The History Book

146

way. Subsequent rulers continued

to sponsor voyages and, in 1488,

Portuguese captain Bartolomeu

Dias rounded the southern tip of

Africa. Soon another Portuguese

navigator, Vasco da Gama, led the

push to round the Cape and pressed

on across the Indian Ocean, linking

Europe and Asia for the first time

by ocean route.

Since Portugal dominated the

sea route along the African coast,

Portugal’s European neighbor

and rival Spain needed to find an

alternative route, if it was to gain

access to the riches of the East.

Although educated people knew

by this time that the Earth was

round, they did not know about

the existence of the Americas. An

alternative way to the East seemed,

therefore, to be to sail west across

the Atlantic. This route seemed

especially attractive to the many

seamen—including Christopher

Columbus—who believed the

planet’s diameter to be rather

smaller than it actually is.

Seeking sponsorship

In 1485, Columbus presented to

John II, king of Portugal, a plan to

sail across the Atlantic to the Spice

Islands. John refused to invest in

the scheme, however. This was

partly because Portugal was already

exploring the West African coast

with some success, and partly

because the experts John consulted

about the proposal were skeptical

about the distances involved.

Columbus cast his net more

widely, seeking backing from the

powerful maritime cities of Genoa

and Venice, and sending his brother

to England to do the same—but

still he received no encouragement.

He therefore turned to Ferdinand of

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS REACHES AMERICA

Aragon and Isabella of Castile, the

“Catholic Monarchs” who jointly

ruled Spain. At first they turned him

down, their navigational consultants

also skeptical about the length of

his proposed route, but eventually,

Such inhumanities and

Barbarisms were committed...

acts so foreign to human

nature that I now tremble

as I write.

Bartolome De Las Casas

Spanish historian (c.1527)

Columbus’s voyage was a bold undertaking.

Despite a general understanding that the world

was spherical, many believed the westward

journey was doomed to fail, fearing the crew

would die of thirst before ever reaching land.

On August 3rd,

1492, Columbus

departed Spain

with three ships:

the Niña, Pinta,

and Santa Maria.

The voyage to

America and

back lasted

seven months,

from August 3rd,

1492—March

15th 1493.

Provisions on board

the ships included

vinegar, olive oil, wine,

salted flour, biscuits,

dry legumes, and

salted sardines.

The crew consisted of

87 men—20 on the Niña,

26 on the Pinta, and 41

on the Santa Maria.

Start Finish

Columbus calculated

that Asia was 2,400

miles away from Spain.

In fact it is around

12,200 miles away.

On October 12th,

1492, the ships

finally reached

the Bahamas.

US_142-147_Christopher_Columbus.indd 146 15/02/2016 16:42

147

after protracted negotiations, they

agreed to sponsor the voyage.

Securing a new trade route would

certainly bring material rewards,

but Isabella also saw the voyage in

terms of a religious mission that

could bring the light of Christianity

to the East.

Columbus sails west

Having been granted viceroyship

and governorship of any lands he

could claim for Spain, plus other

benefits including 10 percent of any

revenues they yielded, Columbus set

sail westward in 1492. He called at

Gran Canaria before sailing west,

sighting land five weeks later. In

early 1493 he returned to Europe

with two ships, the third having

been wrecked off the coast of

present-day Haiti, and was duly

appointed Governor of the Indies.

Columbus’s second expedition

was organized just a few months

later. This involved 17 ships loaded

with some 1,200 people who would

found Spanish colonies in the

Caribbean. As well as farmers and

soldiers, the colonists included

THE EARLY MODERN ERA

priests, who were specifically

charged with converting local

people to Christianity. Religious

conversion became a key part of

European colonization, illustrating

the colonist’s ambition to impose

their own culture and exert control

over newly colonized peoples.

Columbus’s achievement in

1492 is often described as the

European “discovery” of America.

This is a problematic claim not only

because Columbus thought he had

reached Asia, but also because

Vikings from Scandinavia had

reached North America some 500

years earlier—archaeological

remains at L’Anse aux Meadows

in Newfoundland reveal that

they even settled there. However,

the Viking settlement was not

long-lived, and was unknown to

Columbus and his contemporaries.

Nevertheless, Columbus’s 1492

journey did inaugurate a lasting

contact between the Americas and

Europe. The pitiless destruction he

and his men wrought upon the

indigenous peoples of the West

Indies, whom he encountered when

he first arrived in the Americas,

also began a process of decimation

of American Indian populations

that would continue for a century. ■

Columbus discovered Hispaniola in

1492 when his flagship ran aground on

its shores. Nueva Isabela, founded

there in 1496, is the oldest permanent

European settlement in the Americas.

I should not proceed by land

to the East, as is customary,

but by a Westerly route.

Christopher Columbus,

1492

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