Christopher Columbus
| Christopher Columbus is depicted here in his only state-sponsored, albeit non-authenticated, portrait, painted by Alejo Fernández between 1505 and 1536. Photo by Historian Manuel Rosa |
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Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 –
May 20,
1506) was an
explorer and
trader who crossed the
Atlantic Ocean and reached the
Americas on
October 12,
1492.
History places great significance on his discovery of America in 1492, when in fact he did not reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. It is also a common misconception that he is the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, when it was actually
Leif Erikson. Despite this, the entire period of the history of the Americas before this date is usually known as
Pre-Columbian, and the anniversary of this event,
Columbus Day, is celebrated in many parts of America. Although there is evidence of
Pre-Columbian trans-Atlantic Ocean European contact, Columbus is commonly credited as the first
European to see the Americas because of the profound impact his contact wrought on history. His voyage marked the beginning of European
exploration and
colonization of the Americas. He was married to Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, and had a son named
Diego.
Columbus is said to have been born in
Genoa, in modern
Italy, according to statements attributed to Columbus himself, members of his family, and others who knew him well. However, some historians claim he could have been born in other places, and among these theories the theory of the
Porto Colom of
Mallorca island being perhaps the most valid today given that there exist since the days of Columbus descendents bearing that surname. Another important theory says today that he could have been
Catalan or Greek from the island of
Chios.
Navigational theories
Christian Europe had long enjoyed safe passage to
India and
China"sources of valued goods such as
silk and
spices"under the
hegemony of the
Mongol Empire (the
Pax Mongolica, or "Mongol peace"). In 1507, the region was
blockaded by
the Portuguese in an effort to discourage trade along the old route and encourage trade around Africa. The Portuguese also promoted the establishment of trading posts and later colonies along the
African coast. Columbus had a different idea. By the 1480s, he had developed a plan to travel to the Indies (then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia) by instead sailing directly west across the "
Ocean Sea" (the Atlantic).
It is sometimes claimed that the reason Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan was that Europeans believed that
the earth was flat. While some of the royal advisors were of this belief, the truth is more complex.
Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) had already, in ancient Alexandrian times, accurately calculated the Earth's circumference. Most scholars accepted
Ptolemy's claim that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180
degrees of the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water.
Columbus, however, accepted the calculations of
Marinus of Tyre that the landmass occupied 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water. Moreover, Columbus believed that 1 degree represented a shorter distance on the earth's surface than was commonly held. Finally, he read maps as if the distances were calculated in
Italian miles (1,238 meters). Accepting the length of a degree to be 56 2/3 miles, from the writings of
Alfraganus, he therefore calculated the circumference of the Earth as 25,255 kilometers at most, and the distance from the
Canary Islands to
Japan as 3,000 Italian miles (3,700 km). Columbus did not realize that Alfraganus used the much longer Arabic mile of about 1,830 meters. He was not alone in "wishing" the earth smaller, however. A stunning image of the virtual Earth inside his mind survives in a globe finished in 1492 by
Martin Behaim of
Nuremberg, Germany, "the
Earthapple."
The problem facing Columbus was that experts did not agree with his estimate of the distance to the Indies. The true circumference of the Earth is 40,000 kilometers, and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan is 19,600 kilometers. No ship in the 15th century could carry enough food or sail fast enough from the Canary Islands to Japan. Most European sailors and navigators concluded, correctly, that sailors undertaking a westward voyage from Europe to Asia would die of starvation or thirst long before reaching their destination.
Those experts were right, but Spain, only recently unified through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, was desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries in trade with the East Indies. Columbus promised them that edge.
Columbus' calculations were inaccurate concerning the circumference of the Earth and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan. But most Europeans were mistaken in thinking that the aquatic expanse between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted. Although Columbus died believing he had opened up a direct nautical route to Asia, in fact, he established a nautical route between Europe and the Americas. It was this route to the Americas, rather than to Japan, that gave Spain the competitive edge it sought in developing a mercantile empire.
Campaign 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 they denied Columbus' request. He then tried to get backing from the monarchs
Ferdinand II of
Aragon and
Isabella I 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. Isabel finally turned Columbus down on the advice of her confessor, and he was leaving town in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabel then sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered". King Ferdinand is referred to as "losing his patience" in this issue, but this cannot be proven.
About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, whom 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 Seas" and he would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were absurd, but as his own son later wrote, the monarchs did not really expect him to return.
