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Christopher
Columbus
was born in 1451 Calvi
(Corsica), northwest of the island,
200km from Ajaccio. He was the oldest of five
children. As a child, he helped his father as a
weaver. He always liked the sea. Genoa was an
important seaport. There is no doubt that as a
child he caught rides on ships. He had little
schooling but was a genius with the sea. His
plan was not to prove that the world was flat,
but it was to find a shortcut to the Spice
Islands. He wanted to establish a city there for
trade, seaports, and much more. When he grew into
a man he was interested in sailing to Asia by
going west. First he went to the king of Italy
and presented his idea before him. Italy wasn't
looking for a way to Asia, they were still
receiving riches from their old trade routes.
His three ships were the Santa Maria, the Nina,
and the Pinta.
Christopher
Columbus
Some
Facts About Christopher Columbus
-
In
1492, he left Spain for his first voyage.
He landed in San Salvador at Cap-Haitien
and returned home to Palos, Spain, in
1493.
-
In
1493, he left Spain for his second voyage.
He landed on Marie-Galante, then went
again in Cap-Haitien, St. Ann's Bay, and
returned to Cadiz, Spain, in 1496.
-
In
1498, he left Spain for his third voyage.
He landed in Santo Domingo, and returned
home again to Cadiz, Spain in 1500.
-
In
1502, he left Spain for his fourth and
final voyage. He landed on the Bay Islands
off of Central America, Portobelo, and
then returned home to Sanlucar, Spain, for
the final time.
-
He
later died in 1506.
Man
of Mystery
After
five centuries, Columbus
remains a mysterious and controversial figure
who has been variously described as one of the
greatest mariners in history, a visionary
genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed
administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a
ruthless and greedy imperialist.
Columbus's
enterprise to find a westward route to Asia grew
out of the practical experience of a long and
varied maritime career, as well as out of his
considerable reading in geographical and
theological literature. He settled for a time in
Portugal, where he tried unsuccessfully to
enlist support for his project, before moving to
Spain. After many difficulties, through a
combination of good luck and persuasiveness, he
gained the support of the Catholic monarchs,
Isabel and Fernando.
The
widely published report of his voyage of 1492
made Columbus famous throughout Europe and
secured for him the title of Admiral of the
Ocean Sea and further royal patronage. Columbus,
who never abandoned the belief that he had
reached Asia, led three more expeditions to the
Caribbean. But intrigue and his own
administrative failings brought disappointment
and political obscurity to his final years.
Defense
of Privileges
Queen
Isabel and King Fernando had agreed to
Columbus's lavish demands if he succeeded on his
first voyage: he would be knighted, appointed
Admiral of the Ocean Sea, made the viceroy of
any new lands, and awarded ten percent of any
new wealth. By 1502, however, Columbus had every
reason to fear for the security of his position.
He had been charged with maladministration in
the Indies.
The
Library's vellum copy of the Book of
Privileges is one of four that Columbus
commissioned to record his agreements with the
Spanish crown. It is unique in preserving an
unofficial transcription of a Papal Bull of
September 26, 1493 in which Pope Alexander VI
extended Spain's rights to the New World.
Much
concerned with social status, Columbus was
granted a coat of arms in 1493. By 1502, he had
added several new elements, such as an emerging
continent next to islands and five golden
anchors to represent the office of the Admiral
of the Sea.
As
a reward for his successful voyage of discovery,
the Spanish sovereigns granted Columbus the
right to bear arms. According to the blazon
specified in letters patent dated May 20, 1493,
Columbus was to bear in the first and the second
quarters the royal charges of Castile and Leon
-- the castle and the lion -- but with different
tinctures or colors. In the third quarter would
be islands in a wavy sea, and in the fourth, the
customary arms of his family.
Columbus
Coat of Arms
The
earlist graphic representation of Columbus's
arms is found in his Book of Privileges
and shows the significant modifications Columbus
ordered by his own authority. In addition to the
royal charges that were authorized in the top
quarters, Columbus adopted the royal colors as
well, added a continent among the islands in the
third quarter, and for the fourth quarter
borrowed five anchors in fess from the blazon of
the Admiral of Castille. Columbus's bold
usurpation of the royal arms, as well as his
choice of additional symbols, help to define his
personality and his sense of the significance of
his service to the Spanish monarchs.
The
Book of Privileges is a collection of
agreements between Columbus and the crowns of
Spain prepared in Seville in 1502 before his 4th
final voyage. The compilation of documents
includes the 1497 confirmation of the rights to
titles and profits granted to the Admiral by the
1492 contract of Santa Fe and augmented in 1493
and 1494, as well as routine instructions and
authorizations related to his third voyage. We
know that four copies of his Book of
Privileges existed in 1502, three written
on vellum and one on paper.
