Columbia (IPA: /kəˈlʌmbiə/) is the first popular and poetic name for the United States of America; it is also the origin of the name for the District of Columbia, the U.S. capital. Columbia is a feminine form derived from Christopher Columbus, one of the first Europeans to explore the Americas after the Vikings. The moniker dates from before the American Revolution in 1776 but fell out of use in the early 20th century.
History
Christopher Columbus was not considered a hero of the Thirteen Colonies until the mid-18th century and the growing feeling of nationalism among the colonies. The English had always emphasized John and Sebastian Cabot and downplayed Columbus for political reasons. But, for the emerging United States, the Cabots made poor national heroes and were "shadowy agents of a British king," while Spain no longer posed a serious threat. The new nation began to look back to Columbus as a founding hero, and with that change of attitude, the name Columbia became increasingly popular.[1]
Advocates for naming the United States "Columbia" continued to press for the name even after the United States Constitution was ratified. According to George R. Stewart, the name "United States" was criticized for being too long, inaccurate, and unpoetic, and that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 would have been the ideal time to change it. The two people most likely to have argued for a better name, according to Stewart, were Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. But Jefferson was in France at the time and Franklin was old and "no longer vigorous." Thus the nation remained the "United States," but popular support for "Columbia" remained and the name was given to many counties, towns, and townships.
At that time, it was common for European countries to use their Latin name as second name, used mainly in formal and poetical contexts and confering respectability on the country concerned (for example "Gallia" for France, "Helvetia" for Switzerland, "Caledonia" for Scotland, "Hibernia" for Ireland etc). In many cases, these names were personified as statuesque female figures. "Columbia" was, in effect, the closest which the United States - located in a continent which the Romans did not know about and hence did not name - could come to emulating this custom. Use of "Columbia" was part of the tendency to use Roman terms and symbols, manifested in the American Eagle as the new country's coat of arms and the use of "Senate" for the US Congress' Upper House and Capitol Hill for Congress' physical location - all derived from Roman history.
In 1791, the year before the 300th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage to the Americas in 1492 and the first U.S. celebrations of Columbus Day, three commissioners that President George Washington had appointed named the future federal district that would become the seat of the U.S. government "the Territory of Columbia". In 1792 itself, the Columbia River received its name. Just before the Constitutional Convention, in 1786, South Carolina gave the name "Columbia" to its new capital city. It was also in this period that Columbia University in New York got its present name (under British rule, it was named "King's College").
The proper noun "Columbia" is a name widely used in English derived from that of Christopher Columbus. Therefore, it was used in a broader sense to refer to the Americas. The term "Pre-Columbian" refers to the time before the arrival in the Americas of Columbus and other European explorers.
Columbia was also a female national personification of the United States, similar to the male Uncle Sam, the British female Britannia and male John Bull, the Italian Italia Turrita and the French Marianne, often seen in political cartoons through the early 20th century (see illustration at right).
The term Columbian was used to mean "from the USA" and there have been suggestions that it should be used again as an alternative word for "American", but has not re-entered general use. The establishment of a "Republic of Colombia" in 1819 (followed by the United States of Colombia in 1863, and finally the modern Republic of Colombia in 1886) may have resulted in Columbia "no longer being available as a national name"[2] for the United States. Moreover, in 1858 Queen Victoria took a hand in this "competition" and decided upon the name "British Columbia" for the what became the westernmost part of Canada.
Modern appearances
Although the name has fallen out of favor, it can still be found in many places within the United States - most prominently in the District of Columbia, though in common usage it is usually abbreviated to "D.C.".
The song "Hail, Columbia," an early anthem of the United States, is now used as the anthem of the Vice President of the United States. In addition, the song "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean" is still occasionally sung. It is also still featured as CBS's former legal name, the Columbia Broadcasting System, Columbia University in New York, Columbia Pictures, Columbia Records and the space shuttle Columbia.
The character is still used by Columbia Pictures as part of their logo, though the current incarnation looks very different.
Columbia also makes an appearance in Uncle Sam, a graphic novel about American history
See also
In this painting (circa 1872) by John Gast, called American Progress, Columbia - as a personification of the United States in the implementation of Manifest Destiny - leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she travels; she holds a schoolbook. The different economic activities of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation. The Indians and wild animals flee.
References
Notes
- ^ Stewart, p. 172
- ^ Stewart, p. 173
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