According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, if Columbus discovered any new islands or mainland, he would:
*be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Atlantic Ocean).
*be appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands.
*have the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands.
*be entitled to 10 percent of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity; this part was denied to him in the contract, although it was one of his demands.
*have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the new lands and receive one-eighth of the profits.
However he was arrested in 1500 and removed from these posts, which led to Columbus's son taking legal action to enforce his father's contract. Many of the smears against Columbus were initated by the Spanish crown during these lengthy court cases (pleitos de Colón).
Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that anyone has gone. - Christopher Columbus, journals on his voyage of 1492 (Markham, p.16)
First voyage
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A depiction of Columbus claiming possession of the New World in a chromolithograph made by the Prang Education Company in 1893. |
On the evening of
August 3,
1492, Columbus left from
Palos with three ships, the
Santa Maria,
Niña and
Pinta (Many sources indicate that the ships were never officially named) . 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. Columbus first sailed to the
Canary Islands, which was owned by Castile, where he restocked the provisions and made repairs, and on
September 6, he started what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.
A legend is that the crew grew so homesick and fearful that they threatened to 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
October 7,
1492, as recorded in the ship's log the crew spotted shore birds flying west, and they changed direction to make their landfall. A later comparison of dates and migratory patterns leads to the conclusion that the birds were
Eskimo curlews and
American golden plovers.
Land was sighted at 2 am on
October 12, by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermejo) aboard
Niña. Columbus called the island (in what is now
The Bahamas) San Salvador, although the natives called it
Guanahani. The
indigenous people he encountered, the
Lucayan,
Taíno or
Arawak, were peaceful and friendly. Columbus proceeded to observe the natives and how they went about.
He wrote of the Indians, "They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
Contrary to popular belief, his reason for claiming the new world was not to convert the population to Christianity, but to search for and obtain gold and other riches for the Spanish Crown. Religion was the justification.
Columbus also explored the northeast coast of
Cuba (landed on
October 28) and the northern coast of
Hispaniola, by
December 5. Here, the
Santa Maria ran aground on
Christmas morning 1492 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 15,
1493, he set sail for home by way of the
Azores. He wrestled his ship against the wind and ran into a fierce storm. Leaving the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into
Lisbon. He anchored next to the King's harbour patrol ship on
March 4,
1493, where he was told a fleet of 100
caravels had been lost in the storm. Astoundingly, both the Niña and the Pinta were spared. Not finding the
King John in Lisbon, Columbus wrote a letter to him and waited for the king's reply. The king requested that Columbus go to Vale do Paraíso to meet with him. Some have speculated that his landing in Portugal was intentional.
Relations between Portugal and Castile were poor at the time. Columbus went to meet with the king at Vale do Paraíso (north of Lisbon). After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail for Spain. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe. He reached Spain on
March 15.
He was received as a hero in Spain. He displayed several kidnapped natives and what gold he had found to the court, as well as the previously unknown
tobacco plant, the
pineapple fruit, the
turkey and the sailor's first love, the
hammock. He did not bring any of the coveted
East Indies 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.
In his first journey, Columbus visited San Salvador in the Bahamas (which he was convinced was Japan), Cuba (which he thought was China) and Haiti (where he found gold).
Second voyage
Admiral Colombus left from
Cádiz, Spain, to find new territories on
September 24,
1493, with 17 ships carrying supplies, and about 1,200 men to peacefully colonize the region. It goes without saying that this was in direct competition with Portugal. On
October 13, the ships left the Canary Islands as they had before, following a more southerly course.
On
November 3 1493, Columbus sighted a rugged island that 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), he arrived at
Guadaloupe (Santa Maria de Guadalupe), which he explored between
November 4 and
November 10,
1493. The exact course of his voyage through the
Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that he turned north, sighting and naming several islands including
Montserrat (Santa Maria de Monstserrate),
Antigua (Santa Maria la Antigua),
Redondo (Santa Maria la Redonda),
Nevis (Santa María de las Nieves),
Saint Kitts (San Jorge),
Sint Eustatius (Santa Anastasia),
Saba (San Cristobal),
Saint Martin (San Martin), and
Saint Croix (Santa Cruz). He 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).
