Name: Christopher Columbus
State: Italy, Spain
Field of activity: Navigator
Greatest Achievement: The first to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Opened America for Europeans.
Christopher Columbus used his strong character to persuade rulers and scientists to reconsider accepted concepts and theories about the size of the Earth in order to find and open a new route to Asia. Although he was not the first European to find the Americas (that honor fell to the Viking Leif Eriksson), his voyage opened up the possibility of trade between the two continents.
Born by the sea
Born in 1451 to Domenic and Susanna (Fontanarossa), Christopher grew up in Genoa, Italy. Later, while living in Spain, he was better known under the name Cristobal Colon. He was the eldest of five children and studied with his brothers as an adult.
Situated on the northwestern coast of Italy, Genoa was a port city. Columbus completed his basic education at an early age and began traveling with merchant ships. In 1476 he visited Portugal, where he started a cartographic business with his brother Bartholomew. In 1479 he married Felippa Moniz de Palestrello, daughter of the governor of the Portuguese island.
Their only child Diego was born in 1480. Felippa died a few years later. His second son, Fernando, was born in 1488 to Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.
Christopher Columbus's voyage around the world
In the 1550s, it took control of northern Africa, blocking the shortest and easiest access for Europeans to valuable Asian goods such as spices. In search of an alternative to this dangerous and long journey, many countries turned their eyes to the sea. Portugal in particular made huge strides towards discovering a route around southern Africa, eventually rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
Instead of trying to circumnavigate the African continent from the south, Columbus decided to go west. Educated people knew the fact that the Earth was round; the only question that was unclear was how big it was.
The Greek mathematician and astronomer Eratosthenes first determined its size in 240 BC; later scientists improved this number, but none of these assumptions was proven. Columbus believed that the figure voiced by scientists was too high, and that the large Asian continent would reduce the need for long sea voyages.
According to his calculations, the Earth was 66% smaller than scientists thought it was. Surprisingly, his calculations were very close to the actual size of the globe.
Columbus first presented his plans to Portugal in 1483, but they fell on deaf ears. He went to Spain, which was jointly ruled by the monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. Although Spain was at the time involved in a war with the Muslim states, it gave Columbus a job in the Spanish court. Spain took possession of the southern provinces in January 1492, and in April of that year Columbus's plan received approval. He began preparations for the trip.
"Nina", "Pinta" and "Santa Maria"
Columbus set off on his voyage from the Canary Islands in September 1492. He captained the caravel (a type of Portuguese ship) Santa Maria. Two other ships, Nina and Pinta, sailed alongside the 90 sailors on board. On October 12, 1492, they reached a small island in the Caribbean, which Columbus named San Salvador. This day is celebrated as Columbus Day in the USA every second Monday in October; Other countries also celebrate this day under different names.
Confident that he had arrived in the East Indies, Columbus called the natives Indians. According to his description, kind but primitive people had to experience cruel treatment at the hands of Europeans.
Leaving San Salvador, the team continued their journey along the coast of Cuba and Hispaniola (modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). On the evening before Christmas, the Santa Maria crashed on a reef off the island of Haiti. Forty men were forced to remain in a hastily constructed camp in search of gold while Columbus, taking the Nina and Pinta, sailed back to Spain to announce his success.
Several indigenous captives were taken on board the ship as proof of achievement, but some did not survive the arduous sea voyage.
Columbus was not the first European to set foot on the New World. The Vikings had discovered this land several centuries earlier. But their raids were sporadic, and information about them never spread throughout Europe.
After Columbus's discovery, trade in goods, people and ideas began between the two continents.
Three more trips
During the rest of his life, Columbus made three more voyages to the New World in search of the Asian continent. He returned to the islands with 17 ships and 1,500 sailors, but found no traces of the people he had observed several months earlier. Columbus established his company in several small forts along the coast of Hispaniola.
But problems soon arose when the colonists realized that the gold promised by Columbus did not exist. At the same time, a dozen ships with dissatisfied crew on board returned back to Spain. Relations with the indigenous people also did not go well, as they abandoned the search for gold. When criticism of Columbus's policies reached the monarchs, he returned to Spain and successfully dispelled all rumors, protecting himself from complaints and restoring his reputation.
In 1498, Columbus took six ships and set off in search of the Asian continent south of the area he had previously explored. Instead, he arrived off the coast of Venezuela. Returning to Hispaniola, he gave the land to settlers and authorized the enslavement of Taino peoples to rule it. Complaints about Columbus's activities continued to be received by the monarchs until they finally sent a commission to verify the validity of the complaints. Shocked by the living conditions in the colony, the commission arrested Columbus and his brother and sent them to Spain for trial. They were soon released by the royal authorities, but Columbus forever lost his post as governor of Hispaniola.
In 1502, he made a final attempt to find the Asian continent, setting sail with his son Ferdinand. They traveled along the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Two ships were forced to land on the northern coast of Jamaica due to holes, where their crews spent a whole year waiting for help and return to their homeland.
Columbus returned to Spain in 1504. He died two years later, on May 20, 1506, still convinced that he had found a sea route to Asia.
The origins of Columbus and his dream to open a western route to India
Christopher Columbus (in Spanish - Cristobal Colon), born in 1446 in Genoa, was initially engaged in his father's weaving craft and undertook sea voyages on trade matters, traveled to England, to Portugal, and in 1482 was in Guinea.
