On April 8 our nation finally unified around a cause important to us all: posting pictures of the solar eclipse on social media.This was a huge event as people planned a year ahead to get hotels that were in the path of totality. Even if you were not able to travel, schools across the nation passed out special glasses and communities celebrated this celestial phenomenon that will not be repeated for another 20 years. While this eclipse was fun to watch, historically speaking there are at least two eclipses that changed the course of history as we know it today.The first example deals with Christopher Columbus. While Columbus is controversial for many of his actions, he was also brilliant. It was he who convinced the Spanish that he could sail west and reach Asia. Most of Europe believed such a trip was impossible—not because the world was flat, only people today believe that—but because Earth was too large to sail around. At that time, any voyage of such magnitude would run out of supplies and the crew would die.Columbus disagreed with the circumference of the globe, wrongly believing the Earth was much smaller. Had it not been for the New World, he and his crew would have died painfully. Instead, Columbus did find the New World and began exploiting it.On Columbus’ first voyage he landed on San Salvador in the Caribbean where he set up a colony for Spain as he searched for riches. After a year he left a few men behind and took back some gold and natives he thought would make good slaves. The Crown was impressed and later that year sent Columbus back. When he returned to San Salvador, he found his men dead and decided to retaliate against the natives by killing many of them.It was about this time that natives as well as his own men began to find Columbus’ actions repugnant as he was making himself into a small dictator. He did not stay around long. After conquering and colonizing Hispaniola, Columbus left his brother in charge and returned to Spain again with more wealth.Columbus returned a third time but found his brother had been overthrown because of his cruelty. Columbus tried to reclaim power but was arrested, chained and sent back to Spain being told he would be killed if he ever returned. Yet threats did not deter him. He received permission ...