All
three vellum copies have thirty-six documents in
common, including the Papal Bull inter
caetera of May 4, 1493, defining the line
of demarcation of future Spanish and Portuguese
explorations, and specifically acknowledging
Columbus's contributions. The bull is the first
document on vellum in the Library's copy and the
thirty-sixth document in the Genoa and the Paris
codices. The Library copy does not have the
elaborate rubricated title page, the vividly
colored Columbus coat of arms, or the
authenticating notarial signatures contained in
the other copies. The Library's copy, however,
does have a unique transcription of the Papal
Bull Dudum siquidem of September 26,
1493, extending the Spanish donation. The bull
is folded and addressed to the Spanish
sovereigns.
Christopher
Columbus
(1451
– 20
May 1506)
(Cristoforo Colombo in Italian,
Cristóbal Colón in Spanish,
Cristóvão Colombo in Portuguese)
was most probably Genoese,
although some historians claim he could have been born
in other places, from the Crown
of Aragó to the Kingdoms of Galicia
or Portugal
among others. He was an explorer
and trader
who crossed the Atlantic
Ocean and reached the Americas
on October 12th 1492
under the flag of Castilian Spain.
He believed that the earth
was a relatively small sphere,
and argued that a ship could reach the Far
East via a westward course. Contrary to the somewhat
widespread notion that Columbus fought with opposition
based on the idea that the earth was flat, it was fairly
well accepted at that time that the earth was a
spherical body. What the main debate was over was
whether or not it would be possible to get around it
without running out of food or getting stuck in windless
regions. Although his explorations were not the first to
reach the Americas, they inaugurated permanent contact
between the New and Old Worlds.
Columbus
was not the first European to reach the continent. It is
widely acknowledged today that Scandinavians
had travelled to North
America from Greenland
in the 11th
century and set up a short-lived colony at L'Anse
aux Meadows. There is speculation that an obscure
mariner travelled to the Americas before Columbus and
provided him with sources for his claims. There are also
many theories of expeditions to the Americas by a
variety of peoples throughout time; see Pre-Columbian
trans-oceanic contact, one of the most
consistent is the first exploration (before 1472) of
two, led by João
Vaz Corte-Real to Terra Verde (today's
Newfoundland). Giovanni
Caboto (better known as John Cabot) was first to
reach the American mainland (which Columbus did not
reach until his third voyage). However, there is one
thing that sets off Columbus' first voyage from all of
these: less than two decades later, the existence of
America was known to the general public throughout
Europe.
Columbus
landed in the Bahamas
and later explored much of the Caribbean,
including the isles of Juana (Cuba)
and Espanola (Hispaniola),
as well as the coasts of Central
and South
America. He never reached the present-day U.S.A.,
although he is generally regarded as the first European
to reach "America", and "Columbus
Day" (12
October, the anniversary of Columbus' landing in the
Bahamas) is celebrated as a holiday.
Unlike
the voyage of the Scandinavians, Columbus's voyages led
to a relatively quick, general and lasting recognition
of the existence of the New
World by the Old
World, the Columbian
Exchange of species (both those harmful to humans,
such as viruses, bacteria,
and parasites,
and beneficial to humans, such as tomatoes, potatoes, maize,
and horses),
and the first large-scale colonization
of the Americas by Europeans. The voyages also
inaugurated ongoing commerce between the Old and New
Worlds, thus providing the basis for globalization.
Columbus
remains a controversial figure. Some – including many Native
Americans – view him as responsible, directly or
indirectly, for the deaths of tens, if not hundreds, of
millions of indigenous
peoples, exploitation of the Americas by Europe, and
slavery in the West
Indies. Others honour him for the massive boost his
discoveries gave to Western expansion and culture. Italian
Americans hail Columbus as an icon of their
heritage.
Columbus'
signature prior to 1492
It
has generally been accepted that he was Genovese,
although doubts have persistently been voiced regarding
this. His name in Italian
is Cristoforo Colombo ,in Spanish
is Cristóbal Colón, in Catalan
it is Cristòfor Colom and in Portuguese
Cristóvão Colombo. Columbus is a
Latinized form of his surname. The Latin roots of his
name can be translated "Christ-bearer, Dove".
Columbus' signature reads Xpo
ferens ("Bearing Christ").
Columbus
claimed governorship of the new territories (by prior
agreement with the Spanish monarchs)
and made several more journeys across the Atlantic.
While regarded by some as an excellent navigator,
he was seen by many contemporaries as a poor
administrator and was stripped of his governorship in 1500.
Early
life
There
are various versions of Columbus's origins and life
before 1476. The account that has traditionally
been supported by most historians is as follows:
Columbus
was born between August
26 and October
31 in the year 1451,
in the Italian port city of Genoa.