In the same year, Columbus married the daughter of a noble Italian sailor in Lisbon and then went with his wife to his father-in-law’s estate, on the island of Porto Santo, located northeast of Madeira. Here he found nautical charts that belonged to his father-in-law, from which he gleaned his first information about the islands and lands lying to the west of Europe. From time to time, the sea washed up on the shores of Porto Santo either the trunks of a strange tree species, or the mighty reed, or the corpse of an unfamiliar human race. Not suspecting the existence of a vast continent unknown to Europeans, Columbus saw in these signs confirmation of the testimony of ancient writers - Aristotle, Seneca and Pliny - that India lies on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean and that from Cadiz you can travel there in a few days.
Portrait of Christopher Columbus. Artist S. del Piombo, 1519
Thus, Christopher Columbus’s plan matured to open the shortest and most direct route to India without going around Africa. With his project, he turned (in 1483) to the Portuguese King John, but was appointed by the king, a commission of scientists recognized Columbus’s idea as a fantasy without foundation. Failure did not disarm Columbus, and after the death of his wife, he went to Spain to obtain the necessary funds to implement his idea. In Spain, Columbus was not refused, but the outfitting of the expedition was constantly delayed. Having stayed in Spain for about 7 years, Columbus had already decided to look for patrons in France, but on the way he met the confessor of Queen Isabella in a monastery. He was very sympathetic to Columbus’s bold idea and convinced the queen to place three ships at his disposal. On April 17, 1492, a treaty between Christopher Columbus and the crown was signed, by which he was granted broad powers and viceroyal rights in the lands that he would discover on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Discovery of America by Columbus (briefly)
On May 28, 1492, three ships, "Santa Maria", "Pinta" and "Nina", with a crew of 120, left Palos harbor and headed for the Canary Islands, from where they sailed in a direct westerly direction. The long journey began to instill in the sailors distrust of the feasibility of Columbus's thought. However, Columbus's surviving diary makes no mention of the crew's mutiny, and the story of this apparently belongs to the realm of fiction. On October 7, the first signs of the proximity of land appeared, and the ships headed southwest towards land. On October 12, 1492, Columbus landed on the island of Gwanagani, solemnly declared it, under the name of San Salvador, the possession of the Spanish crown and proclaimed himself its viceroy. Further voyages in search of gold-bearing lands, which were reported by the natives of San Salvador, led to the discovery of Cuba and Haiti.
On January 4, 1493, Christopher Columbus undertook a return voyage to Spain to personally report the success of the enterprise. On March 15 he arrived in Palos. The journey from Palos to the royal residence, Barcelona, was a real triumphal procession, and the same brilliant reception awaited Columbus at court.
Columbus in front of Kings Ferdinand and Isabella. Painting by E. Leutze, 1843
New expeditions of Columbus (briefly)
The government hastened to equip a new expedition with Columbus, consisting of 17 large ships with a detachment of 1,200 warriors and horsemen and numerous colonists, attracted by general rumors about the fabulous wealth of the new countries. On September 25, 1493, Columbus went to sea, after 20 days of sailing he reached the island of Dominica, and on his further journey he discovered the islands of Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and others. Having founded a new fort in Haiti to replace the fortress he had previously built, which was destroyed in his absence by the natives, he headed further west to reach India, which he considered very close. Having encountered a dense archipelago on the way, Columbus decided that he was near China, since Marco Polo said that to the east of China lies a group of islands of many thousands; then he postponed for a while further searches for a route to India in order to establish more firmly control in the open lands.
Meanwhile, the unhealthy climate of some of the inhabited islands, which caused high mortality, the natural failures of the first settlers who followed Columbus with the most ardent dreams, finally, the envy of many of the high position occupied by a foreigner, and the harsh disposition of Columbus, who demanded strict discipline, created a lot for Christopher Columbus enemies in the colony and in Spain itself. Discontent in Spain assumed such proportions that Columbus found it necessary to go to Europe for personal explanations. He again met with a warm welcome at court, but among the population, faith in the wealth and convenience of the new lands was undermined, no one else wanted to go there and, equipping a new expedition (May 30, 1498), Columbus had to take exiled criminals with him instead of voluntary colonists . During his third voyage, Columbus discovered the islands of Margarita and Cubagua.
After Columbus's departure from Spain, a party hostile to him managed to gain the upper hand at court; it was able to denigrate the brilliant traveler even in the eyes of Isabella, who was more sympathetic to the great enterprise than others. Columbus's personal enemy, Francis Bobadilla, was sent to audit affairs in the new lands. Arriving in the New World in August 1499, he arrested Columbus and his brothers, Eigo and Bartholomew, ordering them to be chained, and in chains the man who prepared her subsequent power and rendered invaluable service to the entire Old World returned to Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella, however, could not allow such a shame and, when Columbus approached Spain, they ordered the chains to be removed from him; however, Columbus's request for the return of all his rights and privileges was denied.
In 1502, Christopher Columbus undertook his fourth and last voyage overseas and, having reached the Isthmus of Panama, had to abandon his desire to penetrate the Indian Ocean, with which he thought the Caribbean Sea was connected.
Death of Columbus
On November 26, 1504, Columbus arrived in Spain and settled in Seville. All his requests for the return of lost rights and income in the countries he discovered remained unsatisfied. With the accession of the new king Philip, Columbus's position did not change, and on May 21, 1506, he died in Valladolid, not seeing the fulfillment of his desires and at the same time not realizing the true significance of his discoveries. He died in the belief that he had discovered a new route to India, and not a new, hitherto unknown part of the world.
