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{{Short description|Italian navigator and explorer (1451–1506)}}
{{Infobox Person
{{Redirect2|Cristoforo Colombo|Admiral of the Ocean Sea|his direct descendant|Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal, 18th Duke of Veragua||Christopher Columbus (disambiguation)|and|Cristoforo Colombo (disambiguation)}}
| name = Mr. Testical | occupation = ] for the ]
{{pp-dispute|small=yes}}
| image = Christopher Columbus Face.jpg
{{Pp-move|small=yes}}
| image_size = 180px
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
| caption = <p>Portrait by ], painted between 1505 and 1536. Photo by historian ].
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
| birth_date = c. 1451
{{Infobox officeholder
| birth_place = ], ], ] usually accepted
| honorific-prefix = Admiral of the Ocean Sea
| death_date = {{death date|1506|5|20|mf=y}}
| image = Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus.jpg
| death_place = outside ], ]
| caption = Posthumous portrait of a man, said to be Christopher Columbus, by ], 1519{{efn|There are no known authentic portraits of Columbus.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lester |first1=Paul M. |title=Looks are deceiving: The portraits of Christopher Columbus |journal=Visual Anthropology |date=January 1993 |volume=5 |issue=3–4 |pages=211–227 |doi=10.1080/08949468.1993.9966590 | issn=0894-9468}}</ref>}}
|names in other languages = ]: Christophorus Columbus; ]: '''Cristoforo Colombo'''; ]: '''Cristóvão Colombo''', formerly ''Christovam Colon''; ]: '''Cristóbal Colón'''; ]: '''Cristòfor Colom'''
| order = 1st
| religion = Christianity
| office = Governor of the Indies
| term_start = 1492
| term_end = 1499
| appointed = ]
| predecessor = Office Established
| successor = ]
| birth_date = Between 25 August and 31 October 1451
| birth_place = ], ]
| death_date = {{death date|1506|05|20|df=y}} (aged 54)
| death_place = ], ]
| resting_place = ], Seville, Spain
| spouse = {{marriage|]|1479|1484|end=died}}
| partner = ]
| children = {{hlist|]|]|]}}
| mother = ]
| father = ]
| relatives = ] (brother)
| profession = ]
| signature = Columbus Signature.svg
}} }}
<!--ACCORDING TO ], places of b./d. must be listed in the text proper-->
'''Christopher Columbus''' (] &ndash; ], ]) was a ], ] and one of the first Europeans to explore the Americas after the ]. Though not the first to reach the Americas from Europe, Columbus' voyages led to general European awareness of the hemisphere and the successful establishment of European cultures in the ]. It is generally believed that he was born in ], although other theories exist. The name ''Christopher Columbus'' is the Anglicization of the ] '''Christophorus Columbus'''. Also well known are his name's rendering in modern ] as '''Cristoforo Colombo''' and in ] as '''Cristóbal Colón'''.


'''Christopher Columbus'''{{efn|In other relevant languages:
Columbus' voyages across the ] began a ]an effort at ] and ] of the ]. While history places great significance on his first voyage of ], he did not actually reach the ]n mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Instead, he discovered ] accidentally while trying to find an alternative route to India, hence the Native Americans being called "Indians". Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, and there are accounts of ] prior to 1492. Nevertheless, Columbus's voyage came at a critical time of growing ] and ] between ] seeking wealth from the establishment of ]s and ]. The term ] is sometimes used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and further European influence.
* {{langx|it|Cristoforo Colombo}} {{IPA|it|kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo|}}
* {{langx|lij|Cristoffa C(or)ombo}} {{IPA-lij|kɾiˈʃtɔffa kuˈɾuŋbu, – ˈkuŋbu|}}
* {{langx|es|link=yes|Cristóbal Colón}} {{IPA|es|kɾisˈtoβal koˈlon|}}
* {{langx|pt|Cristóvão Colombo}} {{IPA|pt|kɾiʃˈtɔvɐ̃w kuˈlõbu|}}
* {{langx|ca|Cristòfor}} (or {{lang|ca|Cristòfol}}) {{lang|ca|Colom}} {{IPA|ca|kɾisˈtɔfuɾ kuˈlom, -ful k-|}}
* {{langx|la|Christophorus Columbus}}.}} ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|l|ʌ|m|b|ə|s}};<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/columbus|title=Dictionary.com &#124; Meanings & Definitions of English Words|website=Dictionary.com}}</ref> between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian<ref name="Delaney2011">{{Cite book |last=Delaney |first=Carol |title=Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem |year=2011 |publisher=Free Press/Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-0237-4 |edition=1st |location=United States of America |page=74 |language=English}}</ref>{{Efn|Though the modern state of Italy had yet to be established, the Latin equivalent of the term ''Italian'' had been in use for natives of the region since antiquity; most scholars believe Columbus was born in Genoa.<ref name="FlintECB2022">{{cite web |last1=Flint |first1=Valerie I.J. |title=Christopher Columbus |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |date=16 May 2021 |access-date=2 January 2022 |language=en}}</ref>}} explorer and navigator from the ]<ref name="Delaney2011"/><ref name="FlintECB2022"/> who completed ] sponsored by the ], opening the way for the widespread European ] and ]. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.


The name ''Christopher Columbus'' is the ] of the Latin {{lang|la|Christophorus Columbus}}. Growing up on the coast of ], he went to sea at a young age and traveled widely, as far north as the ] and as far south as what is now ]. He married Portuguese noblewoman ], who bore a son, ], and was based in Lisbon for several years. He later took a Castilian mistress, ], who bore a son, ].<ref name="Fernández-Armesto2010">{{cite book |last1=Fernández-Armesto |first1=Felipe |title=Columbus on Himself |year=2010 |publisher=Hackett Publishing |isbn=978-1-60384-317-1 |page=270 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZmOBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA270 |quote=The date of Fernando's birth, November 1488, gives a terminus ante quem early in that year for the start of Columbus's liaison with Beatriz Enríquez. She was of peasant parentage, but, when Columbus met her, was the ward of a well-to-do relative in Cordoba. A meat business gave her income of her own, mentioned in the only other record of Columbus's solicitude for her: a letter to Diego, written in 1502, just before departure on the fourth Atlantic crossing, in which the explorer enjoins his son to 'take Beatriz Enriquez in your care for love of me, as you your own mother'. Varela, Cristóbal Colón, p. 309.}}</ref><ref name="Taviani201624">{{cite book |last1=Taviani |first1=Paolo Emilio |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |pages=24–25 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |chapter=Beatriz de Arana |quote=Columbus never married Beatriz. When he returned from the first voyage, he was given the greatest of honors and elevated to the highest position in Spain. Because of his discovery, he became one of the most illustrious persons at the Spanish court and had to submit, like all the great persons of the time, to customary legal restrictions on matters of marriage and extramarital relations. The Alphonsine laws forbade extramarital relations of concubinage for "illustrious people" (king, princes, dukes, counts, marquis) with plebeian women, if they themselves were or their forefathers had been of inferior social condition.}}</ref>{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=126}}
The anniversary of the 1492 voyage (''vd''. ]) is observed throughout the Americas and in ].