His father was Domenico Colombo, a woollens merchant,
and his mother was Susanna Fontanarossa, the daughter of
a woollens merchant. Christopher had three younger
brothers, Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo,
and a sister, Bianchinetta.
Columbus
monument in Genoa
In
1470,
the family moved to Savona,
where Christopher worked for his father in wool
processing. During this period he studied cartography
with his brother Bartolomeo. Christopher received almost
no formal education; a voracious reader, he was largely
self-taught.
In
1474,
Columbus joined a ship of the Spinola
Financiers, who were Genoese patrons of his father.
He spent a year on a ship bound towards Khios
(an island in the Aegean
Sea) and, after a brief visit home, spent a year in
Khios. It is believed that this is where he recruited
some of his sailors.
A
1476,
commercial expedition gave Columbus his first
opportunity to sail into the Atlantic Ocean. The fleet
came under attack by French
privateers off the Cape
of St. Vincent. Columbus's ship was burned and he
swam six miles to shore.
By
1477,
Columbus was living in Lisbon. Portugal
had become a center for maritime activity with ships
sailing for England,
Ireland,
Iceland,
Madeira, the
Azores, and Africa.
Columbus's brother Bartolomeo worked as a mapmaker in
Lisbon. At times, the brothers worked together as draftsmen
and book collectors.
He
became a merchant sailor with the Portuguese fleet, and
sailed to Iceland
via Ireland
in 1477,
to Madeira
in 1478
to purchase sugar, and along the coasts of West Africa
between 1482
and 1485,
reaching the Portuguese trade post São
Jorge da Mina at the Guinea
coast.
Columbus
married Felipa
Perestrello Moniz, a daughter from a noble
Portuguese family with some Italian ancestry, in 1479.
Felipa's father, Bartolomeu
Perestrelo, had partaken in the discovery of the Madeira
Islands and owned one of them (Porto
Santo Island), but died when Felipa was a baby,
leaving his second wife a wealthy widow. As part of his
dowry, the mariner received all of Perestello's charts
of the winds and currents of the Portuguese
possessions of the Atlantic. Columbus and Felipa had
a son, Diego
Colón in 1480.
Felipa died in January of 1485.
Columbus later found a lifelong partner in Spain, an
orphan named Beatriz
Enriquez. She was living with a cousin in the
weaving industry of Córdoba.
They never married, but Columbus left Beatriz a rich
woman and directed Diego to treat her as his own mother.
The two had a son, Ferdinand in 1488.
Both boys served as pages to Prince
Juan, son of Ferdinand
and Isabella, and each later contributed, with fabulous
success, to the rehabilitation of their father's
reputation.
The
idea
Christian
Europe, long allowed safe passage to India
and China
(sources of valued trade goods such as silk
and spices)
under the hegemony
of the Mongol
Empire (Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol
peace"), was now, after the fragmentation of that
empire, under a complete economic blockade
by Muslim
states. In response to Muslim hegemony on land, Portugal
sought an eastward sea route to the Indies, and promoted
the establishment of trading posts and later colonies
along the coast of Africa.
Columbus had another idea. By the 1480s,
he had developed a plan to travel to the Indies
(then roughly meaning all of south and east Asia)
by sailing west across the Ocean Sea (the Atlantic
Ocean) instead.
It
is sometimes claimed that the reason Columbus had a hard
time receiving support for this plan was that Europeans
believed that the Earth
was flat. This myth can be traced to Washington
Irving's novel The Life and Voyages of
Christopher Columbus (1828).
The
fact that the Earth is round was evident to most people
of Columbus's time, especially other sailors and
navigators (Eratosthenes
(276-194 BC) had in fact accurately calculated the
circumference of the Earth). The problem was that the
experts did not agree with his estimates of the distance
to the Indies. Most scholars accepted Ptolemy's
claim that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of
the time, Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of
the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water. In
fact, it occupies about 120 degrees, leaving 60 degrees
unaccounted for at that time.
Columbus
accepted the calculations of Pierre
d'Ailly, that the land-mass occupied 225 degrees,
leaving only 135 degrees of water. Moreover, Columbus
believed that one degree actually covered less space on
the earth's surface than commonly believed. Finally,
Columbus read maps as if the distances were calculated
in Roman miles (1524 meters or 5,000 feet) rather than nautical
miles (1853.99 meters or 6,082.66 feet at the
equator). The true circumference of the earth is about
40,000 km (24,900 statute miles of 5,280 feet each),
whereas the circumference of Columbus's earth was the
equivalent of at most 19,000 modern statue miles (or
30,600 km). Columbus calculated that the distance from
the Canary Islands to Japan was 2,400 nautical miles
(about 4,444 km).
In
fact, the distance is about 10,600 nautical miles
(19,600 km), and most European sailors and navigators
concluded that the Indies were too far away to make his
plan worth considering. They were right and Columbus was
wrong – but, ultimately in his case, like in that of
so many successful individuals, initiative and
enterpreneurship ended up being more important than
factual accuracy.