After his death, Christopher Columbus was buried in the Franciscan monastery in the city of Valladolid. In 1513, his body was transferred to Seville, and between 1540–59, in accordance with Columbus's own dying wish, his remains were transported to the island of Haiti. In 1795, with the annexation of Haiti to the French crown, Columbus's body was transferred to Havana and buried in the Havana Cathedral. Statues of him were erected in Genoa and Mexico. Columbus left behind a diary of his first voyage, published by Navarrete.
The project for the western sea route from Europe to India was developed by Christopher Columbus in the 1480s.
Europeans were interested in finding a sea route to Asia, since at the end of the 15th century they still could not penetrate Asian countries by land - it was blocked by the Ottoman Empire. Merchants from Europe had to buy spices, silk and other oriental goods from Arab merchants. In the 1480s, the Portuguese tried to circumnavigate Africa in order to penetrate the Indian Ocean to India. Columbus suggested that one could get to Asia by moving west.
His theory was based on the ancient doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth and the incorrect calculations of scientists of the 15th century.
The monarch created a council of scientists that reviewed and rejected Columbus's proposal.
Having received no support, Columbus set off for Spain in 1485. There, at the beginning of 1486, he was presented to the royal court and received an audience with the king and queen of Spain - Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile.
The royal couple became interested in the project of the Western route to Asia. A special commission was created to consider it, which in the summer of 1487 issued an unfavorable conclusion. The Spanish monarchs postponed the decision to organize an expedition until the end of the war with the Emirate of Granada (the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula).
In 1492, after a long siege, Granada fell and the southern territories of the Iberian Peninsula were annexed to the Kingdom of Spain.
After long negotiations, the Spanish monarchs agreed to subsidize Columbus's expedition.
On April 17, 1492, the royal couple entered into a treaty (“capitulation”) with Columbus in Santa Fe, granting him the title of nobility, the titles of Admiral of the Sea-Ocean, Viceroy and Governor General of all the islands and continents that he would discover. The position of admiral gave Columbus the right to rule in disputes arising in matters of trade, the position of viceroy made him the personal representative of the monarch, and the position of governor general provided the highest civil and military authority. Columbus was given the right to receive a tenth of everything found in the new lands and an eighth of the profits from trading operations with foreign goods.
On August 9, she approached the Canary Islands. After repairing the Pinta, which had leaked, on the island of La Gomera, on September 6, 1492, the ships, heading west, began crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
On September 16, 1492, bunches of green algae began to appear along the expedition’s path, which became more and more numerous. The ships traveled through this unusual body of water for three weeks. This is how the Sargasso Sea was discovered.
On October 12, 1492, land was discovered from the Pinta. The Spaniards reached the islands of the Bahamas archipelago - the first land they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. This day is considered the official date of the discovery of America.
On October 13, 1492, Columbus landed on the shore, hoisted the banner of Castile on it and, having drawn up a notarial deed, formally took possession of the island. The island was named San Salvador. It was inhabited by the Arawaks, a people who were completely destroyed 20-30 years later. The natives gave Columbus "dry leaves" (tobacco).
On October 14-24, 1492, Columbus approached several more Bahamas islands. Europeans first saw hammocks in the homes of local residents.
Having learned from the natives about the existence of a rich island in the south, Columbus left the Bahamas archipelago on October 24 and sailed further to the southwest. On October 28, the flotilla approached the shores of Cuba, which Columbus named Juana. Communicating with local residents, Columbus decided that he was on one of the peninsulas of East Asia. The Spaniards found neither gold, nor spices, nor large cities. Columbus, believing that he had reached the poorest part of China, decided to turn east, where he believed the richer Japan lay. The expedition moved east on November 13, 1492.
On November 21, 1492, the captain of the Pinta, Pinson, took his ship away, deciding to search for rich islands on his own. The two remaining ships continued east until they reached Cape Maysi on the eastern tip of Cuba.
On December 6, 1492, Columbus discovered the island of Haiti, named Hispaniola because of the similarity of its valleys with the lands of Castile. Further, moving along the northern coast, the Spaniards discovered the island of Tortuga.
Moving along the northern coast of Hispaniola, on December 25, 1492, the expedition approached the Holy Cape (now Cap-Haïtien), where the Santa Maria landed on the reefs. With the help of local residents, they managed to remove guns, supplies and valuable cargo from the ship. A fort was built from the wreckage of the ship, called Navidad ("Christmas"). Columbus left 39 sailors as the personnel of the fort, and on January 4, 1493, he went to sea on the Niña.
On January 16, 1493, both ships headed northeast, taking advantage of the favorable current - the Gulf Stream.
On February 12, 1493, a storm arose, and on the night of February 14, the ships lost sight of each other.
On February 15, 1493, the Niña reached land. But only on February 18 did she manage to land on shore. It was decided to name the discovered island in honor of the lost expedition ship Santa Maria (island of the Azores archipelago).
On February 24, 1493, the Niña left the Azores. On February 26, she was again caught in a storm, which washed her ashore on the coast of Portugal on March 4. On March 9, 1493, the Niña dropped anchor in the port of Lisbon. João II gave Columbus an audience, at which the navigator informed the king about his discovery of the western route to India.
On March 13, "Nina" was able to sail to Spain. On March 15, on the 225th day of the voyage, she returned to the port of Palos. On the same day, “Pinta” arrived there. Columbus brought with him the natives (who were called Indians in Europe), some gold, as well as plants previously unknown in Europe (corn, potatoes, tobacco) and bird feathers.
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile gave Columbus a grand reception and gave permission for a new expedition.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
On August 3, 1492, the first expedition of the navigator Christopher Columbus began, discovering new lands for Europeans.