Largely self-educated, Columbus was knowledgeable in geography, astronomy, and history. He developed a plan to seek a western sea passage to the ], hoping to profit from the lucrative ]. After the ], and Columbus's persistent lobbying in multiple kingdoms, the Catholic Monarchs, Queen ] and King ], agreed to sponsor a journey west. Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships and made landfall in the Americas on 12 October, ending the period of human habitation in the Americas now referred to as the ]. His landing place was an island in ], known by its native inhabitants as ]. He then visited the islands now known as Cuba and ], establishing ] in what is now ]. Columbus returned to Castile in early 1493, with captured natives. ] soon spread throughout Europe.
==Life==


Columbus made three further voyages to the Americas, exploring the ] in 1493, ] and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the east coast of Central America in 1502. Many names he gave to geographical features, particularly islands, are still in use. He gave the name ''indios'' ("Indians") to the ] he encountered. The extent to which he was aware the Americas were a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he never clearly renounced his belief he had reached the Far East. As a colonial governor, Columbus was accused by some of his contemporaries of significant brutality and removed from the post. Columbus's strained relationship with the ] and its colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to ] over the privileges he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.
===Nationality===


Columbus's expeditions inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries, thus bringing the Americas into the European sphere of influence. The transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the ] and ] that followed his first voyage are known as the ], named after him. These events and the effects which persist to the present are often cited as the beginning of the ].<ref>{{cite book |quote= Most researchers however trace the beginning of the early modern era to Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas in the 1490s |title=Cross-Border Labor Mobility: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives |first=Caf |last=Dowlah |year=2020 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nC3rDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn= 978-3-030-36506-6 }}</ref><ref>Mills, Keneth and Taylor, William B., , p. 36, SR Books, 1998, {{ISBN|0-8420-2573-1}}</ref>
{{main|Origin theories of Christopher Columbus}}
It is most widely accepted that Columbus was born in the ], located in modern-day ].<ref name="britannica"> Encyclopedia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 16, pp. 605ff / Morison, ''Christopher Columbus'', 1955 ed., pp. 14ff</ref> 188 notarial, judicial, and administrative documents about some Columbus and his family have been found in the "Archivio di Stato" (national record office) of Genoa, Italy.<ref>http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/ASGE/asge.htm (In Italian)</ref>
Some writers hold that his background was Spanish, Portuguese or Greek,<ref>uth G. Durlacher-Wolper: ''Christophoros Columbus: A Byzantine Prince from Chios, Greece.'' The New World Museum, San Salvador, Bahamas. 1982.</ref> but no conclusive evidence has ever been offered. Clues to Columbus' origin such as learned languages and ] samples have been ], but to date, DNA tests show only that Columbus was Caucasian, and probably was not (as some have argued) a ] (Spanish/Portuguese).<ref>Prof. José Lorente, Prof. Univeristy of Granada in "Secrets from the Grave" (Discovery Channel, 2004)</ref> DNA surveys of present-day individuals with similar names in various countries are continuing.<ref>Amy Harmon, , ], October 8, 2007.</ref> There was one document, the Last Will and Testament of 1498, where Columbus supposedly said he was from Genoa, but it has now been proven to have been falsified after 1573. <ref>Rosa, Manuel, "O Mistério Colombo Revelado", pp. 157-166, Lisbon, 2006 (In Portuguese)</ref>


Columbus was widely celebrated in the centuries after his death, but public perception fractured in the 21st century due to greater attention to the harms committed under his governance, particularly the beginning of the ] of Hispaniola's indigenous ] people, caused by Old World diseases and mistreatment, including ]. ] in the Western Hemisphere bear ], including the South American country of ], the Canadian province of ], the American city ], and the United States capital, the ].
===Early life===


== Early life ==
<!--THIS SECTION IS LARGELY BASED ON BRITANNICA AND MORISON's ''Christopher Columbus''-->
According to the most widely acknowledged biographies, Columbus was born between August and October 1451 in ]. His father was ], a middle-class wool weaver working between Genoa and ]. His mother was ]. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo were his brothers. Bartolomeo worked in a ] workshop in ] for at least part of his adulthood.<ref name="britannica" />


{{further|topic=Columbus's birthplace and background|Origin theories of Christopher Columbus}}
While information about Columbus' early years is scarce, he probably received an incomplete education. He spoke a Genoese dialect. In one of his writings, Columbus claims to have gone to the sea at the age of 10. In 1470 the Columbus Family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Columbus was on a Genoese ship hired in the service of ] to support his attempt to conquer the ].


] in ], Italy, an 18th-century reconstruction of the house in which Columbus grew up. The original was likely destroyed during the 1684 ].<ref>{{cite book |title=Una Giornata nella Città |trans-title=A Day in the City |first1=Corinna |last1=Praga |author2=Laura Monac |publisher=Sagep Editrice |location=Genoa |year=1992 |page=14 |language=it}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.ortidicarignano.it/files/seiitinerariinportoria.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.ortidicarignano.it/files/seiitinerariinportoria.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |chapter=Casa di Colombo |first1=Alfredo |last1=Preste |author2=Alessandro Torti |author3=Remo Viazzi |title=Sei itinerari in Portoria |publisher=Grafiche Frassicomo |trans-title=Six itineraries in Portoria |location=Genova |year=1997 |language=it}}</ref>]]
In 1473 Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola families of Genoa. Later he allegedly made a trip to ], in the ]. In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry a valuable cargo to northern Europe. He docked in Bristol, Galway, in Ireland and very likely, in 1477 he was in Iceland. In 1479 Columbus reached his brother Bartolomeo in ], keeping on trading for the Centurione family. He married ], daughter of the ] governor, ]. In 1481, his son, ] was born.


Columbus's early life is obscure, but scholars believe he was born in the ] between 25 August and 31 October 1451.<ref name="Edwards2014">{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=J. |title=Ferdinand and Isabella |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-89345-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pnHJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |page=118}}</ref> His father was ], a wool weaver who worked in Genoa and ], and owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked. His mother was ].{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=91}} He had three brothers—], Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo (also called Diego)<ref>{{Cite NIE| title=Columbus, Diego (brother) |display=Columbus, Diego. The youngest brother of Christopher Columbus}} – The names ] and ] are ], along with ], all sharing a common origin. See ''Behind the Name'', Mike Campbell, pages , , and . All retrieved 3 February 2017.</ref>—as well as a sister, Bianchinetta.{{sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|p=56}} Bartholomew ran a ] workshop in ] for at least part of his adulthood.<ref name="King2021">{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Ross |title=The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance |year=2021 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-0-8021-5853-6 |page=264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoskEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT264}}</ref>
===Physical appearance===


His native language is presumed to have been a ] (]) as his first language, though Columbus probably never wrote in it.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=96}} His name in 15th-century Genoese was ''Cristoffa Corombo'',<ref name="Galante2022">{{cite book |last1=Galante |first1=John Starosta |title=On the Other Shore: The Atlantic Worlds of Italians in South America During the Great War |year=2022 |publisher=Univ of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-1-4962-2958-8 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fapJEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA13}} {{IPA-lij|kriˈʃtɔffa kuˈɹuŋbu}} {{cite book| author=Consulta Ligure| title=Vocabolario delle parlate liguri| trans-title=Vocabulary of Ligurian Speech: Specialized Vocabulary| publisher=Sage| year=1982| isbn=978-8-8705-8044-0}}</ref> in Italian, ''Cristoforo Colombo'', and in Spanish ''Cristóbal Colón''.<ref name="SánchezGuruléBroughton1990">{{cite book |last1=Sánchez |first1=Joseph P. |last2=Gurulé |first2=Jerry L. |last3=Broughton |first3=William H. |title=Bibliografia Colombina, 1492–1990: Books, Articles and Other Publications on the Life and Times of Christopher Columbus |year=1990 |publisher=National Park Service, Spanish Colonial Research Center |page=ix |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vw60dj9PV10C&pg=PR9}}</ref><ref name="Bedini2016">{{cite book |last1=Bedini |first1=Silvio A. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=viii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR8}}</ref>
] in the
], New York.]]
Although an abundance of artwork involving Christopher Columbus exists, no ] contemporary ] has been found. The only official portrait was painted by ], between 1505 and 1536, titled ] in the Royal Alcazar in Seville. In 1595 ] made an ] after a painting of Columbus, made in his lifetime.<ref></ref> The etching shows resemblance with the portrait of ], so this painting might depict Columbus with some accuracy. Over the years, artists who reconstruct his appearance have done so from written descriptions. These writings describe him as having reddish hair, which turned to white early in his life, as well as being a lighter skinned person with too much sun exposure turning his face red.