Columbus
statue Belgrave Square, London
Columbus
lobbies for funding
Columbus
first presented his plan to the court of Portugal
in 1485.
The king's experts believed that the route would be
longer than Columbus thought (the actual distance is
even longer than the Portuguese believed), and denied
Columbus's request. It is probable that he made the same
outrageous demands for himself in Portugal that he later
made in Spain, where he went next. He tried to get
backing from the monarchs of Aragon
and Castile, Ferdinand
of Aragon and Isabella
of Castile, who, by marrying, had united the largest
kingdoms of Spain and were ruling them together.
After
seven years of lobbying at the Spanish court, where he
was kept on a salary to prevent him from taking his
ideas elsewhere, he was finally successful in 1492.
Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada,
the last Muslim
stronghold on the Iberian
peninsula, and they received Columbus in Córdoba
(in the monarchs' Alcázar or castle). Isabella finally
turned Columbus down on the advice of her "think
tank" and he was leaving town in despair when
Ferdinand lost his patience. Isabella sent a royal guard
to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed
credit for being "the principal cause why those
islands were discovered."
About
half of the financing was to come from private Italian
investors, which Columbus had already lined up.
Financially broke from the Granada campaign, the
monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds
among various royal accounts on behalf of the
enterprise. Columbus was to be made Admiral of the Ocean
Sea and granted an inheritable governorship to the new
territories he would discover, as well as a portion of
all profits. The terms were absurd, but his own son
later wrote that the monarchs really didn't expect him
to return.
The
Santa Maria, Pinta and Nina
VOYAGES
First
voyage
The
year 1492, on the evening of August 3, Columbus left
from Palos
with three ships, the Santa
Maria, Niña
and Pinta.
The ships were property of Juan
de la Cosa and the Pinzón brothers (Martin
and Vicente
Yáñez), but the monarchs forced the Palos
inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. He first
sailed to the Canary
Islands, fortunately owned by Castile, where he
reprovisioned and made repairs, and on September 6
started the five week voyage across the ocean.
A
legend is that the crew grew so homesick and fearful
that they threatened to hurl Columbus overboard and sail
back to Spain. Although the actual situation is unclear,
most likely the sailors' resentments merely amounted to
complaints or suggestions.
After
29 days out of sight of land, on 7
October 1492
as recorded in the ship's log, the crew spotted shore
birds flying west and changed direction to make their
landfall. A comparison of dates and migratory patterns
leads to the conclusion that the birds were Eskimo
curlews and American
golden plover.
Columbus
called the island he reached San
Salvador, The Native
Americans he encountered, the Taíno
or Arawak,
were peaceful and friendly. He wrote with such awe of
the friendly innocence and beauty of these Indians
in their tropical that he inadvertently created the
enduring myth of the Noble
Savage. "These people have no religious
beliefs, nor are they idolaters. They are very gentle
and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others,
nor steal; and they are without weapons.". No blood
was shed on this first voyage; he believed conversion to
Christianity would be achieved through love, not force.
On
this first voyage, Columbus also explored the northeast
coast of Cuba
(landed on October
28) and the northern coast of Hispaniola,
by December
5. He believed the peaks of Cuba to be the
Himalayas, which gives one a sense of just how lost he
was and how long it took the peoples of the world to map
the Earth. (The vast interior of the North and South
American mainlands would of course be largely mapped
with the leadership of native guides and interpreters.)
Here the Santa Maria ran aground and had to be
abandoned. He was received by the native cacique Guacanagari,
who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind.
Columbus founded the settlement La Navidad and
left 39 men.
On
January
4, 1493
he set sail for home, not yet understanding the
elliptical nature of the trade winds that had brought
him west. He wrestled his ship against the wind and ran
into one of the worst storms of the century. He had no
choice but to land his ship in Portugal, where he was
told a fleet of 100 caravels had been lost.
(Astoundingly, both the Niña and the Pinta were
spared.) Some have speculated that landing in Portugal
was intentional.
The
relations between Portugal and Castile were poor at the
time, and he was held up, but finally released. Word of
his discovery of new lands rapidly spread throughout
Europe. He didn't reach Spain until March
15, when the story of his journey was in its third
printing. He was received as a hero in Spain, and this
was his moment in the sun. He displayed several
kidnapped natives and what gold he'd found to the court.
Isabella immediately had the Indians clothed in warm
velvets; her tenderness for her new subjects would be a
thorn in conquistadors' plans for years. Columbus also
displayed the previously unknown tobacco
plant, the pineapple
fruit, the turkey
and the sailor's first love, the hammock.
