Misplaced Pages

#13986

170-602: Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States , which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus 's arrival in the Americas . He went ashore at Guanahaní , an island in the Bahamas , on October 12, 1492 [OS]. On his return in 1493, he moved his coastal base of operations 70 miles east to

340-408: A sea level rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice age. Both routes may have been taken, although the genetic evidences suggests a single founding population. The micro-satellite diversity and distributions specific to South American Indigenous peoples indicates that certain populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region. A second migration occurred after

510-517: A belief they would be loyal to Italy and not America in World War II; in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt had the removal of the designation of Italian Americans as "enemy aliens" announced on Columbus Day along with a plan to offer citizenship to 200,000 elderly Italians living in the United States who had been unable to acquire citizenship due to a literacy requirement, but the implementation of the announcement

680-418: A body of scientific knowledge to accumulate. The chemists in the 19th century knew less about chemistry than the chemists in the 20th century, and they in turn knew less than the chemists in the 21st century. Looking forward, today's chemists reasonably expect that chemists in future centuries will know more than they do. From the 18th century through late 20th century, the history of science, especially of

850-420: A celebration of the native races and cultures and their resistance to the arrival of Europeans in the Americas. In the United States, Día de la Raza has served as a time of mobilization for panethnic Latino activists, particularly since the 1960s. Since then, La Raza has served as a periodic rallying cry for Hispanic activists. The first Hispanic March on Washington occurred on Columbus Day in 1996. The name

1020-475: A city holiday in 2018. Various tribal governments in Oklahoma designate the day as Native American Day, or name it after their own tribe. In 2017, the city council of Akron, Ohio , became split along racial lines with the decision to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, creating pushback from the city's Italian-American community. In 2018, a compromise was reached, with the city council voting to name

1190-414: A distinguishing characteristic of a republic, and were concerned with happiness, progress, and prosperity. Thomas Paine , combining the spirit of rationalism and romanticism, pictured a time when America's innocence would sound like a romance, and concluded that the fall of America could mark the end of "the noblest work of human wisdom". Historian J. B. Bury wrote in 1920: To the minds of most people

1360-507: A few hidden documents remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge. The first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, with suggested ages of up to 40,000 years. Beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including

1530-464: A high level of sophistication and differentiation. Two themes in the work of Robertson and Burke—the nature of women in 'savage' and 'civilized' societies and 'beauty in distress'—reveals how long-held convictions about the character of women, especially with regard to their capacity and right to appear in the public domain, were modified and adjusted to the idea of progress and became central to modern European civilization. Classics experts have examined

1700-571: A legal holiday for other purposes, including California and Texas. The practice of U.S. cities eschewing Columbus Day to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day began in 1992 with Berkeley, California . The list of cities that have followed suit as of 2018 includes Austin , Boise , Cincinnati , Denver , Los Angeles , Mankato , Philadelphia , Portland , San Francisco , Santa Fe , Seattle , Saint Paul , Phoenix , Tacoma , and "dozens of others". Columbus, Ohio , has chosen to honor veterans instead of Christopher Columbus, and removed Columbus Day as

1870-618: A lesser extent, Dutch . The Americas are home to more than a billion inhabitants, two-thirds of whom reside in the United States , Brazil , and Mexico . It is home to eight megacities ( metropolitan areas with 10 million inhabitants or more): Greater Mexico City (21.2 million), São Paulo (21.2 million), New York City (19.7 million), Los Angeles (18.8 million), Buenos Aires (15.6 million), Rio de Janeiro (13.0 million), Bogotá (10.4 million), and Lima (10.1 million). The name "America"

SECTION 10

#1732851201014

2040-427: A million years, with the total spread of South American genera into North America far more limited in scope than the spread of North American genera into South America. There are 35 sovereign states in the Americas, as well as an autonomous country of Denmark , three overseas departments of France , three overseas collectivities of France, and one uninhabited territory of France, eight overseas territories of

2210-460: A moderate type of federalism and republicanism that might serve as a transition in Argentina to true democracy. In Mexico, José María Luis Mora (1794–1850) was a leader of classical liberalism in the first generation after independence, leading the battle against the conservative trinity of the army, the church, and the hacendados . He envisioned progress as both a process of human development by

2380-549: A myth benefiting the few, and a pending environmental doomsday for everyone. An example is the philosophy of Deep Ecology . Sociologist Robert Nisbet said that "No single idea has been more important than ... the Idea of Progress in Western civilization for three thousand years", and defines five "crucial premises" of the idea of progress: Sociologist P. A. Sorokin said, "The ancient Chinese, Babylonian, Hindu, Greek, Roman, and most of

2550-446: A national holiday. In 1987 the name was changed again to Fiesta Nacional and October 12 became one of two national celebrations, along with Constitution Day on December 6, as part of a compromise between conservatives, who wanted to emphasize the status of the monarchy and Spain's history, and Republicans, who wanted to commemorate Spain's burgeoning democracy with an official holiday. Since 2000, October 12 has also been Spain's Day of

2720-480: A number of islands. The gaps in the archipelago of Central America filled in with material eroded off North America and South America, plus new land created by continued volcanism. By three million years ago, the continents of North America and South America were linked by the Isthmus of Panama , thereby forming the single landmass of the Americas. The Great American Interchange resulted in many species being spread across

2890-455: A patriot and leader in the struggle for independence who had indigenous ancestors. Colombia , whose name originated from Columbus himself, celebrates El día de la Raza y de la Hispanidad (meaning "Day of the Race and Hispanicity"), and is taken as an opportunity to celebrate the encounter of "the two worlds" and to reflect on the richness that the racial diversity has brought to the culture. In 2021

3060-467: A positive event and who never adopted mechanisms to enhance human rights". The holiday is no longer celebrated officially. In Mexico, the date was known as Columbus Day or Day of the Race. On December 18, 2020, by decree of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador , the name of October 12 was changed to "Day of the Pluricultural Nation". The statue of Columbus along Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma

3230-497: A right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.” Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810–1884) was one of the most influential political theorists in Argentina. Economic liberalism was the key to his idea of progress. He promoted faith in progress, while chiding fellow Latin Americans for blind copying of United States and Europe models. He hoped for progress through promotion of immigration, education, and

3400-409: A self-proclaimed neo-luddite author, wrote exclusively about progress as a myth, in an essay entitled "Five Facets of a Myth". Iggers (1965) says that proponents of progress underestimated the extent of man's destructiveness and irrationality, while critics misunderstand the role of rationality and morality in human behavior. In 1946, psychoanalyst Charles Baudouin claimed modernity has retained

3570-695: A series of rivers and streams that flow east with their terminus in the Atlantic Ocean, such as the Hudson River , Saint John River , and Savannah River . A similar instance arises with central Canadian rivers that drain into Hudson Bay ; the largest being the Churchill River . On the west coast of North America, the main rivers are the Colorado River , Columbia River , Yukon River , Fraser River , and Sacramento River . The Colorado River drains much of

SECTION 20

#1732851201014

3740-530: A shared population of flora and fauna around 2.5 million years ago, when continental drift brought the two continents into contact via the Isthmus of Panama . Initially, the exchange of biota was roughly equal, with North American genera migrating into South America in about the same proportions as South American genera migrated into North America. This exchange is known as the Great American Interchange . The exchange became lopsided after roughly

