I'm writing a series of articles about European explorers during the "Age of Exploration and Discovery" from the 1400s to the 1700s. These explorations led to the "discovery" of the Americas and new shipping routes around the tip of South America and South Africa. In the last two weeks, I gave some background information about international trade in Europe during this time, and I wrote about the travels of Marco Polo, who inspired others with his stories about the Great Silk Road and Mongolian China in the late 1200s.
The Age of Exploration largely happened because the Mongolian Empire broke apart and it could not longer ensure safe travel on the Great Silk Road. The Ottoman Empire also conquered Constantinople in 1453 and parts of southern Europe in the late 1400s and early 1500s. As a result, travel became unsafe for Europeans, and centers of shipping in Portugal, Spain, and Italy became isolated, and they looked for new routes to India and China.
One of the most influential explorers during this time was Christopher Columbus. He was an Italian seafaring merchant in 1450-1500, originally from Genoa then later in Spain. In the 1490s, he convinced Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain to sponsor an exploratory oceanic trip to east India by sailing west (all around the world) through the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus never made it to India, but he landed in the Caribbean islands. Columbus then setup colonies in these islands, and he setup trade with Europe.
Columbus's discovery inspired other explorers to follow his journey, and they discovered larger portions of the Americas. Columbus is now famous for "discovering" the Americas and for beginning a new era of exchange between "the Old" and "the New World." But Columbus was criticized during his own time for brutality against native populations, and his reputation is questionable even today. Although he established relationships between the continents, he himself was oppressive and exploitative, and his trip ushered a whole new era of exploitation, colonization, slavery, disease, and many other problems for the Americas.
Early Life
Columbus grew up in northern Italy in the mid-1450s as one of five children in the family. His family ran various small businesses (wool-making and a tavern). In his early 20s, Columbus became an apprentice for an influential merchant (wholesale trading) family in Genoa. As part of this work, he sailed to Greece, Portugal, England, Portuguese islands in west Africa, and possibly to Ghana.
By the mid-1480s, Columbus moved to Spain (where his map-making brother also lived), and he had started a family.
The Idea to Sail West
With Constantinople under Ottoman control, merchants were talking about reaching the "East Indies" (Pacific islands such as Indonesia and the Philippines) by sailing directly west instead of around the southern tip of Africa.
Columbus and his brother knew about this idea, and they tried to find investors who could sponsor a journey like this. At this time, Columbus had become self-educated. He was reading ancient and medieval books about mathematics, astronomy, and geography. And he had read and become inspired by The Travels of Marco Polo. Here is a copy of notes he made while reading Marco Polo's book.
Western European countries were competing against Islamic countries in the Middle East, northern Africa, and south-east Europe, and they were looking for more resources. Columbus's idea about finding gold and other resources by sailing west was tempting, but Portuguese and Spanish officials believed Columbus's calculation about the distance was incorrect, and they knew that sailing back east to Europe against the Atlantic oceanic tides would be difficult. So they initially did not support his request for sponsorship. Plus other merchants were having success going around Africa.
Columbus was eventually able to get the financial support he requested from Isabella and Ferdinand, and they also agreed that Columbus could be the governor of any new territories he finds and that he would also be able to collect a percentage of all trade from the new territory.
The Voyages to … America?
Columbus made a total of four round trips from Spain to the Caribbean islands. However, he always believed that he had reached "the East Indies" and not a new land.
Columbus started on his first voyage in Aug. 1492, and he reached an island in the Bahamas on Oct. 12, 1492. He explored the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Unfortunately, what he did during this time was not admirable: he took prisoners from the native population and demanded they show him where to find gold.
He hopped around the islands for two or three months, and he headed back for Spain in January; he arrived in March.
During this first voyage, Columbus set off with three ships - yes, the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. I am amazed at how small these ships were, considering that he was on the Atlantic ocean for two months. The largest ship (the Santa Maria) was only 70 feet long! In contrast, many people are now afraid to go on a commercial cruise, which is the size of a neighborhood block and has all the modern navigational technologies you need, plus the Coast Guard if there is an emergency.
Here is a modern reconstruction of the Nina.
Here is what the Santa Maria looked like. The Santa Maria was the bigger boat. Unfortunately, the Santa Maria crashed during one of the island explorations, and it was abandoned. No one has found pieces of the ship.
In Sept. 1493, Columbus made a second voyage with 17 ships and 1500 men. His brother the map-maker was one of them, and he made some of the first maps in the New World. Ponce de Leon was also with Columbus, and he became the first governor of Puerto Rico and Florida.
Throughout 1494, they explored the territories of Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. But by the end of that year, many Spanish settlers had died from disease and famine. The settlers also treated native populations very poorly; they enslaved them for labor, and they beat and tortured them to find gold. In 1495, Columbus sent about 500 natives to Spain as slaves. Afterwards, Spain started sending more supplies to the settlers in exchange for slaves. Columbus returned to Spain in June 1496.
Two years later, in July 1498, Columbus returned for a third voyage. The ships took separate routes, and they sailed further south to investigate beliefs of other lands in the south. During this trip, they discovered the area of northern Venezuela and the island of Trinidad-Tobago. This was the first time any European had sailed to South America.
Afterwards, Columbus went back to Hispaniola, but settlers were very unhappy with him because they had not found the promised gold. Spanish leaders back home were also unhappy with Columbus's governance of the island because they heard about his cruelty and brutality, including stories of public mutilation. Columbus was taken back to Spain in chains, and he was imprisoned for months.
Charges against Columbus were eventually dropped, and Spain sponsored his fourth voyage in 1502. Columbus sailed to the same area (Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica), and he also discovered portions of Central America (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica), but they ran into bad weather, and they got stuck in Jamaica, unable to return to Spain until they were rescued in Fall 1504.
Columbus's Legacy
Columbus is recognized for establishing "permanent" contact between Europe and the Americas, and this is a major turning point in human history. The world no longer consisted of only Europe, Asia, and Africa; there were now new lands to explore. Even though Columbus himself did not believe he had found new lands, he initiated a series of voyages that would lead to further discoveries.
Columbus is recognized for this discovery in many ways. Native Americans are still called "Indians" because of Columbus's belief that he had found the "East Indies." The South American country of Columbia is named after him, as is the capital of the United States (Washington, D.C. = the District of Columbia). Many islands and territories in the Caribbean still carry the name Columbus originally gave them, and the whole region was known as the “West Indies” during this age. In the United States, many schools and cities are named after Columbus, including ivy-league Columbia University and the city of Columbus, Ohio. Plus, of course, we celebrate the national holiday of Columbus Day in October.
However, Columbus also continues to be criticized for many bad things Europeans brought to the Americas, including colonialization, slavery, exploitation, violence, and disease. Although Columbus did not perpetrate all of these activities at a large scale, he did many of these things, and many other explorers that followed expanded these actions on a large scale.
In contrast to Marco Polo, who lived among the native people in Mongolia and China, Columbus set out to exploit, and many other explorers followed his bad example.
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My name is Lirim Neziri, and I am an educator and a writer. I love to read and learn, and this newsletter (which I call Lirim’s Learning Club) lets me share interesting things I am learning. I write about History, Literature, Writing, Education, Technology, Leadership, and Personal Productivity. Please join my learning adventure.