In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at 14.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=96}} In 1470, the family moved to ], where Domenico took over a tavern. Some modern authors have argued that he was not from Genoa, but from the ] region of Spain<ref name="Wilgus1973">{{cite book |last1=Wilgus |first1=Alva Curtis |title=Latin America, 1492–1942: A Guide to Historical and Cultural Development Before World War II |year=1973 |publisher=Scarecrow Reprint Corporation |isbn=978-0-8108-0595-8 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZoWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22New%20theories%22}}</ref> or from Portugal.<ref>{{in lang|pt}} "Armas e Troféus." Revista de História, Heráldica, Genealogia e Arte. 1994, VI serie – Tomo VI, pp. 5–52. Retrieved 21 November 2011.{{verify source|date=June 2020}}</ref> These competing hypotheses have been discounted by most scholars.{{sfn|Davidson|1997|p=3}}{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=85}}
Despite the clear description of red hair or white hair, textbooks use the Sebastiano del Piombo painting so often that it has become the iconic image of Columbus accepted by ].


], Genoa]]
===Language===
In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the wealthy ], Centurione, and Di Negro families of Genoa.<ref name="Lyon1992">{{cite book |last1=Lyon |first1=Eugene |editor1-last=McGovern |editor1-first=James R. |title=The World of Columbus |year=1992 |publisher=Mercer University Press |isbn=978-0-86554-414-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mOh34X6UY8C&pg=PA90 |pages=90–91 |chapter=Navigation and Ships in the Age of Columbus}}</ref> Later, he made a trip to the Greek island ] in the ], then ruled by Genoa.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=93}} In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe. He probably visited ], England,<ref name="Vigneras2016">{{cite book |last1=Vigneras |first1=L. A. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=175 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA175 |chapter=Columbus in Portugal |quote=It is most probable that Columbus visited Bristol, where he was introduced to English commerce with Iceland.}}</ref> and ], Ireland,<ref name="UrelandClarkson2011">{{cite book |last1=Ureland |first1=P. Sture |editor1-last=Ureland |editor1-first=P. Sture |editor2-last=Clarkson |editor2-first=Iain |title=Language Contact across the North Atlantic: Proceedings of the Working Groups held at the University College, Galway (Ireland), 1992 and the University of Göteborg (Sweden), 1993 |year=2011 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-092965-2 |page=14 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O46ZKTUg2ogC&pg=PA14 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> where he may have visited ].<ref name="Graves1949">{{cite book |last1=Graves |first1=Charles |title=Ireland Revisited |year=1949 |publisher=Hutchinson |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DedQAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Christopher%20Columbus%22%20%22St.%20Nicholas%22%20%22Galway%22}}</ref> It has been speculated he went to ] in 1477, though many scholars doubt this.<ref name="Enterline2003">{{cite book| last1=Enterline| first1=James Robert| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blJZYInNFkkC&pg=PT247| title=Erikson, Eskimos & Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America| year=2003| publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM| isbn=978-0-8018-7547-2| page=247| quote=Some writers have suggested that it was during this visit to Iceland that Columbus heard of land in the west. Keeping the source of his information secret, they say, he concocted a plan to sail westward. Certainly the knowledge was generally available without attending any saga-telling parties. That this knowledge reached Columbus seems unlikely, however, for later, when trying to get backing for his project, he went to great lengths to unearth even the slightest scraps of information that would add to the plausibility of his scheme. Knowledge of the Norse explorations could have helped.}}</ref><ref name="PaolucciPaolucci1992">{{cite book |last1=Paolucci |first1=Anne |last2=Paolucci |first2=Henry |author1-link=Anne Paolucci |title=Columbus, America, and the World |date=1992 |publisher=Council on National Literatures |isbn=978-0-918680-33-4 |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AhwWAQAAIAAJ&q=%221477%22 |quote=Many Columbists ... have doubted that Columbus could ever have gone to Iceland.}}</ref><ref name="Kolodny2012" /><ref name=":7">{{cite journal| last=Quinn| first=David B.| year=1992| title=Columbus and the North: England, Iceland, and Ireland| journal=The William and Mary Quarterly| volume=49| issue=2| pages=278–297| doi=10.2307/2947273| jstor=2947273| issn=0043-5597}}</ref> It is known that in the autumn of 1477, he sailed on a Portuguese ship from Galway to Lisbon, where he found his brother Bartholomew, and they continued trading for the Centurione family. Columbus based himself in Lisbon from 1477 to 1485. In 1478, the Centuriones sent Columbus on a sugar-buying trip to Madeira.<ref name="Fernández-Armesto1991">{{cite book |last1=Fernández-Armesto |first1=Felipe |title=Columbus |year=1991 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-215898-7 |page=xvii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NTwLAAAAYAAJ&q=%221478%20Sugar-buying%20trip%22}}</ref> He married ], daughter of ], a Portuguese nobleman of ] origin,<ref name="FreitasManey1893">{{cite book |last1=Freitas |first1=Antonio Maria de |last2=Maney |first2=Regina |title=The Wife of Columbus: With Genealogical Tree of the Perestrello and Moniz Families |publisher=Stettinger, Lambert & Co |location=New York |year=1893 |url=https://archive.org/details/wifeofcolumbus00frei/page/32/mode/1up |page=32}}</ref> who had been the ] of ].<ref name="Alessandrini2012">{{cite web |last1=Alessandrini |first1=Nunziatella |title=Os Perestrello: uma família de Piacenza no Império Português (século XVI) |trans-title=The Perestrellos: A Piacenza family in the Portuguese Empire (16th century) |url=https://www.academia.edu/6148469 |publisher=Universidade NOVA de Lisboa |location=Lisbon |page=90 |date=1 January 2012 |language=pt |quote=Finally, the most famous son of Filippone, Bartolomeu Perestrello (I), who participated in the rediscovery of the island of Madeira in 1418, and was ] and ''feitor'' of Porto Santo until, by a letter of 1 November 1446 from Infante Henrique, he became the first donatary captain of the island, a privilege that continued until the 19th century, with the last donatary captain Manuel da Câmara Bettencourt Perestrello in 1814.}}</ref>
{{seealso|Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Language}}
Although Genoese documents have been found about a weaver named Colombo, some letters which are said to have been written by Columbus are written in a nonstandard form of Spanish mixed with ] or ] phonetics. He used this language when writing personal notes to himself, to his brother, Italian friends, and to the Bank of Genoa. Two of his brothers, also accepted as being wool weavers from Genoa, understood and wrote this form of Spanish/Portuguese as well. Genoese Italian was a language generally written by Genoa's schooled people at that time; the average person from Genoa naturally spoke a Genoese variant of Italian.


] of the United States of America – 19th century copy from an engraving by ]]]
In later years, Columbus mastered the use of ]. He kept a journal in Latin as well as a more private journal in Greek.


In 1479 or 1480, Columbus's son ] was born. Between 1482 and 1485, Columbus traded along the coasts of ], reaching the Portuguese trading post of ] at the ] in present-day ].<ref name="Suranyi2015">{{cite book |last1=Suranyi |first1=Anna |title=The Atlantic Connection: A History of the Atlantic World, 1450–1900 |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-50066-7 |page=17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6FhCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA17}}</ref> Before 1484, Columbus returned to Porto Santo to find that his wife had died.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=63}} He returned to Portugal to settle her estate and take Diego with him.<ref name="Taviani2016">{{cite book |last1=Taviani |first1=Paolo Emilio |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=24 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 |chapter=Beatriz Arana }}</ref>
==Background to voyages==
===Navigation plans===


He left Portugal for ] in 1485, where he took a mistress in 1487, a 20-year-old orphan named ].{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=126}} It is likely that Beatriz met Columbus when he was in ], a gathering place for Genoese merchants and where the court of the ] was located at intervals. Beatriz, unmarried at the time, gave birth to Columbus's second son, ], in July 1488, named for the monarch of Aragon. Columbus recognized the boy as his offspring. Columbus entrusted his older, legitimate son Diego to take care of Beatriz and pay the pension set aside for her following his death, but Diego was negligent in his duties.<ref>Taviani, "Beatriz Arana" in ''The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia'', vol. 1, pp. 24–25.</ref>
Europe had long enjoyed a safe land passage to ] and ]— sources of valued ] such as ], ], and ]— under the ] of the ] (the ], or ''Mongol peace''). With the ] to the ] in 1453, the land route to Asia became more difficult. The Ottoman conquest of Egypt similarly impeded the Red Sea route. Portuguese sailors took to traveling south around Africa to Asia. The Columbus brothers had a different idea. By the 1480s, they had developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia, by sailing directly west across the "]," ''i.e.,'' the Atlantic.


