Columbus Standard
Bicentennial Flag Memorial
European interest was first represented in the “New World” by the Viking Banner of Leif Ericson and other intrepid Norse adventurers. This banner, according to tradition, made its way to Iceland, Greenland and presumably North America about the year 1000.
By the fifteenth century, flags were symbolic of the rivalry and ambitiousness of many expanding nations. The Spanish Flag of Ferdinand, Isabella, or Columbus Standard, was the flag planted on San Salvador in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.
European powers other than Spain soon showed interest in the new continent. Explorers such as John Sebastian Cabot (1497) as well as Sir Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert carried the Cross of St. George, the English Flag.
Courtesy hmdb.org
