Columbus
Name: Christopher Columbus
Nickname/Alias: born: Cristoforo Colombo
Achievements: Rediscovery of America
Born: c. August/October 1451; Genoa, Italy
Died: May 20, 1506; Valladolid, Spain (Aged 54)
Field & Discipline: Exploration
Language: Italian; Spanish; Portuguese
Father: Domenico Colombo
Mother: Susanna Fontanarossa
Siblings: Bartholomew; Diego
Spouse: Felipa Moniz Perestrello (married 1478/79; d. 1484)
Children: Diego (1480-52); Ferdinand (b. c.1488, illegitimate by Beatriz Enríquez de Harana of Cordoba)
Education: Unknown
Life & Times:
Columbus' career as a seaman began in 1476, when he sailed with a convoy of
Genoese ships from Chios in the Aegean for Portugal, England and Flanders. His ship was sunk off Cape St. Vincent in southwest Portugal, and from this point Columbus based himself in Lisbon, where his brother Bartholomew was working as a cartographer. Lisbon was at that time an important maritime city, a meeting place of seamen who sailed regularly to Africa and Madeira, and a centre of the arts, of cosmography and astronomy. For the next eight years, Columbus sailed under the Portuguese flag, working during the winter months in partnership with his brother, while also learning Portuguese and elementary Latin.
During the warmer months, he became a seagoing entrepreneur, sailing in 1477 to Iceland (where he may first have heard tales of the unknown land that lay to the west) and Ireland with the Portuguese marine, and in 1478 to Madeira in order to buy sugar as an agent for the Lisbon branch of the Genoese firm of Centurioni.
In 1478 or 1479, Columbus married Felipa Moniz Perestrello, a member of a
prominent but impoverished Portuguese family, with whom he soon afterwards
settled on the island of Porto Santo, off Madeira, where their only son, Diego, was born in 1480. They later moved to Funchal, the capital of Madeira, where Columbus gained experience sailing the south Atlantic.
Between 1482 and 1484 he traded along the Guinea coast and made at least one voyage to the Portuguese fortress of Sao Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast of equatorial West Africa, gaining knowledge of the Atlantic wind systems. It was during this period that he had the idea of sailing due west from the Canary Islands on latitude 28N, which he believed would lead him to Japan, and began an extensive course of self-education, reading works on geography, astronomy and astrology, and travel.
Returning to Lisbon in 1484, Columbus attempted unsuccessfully to find a patron for a voyage of exploration in the Atlantic, and then suffered another major setback when his wife died later the same year. As a result, in the summer of 1485, Columbus left Portugal for Spain, taking with him his five-year-old son, whom he placed in a Franciscan friary at La Rabida, near Huelva.
Here Columbus met the astronomer-friar Antonio de Marchena, and through him Juan Perez, Count of Medinaceli, a grandee of Spain and owner of a large merchant fleet. Through Perez's influence, in the spring of 1486 Columbus was granted an audience with King Ferdinand and [backer was] Queen Isabella* of Spain to argue his case. As a result, a commission was set up to investigate the proposal and four years later (1490) reported unfavorably. Meanwhile, Columbus had begun a long liaison with Beatriz de
Enriques, who bore him a son, Fernando, and had hispanicized his name, signing himself Cristobal Colon.
During these years of waiting, Bartholomew Columbus is believed to have visited England in an abortive attempt to interest Henry VII in his brother's proposed enterprise, and then settled in France, intending to approach the French monarch.
In January 1492, Columbus was intending to join his brother when he heard that the intensive lobbying of the Spanish monarchs by the Spanish treasurer, Luis de Santángel, the Franciscan friars of La Rábida, and an influential group of Genoese and Florentine investors, had been successful, and that he had been summoned back to court at Santa
Fe, near Granada.
Spain's recent conquest of Granada (on 2nd January 1492), the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain, had been costly and, in the euphoria of victory, Ferdinand and Isabella at last felt sufficiently optimistic that such a project (the attempt to find a route to the rich continent of China, to India, and to the fabled gold and spice islands of the East by sailing westward over what was presumed to be open sea – might fulfil the function of further expanding the influence of both Christianity and Spain throughout the world, while also amassing greater riches through increased trade networks.
In April 1492 a contract was signed between him and the Spanish monarchs, and immediately Columbus left for the port of Palos, where, with the aid of the Pinzon shipping family, he spent three months recruiting and equipping three ships, the caravels 'Nina' and 'Pinta' (captained by the Pinzon brothers, Martin and Vicente), and the largest
vessel, his own 'Santa Maria'.