He continued to the
Greater Antilles, and landed at
Puerto Rico (San Juan Bautista) on
November 19,
1493. The first skirmish between Americans and Europeans since the Vikings
[Philips and Philips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus] took place when his men rescued two boys who had been just been castrated by their captors. We know this from letters home,
as no journal has been found for this voyage.On
November 22, he returned to Hispaniola, where he found his colonists had fallen into dispute with natives in the interior and had been killed, but he did not accuse Chief
Guanahani of any wrongdoing. He established a new settlement at Isabella, on the north coast of Hispaniola, where gold had first been found, but it was a poor location and the settlement was short-lived. He spent some time exploring the interior of the island for gold. Finding some, he established 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 Spain on his second voyage, Columbus had been directed by Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly, even loving relations with the natives. He nevertheless sent a letter to the Monarchs proposing to enslave some of the native peoples, specifically the
Caribs, on the grounds of their aggressiveness and their status as enemies of the
Taino. Although his petition was refused by the Crown, in February 1495 Columbus took 1,600 Arawak (a different tribe, who were also hunted by the Carib) as slaves. There was no room for about 400 of them and they were released.
As it was (and is) everywhere, the main objective of this enterprise had been trade and a return on investments. The many
voyages of discovery did not pay for themselves; there was no funding for pure science in the
Renaissance. Columbus had planned with Isabella to set up trading posts with the cities of the Far East made famous by
Marco Polo, but which had been blockaded, as described above. Of course, Columbus would never find
Cathay (
China) or
Zipangu (
Japan), and there was no longer any Great
Kahn. But it is important to remember that
slavery was practiced everywhere at that time, amongst all peoples of the world, including Indians " who were men and not
noble savages. Slavery, for the Portuguese " from whom Columbus received most of his maritime training " had resulted in the first financial return on a 75-year
investment in
Africa.
Five hundred sixty slaves were shipped to Spain; 200 died en route, and of the remainder, half were ill when they arrived. After legal proceedings, some survivors were released and ordered to be shipped home, others sent by Isabella to be
galley slaves. Columbus, desperate to repay his investors, failed to realize that Isabella and Ferdinand did not plan to follow Portuguese policy in this respect. Rounding up the slaves led to the first major battle between the Spanish and the natives in the New World.
Columbus also imposed a
tribute system similar to that of the
Aztec on the mainland. The natives in
Cicao on Haiti all those above 14 years of age were required to find a certain quota of gold, to 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, and many "settlers" were unhappy with the climate and disillusioned about their chances of getting rich quick. A classic
gold rush had been set off that would have tragic consequences for the
Caribbean, though anthropologists have shown there was more intermarriage and assimilation than previously believed.
(See the Black Legend.) Columbus allowed settlers to return home with any Indian women with whom they had started families, or, to Isabella's fury, one slave.
From Haiti, he finally returned to Spain.
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
Bartolomé de Las Casas, who would later provide partial transcripts of Columbus' logs.
Columbus led the fleet to the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, his wife's native land. He then sailed to Madeira and spent some time there with the Portuguese captain João Gonçalves da Camara before sailing to 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
Chacachacare and
Margarita Island and sighted and named
Tobago (Bella Forma) and
Grenada (Concepcion). He described the new lands as belonging to a previously unknown new continent, but he pictured it hanging from China, bulging out to make the earth pear-shaped.
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 natives. 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. In 2005, a long lost state report was rediscovered depicting Columbus as a particularly cruel ruler; see the section "Governorship" below for more information. The report may explain part of the reasons for the Spanish Crown's decision to remove Columbus from his position as first governor of the Indies. 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. They accepted his letter and let Columbus and his brothers go free.
Although he regained his freedom, he did not regain his prestige and lost all his titles including the 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.
Fourth voyage
Nevertheless, Columbus made a fourth voyage, nominally in search of the
Strait of Malacca to the
Indian Ocean.
Accompanied by his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old son
Fernando, he left Cádiz, Spain on
May 11,
1502. He sailed to Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue the Portuguese soldiers who he heard were under siege by the Moors. On
June 15, they landed at Carbet on the island of
Martinique (Martinica). A
hurricane was brewing, so he continued on, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. He arrived at
Santo Domingo on
June 29, but was denied port, and the new governor refused to listen to his storm prediction. Instead, while Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the
Jaina River, the first Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane.
The only ship to reach Spain had Columbus's money and belongings on it, and all of his former enemies (and a few friends) had drowned.
