US History 1
Mr. Mulry
American History Biography
Christopher Columbus
(1451-1506)
Christopher Columbus's landfall in the Caribbean in October 1492,
possibly on the island now known as San Salvador, marked the
beginning of large-scale contact between Europe, Africa, and the
Americas.
Columbus was born in the Italian republic of Genoa. His father was
a wool weaver and merchant, although not a wealthy one.
Columbus's formal education was limited, but he probably studied
religion, geography, and arithmetic at the wool merchants' guild
school. As an adult Columbus read widely and placed great faith in
what he found in books.
The Genoese were known for their sailing ability, and Columbus
went to sea at a young age. He sailed the Mediterranean for several
years and settled in Portugal in the mid-1470s, where he lived for
about a decade. While in Portugal he married Felipa Moniz in 1478 or
1479. They had one child, a son born in 1480 whom they named Diego. The extent of
Columbus's sea voyages in these years is unknown. He probably traveled to England and
Ireland and perhaps to Iceland. He traveled as far south as the Portuguese fortress of Sao
Jorge da Mina, on the Gold Coast of Africa, and was also familiar with Madeira and the
Canary Islands. Columbus probably first tried to secure backing for a voyage into the
unknown reaches of the Atlantic in 1485, when he approached King Joaõ II of Portugal.
Little is known about this episode, but later traditions held that a committee appointed to
look into the matter recommended against him.
Columbus lived in a world of explorers and discoveries. For centuries Europeans had known
of and traded for the riches of the East. The overland routes to Asia were long and difficult,
but the gold, gems, and spices that merchants brought back were so valuable that
Europeans continued to travel eastward, always looking for quicker and less expensive
routes to the lucrative markets. Columbus proposed to reach the riches of the Indies by
sailing west and going around the world. He was not the first to argue that the world was
round; this fact was well known and commonly accepted by educated Europeans of his day.
But although Europeans knew the world was round, they were not sure how large it was.
The best estimate, originally made by Eratosthenes of Alexandria in the third century B.C.,
was accurate to within at least 5 percent, but no one in the 16th century knew if it was the
right appraisal. Others calculated that the world was smaller, and Columbus's estimate was
among the smallest. Not only did Columbus think the world was modest in size, he also
believed that Asia extended farther to the east than it did. Furthermore, he accepted Marco
Polo's claim that the rich island of Cipangu (Japan) was 1,500 miles off the coast of China. If
these claims were true, then the Atlantic was narrow, and a ship that crossed it would find a
quick route to the riches of the East. Columbus believed that the distance from the Canary
Islands to Japan was a mere 2,400 nautical miles rather than the correct 10,600 miles.
Europeans did not know what, if anything, could be found in the uncharted regions of the
Atlantic. Maps from the time included both known places, like the Canary Islands and the
Azores, and unknown or even imaginary locales such as Antillia and the isle of Saint
Brendan the Navigator. Most scholars believed that, aside from islands, the vast ocean was
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empty. Some theorized that an unknown land, the Antipodes, might exist on the other side
of the world. The idea of the Antipodes, although appealing to the medieval and
Renaissance taste for order and symmetry, was controversial. If the Antipodes were
inhabited, their peoples might not be descended from Adam and Eve, a horrifying idea.
Furthermore, Europeans believed that the apostles had preached "throughout the world,"
which seemed to rule out the existence of an unknown continent.
In 1485 Columbus left Portugal for Spain. In 1486 he met with King Ferdinand II of Aragón
and Queen Isabella I of Castile to try to interest them in his plans. Ferdinand and Isabella
appointed a commission to investigate his proposal, which rejected it on the grounds that
Columbus had underestimated the size of the world. The monarchs refused, at this point, to
support a voyage, but they paid Columbus subsidies and indicated that they might support a
later voyage, once they had conquered the Muslim kingdom of Granada. Columbus had to
wait a few years for permission from the monarchs. While he waited in Spain, his brother
Bartholomew Columbus (Bartolomé Colón) traveled across the continent seeking sponsors
for the venture. During these years in Spain, Christopher Columbus met a woman named
Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, and in 1488 she gave birth to their son Hernando. Columbus
never married her, probably because she was the daughter of peasants, but he provided for
her throughout his life. He also legitimized their son, who would later write a biography of
his father. In 1492, during the final siege of Granada, the monarchs agreed to sponsor a
voyage. They granted Columbus noble status and promised to make him admiral, viceroy,
and governor general over any lands that he claimed for Castile, as well as giving him onetenth of the profits from his venture. The offices and Columbus's noble status were to be
hereditary.