This small fleet sailed from Palos on 3 August 1492, armed, among other things, with a chart supplied by the Florentine mathematician and geographer [used chart from] Paolo Toscanelli*, and a letter of introduction from Ferdinand and Isabella addressed to the 'Great Khan' (the supposed emperor of China). Columbus's first great achievement was his decision to sail via the Canary Islands, off the northwest African mainland, rather than via the Azores (where the belt of westerly winds had defeated previous sailors to the west). Here he picked up the northeast trade winds, trusting to the Westerlies for his return.
After almost a month in the Canary Islands, he set out from San Sebastian de la Gomera on 6 September, and early in October, after several false sightings of land and trouble from a potentially mutinous crew, Columbus took Martin Pinzon's advice and
altered course to the south-west. Land was sighted on 12 October, and later
that day Columbus and the Pinzon brothers went ashore and took possession in
the name of Ferdinand and Isabella, having in all probability reached the
most westerly of the group of islands now known as the Bahamas, which
Columbus named San Salvador.
Convinced that he was in the Orient, Columbus spent the next three months
cruising around the Caribbean, discovering Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), where he found at least enough gold and prosperity to secure his triumphant return to Spain, although he felt increasingly anxious concerning his inability to find conclusive evidence of Asia . On Christmas Day, the 'Santa Maria' ran aground on a reef and became a total loss, and Columbus, with the help of a local Taino Indian chief, Guacanagarí, set up a stockade on the northern coast of the island, named it La Navidad, and posted 39 men to guard it against his return.
He then set out for Spain in the 'Nina', on 16 January 1493, enduring a stormy and difficult voyage home, and arrived at Palos triumphant, carrying gold, parrots, spices and human captives, on 15 March 1493. ( Pinzon, in the 'Pinta', arrived a few days later but, exhausted by the strain of the voyage, he died on 20 March.)
Columbus then traveled from Seville to Barcelona, where he was received at
court amid great splendour at the beginning of April. There he received both
wealth and honurs from Ferdinand and Isabella who, in addition to the
agreed titles, appointed him 'Viceroy and Governor of the Islands which have
been discovered in the Indies', and gave him the right to bear royal symbols
on his coat of arms.
The sovereigns were now convinced of the need for a rapid second voyage in order to bring Christianity to the new territories and to develop them as a Spanish colony, and during the next few months seventeen ships ships were fitted out at Seville, by, among others, the future explorer [succeeded by] Amerigo Vespucci* (after whom the New World would be named).
On 25 September 1493 this fleet, with some 1,500 men, sailed from Cadiz, including a group of friars, Columbus's youngest brother Diego and Juan Ponce de Leon, the future discoverer of Florida. Leaving the Canaries on 13 October, Columbus tried a new route to the southwest, more directly in the path of the wind, and reached Dominica (in the Lesser Antilles, known today as the Leeward Islands) on 3 November. From Dominica, he then discovered a string of further islands which he named Maria Galante, Guadalupe, and Montserrat, and then sighted a further group to the northeast, which he named the Virgin Islands, before reaching San Juan (now Puerto Rico) and finally Hispaniola on 23 November.
Four days later Columbus arrived at Navidad, where he found the fortress destroyed and all 39 men dead, and chose as a safer site a position on the northern coast of the island, where in January 1494 he founded the first European city of the New World, naming it La Isabel in honour of the queen.
Twelve ships were sent back to Spain with Antonio de Torres, bearing the bad news about Navidad (and growing complaints about Columbus' methods of government) while in March Columbus set out to explore the central region of the island (Cibao), where he established a fortified settlement, named San Tomas. Leaving 56 men there, he returned to La Isabel, where he found his colonists mutinous. Executing ringleaders, he also imposed a gold-tax on the hostile native population, threatening those unwilling to work for the colonizers with either death or shipment to Europe as slaves.
In late April, leaving La Isabel under the control of his brother Diego, Columbus set sail in the 'Nina' towards Cuba (which he remained convinced was the mainland of Cathay), and in May discovered an island which he named Santiago (now Jamaica). During the return voyage to La Isabel Columbus became seriously ill and remained so for several months, but was greatly aided by the arrival from Europe of a second brother, Bartholomew Colon (or Columbus), who he made Governor of Hispaniola, an appointment which increased the growing resentment against the Colon family’s administration.