3910-417: A specific racial/ethnic group or sexual minority , (week) = week-long holidays, (month) = month-long holidays, (36) = Title 36 Observances and Ceremonies Americas The Americas , sometimes collectively called America , known initially as India Nova , are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America . When viewed as a single continent, the Americas or America

4080-626: A synonym). Latin America is typically contrasted with Anglo-America , where English, a Germanic language , is prevalent, and which comprises Canada (with the exception of Francophone Canada rooted in Latin Europe [France]—see Quebec and Acadia ) and the United States. Both countries are located in North America, with cultures deriving predominantly from British and other Germanic roots. The transatlantic slave trade brought millions of Africans to

4250-419: A theory of progress through their materialistic acceptance of the atomism of Democritus as the explanation for a world without an intervening deity . For them, the earliest condition of men resembled that of the beasts, and from this primitive and miserable condition they laboriously reached the existing state of civilisation, not by external guidance or as a consequence of some initial design, but simply by

4420-453: A wide variety of indigenous religions, many of which can be categorized as animistic ; new age religions and many African and African-derived religions. Syncretic faiths can also be found throughout the Americas. Various languages are spoken in the Americas. Some are of European origin, others are spoken by indigenous peoples or are the mixture of various languages like the different creoles. The most widely spoken first language in

4590-402: Is an imbalance between economic growth and social progress, political instability and unrest often arise. Lagging social progress also holds back economic growth in these and other countries that fail to address human needs, build social capital, and create opportunity for their citizens. How progress improved the status of women in traditional society was a major theme of historians starting in

4760-464: Is generally quite flat. Similarly, the north-east of South America is covered by the flat Amazon basin . The Brazilian Highlands on the east coast are fairly smooth but show some variations in landform, while farther south the Gran Chaco and Pampas are broad lowlands . The climate of the Americas varies significantly from region to region. Tropical rainforest climate occurs in the latitudes of

4930-468: Is held to be totally deformed. Postmodernists question the validity of 19th-century and 20th-century notions of progress—both on the capitalist and the Marxist side of the spectrum. They argue that both capitalism and Marxism over-emphasize technological achievements and material prosperity while ignoring the value of inner happiness and peace of mind. Postmodernism posits that both dystopia and utopia are one and

5100-527: Is not exhausted but that man may begin again in a new world. Besides rejecting the lessons of the past, they Americanized the idea of progress by democratizing and vulgarizing it to include the welfare of the common man as a form of republicanism . As Romantics deeply concerned with the past, collecting source materials and founding historical societies, the Founding Fathers were animated by clear principles. They saw man in control of his destiny, saw virtue as

5270-466: Is not taken into account nor is the sustainability of economic activity. Wikiprogress has been set up to share information on evaluating societal progress. It aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas, initiatives and knowledge. HumanProgress.org is another online resource that seeks to compile data on different measures of societal progress. Our World in Data is a scientific online publication , based at

Columbus Day - Misplaced Pages Continue

5440-594: Is now called sustainable development. For Marshall, the importance of wealth lay in its ability to promote the physical, mental, and moral health of the general population. After World War II, the modernization and development programs undertaken in the Third World were typically based on the idea of progress. In Russia the notion of progress was first imported from the West by Peter the Great (1672–1725). An absolute ruler, he used

5610-666: Is that of the Mississippi , covering the second largest watershed on the planet. The Mississippi-Missouri river system drains most of 31 states of the United States, most of the Great Plains , and large areas between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. This river is the fourth longest in the world and tenth most powerful in the world . In North America, to the east of the Appalachian Mountains , there are no major rivers but rather

5780-571: Is the 2nd largest continent right after Asia, and is the 3rd largest continent by population. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth 's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World . Along with their associated islands , the Americas cover 8% of Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera , a long chain of mountains that runs

5950-465: Is true or it is false, and like them it cannot be proved either true or false. Belief in it is an act of faith. In the postmodernist thought steadily gaining ground from the 1980s, the grandiose claims of the modernizers are steadily eroded, and the very concept of social progress is again questioned and scrutinized. In the new vision, radical modernizers like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong appear as totalitarian despots, whose vision of social progress

6120-522: The Amazon , American cloud forests , southeastern Florida and Darién Gap . In the Rocky Mountains and Andes , dry and continental climates are observed. Often the higher altitudes of these mountains are snow-capped. Southeastern North America is well known for its occurrence of tornadoes and hurricanes , of which the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the United States' Tornado Alley , as well as in

6290-684: The Arctic small tool tradition , a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska Peninsula , around Bristol Bay , and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait c.  2500 BCE moved into North America. The Arctic small tool tradition, a Paleo-Eskimo culture branched off into two cultural variants, including the Pre-Dorset , and the Independence traditions of Greenland. The descendants of

6460-675: The Boothia Peninsula in northern Canada and Cape Froward in Chilean Patagonia , is roughly 14,000 km (8,700 mi). The mainland's most westerly point is the end of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska; Attu Island , further off the Alaskan coast to the west, is considered the westernmost point of the Americas. Ponta do Seixas in northeastern Brazil forms the easternmost extremity of

6630-617: The Italian-American community's annual Columbus Day Parade, which was established by Nicola Larco in 1868, while New York City boasts the largest, with over 35,000 marchers and one million viewers around 2010. As in the mainland United States, Columbus Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico . In the United States Virgin Islands , the day is celebrated as both Columbus Day and "Puerto Rico Friendship Day". Virginia also celebrates two legal holidays on

6800-627: The Ku Klux Klan and the Women of the Ku Klux Klan , opposed celebrations of Columbus or monuments about him because they thought that it increased Catholic influence in the United States, which was largely a Protestant country. In the summer of 1990, 350 representatives from American Indian groups from all over the hemisphere met in Quito , Ecuador, at the first Intercontinental Gathering of Indigenous People in

6970-491: The Latin version of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci 's first name. The feminine form America was originally used to refer to the newly discovered continent, which is why it was accorded with the feminine names of the other continents: Asia , Africa , and Europa . Since the 1950s, however, North America and South America have generally been considered by English speakers as separate continents, and taken together are called

Columbus Day - Misplaced Pages Continue

7140-527: The Middle Ages ) interpretations of Aristotle's work. The Renaissance changed the mindset in Europe, which induced a revolution in curiosity about nature in general and scientific advance, which opened the gates for technical and economic advance. Furthermore, the individual potential was seen as a never-ending quest for being God-like, paving the way for a view of man based on unlimited perfection and progress. In

7310-569: The North Atlantic Ocean to America. The expedition consisted of three Stinson Reliant SR-9s borrowed from the Cuban Air Force – named Santa María , Niña and Pinta after the vessels commanded by Columbus – and a Curtiss Wright CW-19R from the Dominican military aviation named Colon after Columbus. On December 15, after visiting a majority of South America, their flight to

7480-557: The Quaternary glaciation . These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats , they migrated down the Pacific coast to South America. Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by

7650-680: The Southern Rockies and parts of the Basin and Range Province . The river flows approximately 1,450 miles (2,330 km) into the Gulf of California , during which over time it has carved out natural phenomena such as the Grand Canyon and created phenomena such as the Salton Sea . The Columbia is a large river, 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, in central western North America and is the most powerful river on

