ancient 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.
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.
Quetzalcoatl - Wikipedia.com
Europe, 395 - 500CE
Height of the Roman Empire at 395CE - From Wikipedia.com
Arcadius - 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.
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.
The 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.
This 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!
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.
Europe in 445CE- From http://geacron.com
Leo 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Look 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.
Euasia from 1300CE - from http://geacron.com
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.
Iberian Peninsula in 1400CE. Apologies for the misspelling. - From http://geacron.com
St. 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.
Iberian Peninsula in 1463CE - From http://geacron.com
King 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.
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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