]'', with his handwritten notes in Latin written in the margins]]
Following ]'s myth-filled 1828 biography of Columbus, Americans commonly believed Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because Europeans thought ].<ref name=book3>{{cite book | first=Paul F|last=Boller | title=Not So!:Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton | year=1995 | id=ISBN 9780195091861}}</ref> In fact, few at the time of Columbus’s voyage, and virtually no sailors or navigators, believed this.<ref>Russell, Jeffrey Burton 1991. ''Inventing the Flat Earth. Columbus and modern historians'', Praeger, New York, Westport, London 1991;<br />Zinn, Howard 1980. ''A People's History of the United States'', HarperCollins 2001. p.2</ref> Most agreed that the Earth was a sphere. This had been the general opinion of ancient Greek science, and continued as the standard opinion (for example of ] in ''The Reckoning of Time'') until scholars misread ] to say the earth was a ], inventing the ] concept. This view was very influential, but never wholly accepted. Knowledge of the Earth's spherical nature was not limited to scientists: for instance, Dante's ] is based on a spherical Earth. Columbus put forth arguments based on the circumference of the sphere. Most scholars accepted ]'s claim the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 ] of the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water.


Columbus learned ], Portuguese, and Castilian. He read widely about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of ], ]'s ''Imago Mundi'', the travels of ] and ], ]'s '']'', and ]'s '']''. According to historian ],
Columbus, however, believed the calculations of ], putting the landmass at 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water. Moreover, Columbus believed one degree represented a shorter distance on the earth's surface than was commonly held. Finally, he read maps as if the distances were calculated in ]s (1,238 meters<!--Shouldn't it be 1,520 m-->). Accepting the length of a degree to be 56⅔ miles, from the writings of ], he therefore calculated the circumference of the Earth as 25,255 kilometers at most, and the distance from the ] to ] as 3,000 Italian miles (3,700 km, or 2,300 statute miles) Columbus did not realize Al-Farghani used the much longer Arabic mile (about 1,830 meters).
<blockquote>Columbus was not a scholarly man. Yet he studied these books, made hundreds of marginal notations in them and came out with ideas about the world that were characteristically simple and strong and sometimes wrong&nbsp;...<ref name="ESMorgan">{{cite news |last1=Morgan |first1=Edmund S. |author-link=Edmund Morgan (historian) |title=Columbus' Confusion About the New World |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/columbus-confusion-about-the-new-world-140132422/ |magazine=] |date=October 2009 }}</ref></blockquote>


== Quest for Asia ==
Columbus' problem was that experts did not accept his estimate. The true circumference of the Earth is about 40,000 km (25,000 sm), a figure established by ] in the second century BC,<ref>Sagan, Carl. ''Cosmos''; the mean circumference of the Earth is 40,041.47 km.</ref> and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan 19,600 km (12,200 sm). No ship that was readily available in the ] could carry enough food and fresh water for such a journey. Most European sailors and navigators concluded, likely correctly, that sailors undertaking a westward voyage from Europe to Asia non-stop would die of thirst or starvation long before reaching their destination. Spain, however, having completed an expensive war, was desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries in trade with the East Indies. Columbus promised such an advantage.


=== Background ===
While Columbus' calculations underestimated the circumference of the Earth and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan by the standards of his peers as well as in fact, almost all Europeans held the mistaken opinion that the aquatic expanse between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted. As the ] developed it was the route to America, rather than to Japan, that gave Spain a competitive edge in developing an overseas empire.
]'s notions of the geography of the Atlantic Ocean (shown superimposed on a modern map), which directly influenced Columbus's plans]]


Under the ]'s hegemony over ] and the '']'', Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage on the ] to ], parts of ], including ] and ], which were sources of valuable goods. With the ] to the ] in 1453, the Silk Road was closed to Christian traders.<ref name="DavidannGilbert2019">{{cite book |last1=Davidann |first1=Jon |last2=Gilbert |first2=Marc Jason |title=Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, 1453–Present |year=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-75924-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8f6GDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39 |page=39 |language=en}}</ref>
===Funding campaign===


In 1474, the Florentine astronomer ] suggested to King ] that sailing west across the Atlantic would be a quicker way to reach the ] (Spice) Islands, ], ] and ] than the route around Africa, but Afonso rejected his proposal.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=108}}<ref name="Boxer1967">{{cite book |last1=Boxer |first1=Charles Ralph |title=The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650 |year=1967 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2R4DA2lip9gC&pg=PA2 |language=en}}</ref> In the 1480s, Columbus and his brother proposed a plan to reach the ] by sailing west. Columbus supposedly wrote to Toscanelli in 1481 and received encouragement, along with a copy of a map the astronomer had sent Afonso implying that a westward route to Asia was possible.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=227}} Columbus's plans were complicated by ]'s rounding of the ] in 1488, which suggested the ] around Africa to Asia.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|p=}}
In ], Columbus presented his plans to ], ]. He proposed the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one year's time to sail out into the ], search for a western route to ], and then return home. Columbus also requested he be made "Great Admiral of the Ocean", created governor of any and all lands he discovered, and given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands discovered. The king submitted the proposal to his experts, who rejected it. It was their considered opinion that Columbus' proposed route of 2,400 miles was, in fact, far too short.<ref> Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus'' Boston, 1942</ref>


Columbus had to wait until 1492 for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to support his voyage across the Atlantic to find gold, spices, a safer route to the East, and converts to Christianity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Muzio |first=Tim Di |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-LaDwAAQBAJ |title=The Tragedy of Human Development: A Genealogy of Capital as Power |year= 2017 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-78348-715-8 |page=58 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Echevarría |first1=Roberto Gonzalez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8lrcKp81eawC |title=The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature |last2=Pupo-Walker |first2=Enrique |year= 1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-34069-4 |page=63 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Johanyak |first1=D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UzFAAAAQBAJ |title=The English Renaissance, Orientalism, and the Idea of Asia |last2=Lim |first2=W. |year=2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-10622-2 |page=136 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=William Casey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UElGCn0QN3gC&pg=PT166 |title=Ambition, A History: From Vice to Virtue |year= 2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-18984-1 |language=en}}</ref>
In ] Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal once again, and once again John invited him to an audience. It too was to come to nothing, for not long afterwards came the arrival of Portugal's native son ] from a successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa. Portugal was no longer interested in trailblazing a western route to the East.


] and other commentators have argued that Columbus was a ] and ] and that these beliefs motivated his quest for Asia in a variety of ways. Columbus often wrote about seeking gold in the log books of his voyages and writes about acquiring it "in such quantity that the sovereigns... will undertake and prepare to go conquer the ]" in a fulfillment of ].{{efn|In an account of his fourth voyage, Columbus wrote that "] and ] must be rebuilt by Christian hands".<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Sheehan |first1=Kevin Joseph |title=Iberian Asia: the strategies of Spanish and Portuguese empire building, 1540–1700 |year=2008 |id={{ProQuest|304693901}} |oclc=892835540 }}{{page needed|date=June 2020}}</ref>}} Columbus often wrote about ] all races to Christianity.<ref name="jstor3879352">{{cite journal| last1=Delaney| first1=Carol| author-link=Carol Delaney| date=8 March 2006| title=Columbus's Ultimate Goal: Jerusalem| url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f671/e4f2cd4ba48c3d113fde22094738b87058aa.pdf| journal=]| publisher=]| volume=48| issue=2| pages=260–92| doi=10.1017/S0010417506000119| jstor=3879352| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226123645/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f671/e4f2cd4ba48c3d113fde22094738b87058aa.pdf| archive-date=26 February 2020| s2cid=144148903}}</ref> Abbas Hamandi argues that Columbus was motivated by the hope of " Jerusalem from Muslim hands" by "using the resources of newly discovered lands".<ref>{{cite journal| last1=Hamdani| first1=Abbas| year=1979| title=Columbus and the Recovery of Jerusalem| journal=]| publisher=]| location=Ann Arbor, Michigan| volume=99| issue=1| pages=39–48| doi=10.2307/598947| jstor=598947}}</ref>
Columbus traveled from Portugal once more to both ] and ], but he received encouragement from neither. Previously he had his brother sound out ], to see if the ] might not be more amenable to Columbus' proposal. After much carefully considered hesitation Henry's invitation came, too late. Columbus had already committed himself to ].