After a brief stop at Jamaica, he sailed to
Central America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the
Bay Islands off the coast of
Honduras on
July 30. Here Bartolomeo found native merchants and a large canoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. On
August 14, he landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near
Trujillo, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras,
Nicaragua, and
Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay,
Panama on
October 16.
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The Four Voyages of Columbus 1492-1503 |
In Panama, he 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. He 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. Ann'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, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, he successfully intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a
lunar eclipse, using astronomic tables made by Rabbi
Avraham Zacuto who was working for the king of Portugal. Help finally arrived on
June 29,
1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in
Sanlúcar, Spain on
November 7.
During his time as governor and viceroy Columbus virtually ruled his domain as a tyrant. Francisco de Bobadilla, a member of the Order of Calatrava, and Columbus' successor as Governor from 1500-1502, was charged with investigating Columbus' rule in the name of the Spanish Crown. His 48 page report " derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers " had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in 2005 in the Spanish archives in Valladolid. It proved to contain an account of Columbus' 7 year reign as the first Governor of the Indies. According to his report Columbus was known both by friends and enemies for the atrociously harsh punishments he imposed on his subjects.
He ordered a man who was caught stealing corn to have his nose and ears cut off and auctioned off as a slave. A woman who suggested Columbus was of lowly birth was punished by Columbus' brother Bartolomé: she was stripped naked and paraded around the colony on a mule. When Bartolomé had her tongue cut out, Columbus congratulated him for defending the family's honour. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian states: "Even those who loved him [Columbus] had to admit the atrocities that had taken place." Columbus' and his brothers' leadership was tyrannical and greedy, and life in the colony was horrifying and hard.
[Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean by Giles Tremlett for The Guardian, 2006-08-07] |
A statue of the Santa Maria, Columbus' flagship in his first voyage. The statue is at the House of Columbus in Valladolid, Spain, the city where Columbus died. |
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 explorations to 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 did not feel 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 50 years later.
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Columbus' tomb in the cathedral of Seville. It is borne by four statues of kings representing the Kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. |
On
May 20,
1506, Columbus died in
Valladolid, fairly wealthy from the gold his men had accumulated in Hispaniola. He was still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia. Following his death, his body 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 Cartuja in
Seville, by the will of his son
Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola, his remains were transferred to
Santo Domingo in 1542. In 1795, the French took over, and his remains were removed to
Havana. After Cuba became independent following the
Spanish-American War in 1898, his remains were moved back to the
Cathedral of Seville, where they were placed on an elaborate
catafalque. However, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus" and containing fragments of bone and a bullet was discovered at Santo 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). Results announced in May 2006 show that at least some of Columbus' remains rest in Seville, but authorities in Santo Domingo have not allowed the remains in their custody to be tested [
2].
Evidence for Catalan origin
Recently, a team of Spanish scientists gained the right to exhume Columbus's remains from Seville, Spain. Using DNA analysis of his bones, as well as his brother Diego's and his own son, scientists tried to piece together Colombus' history. However, the DNA tests were largely unsuccessful. The only true discovery from the DNA was that Columbus was not Jewish, as one unpopular theory claimed.
The most surprising of the discoveries into the new Columbus investigation, however, came from forensic anthropology and linguistic analysis.
When the bones of Diego, Columbus' brother, were forensically investigated, it was found that he died at about the age of 56. This was much too old to be part of the Genoese Columbu family which he and Christopher are often attributed. Genoese records state that Diego died before the age of 49.
The writings of Columbus himself were then looked at. It is noted that Colombus never wrote in Italian. The Genoese theory claims that he did not leave Genoa until the age of 20, when he would have been old enough to know his native tongue. Further analysis of the words he used, and the linguistic mistakes he made, suggest that the most likely native tongue of Columbus was Catalan, specifically Central Catalan, which includes Barcelona. The handwriting of Columbus was also analyzed. Discoveries from this analysis show that due to the fluidity of his writing, he was highly educated. Education was of course a trademark of nobility -- something the son of a Genoese weaver would not have obtained, as the Genoese threory claims. His handwriting also contains clear Catalan characteristics, further supporting the theory that Columbus was from Catalan, specifically Barcelona.