Born in Genoa, Columbus became a sailor at an early age, sailing the Mediterranean Sea on merchant ships. Then he settled in Portugal. Under the Portuguese flag, he sailed north to England and Ireland, and sailed along the west coast of Africa to the Portuguese trading post of São Jorge da Mina (modern Ghana). He was engaged in trade, mapping and self-education. During this period, Columbus had the idea to reach India by a western route across the Atlantic Ocean.
At that time, many Western European countries were looking for sea routes to the countries of South and East Asia, which were then united under the common name “India”. From these countries, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and expensive silk fabrics came to Europe. Traders from Europe could not penetrate Asian countries by land, since Turkish conquests cut off traditional merchant connections with the East through the Mediterranean Sea. They were forced to purchase Asian goods from Arab merchants. Therefore, Europeans were interested in finding a sea route to Asia, which would allow them to purchase Asian goods without intermediaries. In the 1480s, the Portuguese tried to circumnavigate Africa to reach India across the Indian Ocean.
Columbus suggested that Asia could be reached by moving west across the Atlantic Ocean. His theory was based on the ancient doctrine of the sphericity of the Earth and the incorrect calculations of scientists of the 15th century, who considered the globe to be much smaller in size, and also underestimated the real extent of the Atlantic Ocean from west to east.
Between 1483 and 1484, Columbus tried to interest the Portuguese King João II with his plan for an expedition to Asia by the western route. The monarch handed over his project for examination to the scientists of the “Mathematical Junta” (Lisbon Academy of Astronomy and Mathematics). Experts recognized Columbus's calculations as “fantastic,” and the king refused Columbus.
Having received no support, Columbus set off for Spain in 1485. There, at the beginning of 1486, he was presented to the royal court and received an audience with the king and queen of Spain - Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. The royal couple became interested in the project of the Western route to Asia. A special commission was created to consider it, which in the summer of 1487 issued an unfavorable conclusion, but the Spanish monarchs postponed the decision to organize the expedition until the end of the war they waged with the Emirate of Granada (the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula).
In the fall of 1488, Columbus visited Portugal, where he again proposed his project to John II, but was again refused and returned to Spain.
In 1489, he tried unsuccessfully to interest the regent of France, Anne de Beaujeu, and two Spanish dukes in the idea of sailing to the west.
In January 1492, unable to withstand a long siege by Spanish troops, Granada fell. After long negotiations, the Spanish monarchs, overriding the objections of their advisers, agreed to subsidize Columbus's expedition.
On April 17, 1492, the royal couple entered into a treaty (“capitulation”) with him in Santa Fe, granting him the title of nobility, the titles of admiral of the Sea-Ocean, viceroy and governor-general of all the islands and continents that he would discover. The title of admiral gave Columbus the right to rule in disputes arising in matters of trade, the position of viceroy made him the personal representative of the monarch, and the position of governor general provided the highest civil and military authority. Columbus was given the right to receive a tenth of everything found in the new lands and an eighth of the profits from trading operations with foreign goods.
The Spanish crown pledged to finance most of the expedition's expenses. Italian merchants and financiers gave part of the funds for it to the navigator.
For his first expedition, Columbus equipped three ships: the four-masted sailing ship Santa Maria (as the flagship) and two caravels - the Santa Clara (better known as the Niña after its owner) and the Pinta, with a total crew of 90 people. All three ships were small in size and were typical merchant ships of the era.
Columbus's flotilla left the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. On August 9, she approached the Canary Islands. After repairs to the Pinta, which had leaked, on the island of La Gomera, the ships headed west on September 6 and began crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The journey proceeded smoothly with favorable winds.
On September 16, the ships entered the Sargasso Sea, which Columbus described in his notebook as a jar consisting of algae. He sailed through this unusual body of water most of his way to the Bahamas.
Having passed the Sargasso Sea, Columbus changed course on October 7, and the ships turned to the southwest. On October 12, 1492, land was discovered from the Pinta. The Spaniards reached the islands of the Bahamas archipelago - the first land they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. This day is considered the official date of the discovery of America.
Columbus landed on the shore, planted the banner of Castile on it and, having drawn up a notarial deed, formally took possession of the island.
He named the island San Salvador (St. Savior), and its inhabitants - Indians, believing that he was off the coast of India.
However, there is still ongoing debate about Columbus's first landing site. For a long time (1940-1982), Watling Island was considered San Salvador. In 1986, American geographer George Judge processed all the collected materials on a computer and came to the conclusion: the first American land Columbus saw was the island of Samana (120 km southeast of Watling).
On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamian islands. Having learned from the natives about the existence of a rich island in the south, the ships left the Bahamian archipelago on October 24 and sailed further to the southwest. On October 28, Columbus landed on the northeastern coast of Cuba, which he named “Juana.” After this, the Spaniards, inspired by the stories of the natives, spent a month searching for the golden island of Baneque (modern Great Inagua).
On November 21, the captain of the Pinta, Martin Pinson, took his ship away, deciding to search for this island on his own. Having lost hope of finding Baneke, Columbus with the two remaining ships turned east and on December 5 reached the northwestern tip of the island of Bohio (modern Haiti), to which he gave the name Hispaniola ("Spanish"). Moving along the northern coast of Hispaniola, on December 25 the expedition approached the Holy Cape (modern Cap-Haïtien), where the Santa Maria ran aground and sank, but the crew escaped. With the help of local residents, they managed to remove guns, supplies and valuable cargo from the ship. A fort was built from the wreckage of the ship - the first European settlement in America, named Navidad ("Christmas town") on the occasion of the Christmas holiday.