7820-587: The United Kingdom , three constituent countries of the Netherlands , three public bodies of the Netherlands, two unincorporated territories of the United States , and one uninhabited territory of the United States. In 2021 the total population of the Americas was about 1.03 billion people, divided as follows: There are three urban centers that each hold titles for being the largest population area based on

7990-582: The University of Oxford , that studies how to make progress against large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. The mission of Our World in Data is to present "research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems". The Social Progress Index is a tool developed by the International Organization Imperative Social Progress, which measures

8160-472: The enslavement of large numbers of the indigenous population of America. Diseases introduced from Europe and West Africa devastated the indigenous peoples , and the European powers colonized the Americas . Mass emigration from Europe , including large numbers of indentured servants , and importation of African slaves largely replaced the indigenous peoples in much of the Americas. Decolonization of

8330-454: The "corollary" of the progress myth, the idea that the present is superior to the past, while at the same time insisting that it is free of the myth: The last two centuries were familiar with the myth of progress. Our own century has adopted the myth of modernity. The one myth has replaced the other. Men ceased to believe in progress; but only to pin their faith to more tangible realities, whose sole original significance had been that they were

8500-475: The 12 of October was declared a one-time national day in commemoration of the 4th centenary of the Discovery of America and the perpetuation of the festivity was then first considered. The Spanish government suggested other nations (Hispanic American countries, Italy and the United States of America) to join the celebration, which was followed with enthusiasm by them, with a few exceptions. The Discovery of America and

8670-645: The 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Columbus Lighthouse , in Santo Domingo Este was inaugurated. The monument is both a mausoleum and a museum showcasing objects including a boat from Cuba and Colombian jewelry. Constructed of concrete , the monument is 680 feet (210 m) long. Its architecture is cross-shaped and represents the Christianization of the Americas. According to Dominican authorities, Columbus' remains are sheltered at

SECTION 50

#1732851201014

8840-934: The American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic to European colonization during the Early Modern period . The term Pre-Columbian is used especially often in the context of the great indigenous civilizations of the Americas , such as those of Mesoamerica ( Olmec , Toltec , Teotihuacano , Zapotec , Mixtec , Aztec , Maya ) and the Andean civilizations ( Inca , Moche , Chavín , Muisca , Cañari ). Many pre-Columbian civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies . Some of these civilizations had long faded by

9010-601: The Americas began with the American Revolution in the 1770s and largely ended with the Spanish–American War in the late 1890s. Currently, almost all of the population of the Americas resides in independent countries; however, the legacy of the colonization and settlement by Europeans is that the Americas share many common cultural traits, most notably Christianity and the use of West European languages: primarily Spanish , English , Portuguese , French , and, to

9180-568: The Americas from Asia between 20,000 and 16,000 years ago. A second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic c.  3500 BCE completed what is generally regarded as the settlement by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas . The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Erikson . However,

9350-490: The Americas , or more rarely America . When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a clarifying context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America . The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on

9520-471: The Americas began with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The first Spanish settlement in the Americas was La Isabela in northern Hispaniola . This town was abandoned shortly after in favor of Santo Domingo de Guzmán , founded in 1496, the oldest American city of European foundation. This was the base from which the Spanish monarchy administered its new colonies and their expansion. Santo Domingo

9690-520: The Americas is Spanish , followed by English and Portuguese . The dominant language of Latin America is Spanish, though the most populous nation in Latin America, Brazil , speaks Portuguese . Small enclaves of French -, Dutch - and English-speaking regions also exist in Latin America, notably in French Guiana , Suriname , and Belize and Guyana respectively. Haitian Creole is dominant in

9860-579: The Americas is made up of the descendants of four large ethnic groups and their combinations. The majority of the population lives in Latin America , named for its predominant cultures, rooted in Latin Europe (including the two dominant languages, Spanish and Portuguese , both Romance languages ), more specifically in the Iberian nations of Portugal and Spain (hence the use of the term Ibero-America as

10030-653: The Americas"). The day is also commemorated in Italy, as Giornata Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo or Festa Nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo , and in the Little Italys around the world. The first Columbus Day celebration took place on October 12, 1792, when the Columbian Order of New York, better known as Tammany Hall , held an event to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the historic landing. The Columbus Obelisk in Baltimore

10200-438: The Americas, such as the cougar , porcupine , opossums , armadillos , and hummingbirds . The geography of the western Americas is dominated by the American Cordillera , with the Andes running along the west coast of South America and the Rocky Mountains and other North American Cordillera ranges running along the western side of North America. The 2,300-kilometer-long (1,400 mi) Appalachian Mountains run along

10370-466: The Americas, to mobilize against the 500th anniversary (quin-centennial) celebration of Columbus Day planned for 1992. The following summer, in Davis, California , more than a hundred Native Americans gathered for a follow-up meeting to the Quito conference. They declared October 12, 1992, to be "International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People ". More recently, mainly since the 1990s, more people oppose Columbus's and other Europeans' actions against

SECTION 60

#1732851201014

10540-438: The Americas. Migration continued as people moved to the Americas fleeing religious persecution or seeking economic opportunities. Millions of individuals were forcibly transported to the Americas as slaves , prisoners or indentured servants . Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution in the late 1700s. This was followed by numerous Latin American wars of independence in

10710-492: The Armed Forces , celebrated each year with a military parade in Madrid . The holiday is widely celebrated in Spain with official and cultural events throughout the country. Shops and businesses are closed as with other bank holidays. The observation is enhanced with the feast day of Our Lady of the Pillar ( Fiestas del Pilar ), the so-called Mother of Hispanidad , and of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura (Santa María de Guadalupe) (appointed Queen of Hispanicity in 1928 by

10880-427: The Atlantic Ocean. The Mackenzie River is the largest in Canada and drains 1,805,200 square kilometers (697,000 sq mi). The largest river basin in South America is that of the Amazon , which has the highest volume flow of any river on Earth. The second largest watershed of South America is that of the Paraná River , which covers about 2.5 million km . North America and South America began to develop

11050-497: The Caribbean began to achieve peaceful independence well after World War II . Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962, and Guyana and Barbados both achieved independence in 1966. In the 1970s, the Bahamas , Grenada , Dominica , St. Lucia , and St. Vincent and the Grenadines all became independent of the United Kingdom, and Suriname became independent of the Netherlands. Belize , Antigua and Barbuda , and Saint Kitts and Nevis achieved independence from

11220-411: The Costa Rican labor law, the holiday is observed on October 12. Should this date coincide with a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, the employer shall agree that said holiday be postponed to the following Monday. In 2020, Costa Ricans eliminated this holiday, which was under debate in years prior. Hence, in exchange Costa Rica now celebrates the 'Military Abolition Day' on December 1. In June 1915,

11390-482: The East Indies, but Europeans realized years later that his voyages landed them in the New World . His first voyage to the New World was made on the Spanish ships Niña , Pinta , and Santa María and took about three months. The crew's arrival in the New World initiated the colonization of the Americas by Spain, followed in the ensuing centuries by other European powers, as well as the transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between

11560-405: The Enlightenment and continuing to today. British theorists William Robertson (1721–1793) and Edmund Burke (1729–1797), along with many of their contemporaries, remained committed to Christian- and republican-based conceptions of virtue, while working within a new Enlightenment paradigm. The political agenda related beauty, taste, and morality to the imperatives and needs of modern societies of