Investigators tested data to see if it might indicate Columbus has a Catalan heritage. It appears to fit very well. For example, for the duration of Columbus' life, he referred to himself as Christobal Colom. His contemporaries and family also referred to him as such. Colom is a Catalan name. Specifically there was a wealthy Mercenary and Merchant family of nobility in Bareclona, named Colom. This family sent ships across Europe trading, which would support Columbus' own writings that he sailed from a very young age. The Genoese theory claims he did not sail until the age of 20, which is contradictory to his own writings. Membership to this family would account for his education, Catalan writing style, and the fact that he was allowed to marry Portuguese nobility, which would have been impossible if he had not been born to nobility.
Columbus may have had good reason to hide his origins. It is believed that at a "turning point" in his life, when he jumped ship from a Genoese merchant ship, that he was not a Genoese merchant at all. In fact, he was a mercenary. It is known that one of the mercenary ships that was in the area was piloted by another member of the Colom family from Catalan. This would suggest that Columbus was a member of the mercenaries attacking the Genoese ship. This claim is indirectly supported by the fact that a full list of all names that served on the five merchant ships of Genoa was found, and nowhere on it did Columbus appear. Proponents of the Catalan theory believe Columbus may have hidden his connection to the noble Colom family, which fought against King Ferdinand in the Catalan civil war, which would explain why Columbus might not reveal his connection to the family.
The true identity of Columbus is still not known for sure, but this Catalan theory seems to be gaining support, as it is supported by logic and science, whereas the Genoa theory is supported by copied documents and sometimes even forgeries.
[Columbus: Secrets from the Grave, Discovery Channel documentary, about a possible Catalan origin.]Contemporary Testimonies
In
Christopher Columbus, Univ. of Okla. Press (1987), pp. 10-11, Gianni Granzotto provides the following information written by contemporaries of Columbus. :*Pietro Martire [Peter Martyr], a Lombard, was the earliest of Columbus's chroniclers and was in Barcelona when Columbus returned from his first voyage. In his letter of May 14, 1493, addressed to Giovanni Borromeo, he referred to Columbus as Ligurian
[vir Ligur], Liguria being the Region where Genoa is located.:*A reference, dated 1492 by a court scribe Galindez, referred to Columbus as
"Cristóbal Colón, genovés.":*In
History of the Catholic Kings, Andrés Bernaldez wrote: "Columbus was a man who came from the land of Genoa.":*In
General and Natural History of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas asserted his "Genoese nationality";:* and in a book of the same title, Gonzalo de Fernández de Oviedo wrote that Columbus was "originating from the province of Liguria.":*Antonio Gallo, Agostino Giustiniani, and Bartolomeo Serraga wrote that Columbus was Genoese.
Samuel Eliot Morison
Historian
Samuel Eliot Morison, in his book "Admiral of the Ocean Sea", notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. When notaries died, their documents were turned over to the archives of the Republic of Genoa. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the
Raccolta Colombiana. On page 14, Morison writes:
Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio, like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa. Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of "Johnny"). Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first cousin "Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain," each contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential matters as well.
Fernando's Historie
Other accounts, for example the biography written by Fernando Columbus, claimed that his father was of Italian aristocracy. He describes Columbus to be a descendant of a Count Columbo of the
Castle Cuccaro Montferrat. Columbo was in turn said to be a descended from a legendary Roman General Colonius, and two of his first cousins were allegedly direct descendants of the emperor of
Constantinople. It is now widely believed that Christopher Columbus used this persona to ingratiate himself to the good graces of the aristocracy, an elaborate illusion to mask a humble merchant background.
"The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand," translated by Benjamin Keen, Greenwood Press (1978), is a translation of the biography written by Columbus's son Fernando: "Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo; nelle quali s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Cristoforo Colombo, suo padre: Et dello scoprimento ch'egli fece dell'Indie Occidentali, dette Mondo Nuovo, ..." , which is available on-line at:
http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/c/colombo_fernando/
In the first paragraph of page 3 of Keen's translation, Fernando dismissed the fanciful story that the Admiral descended from the Colonus mentioned by Tacitus. However, he refers to "those two illustrious Coloni, his relatives." According to Note 1, on page 287, these two "were corsairs not related to each other or to Christopher Columbus, one being Guillame de Casenove, nicknamed Colombo, Admiral of France in the reign of Louis XI." At the top of page 4, Fernando listed Nervi, Cugureo, Bugiasco, Savona, Genoa and Piacenza as possible places of origin. He also stated:: "Colombo ... was really the name of his ancestors. But he changed it in order to make it conform to the language of the country in which he came to reside and raise a new estate" (Colom in Portugal and Colón in Castile).
