Christopher Columbus

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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) Columbus exploited the experiences of Portuguese navigators, fifteenth-century innovations in navigation that had made trans-Atlantic voyages feasible, and used the force of his own single-minded and powerful personality to win patronage for his voyages. An accomplished mariner at least by the age of nineteen, Columbus was born in Genoa, the child of a wool-weaver. He acquired a knowledge of Ptolemy, as well as contemporary teachings on astronomy and navigation. Columbus began to seek court patronage in 1484 at the court of Portugal, which was focused on the profitable exploration of the African coast. Failing in Portugal, he sought backing at the Spanish court of Ferdinand and Isabella, who were preoccupied with the Reconquest. His proposals were rejected by a group of ecclesiastics, who based their findings on such works as St. Augustine's City of God (426 C.E.). Another group assembled at Granada also rejected his plans, and his efforts to interest the English king Henry VII fared no better. Through chance, Columbus met the confessor of Isabella of Castile, who, with other powerful figures, influenced the queen. In turn, Isabella influenced her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon, and Columbus's voyage to the Indies was funded. He landed on the island he called San Salvador on October 12, 1492. He also “discovered” Hispaniola (present-day Haiti), Cuba, and the present-day Bahamas. On subsequent voyages he claimed Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, and the Lesser Antilles, all of which he believed to be the fabled Indies. Columbus eventually landed on the coast of South America and the island of Trinidad. In terms of Columbus’s original goals—that of finding gold and silver and the lands described by Marco Polo, his voyages were unsuccessful. Columbus’s record of his third voyage reflects his belief that he had found the earthly paradise. His efforts at governing the islands he had discovered were disastrous.

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