Columbus hoped to find a route to Asia when he began his first journey across the Atlantic,
but he may also have been influenced by apocalyptic and millenarian religious ideas. During
the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, prophecies about the end of the world circulated
widely. Believers in prophecy expected that the end of the world would come at some point
after Christians reconquered Jerusalem and converted unbelievers in other parts of the
world. Events like the Reconquista seemed to promise that Christianity would overcome
other religions. After Spain conquered Granada in 1492 and expelled Muslims and Jews,
some Christians argued that Christian armies should next conquer Jerusalem.
The development of Columbus's religious ideas is unclear, but his interest in religion and
prophecy increased as he aged. As early as the 1480s he was interested in the possible date
of the millennium and may have known of prophecies that promised that the Spanish
monarchs would play a significant role in its coming. The historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
has argued that Columbus's religious ideas changed and intensified after his first voyage.
According to Fernandez-Armesto, Columbus's "notion of reality and grasp of the limits of the
possible [were] deeply shaken by his contact with the New World." While lost on the way
home from his first New World voyage, he believed that he heard a celestial voice reassure
him, and he had similar experiences at least twice more in his life. By 1498 he suggested
that he had found the earthly Paradise. Around 1500 he began to suggest that his
discoveries had been ordained by God to help bring about the millennium.
The First Voyage (1492-1493)
Columbus set sail with three ships on August 3, 1492. He reached the Canaries, claimed by
Castile, and from there set sail due west. The voyage was relatively uneventful, and the
ships benefited from a calm sea and favorable winds. The winds were so favorable that after
about a month the sailors began to worry that there would be no winds to take them back
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to Spain. In the early morning of October 12, 1492, a lookout spotted a light on the shore.
In the morning the ships reached an island that Columbus named San Salvador but which
its Native inhabitants called Guanahani. His landing place may have been the island now
known as San Salvador but may also have been almost any of the islands of the Bahamas.
Columbus believed that he had landed in Asia and began exploring. He reported that the
land was fertile and the Native peoples were agreeable, but he found little trace of wealth.
Columbus's initial relations with the islands' inhabitants were peaceful, and he described
them as naturally good and inoffensive. He did not believe that they had legitimate political
institutions of their own and therefore claimed their land for Castile. Even at the beginning,
his attitude toward the Native people was paradoxical. In an early letter he wrote that he
gave the Indians gifts to "win good friendship, because I knew that they were a people who
could better be freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force" and described
them as handsome and intelligent. Yet in the same letter he observed that the Native people
"ought to be good servants and of good skill" and announced his intention to kidnap six of
them and bring them to Castile.
For three months Columbus traveled to various islands of the Caribbean hoping to find a
way to China or Japan. His greatest discovery on the first voyage was the island of
Hispaniola, whose inhabitants possessed gold. He founded a settlement on the north coast
of the island, which he named Villa de la Navidad. Because his largest ship, the Santa María,
had run aground, he left 39 men in the settlement when he returned to Spain. Upon his
return to Europe, Columbus claimed that he had found a westward route to Asia. Others
were skeptical, thinking that he had found new Canary Islands, the Antipodes, or the
mythical land of Antillia. In general, scholars still believed that the world was too large for
Columbus to have traveled to Asia. Whatever Columbus had found, the gold of Hispaniola
seemed to promise wealth.
The Second Voyage (1493-1496)
Isabella and Ferdinand agreed to sponsor a second, larger voyage. On this voyage
Columbus commanded more than 17 ships and 1,300 men, including his youngest brother,
Diego. This expedition included several friars, whose instructions ordered them to
Christianize the Arawak of Hispaniola. Columbus apparently planned to start a trading
colony that would rely on exports of gold, cotton, and slaves. On this voyage he mapped
several new islands, including Puerto Rico, which he named San Juan Bautista. When
Columbus returned to Hispaniola, he found that the 39 men he had left behind were all
dead, mostly killed by the islanders. The Natives said that the Spanish had quarreled among
themselves, kidnapped Native women, and stolen gold. Columbus was becoming
disillusioned both with the climate of the island and with its Native inhabitants. Because the
Native peoples had fought the Spanish, he took their resistance as an excuse to enslave
them. He and his men marched through the island trying to trade for gold and taking Indian
captives.