The publication of
Historie is a truly incredible story that provides irrefutable, indirect evidence about the Genoese origin of the Discoverer. Fernando's manuscript was eventually inherited by his nephew Luis, the playboy grandson of the Discoverer. Luis was always strapped for money and sold the manuscript to Baliano de Fornari, "a wealthy and public-spirited Genoese physician." On page xv, Keen wrote:
"In the depth of winter the aged Fornari set out for Venice, the publishing center of Italy, to supervise the translation and publication of the book."
On page xxiv, the April 25, 1571 Dedication by Giuseppe Moleto states:
"Your Lordship [Fornari], then, being an honorable and generous gentleman, desiring to make immortal the memory of this great man, heedless of your Lordship's seventy years, of the season of the year, and of the length of the journey, came from Genoa to Venice with the aim of publishing the aforementioned book ... that the exploits of this eminent man, the true glory of Italy and especially of your Lordship's native city, might be made known."
Other historical evidence
Other historical evidence of Columbus's Genoese origin include his will of
February 22,
1498, in which Columbus wrote "yo nací en Genoba" (I was born in Genoa). This will mentions a Genoese merchant who is also mentioned in a lawsuit that was tried in a Genoese court in 1479. There exists a transcript of the testimony in that lawsuit, and Columbus was called to testify (presumably under oath). In that testimony, Columbus declared that he was a citizen of Genoa, living in Lisbon.
Because this last will and testament of 1498 is a copy of an original that vanished and has no witnesses' names on it nor any public notary seal, it is suspected by many to be fraudulent. It contains many inconsistencies, such as being signed
El Almirante, whereas in the notarized copy of the codicil of 1506, the public notary stated clearly that the will that he had inspected was signed
Christo Ferens. Various writers have expressed alternative theories regarding Columbus's national origin based on other documents. 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.
Other theories
The question of Columbus's nationality became an issue after the rise of
nationalism; the matter was scarcely raised until the time of the quadricentenary celebrations in 1892 (see
World's Columbian Exposition), when Columbus' 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 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
corsair Guillaume Casenove Coulon and took his surname but later tried to hide his piracy. Some historians have claimed that he was
Basque. Others have said that he was a
converso (a
Spanish Jew who publicly converted to Christianity). In Spain, even some converted Jews were forced to leave Spain after much persecution; it is known that many
conversos were still practicing
Judaism in secret. The correlation between the
Alhambra decree, which called for the expulsion of all of the Jews from Spain and its territories and possessions by
July 31 1492, and Columbus' embarcation on his first voyage on
August 3 1492, has been offered as support for this claim.
Another theory is that he was from the town of
Calvi on 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 heritage. Others also claim that Columbus was actually
Catalan (
Colom)[
3][
4].
It is also speculated that Columbus may have come from the island of
Chios in Greece. [
5] The argument supporting this theory states that Chios was under Genoese control at the time, and was thus part of the Republic of Genoa, and that he kept his journal in Latin and Greek instead of the Italian of Genoa. He also referred to himself as "Columbus de Terra Rubra" (Columbus of the Red Earth); Chios was known for its red soil in the south of the island where grow the mastic trees that the Genoese traded. There is also a village named Pirgi in the island of Chios 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.
|
Colon signature was not conventional |
Another thesis claims that he may have been born in
Alentejo, Portugal. In accordance with this theory, he named the island of Cuba after the Portuguese town Cuba in Alentejo — the town where he, according to some Portuguese historians, had been born under the name of Salvador Fernandes Zarco. This is based on interpretation of some facts and documents of his life and an analysis of his signature under the Jewish
Kabbalah, where he described his family and origin. Macarenhas Barreto states: "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 pseudonymous theory is reinforced. His name, Christopher, was of Greek origin meaning "Bearer of Christ" which had moved into Latin holding the same meaning "Bearer of Christ" (Christo ferens) "and of the
Holy Spirit" (Columbus, dove in Latin, since the dove traditionally symbolizes the Holy Spirit), a reference to the
Order of Christ which succeeded the
Knights Templar in Portugal and initiated the
age of exploration. The corollary of the above is that he would be knowingly diverting the Castilian kings from their target of India. Therefore he would have reasons to hide his identity and origin since Portugal was the biggest rival of Spain in its sea ventures. In sum, he was a "secret agent".