Finally, after surviving a hurricane (June 1495) and increasing difficulties
with both the colonists and the natives, on 10 March 1496, Columbus set sail
again for Spain, arriving at Cadiz on 11 June. He received a warmer welcome
than expected at court, where he was reunited with his two sons, Diego and
Fernando, and immediately pressed his plans for a third voyage.
Still troubled by the spectre of Portuguese expansion, Ferdinand and Isabella were
eventually persuaded to make a further investment, and on 30 May 1498 Columbus was able to sail from Sanlucar with a fleet of six ships, three filled with explorers and three with provisions for the settlement on Hispaniola. Sending the three latter ships on the direct route to Hispaniola, Columbus led the other three on a south-westerly course from the Cape Verde Islands in the hope of finding both a strait from Cuba/Cathay to
India.
This third voyage produced more great discoveries: the mainland of South America (Venezuela), correctly classified by Columbus as an enormous continent; Trinidad; the Orinoco delta; and the Pearl Coast of Venezuela. During the voyage, Columbus also discovered the principle of compass variation (the variation at any point on the Earth's surface between the direction to magnetic and geographic north). Believing Venezuela to be yet another island or land mass off the Malay Peninsula, in August 1498 he returned to Hispaniola, where he found that construction of the new capital, Santo Domingo, had already started.
Meanwhile, back at the Spanish court, disquiet was growing over reports concerning the regime, and it was even rumoured that the Colon brothers were engaged in treasonable dealings with Genoese agents. Finally, Ferdinand and Isabella decided to appoint a member of the royal household, Francisco de Bobadilla, as Governor of the colony over Columbus' head, who arrived in Santo Domingo in August 1500.
When Bobadilla found that the Colon brothers were sending rebellious Spaniards to the gallows and that they refused to accept his authority, he had all three put in irons and transported back to Spain.
Columbus' humiliating homecoming at Cadiz at the end of October 1500 caused a public outcry, and a month later the King and Queen ordered his release. He and his brothers received a royal pardon in December, but were never again appointed to positions of administrative responsibility.
Finally, in March 1502, permission was granted for a fourth expedition with a fleet of only four ships, and two months later Columbus set sail from Cadiz, forbidden to put into harbour at Hispaniola. Three weeks later he reached a new island which he named Martinique, and from there, in defiance of royal orders, made straight for Santo Domingo. Refused permission to land, he was forced to shelter from a hurricane further along the coast, and during July made the first recorded crossing of the Caribbean, arriving off Bonacca Island on 30 July, an achievement of which he was particularly
proud.
He explored the coast of the Central American isthmus until May 1, 1503, reaching the coast of Honduras, discovering the gold-rich province of Veragua and the habour of Porto Bello. Attempting to return to Hispaniola, the expedition just made it to Jamaica, where his two remaining ships went aground in St. Anne's Bay on June 25, and where they were then to be marooned for a whole year while a message was sent by canoe to Santo Domingo asking for help.
During this year, Columbus's health again deteriorated (he was now crippled with
arthritis), and he had to cope with yet another mutiny among his men. Eventually two caravels arrived, and on 28 June 1504 Columbus sailed for Santo Domingo, and from there, on 12 September, on his last homeward voyage.
On arrival at Sanlucar de Barrameda on 7 November, Columbus was conveyed to Seville, but was not summoned to court. Less than three weeks later, Queen Isabella, whom
he considered his most important patron, was dead, and Columbus resumed his
lobbying at court, where his son Diego was well established. He wrote a series of memoirs to the King on the Indies and their gold, but when at last he was admitted an audience with Ferdinand in May 1505, he was received sympathetically, but not granted
the reappointment of 'Viceroy' he sought.
Extra Connections: On his fourth voyage he took [used tables of] Regiomontanus’* navigational tables.
His voyages were triggered by the [voyages triggered by] Treaty of Tordesillas*
His discovery was sanctioned by [discovery sanctioned by] Pope Alexander VI*
Was influenced by [influenced by] Plethon*
Assessment: His failure was one of temperament – he was excessively self-confident and arrogant, and a poor administrator – but he remains a remarkable explorer, for the extent of his navigation and for his additions to geographical tradition.
Oneliner: Christopher Columbus, re-discoverer of America
Bibliography:
- American National Biography.
- Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, Columbus, Cambridge, 1991.