The loss of the ship forced Columbus to leave part of the crew (39 people) in the established settlement and set off on the Niña on the return journey. For the first time in the history of navigation, on his orders, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor berths. To prove that he had reached a part of the world previously unknown to Europeans, Columbus took with him seven captive islanders, strange bird feathers and the fruits of plants unknown in Europe. Having visited the open islands, the Spaniards saw corn, tobacco, and potatoes for the first time.
On January 4, 1493, Columbus set out to sea on the Niña and sailed east along the northern coast of Hispaniola. Two days later he met "Pinta". On January 16, both ships headed northeast, taking advantage of a passing current - the Gulf Stream. On February 12, a storm arose, and on the night of February 14, the ships lost sight of each other. At dawn on February 15, the sailors saw land, and Columbus determined that he was near the Azores. On February 18, "Nina" managed to land on the shore of one of the islands - Santa Maria.
On February 24, Niña left the Azores. Two days later she was again caught in a storm, which washed her ashore on the coast of Portugal on March 4. On March 9, the Niña dropped anchor in the port of Lisbon. The team needed a break, and the ship needed repairs. King John II gave Columbus an audience, at which the navigator informed him of his discovery of the western route to India. On March 13, the Niña was able to sail to Spain. On March 15, 1493, on the 225th day of the voyage, the ship returned to the Spanish port of Palos. On the same day, “Pinta” arrived there.
King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile gave Columbus a ceremonial welcome and, in addition to previously promised privileges, gave him permission for a new expedition.
During his first voyage, Columbus discovered America, which he mistook for East Asia and called the West Indies. Europeans first set foot on the Caribbean islands of Juana (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Haiti). As a result of the expedition, the width of the Atlantic Ocean became reliably known, the Sargasso Sea was discovered, the flow of ocean water from west to east was established, and the incomprehensible behavior of the magnetic compass needle was noted for the first time. The political resonance of Columbus’s voyage was the “papal meridian”: the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the discovery of new lands for rival Spain and Portugal.
In 1493-1504, Columbus made three more voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, as a result of which he discovered part of the Lesser Antilles and the coast of South and Central America. The navigator died in 1506, fully confident that the lands he discovered were part of the Asian continent, and not a new continent.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Christopher Columbus had the unshakable belief that it was possible to sail to East Asia and India by heading west from Europe. It was based not on dark, semi-fabulous news about the discovery of Vinland by the Normans, but on considerations of the brilliant mind of Columbus. A warm sea current from the Gulf of Mexico to the western coast of Europe provided evidence that there was a large landmass to the west. The Portuguese helmsman (skipper) Vincente caught in the sea at the height of the Azores a block of wood on which figures were carved. The carving was skillful, but it was clear that it was made not with an iron cutter, but with some other tool. Christopher Columbus saw the same piece of carved wood from Pedro Carrei, his relative by wife, who was the ruler of the island of Porto Santo. King John II of Portugal showed Columbus pieces of reed brought by the western sea current so thick and tall that the sections from one node to another contained three azumbras (more than half a bucket) of water. They reminded Columbus of the words of Ptolemy about the enormous size of Indian plants. The inhabitants of the islands of Faial and Graciosa told Columbus that the sea brings to them from the west pine trees of a species that is not found in Europe or on their islands. There were several cases where the westerly current brought boats with dead people of a race to the shores of the Azores, which was not found either in Europe or in Africa.
Portrait of Christopher Columbus. Artist S. del Piombo, 1519
Treaty of Columbus with Queen Isabella
After living for some time in Portugal, Columbus left it to propose a plan to sail to India by the western route. Castilian government. The Andalusian nobleman Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Seli, became interested in Columbus's project, which promised enormous benefits to the state, and recommended it Queen Isabella. She accepted Christopher Columbus into her service, assigned him a salary and submitted his project to the University of Salamanca for consideration. The commission to which the queen entrusted the final decision of the matter consisted almost exclusively of clergy; The most influential person in it was Isabella's confessor, Fernando Talavera. After much deliberation, she came to the conclusion that the foundations of the project about sailing to the west were weak and that it was unlikely to be implemented. But not everyone was of this opinion. Cardinal Mendoza, a very intelligent man, and the Dominican Diego Desa, who was later the Archbishop of Seville and the Grand Inquisitor, became the patrons of Christopher Columbus; at their request, Isabella retained him in her service.
In 1487, Columbus lived in Cordoba. It seems that he settled in this city precisely because Dona Beatriz Enriquez Avana lived there, with whom he had a relationship. She had a son, Fernando, with him. The war with the Muslims of Granada absorbed all of Isabella's attention. Columbus lost hope of receiving funds from the queen to sail to the west and decided to go to France to propose his project to the French government. He and his son Diego came to Palos to sail from there to France and stopped at the Franciscan monastery of Ravid. The monk Juan Perez Marchena, Isabella’s confessor, who lived there at the time, got into conversation with the visitor. Columbus began to tell him his project; he invited the doctor Garcia Hernandez, who knew astronomy and geography, to his conversation with Columbus. The confidence with which Columbus spoke made a strong impression on Marchena and Hernandez. Marchena persuaded Columbus to postpone his departure and immediately went to Santa Fe (to the camp near Granada) to talk with Isabella about Christopher Columbus's project. Some courtiers supported Marchena.