However, historian Manuel Rosa writes that Colon and Colom are not the same names nor do they have the same meanings. Columbus is Latin; Colombo is Italian; Pombo is Portuguese; Colombe is French;and Colom is Catalan. All these translate to dove or pigeon, but none of these were the name of the discoverer since Fernando Colon says that Colon in Greek means
member. Therefore the name Colon was a stand-in for the Greek
Kolon chosen by Christopher to mean
member, and none of the above names for pigeon (dove) are correctly applied names. The name Xpoval Colon was only assumed in 1484 when Christopher fled from Portugal to Castile and was not his real name [
6].
Language
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
Spanish, and that he used the language, with
Portuguese or
Catalan phonetics, even when writing personal notes to himself, to his brother, Italian friends, and to the Bank of Genoa. His two brothers were woolweavers from Genoa and also wrote in Spanish.
There is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in an Italian edition of
Pliny's Natural History that he read on his second voyage to America. However, it displays both Spanish and Portuguese influences. Genoese Italian was not a written language in the 15th century. There is also a note in non-Genoese Italian in his own
Book of Prophecies 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 500 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 claimed that Columbus did not know Spanish 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. Menendez Pidal and many others detect a lot of Portuguese in his Spanish, where he mixes, for example,
falar and
hablar. But Menendez 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.
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' phonetic mistakes in Spanish are "most likely" those of a Catalan. Also, that he married a Portuguese noblewoman,
Filipa Perestrello e Moniz, 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 disinterment of his brother's body shows him to be a different age, by nearly a decade, than the "Giacomo Colombo" of the Genoese family.
In a little accepted theory expanding upon the "Chios theory" of Columbus' origin, he was the son of a Genoese noble family in Greece"which accounts for his penchant for the Greek language"who migrated at an early age to Castilla & Leon near a large Portuguese city, where he adopted Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish (Castellano) for their potential uses in his journey. As such, this theory explains how he was an accomplished linguist and how his theories and plans could have been conceived much ahead of time than what is normally accepted.
Christopher Columbus has had a cultural significance beyond his actual achievements and actions as an individual; he became a symbol, a figure of legend. The numerous stories about Columbus has cast him as an archetypel figure 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 (particularly the
Catholic faith) is seen as positive or negative.
In addition, the nascent countries of the New World, particularly the newly independent United States, seemed to need a historical narrative to give them roots. This narrative was supplied in part by
Washington Irving in 1828 with
The life and voyages of Christopher Columbus, which may be the true source of much of the associations held about the explorer.
Columbus' struggles to "civilize" the Americas, and the subsequent effects on the native peoples, were dramatised in
1492: Conquest of Paradise to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his landing in the Americas.
Views as hero
Traditionally, Columbus is viewed as a man of heroic stature by most people in the United States. 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. Columbus wrote of his journey, "God gave me the faith, and afterwards the courage." 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 a zenith around 1892, the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas. Monuments to Columbus (including the
Columbian Exposition in Chicago) were erected throughout the United States and
Latin America, extolling him as a hero. Numerous cities, towns, and streets were named for him, including the
capital cities of two U.S.
states (
Columbus, Ohio and
Columbia, South Carolina). The
Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's fraternal benefit society, had been chartered ten years earlier by
Connecticut. The story that Columbus thought the world was 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' apparent 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 U.S. The modern vilification of Columbus is seen by his supporters as being politically motivated.
Views as villain
There is distinct information, specifically in Christopher Columbus' own diary, outlining the inchoate stages of exploiting the natives that had originally migrated from Asia to the New World. The Spaniards were quick to take advantage of both Columbus' findings and of the native people that were found in America. Criticism focuses on the continuing propaganda cultivated in Columbus narratives 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' first voyage in 1492 were muted in some areas, and a few demonstrators protested marking the anniversary at all. It was in this spirit that
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez signed a decree in October 2002, 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 and Spain guilty of 'imperialist
genocide'. The genocide and atrocious acts committed by the Spanish against the natives (the Tainos in particular) are well documented in detail by Bartolomé de Las Casas in his letters and book
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.After Columbus' death in 1506, the genocide of many Indians made Bartolemé de Las Casas persuade the Spaniards to use African slaves instead. In the 1530's, the Spanish conquistadors brought many slaves to the New World from Africa. Bartolomé de Las Casas would later regret this because he saw the rough treatment of the African slaves by the Spaniards. This venture would eventually lead to the selling of the surplus of African slaves to the British settlers in the United States.