Naturally, he did not bring any of the coveted Indian
spices, such as the exceedingly expensive black pepper,
ginger or cloves. In his log he wrote "there is
also plenty of ají, which is their pepper, which is
more valuable than [black] pepper, and all the people
eat nothing else, it being very wholesome" (Turner,
2004, P11). The word ají is still used in South
American Spanish for chili peppers.
Second
voyage
Columbus
left from Cadiz, Spain for his second voyage (1493-1496)
on September
24, 1493,
with 17 ships carrying supplies and about 1200 men to
assist in the subjugation of the Taíno and the
colonization of the region. On October
13 the ships left the Canary
Islands, following a more southerly course than on
the first voyage.
On
November
3, 1493,
Columbus sighted a rugged island which he named Dominica.
On the same day he landed at Marie-Galante
(which he named Santa Maria la Galante). After sailing
past Les Saintes (Todos los Santos), Columbus arrived at
Guadaloupe
(Santa Maria de Guadalupe), which he explored from November
4 through November
10. The exact course of his voyage through the Lesser
Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that
Columbus turned north, sighting and naming several
islands including Montserrat
(Santa Maria de Monstserrate), Antigua
(Santa Maria la Antigua), Redonda (Santa Maria la
Redonda), Nevis
(Santa María de las Nieve or San Martin), Saint
Kitts (San Jorge), Sint
Eustatius (Santa Anastasia), Saba
(San Cristobal), and Saint
Martin or Saint
Croix (Santa Cruz). Columbus also sighted the island
chain of the Virgin
Islands, (which he named Santa Ursula y las Once Mil
Virgines), and named the islands of Virgin
Gorda, Tortola,
and Peter
Island (San Pedro).
Columbus
continued to the Greater
Antilles and landed at Puerto
Rico (San Juan Bautista) on November
19, 1493
. On November
22, he returned to Hispaniola,
where he found his colonists had fallen into dispute
with Indians in the interior and had been killed. He
established a new settlement at Isabella, on the north
coast of Hispaniola where gold
had first been discovered; it was a poor location and
the settlement was short-lived. He spent some time
exploring the interior of the island for gold and did
find some, establishing a small fort in the interior. He
left Hispaniola on April
24, 1494
and arrived at Cuba
(which he named Juana) on April
30 and Jamaica
on May
5. He explored the south coast of Cuba, which he
believed to be a peninsula rather than an island, and
several nearby islands including the Isle
of Youth (La Evangelista) before returning to
Hispaniola on August
20.
Before
he left on his second voyage he had been directed by
Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly, even loving
relations with the natives. However, during his second
voyage he sent a letter to the monarchs proposing to
enslave some of the native peoples, specifically the Caribs,
on the grounds of their aggressiveness. Although his
petition was refused by the Crown, in February, 1495
Columbus took 1600 Arawak
as slaves. 550 slaves were shipped back to Spain; two
hundred died en route, probably of disease, and of the
remainder half were ill when they arrived. After legal
proceedings, the survivors were released and ordered to
be shipped back home. Some of the 1600 were kept as
slaves for Columbus's men, Columbus recorded using
slaves for sex in his journal. The remaining 400, who
Columbus had no use for, were let go and fled into the
hills, making, according to Columbus, prospects for
their future capture dim. Rounding up the slaves
resulted in the first major battle between the Spanish
and the Indians in the new world.
The
main objective of Columbus's journey had been gold. To
further this goal, he imposed a system on the natives in
Cicao
on Haiti,
whereby all those above fourteen years of age had to
find a certain quota of gold, which would be signified
by a token placed around their necks. Those who failed
to reach their quota would have their hands chopped off.
Despite such extreme measures, Columbus did not manage
to obtain much gold. One of the primary reasons for this
was the fact that natives became infected with various
diseases carried by the Europeans.
In
his letters to the Spanish king and queen, Columbus
would repeatedly suggest slavery as a way to profit from
the new discoveries, but these suggestions were all
rejected: the monarchs preferred to view the natives as
future members of Christendom.
Third
voyage and arrest
On
May
30, 1498,
Columbus left with six ships from Sanlúcar,
Spain for his third trip to the New World. He was
accompanied by the young Bartolome
de Las Casas, who would later provide partial
transcripts of Columbus's logs.
After
stopping in the Canary
Islands and Cape
Verde, Columbus landed on the south coast of the
island of Trinidad
on July
31. From August
4 through August
12, he explored the Gulf
of Paria which separates Trinidad from Venezuela.
He explored the mainland of South
America, including the Orinoco
River. He also sailed to the islands of Chacachcare
and Margarita
Island and sighted and named Tobago
(Bella Forma) and Grenada (Concepcion). Initially, he described the new lands as
belonging to a previously unknown new continent, but
later he retreated to his position that they belonged to
Asia.