Isabella sent Columbus money and invited him to come to Santa Fe. He arrived shortly before the capture of Granada. Isabella listened attentively to Columbus, who eloquently outlined to her his plan to sail to East Asia by the Western route and explained what glory she would gain by conquering rich pagan lands and spreading Christianity in them. Isabella promised to equip a squadron for Columbus's voyage, and said that if there was no money for this in the treasury, depleted by military expenses, then she would pawn her diamonds. But when it came to determining the terms of the contract, difficulties presented themselves. Columbus demanded that he be given the nobility, the rank of admiral, the rank of viceroy of all lands and islands that he would discover on his voyage, a tenth of the income that the government would receive from them, so that he would have the right to appoint to some positions there and were certain trading privileges were granted, so that the power granted to him would remain hereditary in his posterity. The Castilian dignitaries who negotiated with Christopher Columbus considered these demands too great and urged him to reduce them; but he remained adamant. The negotiations were interrupted, and he again got ready to go to France. The State Treasurer of Castile, Luis de San Angel, ardently urged the queen to agree to Columbus's demands; some other courtiers told her in the same spirit, and she agreed. On April 17, 1492, an agreement was concluded in Santa Fe by the Castilian government with Christopher Columbus on the terms that he demanded. The treasury was depleted by the war. San Angel said that he would give his money to equip three ships, and Columbus went to the Andalusian coast to prepare for his first voyage to America.
The beginning of Columbus's first voyage
The small port city of Palos had recently incurred the wrath of the government, and for this reason it was obliged to maintain two ships for a year for public service. Isabella ordered Palos to place these ships at the disposal of Christopher Columbus; He equipped the third ship himself with money given to him by his friends. In Palos, the Pinson family, engaged in maritime trade, enjoyed great influence. With the assistance of the Pinsons, Columbus dispelled the sailors' fear of setting off on a long voyage to the west and recruited about a hundred good sailors. Three months later, the squadron's equipment was completed, and on August 3, 1492, two caravels, the Pinta and the Niña, captained by Alonso Pinzón and his brother Vincente Yañez, and a third slightly larger ship, the Santa Maria, sailed from Palos harbor. ", the captain of which was Christopher Columbus himself.
Replica of Columbus's ship "Santa Maria"
Sailing from Palos, Columbus constantly headed west under the latitude of the Canary Islands. The route along these degrees was longer than through latitudes more northern or more southern, but it had the advantage that the wind was always favorable. The squadron stopped at one of the Azores islands to repair the damaged Pinta; it took a month. Then Columbus's first voyage continued further west. In order not to arouse anxiety among the sailors, Columbus hid from them the true extent of the distance traveled. In the tables that he showed to his companions, he put numbers less than the actual ones, and noted the real numbers only in his journal, which he did not show to anyone. The weather was good, the wind was fair; the air temperature was reminiscent of the fresh and warm morning hours of April days in Andalusia. The squadron sailed for 34 days, seeing nothing but sea and sky. The sailors began to worry. The magnetic needle changed its direction and began to deviate from the pole further to the west than in the parts of the sea not far from Europe and Africa. This increased the fear of the sailors; it seemed that the voyage was leading them to places where influences unknown to them dominated. Columbus tried to calm them down, explaining that the change in the direction of the magnetic needle is created by a change in the position of the ships relative to the polar star.
A fair east wind carried the ships in the second half of September along a calm sea, in some places covered with green sea plants. The constancy in the direction of the wind increased the anxiety of the sailors: they began to think that in those places there was never any other wind, and that they would not be able to sail in the opposite direction, but these fears also disappeared when strong sea currents from the southwest became noticeable: they given the opportunity to return to Europe. Christopher Columbus's squadron sailed through that part of the ocean that later became known as the Sea of Grass; this continuous vegetative shell of water seemed to be a sign of the proximity of earth. A flock of birds circling over the ships increased the hope that land was close. Seeing a cloud on the edge of the horizon in the northwest direction at sunset on September 25, the participants in Columbus’s first voyage mistook it for an island; but the next morning it turned out that they were mistaken. Previous historians have stories that the sailors plotted to force Columbus to return, that they even threatened his life, that they made him promise to turn back if land did not appear in the next three days. But now it has been proven that these stories are fictions that arose several decades after the time of Christopher Columbus. The fears of the sailors, very natural, were transformed by the imagination of the next generation into mutiny. Columbus reassured his sailors with promises, threats, reminders of the power given to him by the queen, and behaved firmly and calmly; this was enough for the sailors not to disobey him. He promised a lifelong pension of 30 gold coins to the first person to see the land. Therefore, the sailors who were on the mars several times gave signals that the earth was visible, and when it turned out that the signals were erroneous, the crews of the ships were overcome by despondency. To stop these disappointments, Columbus said that anyone who gives an erroneous signal about land on the horizon loses the right to receive a pension, even after actually seeing the first land.
Discovery of America by Columbus
At the beginning of October, signs of the proximity of land intensified. Flocks of small colorful birds circled over the ships and flew to the southwest; plants floated on the water, clearly not sea, but terrestrial, but still retaining freshness, showing that they had recently been washed away from the earth by the waves; a tablet and a carved stick were caught. The sailors took a direction somewhat south; the air was fragrant, like spring in Andalusia. On a clear night on October 11, Columbus noticed a moving light in the distance, so he ordered the sailors to look carefully and promised, in addition to the previous reward, a silk camisole to the one who would be the first to see the land. At 2 o'clock in the morning on October 12, Pinta sailor Juan Rodriguez Vermejo, a native of the town of Molinos, neighboring Seville, saw the outline of the cape in the moonlight and with a joyful cry: “Earth! Earth!" rushed to the cannon to fire a signal shot. But then the award for the discovery was awarded to Columbus himself, who had previously seen the light. At dawn, the ships sailed to the shore, and Christopher Columbus, in the scarlet garb of an admiral, with the Castilian banner in his hand, entered the land he had discovered. It was an island that the natives called Guanagani, and Columbus named it San Salvador in honor of the Savior (later it was called Watling). The island was covered with beautiful meadows and forests, and its inhabitants were naked and dark copper in color; their hair was straight, not curly; their body was painted in bright colors. They greeted the foreigners timidly, respectfully, imagining that they were children of the sun who had descended from the sky, and, not understanding anything, they watched and listened to the ceremony by which Columbus took their island into possession of the Castilian crown. They gave away expensive things for beads, bells, and foil. Thus began the discovery of America.