=== Geographical considerations ===
] (]).</small>]]
Despite ] to the contrary, nearly all educated Westerners of Columbus's time knew that the ], a concept that had been understood since ].{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|p=244}} The techniques of ], which uses the position of the Sun and the stars in the sky, had long been in use by astronomers and were beginning to be implemented by mariners.<ref name="Willoz-Egnor2013">{{cite web|last1=Willoz-Egnor |first1=Jeanne |title=Mariner's Astrolabe |url=https://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=13&iid=25 |url-status=live |year=2013 |access-date=5 July 2021|website=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202740/http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=13&iid=25 |archive-date=29 October 2013}}</ref><ref name="Smith2002">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Ben |title=An astrolabe from Passa Pau, Cape Verde Islands |journal=International Journal of Nautical Archaeology |date=1 January 2002 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=99–107 |doi=10.1006/ijna.2002.1021 |bibcode=2002IJNAr..31...99S |url=https://www.academia.edu/31744402}}</ref><!-- Please do not remove url just because the DOI is given; the webpage has a link to a free download, and the very good paper can be read right there. -->


However Columbus made several errors in calculating the size of the Earth, the distance the continent extended to the east, and therefore the distance to the west to reach his goal.
He had sought an audience from the monarchs ] of ] and ] of Castile, who had united the largest kingdoms of Spain by marrying, and were ruling together. On May 1, 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus laid his plans before Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. After the passing of much time, these savants of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, reported back that Columbus had judged the distance to ] much too short. They pronounced the idea impractical, and advised their Royal Highnesses to pass on the proposed venture.


First, as far back as the 3rd century BC, ] had correctly computed the circumference of the Earth by using simple geometry and studying the shadows cast by objects at two remote locations.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe| last=Ridpath| first=Ian| publisher=Watson-Guptill| year=2001| isbn=978-0-8230-2512-1| location=New York| page=31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first=Carl| last=Sagan| author-link=Carl Sagan| title=Cosmos| publisher=]| url=https://archive.org/details/cosmossaga00saga/page/14/mode/2up?q=Eratosthenes |location=New York | year=1980| isbn=978-0-3945-0294-6| pages=34–35 |access-date=20 February 2022 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In the 1st century BC, ] confirmed Eratosthenes's results by comparing stellar observations at two separate locations. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but Ptolemy's use of the smaller, old-fashioned units of distance led Columbus to underestimate the size of the Earth by about a third.<ref name="Freely2013">{{cite book |last=Freely |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QsWSDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT36 |title=Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe |publisher=] |location=New York |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4683-0850-1 |page=36 |language=en}}</ref>
However, to keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the King and Queen of Spain gave him an annual annuity of 12,000 '']'' ($840) and in 1489 furnished him with a letter ordering all Spanish cities and towns to provide him food and lodging at no cost.<ref>Durant, Will ''"The Story of Civilization"'' vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, page 260.</ref>


] mapmaking workshop of Bartholomew and Christopher Columbus<ref>"Marco Polo et le Livre des Merveilles", p. 37. {{ISBN|978-2-35404-007-9}}</ref>]]
After continually lobbying at the Spanish court, he finally had success in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered ], the last Muslim stronghold on the ], and they received Columbus in ], in the '']'' castle. Isabella turned Columbus down on the advice of her confessor, and he was leaving town in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered". King Ferdinand is referred to as "losing his patience" in this issue, but this cannot be proven.


Second, three ] parameters determined the bounds of Columbus's enterprise: the distance across the ocean between Europe and Asia, which depended on the extent of the ], i.e., the Eurasian land-mass stretching east–west between Spain and China; the circumference of the Earth; and the number of miles or ] in a degree of ], which was possible to deduce from the theory of the relationship between the size of the surfaces of water and the land as held by the followers of ] in medieval times.<ref name="Randles1990">{{cite journal |last1=Randles |first1=W. G. L. |title=The Evaluation of Columbus' 'India' Project by Portuguese and Spanish Cosmographers in the Light of the Geographical Science of the Period |journal=Imago Mundi |date=January 1990 |volume=42 |issue=1 |page=50 |doi=10.1080/03085699008592691 |s2cid=129588714 |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/~corry/teaching/histint/download/Randles_Columbus.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.tau.ac.il/~corry/teaching/histint/download/Randles_Columbus.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |issn=0308-5694}}</ref>
About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, whom Columbus had already lined up. Financially broke after the Granada campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous, but as his own son later wrote, the monarchs did not really expect him to return.


From ]'s '']'' (1410), Columbus learned of ]'s estimate that a degree of ] (equal to approximately a degree of ] along the equator) spanned 56.67 ]s (equivalent to {{convert|66.2|nmi|km|1|abbr=off|sp=us|disp=comma}} or 76.2&nbsp;mi), but he did not realize that this was expressed in the Arabic mile (about {{Convert|1,830|m|mi|abbr=out|sp=us|disp=or}}) rather than the shorter ] (about 1,480&nbsp;m) with which he was familiar.<ref name="Mahmud2017">{{cite journal |last1=Khairunnahar |last2=Mahmud |first2=Khandakar Hasan |last3=Islam |first3=Md Ariful |title=Error calculation of the selected maps used in the Great Voyage of Christopher Columbus |journal=The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II |year=2017 |volume=XLI |page=67 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348442261 |access-date=9 January 2022 |publisher=Jahangirnagar University |issn=1682-7422}}</ref> Columbus therefore estimated the size of the Earth to be about 75% of Eratosthenes's calculation.<ref name="McCormick2012">{{cite web |last1=McCormick |first1=Douglas |title=Columbus's Geographical Miscalculations |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/columbuss-geographical-miscalculations |website=IEEE Spectrum |access-date=9 January 2022 |language=en |date=9 October 2012}}</ref>
According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, if Columbus discovered any new islands or mainland, he would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands. He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10 percent of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity; this part was denied to him in the contract, although it was one of his demands.
Finally, he would also have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the new lands and receive one-eighth of the profits.


Third, most scholars of the time accepted Ptolemy's estimate that ] spanned 180° longitude,<ref name="Gunn2018">{{cite book |last1=Gunn |first1=Geoffrey C. |title=Overcoming Ptolemy: The Revelation of an Asian World Region |date=2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-9014-3 |pages=77–78 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xCRyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |language=en |quote=Constructed on a framework of latitude and longitude, the Ptolemy-revival map projections revealed the extent of the known world in relation to the whole. Typically, they displayed a Eurasian landmass extending through 180° of longitude from a prime meridian in the west (variously the Canary Islands or Cape Verde) to a location in the "Far East."}}</ref> rather than the actual 130° (to the Chinese mainland) or 150° (to Japan at the latitude of Spain). Columbus believed an even higher estimate, leaving a smaller percentage for water.<ref name="Zacher2016">{{cite book |last1=Zacher |first1=Christian K. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |pages=676–677 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA676 |language=en}}</ref> In d'Ailly's ''Imago Mundi'', Columbus read ]'s estimate that the longitudinal span of Eurasia was 225° at the latitude of ].<ref name="Dilke2016">{{cite book |last1=Dilke |first1=O. A. W. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=452 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA452 |language=en |chapter=Marinus of Tyre}}</ref> Some historians, such as ], have suggested that he followed the statement in the ] book ] (]) that "six parts are habitable and the seventh is covered with water."<ref name="Morison1974">{{cite book |last1=Morison |first1=Samuel Eliot |title=The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages A.D. 1492–1616 |date=1974 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-501377-1 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4sOAQAAMAAJ&q=%222%20Esdras%22 |language=en}}</ref> He was also aware of Marco Polo's claim that Japan (which he called "Cipangu") was some {{Convert|2414|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the east of China ("Cathay"),<ref name="Butel2002">{{cite book |last1=Butel |first1=Paul |title=The Atlantic |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-84305-3 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLGIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |language=en}}</ref> and closer to the equator than it is. He was influenced by Toscanelli's idea that there were inhabited islands even farther to the east than Japan, including the mythical ], which he thought might lie not much farther to the west than the ],{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=}} and the distance westward from the ] to the Indies as only 68 degrees, equivalent to {{Convert|3080|nmi|abbr=on}} (a 58% error).<ref name="McCormick2012"/>
Columbus was later arrested in 1500 and supplanted from these posts. After his death, Columbus's sons, Diego and Fernando, took legal action to enforce their father's contract. Many of the smears against Columbus were initiated by the Spanish crown during these lengthy court cases, known as the ''pleitos colombinos''. The family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego's position as Viceroy, but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, and further disputes continued until 1790.<ref>Mark McDonald, "Ferdinand Columbus, Renaissance Collector (1488-1539)", 2005, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714126449 </ref>


