Columbus Discovers America -- for the Third Time

Columbus' third voyage in 1498 was a failure in its stated objective of reaching the East but did yield an unexpected boon when an entirely new continent was found.

Three... two... one... and we're underway. Welcome to the launch of the Latin American history page with this, the first of hopefully many blog entries.

This month we'll be featuring articles tracing the 1498 voyage of Columbus to the Americas. On this trip Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad-- 508 years ago yesterday, to be precise -- before reaching Venezuela on August the 1st and entering the Caribbean on the 7th.

Columbus' arrival in Venezuela marked the first known arrival of Europeans in South America. At the time, he mistook Venezuela for an island and so named it Isla Santa.

In fact, it can be argued that Columbus' discoveries in the New World consisted of a series of miscalculations and cases of mistaken identity. When Cuba was first sighted in 1492, it was mistaken for mainland China, while the island of Hispaniola, the second-largest island of the Antilles, was thought to be Japan. And in one of history's most significant miscalculations, there was the mistaken belief by Columbus that the earth was much smaller than it was. Before setting off on his voyages, he had no notion that there would be a second ocean --the Pacific Ocean -- to traverse on the way to India.