In the next days of his voyage, Christopher Columbus discovered several more small islands belonging to the Bahamas archipelago. He named one of them the Island of the Immaculate Conception (Santa Maria de la Concepcion), another Fernandina (this is the current island of Echuma), the third Isabella; gave others new names of this kind. He believed that the archipelago he discovered on this first voyage lies in front of the eastern coast of Asia, and that from there it is not far to Jipangu (Japan) and Cathay (China), described Marco Polo and drawn on the map by Paolo Toscanelli. He took several natives onto his ships so that they could learn Spanish and serve as translators. Traveling further to the southwest, Columbus discovered the large island of Cuba on October 26, and on December 6, a beautiful island that resembled Andalusia with its forests, mountains and fertile plains. Because of this resemblance, Columbus named it Hispaniola (or, in the Latin form of the word, Hispaniola). The natives called it Haiti. The luxurious vegetation of Cuba and Haiti confirmed the Spaniards' belief that this is an archipelago neighboring India. No one then suspected the existence of the great continent of America. Participants in the first voyage of Christopher Columbus admired the beauty of the meadows and forests on these islands, their excellent climate, the bright feathers and sonorous singing of birds in the forests, the aroma of herbs and flowers, which was so strong that it was felt far from the shore; admired the brightness of the stars in the tropical sky.
The vegetation of the islands was then, after the autumn rains, in the full freshness of its splendor. Columbus, gifted with a keen love of nature, describes the beauty of the islands and the sky above them with graceful simplicity in the ship's log of his first voyage. Humboldt says: “On his voyage along the coast of Cuba between the small islands of the Bahamas archipelago and the Hardinel group, Christopher Columbus admired the density of the forests, in which the branches of the trees were intertwined so that it was difficult to distinguish which flowers belonged to which tree. He admired the luxurious meadows of the wet coast, the pink flamingos standing along the banks of the rivers; each new land seems to Columbus even more beautiful than the one described before it; he complains that he does not have enough words to convey the pleasure he experiences.” - Peschel says: “Enchanted by his success, Columbus imagines that mastic trees grow in these forests, that the sea abounds in pearl shells, that there is a lot of gold in the sand of the rivers; he sees the fulfillment of all the stories about rich India.”
But the Spaniards did not find as much gold, expensive stones and pearls as they wanted on the islands they discovered. The natives wore small jewelry made of gold and willingly exchanged them for beads and other trinkets. But this gold did not satisfy the greed of the Spaniards, but only kindled their hope of the proximity of lands in which there was a lot of gold; they questioned the natives who came to their ships in shuttles. Columbus treated these savages kindly; They stopped being afraid of foreigners and when asked about gold they answered that further south there was a land in which there was a lot of it. But on his first voyage, Christopher Columbus did not reach the American mainland; he did not sail further than Hispaniola, whose inhabitants accepted the Spaniards trustingly. The most important of their princes, the cacique Guacanagari, showed Columbus sincere friendship and filial piety. Columbus considered it necessary to stop sailing and return from the shores of Cuba to Europe, because Alonso Pinzon, the head of one of the caravels, secretly sailed away from the admiral's ship. He was a proud and hot-tempered man, he was burdened by his subordination to Christopher Columbus, he wanted to gain the merit of discovering a land rich in gold, and to take advantage of its treasures alone. His caravel sailed away from Columbus's ship on November 20 and never returned. Columbus assumed that he sailed to Spain to take credit for the discovery.
A month later (December 24), the ship Santa Maria, through the negligence of a young helmsman, landed on a sandbank and was broken by the waves. Columbus had only one caravel left; he saw himself in a hurry to return to Spain. The cacique and all the inhabitants of Hispaniola showed the most friendly disposition towards the Spaniards and tried to do everything they could for them. But Columbus was afraid that his only ship might crash on unfamiliar shores, and did not dare to continue his discoveries. He decided to leave some of his companions on Hispaniola so that they would continue to acquire gold from the natives for trinkets that the savages liked. With the help of the natives, the participants in Columbus's first voyage built a fortification from the wreckage of the crashed ship, surrounded it with a ditch, transferred part of the food supplies into it, and placed several cannons there; The sailors vying with one another volunteered to stay in this fortification. Columbus selected 40 of them, among whom were several carpenters and other craftsmen, and left them in Hispaniola under the command of Diego Arana, Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo Escovedo. The fortification was named after the Christmas holiday La Navidad.
Before Christopher Columbus sailed to Europe, Alonso Pinzon returned to him. Sailing away from Columbus, he headed further along the coast of Hispaniola, came to land, received from the natives in exchange for trinkets several pieces of gold two fingers thick, walked inland, heard about the island of Jamaica (Jamaica), on which there is a lot of gold and from which It takes ten days to sail to the mainland, where people who wear clothes live. Pinzon had strong kinship and powerful friends in Spain, so Columbus hid his displeasure with him and pretended to believe the fabrications with which he explained his action. Together they sailed along the coast of Hispaniola and in the Gulf of Samana they found the warlike Siguayo tribe, which entered into battle with them. This was the first hostile encounter between the Spaniards and the natives. From the shores of Hispaniola, Columbus and Pinson sailed to Europe on January 16, 1493.