Columbus
returned to Hispaniola
on August
19 to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the
new colony were discontent, having been misled by
Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the
new world. Columbus repeatedly had to deal with
rebellious settlers and Indians. He had some of his crew
hanged for disobeying him. A number of returned settlers
and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish
court, accusing him of mismanagement. The king and queen
sent the royal administrator Francisco
de Bobadilla in 1500,
who upon arrival (August
23) detained Columbus and his brothers and had them
shipped home. Columbus refused to have his shackles
removed on the trip to Spain, during which he wrote a
long and pleading letter to the Spanish monarchs.
Although
he regained his freedom, he did not regain his prestige
and lost his governorship. As an added insult, the
Portuguese had won the race to the Indies: Vasco
da Gama returned in September 1499
from a trip to India,
having sailed east around Africa.
Last
(fourth) voyage and later life
Nevertheless,
Columbus made a fourth voyage, nominally in search of
the Strait
of Malacca to the Indian
Ocean. Accompanied by his brother Bartholomew and
his thirteen-year old son Fernando, Columbus left Cadiz,
Spain on May
11, 1502.
On June
15, they landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). A hurricane was brewing, so Columbus
continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola.
Columbus arrived at Santo
Domingo on June
29, but was denied port. Instead, the ships anchored
at the mouth of the Jaina River.
After
a brief stop at Jamaica,
Columbus sailed to Central
America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay
Islands off the coast of Honduras
on July
30. Here Bartholomew found native merchants and a
large canoe, which was described as "long as a
galley" and was filled with cargo. On August
14, Columbus landed on the American mainland at
Puerto Castilla, near Trujillo,
Honduras. Columbus spent two months exploring the
coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua,
and Costa
Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay, Panama
on October
16.
In
Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a
strait to another ocean. After much exploration, he
established a garrison at the mouth of Rio Belen in
January 1503.
On April
6, one of the ships became stranded in the river. At
the same time, the garrison was attacked, and the other
ships were damaged. Columbus left for Hispaniola on April
16, but sustained more damage in a storm off the
coast of Cuba.
Unable to travel any farther, the ships were beached in
St. Anne's Bay, Jamaica, on June
25, 1503.
Columbus
and his men were stranded on Jamaica for a year. Two
Spaniards, with native paddlers, were sent by canoe
to get help from Hispaniola. In the meantime Columbus,
in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue
provisioning him and his hungry men, successfully
intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar
eclipse, using the Ephemeris of the German
astronomer Regiomontanus.
Grudging help finally arrived on June
29, 1504,
and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlucar, Spain, on November
7.
While
Columbus had always given the conversion of
non-believers as one reason for his explorations, he
grew increasingly religious in his later years. He
claimed to hear divine voices, lobbied for a new crusade
to capture Jerusalem,
often wore Franciscan
habit, and described his discoveries of the
"paradise" as part of God's plan which would
soon result in the Last
Judgement and the end of the world.
In
his later years Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown
give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands,
pursuant to earlier agreements. Because he had been
relieved of his duties as governor, the crown felt not
bound by these contracts and his demands were rejected.
His family later sued for part of the profits from trade
with America, but ultimately lost some fifty years
later.
On
May 20, 1506,
Columbus died in Valladolid, fairly wealthy due to the
gold his men had accumulated in Hispaniola. He was still
convinced that his discoveries were along the East Coast
of Asia.
Following his death, the body of Columbus underwent excarnation
- the flesh was removed so that only his bones remained.
Even after his death, his travels continued: first
interred in Valladolid
and then at the monastery of La Cartja in Seville,
by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of
Hispaniola, the remains were transferred to Santo
Domingo in 1542.
In 1795
the French took over, and the corpse was removed to Havana.
After the war of 1898, Cuba
became independent and Columbus's remains were moved
back to the cathedral of Seville,
where they were given a pompous cataflaque. However, a
lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don
Christopher Columbus' and containing fragments of bone
and a bullet was discovered at Santa Domingo in 1877. To
lay to rest claims that the wrong relics were moved to
Havana and that Columbus is still buried in the
cathedral of Santo Domingo, DNA samples were taken in
June 2003 (History Today August 2003).
Columbus's
national origin: subject of debate
Serious
doubts have been expressed regarding Columbus's national
origin. Although in the popular culture he is generally
assumed to be Italian (Genoese), his actual background
is clouded in mystery. Very little is really known about
Columbus before the mid-1470s.
It has been suggested that this might have been because
he was hiding something—an event in his origin or
history that he deliberately kept a secret.
The
issue of Columbus's 'nationality' became an issue after
the rise of nationalism;
the issue was scarcely raised until the time of the
quadricentenary celebrations in 1892 (see Columbian
exposition), when Columbus's Genoese origins became
a point of pride for some Italian
Americans. In New
York City, rival statues of Columbus were
underwritten by the Hispanic and the Italian
communities, and honourable positions had to be found
for each, at Columbus
Circle and in Central
Park.