Columbus built a new settlement, which he called Isabella, but chose a poor site for it. He
had promised riches to the colonists who came with him, and when these riches did not
appear, the colonists began to complain. They also mistreated the Indians. Columbus began
exporting Indians to Spain as slaves. Although he claimed that the Indians, by fighting the
colonists, had made themselves subject to slavery, his action angered Ferdinand and
Isabella. The monarchs wanted the Indians to be Christianized and to be direct subjects of
the Crown. If the Indians were harshly treated, Ferdinand and Isabella reasoned, they
would not become Christians. Furthermore, if they were enslaved, they would be under the
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authority of their masters rather than subject to the Crown. In any case, the slave trade
seemed pointless because the Indians frequently died on the voyage or soon after arriving
in Europe.
In April 1494 Columbus left his brother Diego (Diego Colón) in charge of Hispaniola and
went to explore Cuba, which he believed to be a part of the mainland. While Columbus was
in Cuba, his brother Bartholomew arrived in Hispaniola and found the colony in disarray.
Colonists returning to Spain from Hispaniola in 1494 were already reporting that Columbus
and his brothers were incompetent. The major complaint against Columbus was that he had
misled the settlers about the nature of Hispaniola and thereby caused colonists to die. In
response to the complaints, Ferdinand and Isabella sent an investigator, Juan Aguado, to
report on the state of the colony. Aguado reported high rates of disease among both
Spaniards and Indians and added that many colonists had deserted. Columbus left his
brother Bartholomew in charge and left for Spain to defend his administration of the colony.
The Third Voyage (1498-1500)
Despite suspicions about the abilities of the "Admiral of the Ocean Seas," Ferdinand and
Isabella allowed Columbus to make a third voyage in 1498. The monarchs' declining trust in
Columbus is indicated by the smaller size of this expedition. Columbus sent five ships
directly to Hispaniola while he explored farther south. On this voyage he reached the
mainland of South America, finding the Orinoco River, which flows from modern-day
Venezuela. The size of the Orinoco convinced him that he had found a large landmass, and
he wrote in his journal "I believe this is a very large continent which until now has remained
unknown." When he finally reached Hispaniola, he found the colony in rebellion. A rival
camp had emerged in the south of the island led by Francisco Roldán. They complained that
the new site of the colony, Santo Domingo, was poorly chosen, that there was not enough
food to feed the Spanish, and that Columbus and his brothers had too much power. In
response to these complaints, Ferdinand and Isabella again sent an investigator, Francisco
de Bobadilla, who arrived in August 1500 and found the colony in chaos. He deemed the
charges against Columbus and his brothers serious enough that he had them put in chains
and sent to Spain to face trial. Ferdinand and Isabella freed Columbus and allowed him to
keep some of his titles, but they found the charges against him sufficiently disturbing to
restrict his real authority.
The Fourth Voyage (1502-1504)
Columbus's final voyage was a disaster. His fleet consisted of only four caravels, and the
monarchs forbade him to set foot in Hispaniola. As Columbus drew near to Hispaniola, he
recognized the signs of a coming hurricane. Fearing for the safety of his ships, he disobeyed
the monarchs' order and landed there. He tried to warn the colony's governor, Nicolás de
Ovando, about the storm, but Ovando ignored his advice and sent a fleet bound for Spain
into the hurricane. Twenty-five of the ships sank, leaving only three or four to make it back
to Europe. Columbus weathered the hurricane and spent much of the rest of his voyage
exploring the coast of Central America. He landed in Panama, searching for a strait through
the continent. Failing to find one, he established a settlement he called Río Belén, but the
local Indians did not welcome the Spanish and succeeded in driving them away. At this point
Columbus decided to return to Hispaniola. He had already lost two ships, and the remaining
two were so worm-eaten that they nearly sank. The ships were so damaged that Columbus
found it impossible to reach Hispaniola and put in at Jamaica. There the survivors beached
their ships and used them for shelter. They were marooned for nearly a year before being
rescued.
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After this misadventure Columbus returned to Spain. His voyages had made him rich, but he
was unhappy. He spent his remaining years struggling with the Crown to try to retain his
titles and claims to the islands. Unable to accept his own failures as an administrator, he felt
betrayed by Ferdinand and Isabella, who had limited his privileges and removed him as
governor of Hispaniola.
Columbus died in 1506, but not before his exploits had changed the world. During 1892, the
four hundredth anniversary of his first crossing, scholars and the general public in many
countries celebrated his achievements. A century later, during the 1992 quincentennial,
another Columbus took center stage. Unlike the hero of 1892, the Columbus of 1992 was
more often reviled than feted. Many individuals, including descendants of the indigenous
peoples of the Americas, believed that he bore direct responsibility for the horrors that
beset Native Americans in the generations after 1492. While most individuals who lived
during the early modern age have faded into obscurity, it seems certain that Columbus will
remain a figure of world-historic significance.
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