Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

=== America as a distinct land ===
[[File:Columbus Monument (New York City) - DSC05924.JPG|thumb|The [[Columbus Monument (New York City)|Columbus Monument]] in [[Columbus Circle]], New York City]]

Historians have traditionally argued that Columbus remained convinced until his death that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia as he originally intended<ref>{{cite book |title=North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent |first=Thomas F. |last=McIlwraith |first2=Edward K. |last2=Muller |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7425-0019-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8NS0OTXRlTMC&pg=PA35 |page=35}}</ref><ref name="Burmila20171009" /> (excluding arguments such as Anderson's).<ref name="Kolodny2012" /> On his third voyage he briefly referred to South America as a "hitherto unknown" continent,{{Efn|name=incognita}} while also rationalizing that it was the [[Earthly Paradise]] (Eden) located "at the end of the [[Orient]]".<ref name="Zeruvabel2003" /> Columbus continued to claim in his later writings that he had reached Asia; in a 1502 letter to [[Pope Alexander VI]], he asserts that Cuba is the east coast of Asia.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=227}} On the other hand, in a document in the ''Book of Privileges'' (1502), Columbus refers to the New World as the ''Indias Occidentales'' ('West Indies'), which he says "were unknown to all the world".<ref>{{cite book |last=Sale |first=Kirkpatrick |author-link=Kirkpatrick Sale |url=https://archive.org/details/conquestofparadi00sale/page/204/mode/2up |title=The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy |publisher=Plume |year=1991 |orig-date=1990 |isbn=0-452-26669-6 |location=New York |pages=204–209}}</ref>