Physical appearance
|
No authentic contemporary portrait of Columbus has been found; this late 19th-century engraving is one of many conjectural images |
No authentic contemporary portrait of Christopher Columbus exists. Over the years historians have presented many images that reconstruct his appearance from written descriptions. They depict him variously with long or short hair, heavy or thin, bearded or cleanshaven, stern or at ease.
The image at the beginning of this article and the image to the left both date from close to Columbus' time, but historians do not know whether the artists painted them from personal knowledge of his appearance.
Columbus is described as having reddish hair which turned to white early in his life and a reddish face typically resulting from a lighter skinned person receiving too much sun exposure.
Despite the clear description of red hair or white hair, textbooks in the United States have used the image on the left so often that it has become the face of Columbus in popular culture. The image on the right has also been used. However, it is widely accepted that this image actually represents
Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli.
*
1421 hypothesis*
1492: Conquest of Paradise*
Bartolomeo Columbus*
Columbus Day*
Domenico Colombo*
Egg of Columbus*
Exploration*
Explorers*
Genocide*
Guanahani (a discussion of candidates for site of first landing)
*
Indian slavery*
Knights of Columbus*
List of places named for Christopher Columbus*
Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli*
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact*
Raccolta Colombina, a collection of Genoese documents assembled by Italian historians of the 19th century to back a Genoese origin.
*
Spanish colonization of the Americas*
XPOFerenS : The true history of Cristobal Colom *
Keith Pickering's Columbus Navigation Page* A reconstructed
portrait of Christopher Columbus, based on historical sources, in a contemporary style.
*
Free ebook of Christopher Columbus at
Project Gutenberg*
Find-A-Grave profile for Christopher Columbus*
L'Amiral de la Mer Océane a French on-line encyclopedia about Columbus, in French language, based on various sources and books.
*
Articles related to the Portuguese Colombus a site which proves the Portuguese origin of Cristovão Colombo
*
Adrian Fletcher's Paradoxplace " Rabida Convent and Christopher Colombus " Photos* CONDE DE FICALHO, VIAGENS DE PERO DA COVILHA, Reprodução em fac-símile do exemplar com data de 1898 da Biblioteca Nacional. Apresentação de MANUEL VILLA VERDE CABRAL, IMPRENSA NACIONAL-CASA DA MOEDA (1988)
*
Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo; nelle quali s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Cristoforo Colombo, suo padre: Et dello scoprimento ch'egli fece dell'Indie Occidentali, dette Mondo Nuovo, ..., which is available on-line at: http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/c/colombo_fernando/
*
Benjamin Keen (translator),
The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand,Greenwood Press (1978)
* Phillips, William D. and Carla Rahn Phillips.
The worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge, England; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
*
Samuel Eliot Morison,
Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, Little, Brown and Company, 1991, trade paperback, 680 pages, ISBN 0316584789 (9 other editions available both in hardback and paperback). A biography sympathetic to Columbus, though not blind to violent acts by Columbus and his crew
*
Sherburn Cook and
Woodrow Borah:
Essays in Population History Volume I, University of California Press, 1971
*
John Noble Wilford and
Ashbel Green,
The mysterious history of Columbus :an exploration of the man, the myth, the legacy, Knopf, 1991, hardcover: ISBN 0679404767, trade paperback: ISBN 0679738320. John Noble Green
(?) is a science editor at the New York Times.
*
J.M. Cohen: "The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches With Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son Hernando Colon and Others", Penguin Classics, 1992.
*
Michael H. Hart,
The 100, Carol Publishing Group, July 1992, paperback, 576 pages, ISBN 0806513500
* Crosby, Alfred W.
The Columbian Voyages. the Columbian Exchange, and Their Historians. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1987. ED 303 417.
* Patrick, John J.
Teaching about the Voyages of Columbus. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education Bloomington IN, 1992. ED 348 317.
* A Finger in the Wound : Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala, ISBN 0520212843
* Turner, Jack. "Spice - The History of a Temptation", Random House, 2004 ISBN 0-375-40721-9.
* Urvoy, Jean-Michel,
"Où est enterré Christophe Colomb ?" (Trans. Where is buried Christopher Columbus) p.20-21 in l'Histoire,
N°286, avril 2004, Paris, France*
Thomas Friedman The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-first Century ISBN 0374292884
* Markham, Clements R.
The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during His First Voyage, 1492-93) and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real. (1893) Online from
Google Books.
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