11730-443: The European Renaissance due the Muslim scholars' finesse in adapting classical knowledge (such as Greek philosophy) to Abrahamic contexts. Muslim rulers viewed knowledge, including both scientific and philosophical knowledge, as a key to power, and promoted learning, scientific inquiry, and patronization of scholars. During the Medieval period, science was to a large extent based on Scholastic (a method of thinking and learning from

11900-411: The Hispanicity has been celebrated as a national day since 1918 under different names like "Día de la Hispanidad" or "Dia de la Raza", due to changes of political regimes in the 20th century. The national day emphasises Spain's ties with the Hispanidad , the international Hispanic community and Spanish legacy to the world. In 1981 a royal decree established the Fiesta Nacional y Día de la Hispanidad as

12070-463: The Hudson River Valley, and what later became New Jersey. The spread of new diseases brought by Europeans and African slaves killed many of the inhabitants of North America and South America, with a general population crash of Native Americans occurring in the mid-16th century, often well ahead of European contact. One of the most devastating diseases was smallpox . European immigrants were often part of state-sponsored attempts to found colonies in

12240-504: The Human Mind" (1750). For Turgot, progress covers not only the arts and sciences but, on their base, the whole of culture—manner, mores, institutions, legal codes, economy, and society. Condorcet predicted the disappearance of slavery, the rise of literacy, the lessening of inequalities between the sexes, reforms of harsh prisons and the decline of poverty. John Stuart Mill 's (1806–1873) ethical and political thought demonstrated faith in

12410-532: The Islamic civilizations was characterized by a system of translating books (particularly Greek philosophy books in the Abbasid era) of various cultures into local languages (often Arabic and Persian ), testing and refining their scientific or philosophical theories and claims, and then building upon them with their own Islamic ideas, theologies, ontologies, and scientific experimental results. The Round city of Baghdad

12580-684: The Ministry of Culture changed the name of the holiday to ‘Día de la Diversidad Étnica y Cultural de la Nación Colombiana (meaning "Day of Ethnical and Cultural Diversity of the Colombian nation"). In Peru, it was known as Día del descubrimiento de América ("Day of the discovery of America"). Since 2009, it has been celebrated as Día de los pueblos originarios y el diálogo intercultural (Indigenous Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue Day). Between 1921 and 2002, Venezuela celebrated Día de la Raza along with many other Latin American nations. The original holiday

12750-582: The New and Old Worlds , an event referred to by some late 20th‐century historians as the Columbian exchange . The landing is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, but the name varies internationally. In some Latin American countries, October 12 is known as Día de la Raza or "Day of the Race". This was the case for Mexico , until it renamed it to "Day of the Pluricultural Nation" (still called Dia de la Raza locally). Some countries such as Spain refer to

12920-593: The Norse colonies and Europe was maintained, as James Watson Curran states: From 985 to 1410, Greenland was in touch with the world. Then silence. In 1492 the Vatican noted that no news of that country "at the end of the world" had been received for 80 years, and the bishopric of the colony was offered to a certain ecclesiastic if he would go and "restore Christianity" there. He didn't go. Although there had been previous trans-oceanic contact , large-scale European colonization of

13090-810: The Peruvian capital Lima was hampered by an unexpected sandstorm. Two planes ( Colon and La Pinta ) were forced to land in Pisco and Niña disappeared in the storm. The Santa Maria was the only plane to reach Lima as planned, landing at Las Palmas on the day of the storm. After extensive searches, Niña radioed their whereabouts after their radio was damaged in the storm. The aircraft restrategized in Las Palmas, and on December 29 their expedition took off from El Techo airport in Bogotá en route to El Guabito airport in Cali . Later that day,

13260-751: The Pre-Dorset cultural group, the Dorset culture was displaced by the final migrants from the Bering sea coast line, the Thule people (the ancestors of modern Inuit ), by 1000  CE . Around the same time as the Inuit migrated into Greenland, Viking settlers began arriving in Greenland in 982 and Vinland shortly thereafter, establishing a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows , near the northernmost tip of Newfoundland . Contact between

13430-601: The United Kingdom in the 1980s. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere . The northernmost point of the Americas is Kaffeklubben Island , which is the most northerly point of land on Earth. The southernmost point is the islands of Southern Thule , although they are sometimes considered part of Antarctica . The mainland of the Americas is the world's longest north-to-south landmass. The distance between its two polar extremities, Murchison Promontory on

13600-608: The United Kingdom, starting with the Balfour Declaration of 1926 , Statute of Westminster 1931 , and ending with the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982. The Dominion of Newfoundland similarly achieved independence under the Balfour Declaration and Statute of Westminster, but relinquished self-rule in 1934. It was subsequently confederated with Canada in 1949. The remaining European colonies in

13770-651: The United States, and more specifically in the US state of Colorado . The highest peaks of the Americas are located in the Andes , with Aconcagua of Argentina being the highest; in North America Denali (Mount McKinley) in the US state of Alaska is the tallest. Between its coastal mountain ranges, North America has vast flat areas. The Interior Plains spread over much of the continent, with low relief. The Canadian Shield covers almost 5 million km of North America and

13940-497: The United States, it has been observed on the second Monday in October, as commemorated by annual Presidential proclamation noting Columbus' achievements. It is generally observed by banks, the bond market , the U.S. Postal Service , other federal agencies, most state government offices, many businesses, and most school districts. Some businesses and some stock exchanges remain open, and some states and municipalities abstain from observing

14110-399: The United States, ranging from large-scale parades and events to complete nonobservance. Most states do not celebrate Columbus Day as an official state holiday. Some mark it as a "Day of Observance" or "Recognition”. Most states that celebrate Columbus Day will close state services, while others operate as normal. San Francisco claims the nation's oldest continuously existing celebration with

14280-560: The Vatican) from Guadalupe , Caceres , whose Monastery was the venue in June 1492 for the decisive meeting between the Catholic Monarchs and Columbus to start organizing the travel and where the latter came back in 1493, right after returning from his first voyage, to thank Her for his success. For years after the first Columbus Day celebration in 1892, opposition to Columbus Day recognized

14450-886: The West Coast of the Americas. In the far northwest of North America, the Yukon drains much of the Alaskan peninsula and flows 1,980 miles (3,190 km) from parts of Yukon and the Northwest Territory to the Pacific. Draining to the Arctic Ocean of Canada, the Mackenzie River drains waters from the Arctic Great Lakes of Arctic Canada, as opposed to the Saint-Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes of Southern Canada into

14620-607: The advantage of not having to rediscover what was accomplished in preceding ages. The epistemology of John Locke provided further support and was popularized by the Encyclopedists Diderot , Holbach , and Condorcet . Locke had a powerful influence on the American Founding Fathers . The first complete statement of progress is that of Turgot , in his "A Philosophical Review of the Successive Advances of

14790-407: The backwardness of the poorer regions in the south and work towards augmenting the size and quality of the newly created Italian army so that it could compete on an equal footing with the powerful nations of Europe. In the same period, the government was legislating in favour of public education to fight the great problem of illiteracy, upgrade the teaching classes, improve existing schools, and procure