Based on his sources, Columbus estimated a distance of {{convert|2,400|nmi|abbr=on}} from the Canary Islands west to Japan; the actual distance is {{convert|10600|nmi|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=110}}<ref name="Edson2007">{{cite book |last1=Edson |first1=Evelyn |title=The World Map, 1300–1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation |year=2007 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-0-8018-8589-1 |page=205 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dhgYlhXJy_QC&pg=PA205 |language=en}}</ref> No ship in the 15th century could have carried enough food and fresh water for such a long voyage,<ref name="Taylor2002">{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alan |title=American Colonies: The Settling of North America (The Penguin History of the United States, Volume 1) |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-200210-0 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPoAQRgkrOcC&pg=PA34 |language=en}}</ref> and the dangers involved in navigating through the uncharted ocean would have been formidable. Most European navigators reasonably concluded that a westward voyage from Europe to Asia was unfeasible. The Catholic Monarchs, however, having completed the '']'', an expensive war against the ] in the ], were eager to obtain a competitive edge over other European countries in the quest for trade with the Indies. Columbus's project, though far-fetched, held the promise of such an advantage.<ref>{{cite book|first=De Lamar|last=Jensen|date=1992|title=Renaissance Europe|publisher=]|location=Lexington, Massachusetts|edition=2nd|isbn= 978-0-669-20007-2 |page=341}}</ref>
==Voyages==
]'', by ]]]


=== Nautical considerations ===
{{main|Voyages of Christopher Columbus}}
{{see also|#Navigational expertise}}
Though Columbus was wrong about the number of degrees of longitude that separated Europe from the Far East and about the distance that each degree represented, he did take advantage of the ], which would prove to be the key to his successful navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. He planned to first sail to the Canary Islands before continuing west with the northeast trade wind.<ref name="Gómez2008">{{cite book |last1=Gómez |first1=Nicolás Wey |title=The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies |year=2008 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-23264-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLntAAAAMAAJ&q=%22northeastern%20trade%20winds%22 |page=37 |language=en |quote=It is also known that wind patterns and water currents in the Atlantic were crucial factors for launching an outward passage from the Canaries: Columbus understood that his chance of crossing the ocean was significantly greater just beyond the Canary calms, where he expected to catch the northeastern trade winds—although, as some authors have pointed out, "westing" from the Canaries, instead of dipping farther south, was hardly an optimal sailing choice, since Columbus's fleet was bound to lose, as soon it did, the northeasterlies in the mid-Atlantic.}}</ref> Part of the return to Spain would require traveling against the wind using an arduous sailing technique called ], during which progress is made very slowly.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=132}} To effectively make the return voyage, Columbus would need to follow the curving trade winds northeastward to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where he would be able to catch the "]" that blow eastward to the coast of Western Europe.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=314}}


The navigational technique for travel in the Atlantic appears to have been exploited first by the Portuguese, who referred to it as the '']'' ('turn of the sea'). Through his marriage to his first wife, Felipa Perestrello, Columbus had access to the nautical charts and logs that had belonged to her deceased father, ], who had served as a captain in the Portuguese navy under ]. In the mapmaking shop where he worked with his brother Bartholomew, Columbus also had ample opportunity to hear the stories of old seamen about their voyages to the western seas,<ref name="Rickey1992">{{cite journal |last1=Rickey |first1=V. Frederick |title=How Columbus Encountered America |journal=Mathematics Magazine |date=1992 |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=219–225 |doi=10.2307/2691445 |jstor=2691445 |issn=0025-570X}}</ref> but his knowledge of the Atlantic wind patterns was still imperfect at the time of his first voyage. By sailing due west from the Canary Islands during ], skirting the so-called ] of the mid-Atlantic, he risked being becalmed and running into a ], both of which he avoided by chance.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=198–199}}
===First voyage===


=== Quest for financial support for a voyage ===
]
], 17th&nbsp;century]]
] of the ].]]
] in a ] made by the Prang Education Company in 1893.]]
On the evening of ], ], Columbus departed from ] with three ships; one larger ], '']'', nicknamed ''Gallega'' (''the Gallician''), and two smaller ]s, '']'' (''the Painted'') and ''Santa Clara'', nicknamed '']'' (''the Girl''). (The ships were never officially named).{{Fact|date=February 2007}} They were property of ] and the ] (] and ]), but the monarchs forced the ] inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. Columbus first sailed to the ], which was owned by ], where he restocked the provisions and made repairs, and on ], he started what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.


By about 1484, Columbus proposed his planned voyage to King ].<ref name="Rickey1992224">{{cite journal |last1=Rickey |first1=V. Frederick |title=How Columbus Encountered America |journal=Mathematics Magazine |date=1992 |volume=65 |issue=4 |page=224 |doi=10.2307/2691445 |jstor=2691445 |issn=0025-570X}}</ref> The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his advisors, who rejected it, correctly, on the grounds that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,400&nbsp;nmi was only a quarter of what it should have been.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=68–70}} In 1488, Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and John II again granted him an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards ] returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa (near the ]).<ref name="Pinheiro-Marques2016">{{cite book |last1=Pinheiro-Marques |first1=Alfredo |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=97 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |language=en |chapter=Diogo Cão}}</ref><ref name="SymcoxSullivan2016">{{cite book |last1=Symcox |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Sullivan |first2=Blair |title=Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-08059-2 |pages=11–12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qVEBDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |language=en |quote= in 1488 Columbus returned to Portugal and once again put his project to João II. Again it was rejected. In historical hindsight this looks like a fatally missed opportunity for the Portuguese crown, but the king had good reason not to accept Columbus's project. His panel of experts cast grave doubts on the assumptions behind it, noting that Columbus had underestimated the distance to China. And then in December 1488 Bartolomeu Dias returned from his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. Certain now that they had found the sea route to India and the east, João II and his advisers had no further interest in what probably seemed to them a hare-brained and risky plan.}}</ref>
Land was sighted at 2 ] on ], ], by a sailor named ] (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermejo) aboard ''Pinta''.<ref name=book2>{{cite book | author= Clements R. Markham, ed | title=The Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage) | Hakluyt Society (1893) | id={{ASIN|B000I1OMXM}}}}</ref> (Columbus would claim the prize.) Columbus called the island (in what is now ]) ], although the natives called it ]. Exactly which island in the Bahamas this corresponds to is an unresolved topic; prime candidates are ], ], or ] (named San Salvador in ] in the belief that it was Columbus's San Salvador). The ] he encountered, the ], ] or ], were peaceful and friendly. In his journal he wrote of them, "It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion."
], in which Columbus stayed in the years before his first expedition]]
<ref>http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2004/10/12/News/Columbus.Day.Sparks.Debate.Over.Explorers.Legacy-1425748.shtml</ref>
Columbus sought an audience with the monarchs ] and ], who had united several kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying and now ruled together. On 1 May 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. The learned men of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated the distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and advised the Catholic Monarchs to pass on the proposed venture. To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the sovereigns gave him an allowance, totaling about 14,000 '']'' for the year, or about the annual salary of a sailor.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=84}} In May 1489, the queen sent him another 10,000 ''maravedis'', and the same year the monarchs furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their dominion to provide him food and lodging at no cost.<ref>Durant, Will ''The Story of Civilization'' vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, p. 260.</ref>
]
Columbus also explored the northeast coast of ] (landed on ]) and the northern coast of ], by ]. Here, the '']'' ran aground on ] morning ] and had to be abandoned. He was received by the native ] ], who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men and founded the settlement of '']'' in what is now present-day ]. Before returning to Spain, Columbus also kidnapped some ten to twenty-five Indians and took them back with him. Only seven or eight of the Indians arrived in Spain alive, but they made quite an impression on Seville.<ref name=book2>{{cite book | author= James W. Loewen | title=Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong | Touchstone Books (1995) | id={{ASIN|1402579373}}}}</ref>


