The History Book

145

Christopher Columbus Born in Genoa, Christopher

Columbus became a business

agent for several prominent

Genoese families and undertook

trading voyages in Europe and

along the African coast.

Columbus followed his voyage

to America with a second in 1493,

during which he explored the

Lesser and Greater Antilles, and

set up a colony at La Isabela in

what is now the Dominican

Republic. His third voyage (1498–

1500) took him to the Caribbean

island of Hispaniola and on to

Trinidad, where he found the

coast of South America and

guessed, from the size of the

Orinoco River, that he had found

a huge land mass. During this

time, settlers complained to the

Crown about the way he ran his

Caribbean colony, and he was

dismissed as governor.

On his last voyage (1502–04)

he sailed along the Central

American coast, hoping to find

a strait to the Indian Ocean. He

returned to Spain in poor health

and an increasingly disturbed

state of mind, feeling he had not

received the recognition and

benefits he had been promised.

Columbus died in 1506.

Another reason why Europeans

started to explore sea routes in the

late Middle Ages was to investigate

the possibility of establishing

European colonies in Asia. These

could act not only as trading posts,

but also as bases for missionaries,

who could convert the locals to

Christianity. This they believed

would help to reduce the perceived

threat of Islam.

By the 14th and 15th centuries,

the Spanish, Portuguese, English,

and Dutch had developed ocean-

going ships, and trained sailors

who could navigate over long

distances. Explorers used various

types of vessels, among the most

successful of which was the

caravel—a fast, lightweight, and

extremely maneuverable ship that

was usually equipped with a mix of

square and lateen (triangular) sails.

The lateen sails made it possible to

sail to windward (into the wind),

which allowed explorers to make

progress even in variable wind

conditions. Explorers also used the

carrack, or nau, a larger vessel that

was similarly rigged. On his first

transatlantic voyage, Columbus

took two caravels, each probably

of 50–70 tons, and one carrack of

about 100 tons, the extra capacity

being useful for carrying stores.

Skills and technology quickly

developed in both shipbuilding

and navigation. Sailors used the

cross-staff—a basic sighting

device—or later a mariner’s

astrolabe, to calculate a vessel’s

latitude. They achieved this by

measuring angles, such as the angle

of the sun to the horizon. They used

a magnetic compass to gauge

direction, and theircharts and

knowledge of prevailing winds and

currents improved with each voyage.

Portuguese navigators

European navigators had been

striking out into the Atlantic for

many decades. Sailors from Bristol,

England, for example, were sailing

in the 1470s in search of a mythical

island called “Brasil,” thought to be

west of Ireland. The Portuguese

established trading colonies on

Madeira, and Prince Henry the

Navigator, son of Portugal’s King

John I, commissioned numerous

journeys of exploration to the Azores

in the 15th century. Henry had

started the first school for oceanic

navigation, with an astronomical

observatory at Sagres, Portugal in

about 1418. Here he promoted the

study of navigation, map-making,

and science. Henry sent ships down

the west coast of Africa, to which

he was particularly attracted by

the potential to trade in slaves and

gold. His ships pushed southward,

setting up trading posts along the ❯❯

See also: The Viking raid on Lindisfarne 94–95 ■ The Treaty of Tordesillas 148–51 ■ The Columbian Exchange 158–59 ■

The voyage of the Mayflower 172 –74 ■ The formation of the Royal African Company 176–79

THE EARLY MODERN ERA

I intend to go and

see if I can find the

island of Japan.

Christopher Columbus,

1492

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