14960-425: The colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The Spanish voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1504 resulted in permanent contact with European (and subsequently, other Old World ) powers, which eventually led to the Columbian exchange and inaugurated a period of exploration , conquest, and colonization whose effects and consequences persist to the present. The Spanish presence involved

15130-523: The concept to modernize Russia and to legitimize his monarchy (unlike its usage in Western Europe, where it was primarily associated with political opposition). By the early 19th century, the notion of progress was being taken up by Russian intellectuals and was no longer accepted as legitimate by the tsars. Four schools of thought on progress emerged in 19th-century Russia: conservative (reactionary), religious, liberal, and socialist—the latter winning out in

15300-462: The crew flew into an unexpected storm over the Valley of Cauca. With minimal visibility and poor navigation, Niña , La Pinta , and Santa Maria crashed into high mountains, while Colon , unaware of the other aircraft, flew over the storm and safely made it to Panama City. The plane is preserved today as remembrance of the bravery of the crew and Christopher Columbus's journey. In 1992, in remembrance of

15470-535: The dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred after the Late Glacial Maximum , from 16,000 to 13,000 years ago. The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000–17,000 years ago, when sea levels were significantly lowered during

15640-977: The day, Columbus Day and Yorktown Victory Day, which honors the final victory at the Siege of Yorktown in the Revolutionary War . Despite Columbus Day being a national holiday and a celebration of Italian heritage, the celebration of Columbus Day in the United States began to decline at the end of the 20th century, although Americans continue to celebrate it. The District of Columbia and the states of Colorado , Hawaii , Alaska , Vermont , South Dakota , New Mexico , Maine , Minnesota , and parts of California , including, for example, Los Angeles County , do not recognize it and have each replaced it with celebrations of Indigenous Peoples' Day (in Hawaii, "Discoverers' Day", in South Dakota, "Native American Day") or other holidays. In

15810-461: The desirable outcome of human development would be a condition of society in which all the inhabitants of the planet would enjoy a perfectly happy existence. ... It cannot be proved that the unknown destination towards which man is advancing is desirable. The movement may be Progress, or it may be in an undesirable direction and therefore not Progress. ... The Progress of humanity belongs to the same order of ideas as Providence or personal immortality. It

15980-658: The early 1800s. Between 1811 and 1825, Paraguay , Argentina , Chile , Gran Colombia , the United Provinces of Central America , Mexico , Brazil , Peru , and Bolivia gained independence from Spain and Portugal in armed revolutions. After the Dominican Republic won independence from Haiti , it was re-annexed by Spain in 1861, but reclaimed its independence in 1865 at the conclusion of the Dominican Restoration War . The last violent episode of decolonization

16150-475: The early 20th century. Historians Leo Marx and Bruce Mazlish asking, "should we in fact abandon the idea of progress as a view of the past," answer that there is no doubt "that the status of women has improved markedly" in cultures that have adopted the Enlightenment idea of progress. Modernization was promoted by classical liberals in the 19th and 20th centuries, who called for the rapid modernization of

16320-583: The east coast of North America from Alabama to Newfoundland . North of the Appalachians, the Arctic Cordillera runs along the eastern coast of Canada. The largest mountain ranges are the Andes and Rocky Mountains . The Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range reach similar altitudes as the Rocky Mountains , but are significantly smaller. In North America, the greatest number of fourteeners are in

16490-712: The economy and society to remove the traditional hindrances to free markets and free movements of people. During the Enlightenment in Europe social commentators and philosophers began to realize that people themselves could change society and change their way of life. Instead of being made completely by gods, there was increasing room for the idea that people themselves made their own society —and not only that, as Giambattista Vico argued, because people made their own society, they could also fully comprehend it. This gave rise to new sciences, or proto-sciences , which claimed to provide new scientific knowledge about what society

16660-415: The economy using capitalist models and imported western technology. This was termed the "Opening of China" in the West, and more broadly encompasses Chinese economic reform . Among environmentalists, there is a continuum between two opposing poles. The one pole is optimistic, progressive, and business-oriented, and endorses the classic idea of progress. For example, bright green environmentalism endorses

16830-465: The exercise of human intelligence throughout a long period. Robert Nisbet and Gertrude Himmelfarb have attributed a notion of progress to other Greeks. Xenophanes said "The gods did not reveal to men all things in the beginning, but men through their own search find in the course of time that which is better." With the rise of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates and later Ottoman Empire, progress in

17000-415: The extent to which countries cover social and environmental needs of its citizenry. There are fifty-two indicators in three areas or dimensions: Basic Human Needs, and Foundations of Wellbeing and Opportunities which show the relative performance of nations. Indices that can be used to measure progress include: Scientific progress is the idea that the scientific community learns more over time, which causes

17170-518: The first Monday of October as North American First People's Day while keeping Columbus Day, and in 2020, Columbus Day was renamed Italian-American Heritage and Culture Day. The date Columbus arrived in the Americas is celebrated in some countries of Latin America. The most common name for the celebration in Spanish (including some Latin American communities in the United States) is the Día de la Raza ("day of

17340-580: The first cathedral in the Western Hemisphere. The Day of the Race was established in Argentina in 1916 by a decree of President Hipólito Yrigoyen . The name was changed to "Day of Respect of Cultural Diversity" by a presidential decree in 2010 issued by President Cristina Kirchner . The statue of Columbus was removed from its original position near the Casa Rosada and replaced by one of Juana Azurduy ,

17510-631: The first half of the 16th century, Spanish colonists conducted raids throughout the Caribbean Basin , bringing captives from Central America, northern South America, and Florida back to Hispaniola and other Spanish settlements. France, led by Jacques Cartier and Giovanni da Verrazzano , focused primarily on North America. English explorations of the Americas were led by Giovanni Caboto and Sir Walter Raleigh . The Dutch in New Netherland confined their operations to Manhattan Island, Long Island,

17680-863: The form of Bolshevist materialism. The intellectual leaders of the American Revolution, such as Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Paine , Thomas Jefferson and John Adams , were immersed in Enlightenment thought and believed the idea of progress meant that they could reorganize the political system to the benefit of the human condition; both for Americans and also, as Jefferson put it, for an " Empire of Liberty " that would benefit all mankind. In particular, Adams wrote “I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children

17850-549: The funds needed for social hygiene and care of the body as factors in the physical and moral regeneration of the race. In China, in the 20th century the Kuomintang or Nationalist party, which ruled from the 1920s to the 1940s, advocated progress. The Communists under Mao Zedong adopted different models and their ruinous projects caused mass famines . After Mao's death, however, the new regime led by Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) and his successors aggressively promoted modernization of

18020-501: The government. Mora also demanded the establishment of legal equality between native Mexicans and foreign residents. His program, untried in his lifetime, became the key element in the Mexican Constitution of 1857. In Italy, the idea that progress in science and technology would lead to solutions for human ills was connected to the nationalism that united the country in 1860. The Piedmontese Prime Minister Camillo Cavour envisaged

18190-500: The greatest waves of genocide of the American Indians known in history. A second strain of criticism of Columbus Day focuses on the character of Columbus himself. In time for the 2004 observation of the day, the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents was published by the University of California, Los Angeles ' Medieval and Renaissance Center. It stated that Columbus, while a brilliant mariner, exploited and enslaved