Columbus also dispatched his brother ] to the court of ] to inquire whether the English crown might sponsor his expedition, but he was captured by pirates en route, and only arrived in early 1491.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=86, 92}} By that time, Columbus had retreated to ], where the Spanish crown sent him 20,000 ''maravedis'' to buy new clothes and instructions to return to the ] for renewed discussions.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=92}}
Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into ]. He anchored next to the King's harbor patrol ship on ], ] in Portugal. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail for Spain. He reached Spain on ], ]. Word of his finding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe:


=== Agreement with the Spanish crown ===
<blockquote>"Columbus's report to the royal court in Madrid was extravagant. He insisted he had reached Asia (it was Cuba) and an island off the coast of China (Hispaniola). His descriptions were part fact, part fiction: Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful, the harbors are very good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold, There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals."<ref>Howard Zinn, ''A People's History of the United States''.</ref></blockquote>
], where Columbus received permission from the ] for his first voyage<ref>{{Cite web|last=Morrison|first=Geoffrey|date=15 October 2015|title=Exploring The Alhambra Palace And Fortress In Granada, Spain|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymorrison/2015/10/15/exploring-the-alhambra-palace-granada-spain/|url-status=live|access-date=24 May 2021|website=Forbes|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016073235/http://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffreymorrison/2015/10/15/exploring-the-alhambra-palace-granada-spain/ |archive-date=16 October 2015 }}</ref>]]


Columbus waited at King Ferdinand's camp until Ferdinand and Isabella conquered ], the ] on the Iberian Peninsula, in January 1492. A council led by Isabella's confessor, ], found Columbus's proposal to reach the Indies implausible. Columbus had left for France when Ferdinand intervened,{{Efn|Ferdinand later claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered."{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=131–132}}}} first sending Talavera and Bishop ] to appeal to the queen.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=131–32}} Isabella was finally convinced by the king's clerk ], who argued that Columbus would take his ideas elsewhere, and offered to help arrange the funding. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch Columbus, who had traveled 2 leagues (over 10&nbsp;km) toward Córdoba.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=131–132}}
===Second voyage===


In the April 1492 "]", King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella promised Columbus that if he succeeded he would be given the rank of ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea'' and appointed ] and Governor of all the new lands he might claim for Spain.<ref name="Lantigua2020">{{cite book |last1=Lantigua |first1=David M. |title=Infidels and Empires in a New World Order: Early Modern Spanish Contributions to International Legal Thought |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-49826-5 |page=53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9RzhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA53 |language=en |quote=The ''Capitulaciones de Santa Fe'' appointed Columbus as the official viceroy of the Crown, which entitled him, by virtue of royal concession, to all the honors and jurisdictions accorded the conquerors of the Canaries. Usage of the terms "to discover" (''descubrir'') and "to acquire" (''ganar'') were legal cues indicating the goals of Spanish possession through occupancy and conquest.}}</ref> He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10% ('']'') of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. He also would have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture in the new lands, and receive one-eighth (''ochavo'') of the profits.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=662}}<ref name="González-Sánchez2006">{{cite book |last1=González Sánchez |first1=Carlos Alberto |editor1-last=Kaufman |editor1-first=Will |editor2-last=Francis |editor2-first=John Michael |title=Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-421-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OMNoS-g1h8cC&pg=PA175 |chapter=Capitulations of Santa Fe |pages=175–176 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://armada.defensa.gob.es/archivo/mardigitalrevistas/cuadernosihcn/50cuaderno/cap02.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://armada.defensa.gob.es/archivo/mardigitalrevistas/cuadernosihcn/50cuaderno/cap02.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|title=Cristóbal Colón en presencia de la muerte (1505–1506)|first=Mario Hernández|last=Sánchez-Barba|journal=Cuadernos Monográficos del Instituto de Historia y Cultural Naval|issue=50|location=Madrid|year=2006|page=51}}</ref>
]


In 1500, during his third voyage to the Americas, Columbus was arrested and dismissed from his posts. He and his sons, Diego and Fernando, then conducted a lengthy series of court cases against the Castilian crown, known as the '']'', alleging that the Crown had illegally reneged on its contractual obligations to Columbus and his heirs.<ref name="Márquez1982">{{cite book |last1=Márquez |first1=Luis Arranz |title=Don Diego Colón, almirante, virrey y gobernador de las Indias |date=1982 |publisher=Editorial CSIC – CSIC Press |isbn=978-84-00-05156-3 |page=175, note 4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kRhygUNmg4UC&pg=PA175 |language=es}}</ref> The Columbus family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego's position as viceroy but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, and further disputes initiated by heirs continued until 1790.<ref name="McDonald2005" />
Columbus left ], Spain, on ], ] to find new territories, with 17 ships carrying supplies, and about 1,200 men to colonize the region. On ], the ships left the Canary Islands as they had on the first voyage, following a more southerly course.


== Voyages ==
On ], ], Columbus sighted a rugged island that he named ] (Latin for Sunday); later that day, he landed at ], which he named Santa Maria la Galante. After sailing past ] (Los Santos, The Saints), he arrived at ] (] de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of ], in Guadalupe, Spain), which he explored between ] and ], ].
{{Main|Voyages of Christopher Columbus}}
{{See also|#Legacy|Christopher Columbus Copy Book}}
]
]


Between 1492 and 1504, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the ], each voyage being sponsored by the ]. On his first voyage he reached the Americas, initiating the European ] and ], as well as the ]. His role in history is thus important to the ], ], and ] writ large.<ref name="SpechtStockland2017">{{cite book |last1=Specht |first1=Joshua |last2=Stockland |first2=Etienne |title=The Columbian Exchange |date=2017 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-351-35121-8 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkkrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |language=en}}</ref>
The exact course of his voyage through the ] is debated, but it seems likely that he turned north, sighting and naming several islands, including ] (for Santa Maria de Montserrate, after the Blessed Virgin of the Monastery of Montserrat, which is located on the Mountain of Montserrat, in Catalonia, Spain), ] (after a church in Seville, Spain, called Santa Maria la Antigua, meaning "Old St. Mary's"), ] (for Santa Maria la Redonda, Spanish for "round", owing to the island's shape), ] (derived from the Spanish, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, meaning "Our Lady of the Snows", because Columbus thought the clouds over Nevis Peak made the island resemble a snow-capped mountain), ] (for ], patron of sailors and travelers), ] (for the early Roman martyr, ]), ] (also for St. Christopher?), ] (San Martin), and ] (], meaning "]"). He also sighted the island chain of the ] (and named them Islas de Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes, ] and the 11,000 Virgins, a cumbersome name that was usually shortened, both on maps of the time and in common parlance, to Islas Virgenes), and he also named the islands of ] (the fat virgin), ], and ] (San Pedro).