Return of Columbus from his first voyage
On the way back from the first voyage, happiness was less favorable to Christopher Columbus and his companions than on the way to America. In mid-February they were subjected to a strong storm, which their ships, already quite badly damaged, could hardly withstand. The Pint was blown north by the storm. Columbus and other travelers sailing on the Niña lost sight of her. Columbus felt great anxiety at the thought that the Pinta had sunk; his ship could also easily have perished, and in that case, information about his discoveries would not have reached Europe. He made a promise to God that if his ship survived, pilgrimage trips would be made to three of Spain's most famous holy places. He and his companions cast lots to see which of them would go to these holy places. Of the three trips, two fell to the lot of Christopher Columbus himself; he assumed the costs of the third. The storm still continued, and Columbus came up with a means for information about his discovery to reach Europe in the event of the loss of the Niña. He wrote on parchment a short story about his voyage and the lands he found, rolled up the parchment, covered it with a wax coating to protect it from water, put the package in a barrel, made an inscription on the barrel that whoever finds it and delivers it to the Queen of Castile will receive 1000 ducats reward, and threw him into the sea.
A few days later, when the storm stopped and the sea calmed, the sailor saw land from the top of the mainmast; the joy of Columbus and his companions was as great as when they discovered the first island in the west during their voyage. But no one except Columbus could figure out which shore was in front of them. Only he conducted observations and calculations correctly; all the others were confused in them, partly because he deliberately led them into mistakes, wanting alone to have the information necessary for the second voyage to America. He realized that the land in front of the ship was one of the Azores. But the waves were still so great and the wind so strong that Christopher Columbus's caravel cruised for three days in sight of land before it could land at Santa Maria (the southernmost island of the Azores archipelago).
The Spaniards came ashore on February 17, 1493. The Portuguese, who owned the Azores Islands, met them unfriendly. Castangeda, the ruler of the island, a treacherous man, wanted to capture Columbus and his ship out of fear that these Spaniards were rivals of the Portuguese in trade with Guinea, or out of desire to find out about the discoveries they made during the voyage, Columbus sent half of his sailors to the chapel to thank God for their salvation from the storm. The Portuguese arrested them; They then wanted to take possession of the ship, but this failed because Columbus was careful. Having failed, the Portuguese ruler of the island released those arrested, excusing his hostile actions by saying that he did not know whether Columbus’s ship was really in the service of the Queen of Castilia. Columbus sailed to Spain; but off the Portuguese coast it was subjected to a new storm; she was very dangerous. Columbus and his companions promised a fourth pilgrimage; by lot it fell to Columbus himself. The residents of Cascaes, who saw from the shore the danger the ship was in, went to church to pray for its salvation. Finally, on March 4, 1493, Christopher Columbus's ship reached Cape Sintra and entered the mouth of the Tagus River. The sailors of the Belem harbor, where Columbus landed, said that his salvation was a miracle, that in the memory of people there had never been such a strong storm that it sank 25 large merchant ships sailing from Flanders.
Happiness favored Christopher Columbus on his first voyage and saved him from danger. They threatened him in Portugal. Its king, John II, was jealous of the amazing discovery, which eclipsed all the discoveries of the Portuguese and, as it seemed then, took away from them the benefits of trade with India, which they wanted to achieve thanks to the discovery Vasco da Gama ways to get there around Africa. The king received Columbus in his western palace of Valparaiso and listened to his story about his discoveries. Some nobles wanted to irritate Columbus, provoke him to some insolence and, taking advantage of it, kill him. But John II rejected this shameful thought, and Columbus remained alive. John showed him respect and took care to ensure his safety on the way back. On March 15, Christopher Columbus sailed to Palos; the residents of the city greeted him with delight. His first voyage lasted seven and a half months.
In the evening of the same day, Alonso Pinzon sailed to Palos. He went ashore in Galicia, sent a notice of his discoveries to Isabella and Ferdinand, who were then in Barcelona, and asked for an audience with them. They replied that he should come to them in Columbus's retinue. This disfavor of the queen and king saddened him; He was also saddened by the coldness with which he was received in his hometown of Palos. He grieved so much that he died a few weeks later. With his treachery towards Columbus, he brought upon himself contempt, so that his contemporaries did not want to appreciate the services he rendered to the discovery of the New World. Only descendants did justice to his courageous participation in the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.
Reception of Columbus in Spain
In Seville, Columbus received an invitation from the queen and king of Spain to come to them in Barcelona; he went, taking with him several savages brought from the islands discovered during the voyage, and the products found there. People gathered in huge crowds to see him enter Barcelona. Queen Isabella and the King Ferdinand They received him with such honors as were given only to the most noble people. The king met Columbus in the square, sat him down next to him, and then rode alongside him on horseback several times around the city. The most distinguished Spanish nobles gave feasts in honor of Columbus and, as they say, at the feast given in his honor by Cardinal Mendoza, the famous joke about the “Columbus egg” occurred.
Columbus in front of Kings Ferdinand and Isabella. Painting by E. Leutze, 1843
Columbus remained firmly convinced that the islands he discovered during his voyage lie off the eastern coast of Asia, not far from the rich lands of Jipangu and Cathay; almost everyone shared his opinion; only a few doubted its validity.
To be continued - see the article