One
hypothesis is that Columbus served under the French caper
Guillaume
Casenove Coulon and took his surname, but later
tried to hide his piracy. Some Basque historians have
claimed that he was Basque.
Others had said that he was a converso
(Spanish
Jew converted to Christianity). In Spain, even
converted Jews were much mistrusted; it was suggested
that many conversos were still practicing Judaism
in secret. However, not only was his mysticism
profoundly Catholic, recent disinterment of his son
retrieved his Y chromosome
(which is passed completely unchanged from father to
son) has ruled out Jewish ancestry, at least in the male
line.
Another
theory is that he was from the island of Corsica,
which at the time was part of the Genoese republic.
Because the often subversive elements of the island gave
its inhabitants a bad reputation, he would have masked
his exact heritage. A few others also claim that
Columbus was actually Catalan
(Colom).
Documents
found in the Alentejo
region of Portugal suggest he may have been born there.
In accordance with this theory, he named the island of Cuba
after the Portuguese town Cuba
in Alentejo — the town where he, according to
Portuguese historians, had been born under the name of
Salvador Fernandes Zarco (SFZ), son of Fernando, Duke of
Beja, and Isabel Sciarra — and grandson of Cecília
Colonna. The Portuguese-origin thesis has him using
Colom as a pseudonym. This is based on interpretation of
some facts and documents of his life (as above), but
mostly on an analysis of his signature under the Jewish Kabbalah,
where he described his family and origin (by Macarenhas
Barreto: "Fernandus Ensifer Copiae Pacis Juliae
illaqueatus Isabella Sciarra Camara Mea Soboles Cubae.",
or "Ferdinand who holds the sword of power of Beja
(Pax Julia in Latin), coupled with Isabel Sciarra Camara,
are my generation from Cuba"). Since he never
signed his name conventionally, the pseudonymus theory
is reinforced, his name meaning in Latin "Bearer of
Christ" (Christo ferens) "and of the Holy
Spirit" (Columbus, dove
in Latin), a reference to the Order
of Christ which succeeded the Templars
in Portugal and initiated the age
of exploration.
The
corollary of the above is that he was (i) knowingly
diverting the Castilian kings from their target –
India and (ii) had all the reasons to hide his identity
and origin, as Portugal was the biggest rival of Spain (Castille)
in its sea ventures. In sum, he was a "secret
agent".
It
is also speculated that Columbus may have come from the
island of Khios
(or Chios) in Greece. The main point of this
theory is that Columbus never said he was from Genoa
but from the Republic of Genoa, and that he kept
his journal in Latin and Greek instead of the Italian of
Genoa. He also refered to himself as "Columbus de
Terra Rubra"(Columbus of the Red Earth), Khios was
known for its red soil in the south of the island where
the mastic trees that the Genoese traded grow. The
island of Khios was under the Genoese rule (1346 - 1566
AD), for the period of his life, and therefore it was
part of the Republic of Genoa. There is a village named
Pirgi in the island of Khios where to this day many of
its inhabitants carry the surname "Colombus."
It
has even been suggested that the epitaph
on his tomb, translated as "Let me not be confused
forever," is a veiled hint left by Columbus that
his identity was other than he publicly stated during
his life. However, the actual phrase, "Non
confundar in aeternam" (in Latin), is perhaps more
accurately translated "Let me never be
confounded," and is contained in several Psalms.
It
is certain that Columbus taught himself to read and
write after arriving in Portugal, learned cutting-edge
navigational and trading skills from the Portuguese, was
commissioned by Castile, received financial backing from
Genoese bankers, and was informed, in his own words, by
"wise people, ecclesiastics and laymen, Latins and
Greeks, Jews and Moors and with many others of other
sects." He was, in other words, a man of the
Mediterranean.
The
language of Columbus
Although
Genoese documents have been found about a weaver named
Colombo, it has also been noted that, in the preserved
documents, Columbus wrote almost exclusively in Castilian,
and that he used the language, with Portuguese
phonetics, even when writing personal notes to himself,
to his brother, Italian friends, and to the Bank of
Genoa.
There
is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in an Italian
edition of the History
of Plinius that he read in his second voyage to
America. However, it displays both Castilian and
Portuguese influences. Genoese Italian was not a written
language in the 15th century, but one would expect a
better transliteration into this dialect from a native
speaker. However, many people become
"tongue-tied" when using what is to them
an intimate childhood language. There is also a note in
non-Genoese Italian in his own Book
of Prophesies exhibiting, according to historian
August Kling, "characteristics of northern Italian humanism
in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling." Columbus
took great care and pride in writing this form of
Italian.