18360-458: The history of science as an incoherent system of incommensurable paradigms, not leading to any scientific progress, but only to the illusion of progress. Whether other intellectual disciplines make progress in the same way as the sciences is a matter of debate. For example, one might expect that today's historians know more about global history than their ancient counterparts (consider the histories of Herodotus ). Yet, knowledge can be lost through

18530-494: The holiday as the Day of Hispanicity or Día de la Hispanidad and is also Spain's National Day or Fiesta Nacional de España , where it coincides with the religious festivity of La Virgen del Pilar . Since 2009, Peru has celebrated Día de los pueblos originarios y el diálogo intercultural ("Indigenous Peoples and Intercultural Dialogue Day"). Belize and Uruguay celebrate it as Pan American Day and Día de las Américas ("Day of

18700-636: The holiday. The traditional date of the holiday also adjoins the anniversary of the United States Navy (founded October 13, 1775), and thus both occasions are customarily observed by the Navy and the Marine Corps with either a 72- or 96-hour liberty period. The observance on the second Monday in October means it coincides with the Canadian holiday of Thanksgiving . Actual observance varies in different parts of

18870-404: The idea of the inevitability of progress." Eder argues that the advancement of civilization is leading to greater unhappiness and loss of control in the environment. The strongest critics of the idea of progress complain that it remains a dominant idea in the 21st century, and shows no sign of diminished influence. As one fierce critic, British historian John Gray (b. 1948), concludes: Faith in

19040-441: The idea that new designs, social innovations and green technologies can solve critical environmental challenges. The other is pessimistic in respect of technological solutions, warning of impending global crisis (through climate change or peak oil , for example) and tends to reject the very idea of modernity and the myth of progress that is so central to modernization thinking. Similarly, Kirkpatrick Sale , wrote about progress as

19210-484: The indigenous population. Spelman College historian Howard Zinn described some of the details in his book, A People's History of the United States , of how Columbus personally ordered the enslavement and mutilation of the native Arawak people in a bid to repay his investors. Journalist and media critic Norman Solomon reflects, in Columbus Day: A Clash of Myth and History , that many people choose to hold on to

19380-608: The indigenous populations of the Americas. This opposition was initially led by Native Americans and was expanded upon by left-wing political parties. Various holidays commemorating Columbus have now been abolished, with various Latin American countries altering the holidays to now recognise indigenous populations. Two surveys, conducted in 2013 and 2015 by Rasmussen Reports , found 26% to 38% of American adults are not in favor of celebrating Columbus Day. A similar survey by Catholic Marist Polls showed 26% opposition There are many interrelated strands of criticism. One refers primarily to

19550-512: The initial peopling of the Americas; Na Dene speakers found predominantly in North American groups at varying genetic rates with the highest frequency found among the Athabaskans at 42% derive from this second wave. Linguists and biologists have reached a similar conclusion based on analysis of Amerindian language groups and ABO blood group system distributions. Then the people of

19720-452: The instruments of progress. This exaltation of the present ... is a corollary of that very faith in progress which people claim to have discarded. The present is superior to the past, by definition, only in a mythology of progress. Thus one retains the corollary while rejecting the principle. There is only one way of retaining a position of whose instability one is conscious. One must simply refrain from thinking. A cyclical theory of history

19890-555: The island of Hispaniola , what is now the Dominican Republic and established the settlement of La Isabela , the first permanent Spanish settlement in the Americas. Columbus ( Italian : Cristoforo Colombo [kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo] ) was an Italian explorer from Genoa who led a Spanish maritime expedition to cross the Atlantic Ocean in search of an alternative route to the Far East . Columbus believed he sailed his crew to

20060-542: The length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as the Amazon , St. Lawrence River – Great Lakes , Mississippi , and La Plata basins. Since the Americas extend 14,000 km (8,700 mi) from north to south, the climate and ecology vary widely, from the arctic tundra of Northern Canada , Greenland , and Alaska , to the tropical rainforests in Central America and South America. Humans first settled

20230-615: The lessening of inequalities between the sexes, reforms of harsh prisons and the decline of poverty . The social progress of a society can be measured based on factors such as its ability to address fundamental human needs , help citizens improve their quality of life , and provide opportunities for citizens to succeed. Social progress is often improved by increases in GDP, although other factors are also relevant. An imbalance between economic and social progress hinders further economic progress, and can lead to political instability. Where there

20400-468: The liberating power of knowledge is encrypted into modern life. Drawing on some of Europe's most ancient traditions, and daily reinforced by the quickening advance of science, it cannot be given up by an act of will. The interaction of quickening scientific advance with unchanging human needs is a fate that we may perhaps temper, but cannot overcome... Those who hold to the possibility of progress need not fear. The illusion that through science humans can remake

20570-580: The lighthouse. Spanish authorities proved through DNA tests that remains in the Cathedral of Seville were his and Dominican authorities have not allowed the same, so whether the sets are related remains unknown. Since the 18th century, many Italian communities in the Americas have observed the Discovery of the New World as a celebration of their heritage, despite Italy not existing as a unified country when Columbus

20740-585: The mainland, while Nordostrundingen , in Greenland, is the most easterly point of the continental shelf. South America broke off from the west of the supercontinent Gondwana around 135 million years ago, forming its own continent. Around 15 million years ago, the collision of the Caribbean Plate and the Pacific Plate resulted in the emergence of a series of volcanoes along the border that created

20910-469: The medieval thinkers supporting theories of rhythmical, cyclical or trendless movements of social processes were much nearer to reality than the present proponents of the linear view." Unlike Confucianism and to a certain extent Taoism, that both search for an ideal past, the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition believes in the fulfillment of history, which was translated into the idea of progress in

21080-482: The modern age. Therefore, Chinese proponents of modernization have looked to western models. According to Thompson, the late Qing dynasty reformer, Kang Youwei , believed he had found a model for reform and "modernisation" in the Ancient Chinese Classics. Philosopher Karl Popper said that progress was not fully adequate as a scientific explanation of social phenomena. More recently, Kirkpatrick Sale ,

21250-915: The myths instead of reality in the events surrounding Columbus. He disputes the idea that the Spaniards' arrival was beneficial towards the Indians by quoting History of the Indies by the Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas , who observed the region where Columbus was governor. Las Casas writes that the Spaniards were driven by "insatiable greed" as they killed and tortured native populations with "the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty" and laments that "my eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write". (federal) = federal holidays, (abbreviation) = state/territorial holidays, (religious) = religious holidays, (cultural) = holiday related to

21420-525: The nation and countries of America in Cuba on October 12 commemorating Christopher Columbus's voyage to the New World. Federico Laredo Brú spoke about Columbus's impact on the land and the future of its settlement. He ended his speech with venerating Christopher Columbus's efforts to colonize and establish settlements along the new front and the pride of one's nation. He added " Por mi raza hablo mi espiritu ," which translates to "For my race my spirit called," to support

21590-503: The nation of Haiti , where French is also spoken. Native languages are more prominent in Latin America than in Anglo-America , with Nahuatl , Quechua , Aymara , and Guaraní as the most common. Various other native languages are spoken with less frequency across both Anglo-America and Latin America. Creole languages other than Haitian Creole are also spoken in parts of Latin America. Social progress The concept of progress

