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(CNN) - We grew up learning all kinds of history about the founding of America, and one of the explorers taught in each classroom is Christopher Columbus. But how much do we really know about him as an explorer and his famous trip? Let's see.
What do we really know about Christopher Columbus?
Christopher Columbus was the first explorer to discover America
False. Scholars believe it was the Viking Leif Erickson the first to arrive in America. In fact, they believe that Columbus was not even the first European to discover what we know as America.
Columbus arrived in three ships known as La Niña, La Pinta and La Santa María.
True. His crew arrived on those boats. Several replications have been made over the years, including a fleet that was donated to Texas from Spain. The last of the replica ships sank in April.
Left: A photograph, dated in 1900, of a replica of the flagship of the Christopher Columbus explorer, the Santa Maria. Right: An illustration, dated in 1754, of the Christopher Columbus fleet that departed from Spain in 1492.
Columbus used the natives to help him with his exploration of the continent. He loved them so much that he recovered artifacts to show them to the king and queen
True and false. He used the help of a chief on the island of Haiti and recovered the gold, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. But it actually led some of the natives to the "Old World" as slaves. Columbus and his crew gave violence and diseases as a gift to the islands they discovered.
Columbus arrived in Florida when he stepped on America
False. He first landed on the island of Guanahaní, in the Bahamas. Actually, he never set foot in North America, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. He arrived, by the way, to Venezuela on his fourth trip.
Columbus just made a trip and came home made rich
False. Columbus actually made four trips to the Caribbean and, despite returning with gold, died in poverty.
Columbus really thought he had reached China even until his death
True. Although many doubted him, and the evidence was against him, Christopher Columbus really believed he had achieved the goal of reaching China and Japan.
Columbus says goodbye to his son Diego in Puerto de Palos, Spain, before embarking on his first trip to find a passage to India, sailing west, on August 3, 1492.
Columbus was essential in the colonization of North America, which led to what is now the United States
True. Although he did not technically discover the United States, it had a great impact on the exploration of the Atlantic and, finally, on colonization.
Columbus Day, celebrated in the United States, is a modern holiday established in the 1900s
False: President Benjamin Harrison established a Columbus Day celebration on the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus in 1892.
The District of Columbia bears that name in homage to Christopher Columbus
True. Several cities, rivers and other landmarks in the United States have also been named in honor of the explorer.
Cristóbal CCristóbal Colón