Phillips
and Phillips point out that five hundred years ago, the
Latinate languages had not distanced themselves to the
degree they have today. Bartolomé
de las Casas in his Historia
de las Indias explained that Columbus did not
know Castilian well and that he was not born in Castile.
In his letters he refers to himself frequently, if
cryptically, as a "foreigner." Ramón
Menéndez Pidal studied the language of Columbus in
1942, suggesting that while still in Genoa, Columbus
learned notions of Portugalized Spanish from travelers,
who used a sort of commercial Latin or lingua
franca (latín ginobisco for Spaniards). He
suggests that Columbus learned Spanish in Portugal
through its use in Portugal as or "adopted language
of culture" from 1450. This same Spanish is used by
poets like Fernán
Silveira and Joan
Manuel.
The
first testimony of his use of Spanish is from the 1480s.
Pidal and many others detect a lot of Portuguese in his
Spanish, where he mixes, for example, falar and hablar.
But Pidal does not accept the hypothesis of a Galician
origin for Columbus by noting that where Portuguese and
Galician diverged, Columbus always used the Portuguese
form. Pidal doubts that Columbus could ever tell
Portuguese and Spanish apart, which is why he did not
make the effort to learn them properly. Latin, on
the other hand, was the language of scholarship, and
here Columbus excelled. He also kept his journal in
Latin, and a "secret" journal in Greek.
According
to historian Charles
Merrill, analysis of his handwriting indicates that
it is typical of someone who was a native Catalan, and
Columbus's phonetic mistakes in Castilian are "most
likely" those of a Catalan. Also, that he married a
Portuguese noblewoman is presented as evidence that his
origin was of nobility rather than the Italian merchant
class, since it was unheard of during his time for
nobility to marry outside their class. This same theory
suggests he was the illegitimate son of a prominent
Catalan sea-faring family, which had served as
mercenaries in a sea battle against Castilian forces.
Fighting against Ferdinand and being illegitimate were
two excellent reasons for keeping his origins obscure.
Furthermore, the disinternment of his brother's body
shows him to be a different age, by nearly a decade,
than the "Bartolome Colombo" of the Genoese
family.
Perceptions
of Columbus
Christopher
Columbus has had a cultural significance beyond his
actual achievements and actions as an individual; he
also became a symbol, a figure of legend. The mythology
of Columbus has cast him as an archetype for both good
and for evil.
The
casting of Columbus as a figure of "good" or
of "evil" often depends on people's
perspectives as to whether the arrival of Europeans to
the New World and the introduction of Christianity
or the Roman
Catholic faith is seen as positive or negative.
Columbus
as a hero
Traditionally,
Columbus is viewed as a man of heroic stature by the
European-descended population of the New World. He has
often been hailed as a man of heroism and bravery, and
also of faith: he sailed westward into mostly unknown
waters, and his unique scheme is often viewed as
ingenious. He "set an example for us all by showing
what monumental feats can be accomplished through
perseverance and faith" (George
H. W. Bush, June
8, 1989).
Hero
worship of Columbus perhaps reached its zenith around 1892,
the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas.
Monuments to Columbus were erected throughout the United
States and Latin
America, extolling him as a hero. The myth that
Columbus thought the world round while his
contemporaries believed in a flat
earth was often repeated. This tale was used to show
that Columbus was enlightened and forward looking.
Columbus's defiance of convention in sailing west to get
to the far east was hailed as a model of
"American"-style can-do inventiveness.
In
the United States, the admiration of Columbus was
particularly embraced by some members of the Italian
American, Hispanic, and Catholic communities. These
groups point to Columbus as one of their own to show
that Mediterranean Catholics could and did make great
contributions to the USA. The modern vilification of
Columbus is seen by his supporters and by many scholars
as being politically motivated and non-historical.
Columbus
as a villain
Much
criticism focuses on the continuing positive Columbus
myths and celebrations (such as Columbus
Day) and their effects on American thought towards
present-day Native Americans. Official celebrations of
the 500th anniversary
of Columbus's first voyage in 1992
were muted, and demonstrators protested marking the
anniversary at all. It was in this spirit that Venezuelan
President Hugo
Chávez signed, in October, 2002, a decree changing
the name of Venezuela's "Columbus Day" to
"The Day of Indigenous Resistance" in honor of
the nation's indigenous groups. On October
12, 2004,
supporters of Chávez destroyed a 100-year old statue of
Columbus in Caracas.
They did this because they found Columbus guilty of
'imperialist genocide'. They blotted the statue with
slogans like 'Columbus=Bush'.
(For more, see Columbus
Day.) The genocide and atrocious acts committed
by the Spanish against the natives (the Tainos in
particular) are well documented in terrifying detail in
the letters of Bartelome de Las Casas.
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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS LINKS (Tom Tirado's)
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