The Term "India Superior" and its Historical Context in the Americas and West Indies

The term “India” — and more specifically “India Superior” — wasn’t always what we think it is today. Long before maps were solidified and borders drawn, “India” was a floating concept, a label Europeans used for faraway lands rich in spices, gold, silk, and mystery. While modern readers associate India with the South Asian subcontinent, the word once described much more — including what we now call the Americas and the Caribbean. That shift in meaning tells us a lot about how Europeans saw the world, and how mistaken identity, colonial ambition, and a thirst for trade shaped their understanding of geography.

Where “India” Comes From

The word “India” comes from Latin India, which itself is rooted in the Greek Indikē, meaning “land of the Indus.” The Indus River was one of the great rivers of the ancient world, and when Alexander the Great marched east, the Greeks started calling everything beyond the Indus “India” (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2024). To the classical mind, India was less a country than a vague idea — an exotic zone where fabulous riches and strange customs could be found.

The Greeks and Romans never had a clear picture of the East. But they didn’t need one. What mattered was that “India” symbolized wealth, wonder, and the edge of the known world. Over time, this idea of India stretched — far beyond the Indus Valley — until it covered much of South Asia and Southeast Asia in European thought.

From India to the Indies

By the late Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, “the Indies” had become the go-to name for the tropical zones of Asia — places like India, Sri Lanka, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and the Spice Islands (the Maluku Islands). These areas were goldmines for European merchants hungry for pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, and other high-demand goods (Phillips & Phillips, 1992). The name “East Indies” became a catch-all for these places — exotic, lucrative, and worth sailing halfway around the world to reach.

This fuzziness in naming led to major confusion once Europeans started venturing across the Atlantic.

Columbus and the Search for the Promised Land

In 1492, when Columbus set sail westward under the Spanish Crown, many believed he was searching for a new trade route to Asia. But deeper records, including Columbus’s own writings and the spiritual motivations of his era, suggest he may have been driven by more than gold or geography. Some scholars and traditions argue that Columbus was influenced by the apocryphal book of 2 Esdras, particularly Chapter 13, which speaks of a distant land “where never mankind dwelt” — a place to which the ten lost tribes of Israel had journeyed to keep the laws of their God in peace. This land was called Arsareth (2 Esdras 13:40–45).

Columbus had access to biblical texts and apocrypha (Fernández-Armesto, 1991). His voyage wasn’t just about finding the East Indies — it was, perhaps, about uncovering a long-lost world, a promised land that aligned with ancient prophecy. When he arrived in the Caribbean and encountered its native inhabitants, he believed he had found the edges of this mysterious realm. That’s why he labeled the people “Indians.” Not necessarily because he thought he had reached India in the strict sense, but because he believed he had reached a land tied to ancient and divine geography — a land connected to the spiritual legacy of the East.

According to Columbus’s journals and other early eyewitness accounts, many of the indigenous people he came across were described as copper-colored with woolly hair (Columbus, 1492; de las Casas, 1542). These features challenged European expectations and contributed to the mystique of these new lands. Similar descriptions are echoed in The Tour of the Viceroy of Versailles, which documented encounters with New World inhabitants in a way that aligned with both biblical prophecy and classical notions of the exotic.

Even if Columbus was wrong in his geography, he was firm in his belief that this new world held divine significance. And in the minds of those back in Europe, the idea stuck. The lands became known as “the West Indies,” a name that reveals less about reality and more about the world that European explorers expected — and hoped — to find.

Depictions of Columbus' First Voyage (1492)

The Birth of "India Superior"

As European maps expanded to include the newly encountered continents, the idea of “India” had to stretch again. To make sense of the geography — and to fit the Americas into a familiar mental framework — Europeans started referring to parts of the New World as "India Superior." In this context, “superior” meant “greater” or “higher,” not necessarily in value but in geographic reach (America Is the Old World, 2023).

“India Superior” became a shorthand for the Americas, especially the Caribbean and nearby territories. It was a way for Europeans to categorize the unknown by using terms they already understood. If Asia had the East Indies, then these lands — full of new peoples, resources, and potential — must be the other India. A superior India.

This wasn’t just confusion; it was projection. European cartographers, traders, and monarchs were mapping fantasy onto reality. By calling the Caribbean the West Indies or India Superior, they were imagining it as an extension of the exotic, wealth-filled East — a land to be claimed, mined, and brought into the global economy.

West Indies vs. East Indies: Geography Meets Empire

The East Indies — India, Indonesia, the Spice Islands — remained a vital target for European powers throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. These regions were colonized, commercialized, and exploited by entities like the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company. Their names alone show how central “India” was to European thinking (Phillips & Phillips, 1992).

Meanwhile, the so-called West Indies — the Caribbean and the surrounding Americas — became a different kind of colony: one centered on sugar, slavery, and resource extraction. Though half a world apart, the East and West Indies were seen as two sides of the same imperial coin: sources of wealth, power, and prestige.

The Lingering Legacy

Today, the use of "India" to describe the Americas feels absurd. But the echo of that confusion still lingers. The term “Indian” is still often used to describe Native Americans, though it’s increasingly recognized as a misnomer. “West Indies” survives as a name for Caribbean sports teams and cultural references, even though it no longer carries any geographical accuracy.

But the bigger story is about how Europeans made sense of the world — or didn’t. The term “India Superior” reminds us that the colonial imagination was less concerned with precision and more with possession. To name something was to claim it. To confuse one place with another was to remake the map in your own image.

In the end, “India Superior” is more than a historical footnote. It’s a window into how exploration, empire, and error shaped the modern world. And how even a single word — like “India” — can carry centuries of ambition, confusion, and control.

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References

1. Jewish Encyclopedia. “Arzareth.” https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1867-arzareth

2. The Straight Dope. “Does ‘Indian’ derive from Columbus’s description of Native Americans as ‘una gente in Dios’?” https://www.straightdope.com/21343101/does-indian-derive-from-columbus-s-description-of-native-americans-as-una-gente-in-dios

3. America Is the Old World. “The Old World Is the New World.” https://www.americaistheoldworld.com/the-old-world-is-the-new-world

4. 2 Esdras 13:40–45, Apocrypha, King James Version

5. Encyclopædia Britannica. “East Indies.” https://www.britannica.com/place/East-Indies

6. William D. Phillips Jr. & Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

7. Felipe Fernández-Armesto. Columbus. Oxford University Press, 1991.

8. Bartolomé de las Casas. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. 1542.

9. Christopher Columbus. Journal of the First Voyage of Columbus. 1492.

10. The Tour of the Viceroy of Versailles. Translated Accounts of Encounters in the New World. (Publication details vary by edition.)