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Columbus renamed five islands on his first voyage to America: San Salvador; Santa Maria de la Concepcion, Fernandina, Isabela, and Las Islas de Arena.

San Salvador was named after the king of Spain as were Fenandina and Isabela also named after other royal monarchs of Spain. He did this to honor the family who sponsored his voyage in hopes that this would help butter them up to sponsoring more trips to the New World as was the purpose of his entire 1493 letter.

Santa Maria de la Concepcion was named after the Virgin Mary. He did this to honor and acknowledge God and Christendom as was custom of people of this time because the church was a powerful political entity at this time.

Las Islas de Arena means Sandy Island and was probably named that because it was, as you could guess, very sandy.

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12y ago

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