21760-741: The ocean liner SS Cristoforo Colombo . The first celebration of the Discovery of the Américas by Columbus in Spain was as early as 1642 when the city of Zaragoza designated the Virgen del Pilar ( Our Lady of the Pillar ) as symbol of the Hispanidad (Hispanicity) on the date of the Spanish expedition's arrival to the New World. This holiday was declared a religious feast day throughout the Spanish Empire in 1730. In 1892,

21930-400: The official holiday of ' Fiesta de la Raza' was established, with October 12 being the date of the national holiday. Presently, since October 12, 2021, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador abolished the previous national Fiesta de la Raza holiday, " [to] vindicate the origin and identity of indigenous peoples who were forgotten by previous governments, who for decades celebrated Race Day as

22100-400: The passage of time, or the criteria for evaluating what is worth knowing can change. Similarly, there is considerable disagreement over whether fields such as philosophy make progress - or even whether they aim at accumulating knowledge in the same way as the sciences. Aspects of social progress, as described by Condorcet , have included the disappearance of slavery , the rise of literacy ,

22270-544: The people of the United States to observe Columbus Day, in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies that express the public sentiment befitting the anniversary of the discovery of America." President Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded by making such a proclamation. This proclamation did not lead to the modern federal holiday; it was similar to language regarding Thomas Jefferson's birthday and Gold Star Mothers Day. In 1941, Italian Americans were interned and lost rights as " enemy aliens " due to

22440-474: The physical and biological sciences, was often presented as a progressive accumulation of knowledge, in which true theories replaced false beliefs. Some more recent historical interpretations, such as those of Thomas Kuhn , tend to portray the history of science in terms of competing paradigms or conceptual systems in a wider matrix of intellectual, cultural, economic and political trends. These interpretations, however, have met with opposition for they also portray

22610-409: The political infrastructure at the time. In December 1937, Cuban president Federico Laredo Brú and Dominican Republic president Rafael Trujillo ordered a crew of aviators to travel through Latin America collecting funds from large capital cities for a monumental light house in the Dominican Republic. The exploration Escuadrilla Binacional Pro Faro de Colón was inspired by Columbus's journey across

22780-417: The political or legal system, and questions bearing on individual life chances, such as life expectancy and risk of disease and disability. GDP growth has become a key orientation for politics and is often taken as a key figure to evaluate a politician's performance. However, GDP has a number of flaws that make it a bad measure of progress, especially for developed countries. For example, environmental damage

22950-406: The power of ideas and of intellectual education for improving human nature or behavior. For those who do not share this faith the idea of progress becomes questionable. Alfred Marshall (1842–1924), a British economist of the early 20th century, was a proponent of classical liberalism. In his highly influential Principles of Economics (1890), he was deeply interested in human progress and in what

23120-437: The race" or the "day of the [Hispanic] people"), commemorating the first encounters of Europeans and the Native Americans . The day was first celebrated in Argentina in 1917, in Venezuela and Colombia in 1921, in Chile in 1922, and in Mexico, it was first celebrated in 1928. The day was also celebrated under this title in Spain until 1957, when it was changed to the Día de la Hispanidad ("Hispanicity Day"), and in Venezuela, it

23290-416: The railways as a major factor in the modernization and unification of the Italian peninsula. The new Kingdom of Italy, formed in 1861, worked to speed up the processes of modernization and industrialization that had begun in the north, but were slow to arrive in the Papal States and central Italy, and were nowhere in sight in the "Mezzogiorno" (that is, Southern Italy and Sicily). The government sought to combat

23460-429: The remaking of society, like the French Revolution , National Socialism and Communism hurt society by removing the traditional constraints on the exercise of power. The scientific advances of the 16th and 17th centuries provided a basis for Francis Bacon's book the New Atlantis . In the 17th century, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle described progress with respect to arts and the sciences, saying that each age has

23630-453: The same, overarching grand narratives with impossible conclusions. Some 20th-century authors refer to the "Myth of Progress" to refer to the idea that the human condition will inevitably improve. In 1932, English physician Montague David Eder wrote: "The myth of progress states that civilization has moved, is moving, and will move in a desirable direction. Progress is inevitable... Philosophers, men of science and politicians have accepted

23800-416: The search for philosophical truth and as the introduction of an era of material prosperity by technological advancement. His plan for Mexican reform demanded a republican government bolstered by widespread popular education free of clerical control, confiscation and sale of ecclesiastical lands as a means of redistributing income and clearing government debts, and effective control of a reduced military force by

23970-443: The southerly Dixie Alley in the North American late-winter and early spring seasons. Often parts of the Caribbean are exposed to the violent effects of hurricanes. These weather systems are formed by the collision of dry, cool air from Canada and wet, warm air from the Atlantic. With coastal mountains and interior plains, the Americas have several large river basins that drain the continents. The largest river basin in North America

24140-418: The states of Delaware , Oregon and Washington , Columbus Day is not an official holiday. Iowa and Nevada do not celebrate Columbus Day as an official holiday, but the states' respective governors are "authorized and requested" by statute to proclaim the day each year. Several states have removed the day as a paid holiday for state government workers, while maintaining it either as a day of recognition, or as

24310-524: The statue had stood was renamed in 2008 "Indigenous Resistance Walk". Later, a statue of an indigenous leader, Guaicaipuro , was erected on the plinth. On September 21, 1994, Costa Rica changed the official holiday from Día de la Raza to Día del Encuentro de las Culturas (Day of the Encounter of Cultures) to recognize the mix of European, Native American (autochthonous populations), African and Asian cultures that constitute modern Costa Rican (and Latin American ) culture and ethnicity. In accordance to

24480-462: The status of women in the ancient world, concluding that in the Roman Empire, with its superior social organization, internal peace, and rule of law, allowed women to enjoy a somewhat better standing than in ancient Greece, where women were distinctly inferior. The inferior status of women in traditional China has raised the issue of whether the idea of progress requires a thoroughgoing rejection of traditionalism—a belief held by many Chinese reformers in

24650-412: The suffering inflicted on American Indians with westward expansion. It also originated from anti-immigrant nativist Know Nothing political movement, who sought to eliminate its celebration because of its association with immigrants from the Catholic countries of Ireland and Italy, and the American Catholic fraternal organization, the Knights of Columbus . Some anti-Catholics , notably including

24820-410: The territories of the Americas under the colonial rule of European powers. In South America, Portugal played a significant role in the trafficking of enslaved Africans, with estimates suggesting that around 40% of all Africans forcibly brought to the Americas were taken to Brazil alone, to work primarily in sugar cane plantations, mining, and agricultural endeavors. In North America, the British Empire

24990-424: The three main demographic concepts: In accordance with these definitions, the three largest population centers in the Americas are: Mexico City , anchor to the largest metropolitan area in the Americas; New York City, anchor to the largest urban area in the Americas; and São Paulo, the largest city proper in the Americas. All three cities maintain Alpha classification and large scale influence. The population of

25160-425: The time of the first permanent European arrivals ( c.  late 15th –early 16th centuries), and are known only through archeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period, and are also known from historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya, had their own written records. However, most Europeans of the time viewed such texts as pagan, and much was destroyed in Christian pyres. Only

25330-405: The treatment of the indigenous populations during the European colonization of the Americas , which followed Columbus's discovery . Some groups, such as the American Indian Movement , have argued that the ongoing actions and injustices against Native Americans are masked by Columbus myths and celebrations. American anthropologist Jack Weatherford says that on Columbus Day, Americans celebrate

25500-433: The world is an integral part of the modern condition. Renewing the eschatological hopes of the past, progress is an illusion with a future. Recently the idea of progress has been generalized to psychology, being related with the concept of a goal, that is, progress is understood as "what counts as a means of advancing towards the end result of a given defined goal." Historian J. B. Bury said that thought in ancient Greece

25670-485: Was adopted by Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), a German historian who wrote The Decline of the West in 1920. World War I , World War II , and the rise of totalitarianism demonstrated that progress was not automatic and that technological improvement did not necessarily guarantee democracy and moral advancement. British historian Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) felt that Christianity would help modern civilization overcome its challenges. The Jeffersonians said that history

25840-596: Was born, and despite his public renunciation of his Genovese nationality to swear allegiance to the King of Spain . In Italy, Columbus Day has been officially celebrated since 2004. It is officially named Giornata nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo ("National Christopher Columbus Day"). The "Lega Navale Italiana" has created a Regata di Colombo ("Columbus Regatta ") as a celebration of the Columbus achievement. Italians have celebrated Christopher Columbus ( Italian : Cristoforo Colombo [kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo] ) naming after him many civilian and military ships, like

26010-408: Was celebrated under this title until 2002, when it was changed to the Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance). Originally conceived of as a celebration of Hispanic influence in the Americas, as evidenced by the complementary celebrations in Spain and Latin America, Día de la Raza has come to be seen by nationalist activists throughout Latin America as a counter to Columbus Day –

26180-421: Was characterized as a model and example of progress for the region, where peoples of every religion and race sent their top students to study at its famous international academy called the House of Wisdom . Islamic Spain was also famed as a center of learning in Europe, where Jews and Christians flocked to Muslim halaqas , eager to bring the latest knowledge back to their countries in Europe, which later sparked

26350-402: Was dominated by the theory of world-cycles or the doctrine of eternal return, and was steeped in a belief parallel to the Judaic " fall of man ," but rather from a preceding " Golden Age " of innocence and simplicity. Time was generally regarded as the enemy of humanity which depreciates the value of the world. He credits the Epicureans with having had a potential for leading to the foundation of

26520-440: Was erected in 1792. Many Italian Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage and not of Columbus himself, and the day was celebrated in New York City on October 12, 1866. The day was first enshrined as a legal holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first-generation American, in Denver. The first statewide holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it

26690-426: Was first recorded in 1507. A two-dimensional globe created by Martin Waldseemüller was the earliest recorded use of the term. The name was also used (together with the related term Amerigen ) in the Cosmographiae Introductio , apparently written by Matthias Ringmann , in reference to South America. It was applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. "America" derives from Americus ,

26860-440: Was heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade, with the establishment of colonies such as Virginia, where enslaved Africans were primarily used as labor in tobacco plantations and later in other agricultural and domestic sectors. This system perpetuated for centuries, shaping the socio-economic landscape of all nations of the hemisphere. After the Haitian Revolution led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines , which started in 1791 and

27030-460: Was introduced in the early-19th-century social theories , especially social evolution as described by Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer . It was present in the Enlightenment 's philosophies of history . As a goal, social progress has been advocated by varying realms of political ideologies with different theories on how it is to be achieved. Specific indicators for measuring progress can range from economic data, technical innovations, change in

27200-528: Was like, and how one may change it for the better. In turn, this gave rise to progressive opinion, in contrast with conservational opinion. The social conservationists were skeptical about panaceas for social ills. According to conservatives, attempts to radically remake society normally make things worse. Edmund Burke was the leading exponent of this, although later-day liberals like Friedrich Hayek have espoused similar views. They argue that society changes organically and naturally, and that grand plans for

27370-425: Was made a statutory holiday in 1907. (Colorado replaced Columbus Day with Frances Xavier Cabrini Day in 2020, though that holiday is observed a week earlier.) For the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1892, following lynchings in New Orleans , where a mob had murdered 11 Italian immigrants, President Benjamin Harrison declared Columbus Day as a one-time national celebration. The proclamation

27540-542: Was not completed until those interned in camps were released after Italy's surrender to the Allies on September 8, 1943. In 1966, Mariano A. Lucca, from Buffalo, New York , founded the National Columbus Day Committee, which lobbied to make Columbus Day a federal holiday. These efforts were successful and legislation to create Columbus Day as a federal holiday was signed by President Lyndon Johnson on June 28, 1968, to be effective beginning in 1971. Since 1971, when Columbus Day became an officially recognized federal holiday in

27710-496: Was officially established in 1921 under President Juan Vicente Gómez . In 2002, under President Hugo Chávez , the holiday was changed to Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) to commemorate the Indigenous peoples' resistance to European settlement. On October 12, 2004, a crowd of progovernment activists toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus by Rafael de la Cova in Caracas . The activists also sprayed allusive graffiti over its pedestal. The walk where

27880-405: Was part of a wider effort after the lynching incident to placate Italian Americans and ease diplomatic tensions with Italy. During the anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets, and politicians used rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These rituals took themes such as citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and the celebration of social progress , included among them

28050-470: Was removed and replaced with a replica of The Young Woman of Amajac , a sculpture depicting an Indigenous woman . Only a handful of Caribbean countries observe holidays related to Columbus Day. In Belize, October 12 is celebrated as Day of the Americas or Pan American Day . In the Bahamas , it was formerly known as Discovery Day , until 2001 when it was replaced by National Heroes Day . In 1937, Cuban President Federico Laredo Brú (1936–1940) spoke to

28220-445: Was subject to frequent raids by English and French pirates . On the continent, Panama City on the Pacific coast of Central America, founded on August 15, 1519, played an important role, being the base for the Spanish conquest of South America. Conquistador Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón established San Miguel de Guadalupe , the first European settlement in what is now the United States , on the Pee Dee River in South Carolina . During

28390-461: Was the Cuban War of Independence which became the Spanish–American War , which resulted in the independence of Cuba in 1898, and the transfer of sovereignty over Puerto Rico from Spain to the United States. Peaceful decolonization began with the United States's purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803, Florida from Spain in 1819, of Alaska from Russia in 1867, and the Danish West Indies from Denmark in 1916. Canada became independent of

28560-460: Was the Pledge of Allegiance by Francis Bellamy . In 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus and New York City Italian leader Generoso Pope , Congress passed a statute stating: "The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation (1) designating October 12 as Columbus Day; (2) calling on United States government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Columbus Day; and (3) inviting

28730-449: Was the only successful slave revolt in history, the world's first black republic was established. It started with the massacre of the white population, between 3,000 and 5,000 white men and women of all ages were killed. Dessalines declared: — Dessalines, first president of the Republic of Haiti, 1804 The most prevalent faiths in the Americas are as follows: Other faiths include Buddhism ; Hinduism ; Sikhism ; Baháʼí Faith ;

28900-416: Was used by the largest Hispanic social justice organization in the nation, UnidosUS , which was known as the National Council of La Raza from 1968 to 2017. On October 10, 1992, Pope John Paul II visited the Dominican Republic to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas and the arrival of Christianity in the " New World ". His visit ended with a mass in the nation's cathedral ,

#13986