In ], published following his first return to Spain, he claimed that he had reached Asia,{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=381}} as previously described by Marco Polo and other Europeans. Over his subsequent voyages, Columbus refused to acknowledge that the lands he visited and claimed for Spain were not part of Asia, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary.<ref name="Horodowich2017">{{cite book|last1=Horodowich|first1=Elizabeth|title=The New World in Early Modern Italy, 1492–1750|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-108-50923-7|editor1-last=Horodowich|editor1-first=Elizabeth|page=23|language=en|chapter=Italy and the New World|editor2-last=Markey|editor2-first=Lia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8q5CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23}}</ref> This might explain, in part, why the American continent was named after the ] explorer ]—who received credit for recognizing it as a "]"—and not after Columbus.<ref name=umc>{{cite web|last=Cohen|first=Jonathan|url=http://www.umc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029201227/http://www.umc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html|archive-date=29 October 2013|title=The Naming of America|publisher=Umc.sunysb.edu|access-date=10 April 2011}}</ref>{{Efn|name=incognita|] points out that Columbus briefly described South America as an unknown continent after seeing the mainland for the first time. Vespucci seems to have modeled his naming of the "new world" after Columbus's description of this discovery. Further, mapmaker ] eventually retracted his naming of the continent after Vespucci, seemingly after it came to light that a claim that Vespucci visited the mainland before Columbus had been falsified. In his new map, Waldseemüller labelled the continent as ''Terra Incognita'' ('unknown land'), noting that it had been discovered by Columbus.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fernández-Armesto|first=Felipe|title=Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America|publisher=Random House|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4000-6281-2 |edition=1st|location=New York|pages=143–144, 186–187|oclc=608082366}}</ref>}}
He continued to the ], and landed at ] (originally San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, a name that was later supplanted by Puerto Rico (English: Rich Port) while the capital retained the name, San Juan) on ], ]. One of the first skirmishes between native Americans and Europeans since the time of the Vikings<ref name=book1>{{cite book | author=Phillips, Jr., William D. & Carla Rahn Phillips | title=The Worlds of Christopher Columbus | year=1992 | id=ISBN 9780521350976}}</ref> took place when Columbus's men rescued two boys who had just been castrated by their captors.


=== First voyage (1492–1493) ===
<!-- This paragraph, while interesting and peripherally relevant, is totally out of place in the midst of these preceding and following paragraphs. --><!--
].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.dioi.org/vols/w41.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.dioi.org/vols/w41.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |first=Keith A. |last=Pickering |title=Columbus's Plana landfall: Evidence for the Plana Cays as Columbus's 'San&nbsp;Salvador' |journal=DIO – the International Journal of Scientific History |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=13–32 |date=August 1994 |access-date=16 March 2009}}</ref> ] by ] to be the most likely location of first contact{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=228}} is the easternmost land touching the top edge of this image.|name=firstimage}} Modern place names in black, Columbus's place names in blue]]
Michele de Cuneo, a Ligurian nobleman on Columbus' second voyage, wrote in 1495, "While I was in the boat I captured a very beautiful Carib woman the said Lord Admiral gave to me, and with whom, having taken her into my cabin, she being naked according to their custom, I conceived desire to take pleasure. I wanted to put my desire into execution but she did not want it and treated me with her fingernails in such a manner that I wished I had never begun. But seeing that (to tell you the end of it all), I took a rope and thrashed her well, for which she raised such unheard of screams that you would not have believed your ears. Finally we came to an agreement in such manner that I can tell you that she seemed to have been brought up in a school of harlots." <ref> Morison, Samuel Eliot, Editor, Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1963, p. 212</ref>
-->
On ], Columbus returned to Hispaniola, where he intended to visit ] (Christmas Fort), built during his first voyage, and located on the northern coast of ]; Fuerte de la Navidad was found in ruins, destroyed by the native ] people, whereupon, Columbus moved more than 100 kilometers eastwards, establishing a new settlement, which he called ], likewise on the northern coast of ], in the present-day ]. However, ] proved to be a poorly-chosen location, and the settlement was short-lived.


On the evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from ] with three ships. The largest was a ], the '']'', owned and captained by ], and under Columbus's direct command.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=102}} The other two were smaller ]s, the '']'' and the '']'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenina.com/the_original_nina.html |title=The Original Niña |website=The Niña & Pinta |publisher=The Columbus Foundation |location=British Virgin Islands |access-date=12 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526034248/http://www.thenina.com/the_original_nina.html |archive-date=26 May 2015}}</ref> piloted by the ].{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=102}} Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands. There he restocked provisions and made repairs then departed from ] on 6 September,{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=146–147}} for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.
He left Hispaniola on ], ], arrived at ] (naming it Juana) on ]. He explored the southern coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula rather than an island, and several nearby islands, including the ] (Isla de las Pinas, later known as La Evangelista, The Evangelist). He reached ] on ]. He retraced his route to Hispaniola, arriving on ], before he finally returned to Spain.


On 7 October, the crew spotted "mmense flocks of birds".<ref name="Nicholls2009">{{Cite book |last=Nicholls |first=Steve |title=Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery |pages= |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-226-58340-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/paradisefoundnat00stev/page/103}}</ref> On 11 October, Columbus changed the fleet's course to due west, and sailed through the night, believing land was soon to be found. At around 02:00 the following morning, a lookout on the ''Pinta'', ], spotted land. The captain of the ''Pinta'', ], verified the sight of land and alerted Columbus.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=226}}<ref>Lopez, (], ); Columbus & Toscanelli (], )</ref> Columbus later maintained that he had already seen a light on the land a few hours earlier, thereby claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to sight land.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013}}<ref>Lopez, (], )</ref> Columbus called this island (in what is now the Bahamas) {{lang|es|San Salvador}} ('Holy Savior'); ] called it ].{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|p=99}}{{Efn|According to ], ], renamed from Watling's Island in 1925 in the belief that it was Columbus's San Salvador,<ref>William D. Phillips Jr., 'Columbus, Christopher', in David Buisseret (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to World Exploration'', (Oxford University Press, online edition 2012).</ref> is the only island fitting the position indicated by Columbus's journal. Other candidates are the ], ], ], ], or ].{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=228}}}} ] entry of 12 October 1492 states:<blockquote>I saw some who had marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to them asking what they were; and they showed me how people from other islands nearby came there and tried to take them, and how they defended themselves; and I believed and believe that they come here from {{lang|es|tierra firme}} to take them captive. They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak.<ref name="DunnKelly1989">{{cite book |last1=Dunn |first1=Oliver |last2=Kelley |first2=James E. Jr. |title=The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492–1493 |year=1989 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2384-4 |pages=67–69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS6kRnXJgCEC&pg=PA67}}</ref></blockquote>
During this second trip it was registered the rape of an indigenous woman by one of the Colombus' men (Michel de Cuneo) and with his tolerance:


Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited {{lang|es|Los Indios}} (Spanish for 'Indians').<ref name="Hoxie 1996 p.">{{cite book |last=Hoxie |first=Frederick |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofno00hoxi/page/568 |title=Encyclopedia of North American Indians |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-395-66921-1 |location=Boston |page=}}</ref> He initially encountered the ], ], and ] peoples.<ref name="Keegan2015">{{cite journal |last1=Keegan |first1=William F. |title=Mobility and Disdain: Columbus and Cannibals in the Land of Cotton |journal=Ethnohistory |year=2015 |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1215/00141801-2821644 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273291078}}</ref> Noting their gold ear ornaments, Columbus took some of the Arawaks prisoner and insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold.<ref name=Zinn>{{harvnb|Zinn|2003|pp=}}</ref> Columbus did not believe he needed to create a fortified outpost, writing, "the people here are simple in war-like matters ... I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased."<ref>Columbus (], ). Or "these people are very simple as regards the use of arms ... for with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." (Columbus & Toscanelli, ], )</ref> The Taínos told Columbus that another indigenous tribe, the ], were fierce warriors and ], who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing their women, although this may have been a belief perpetuated by the Spaniards to justify enslaving them.<ref name="Figueredo2008">{{cite book |last1=Figueredo |first1=D. H. |title=A Brief History of the Caribbean |year=2008 |publisher=Infobase |isbn=978-1-4381-0831-5 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsNPdvRtT7oC&pg=PA9}}</ref><ref name="Deagan2008">{{cite book |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen A. |title=Columbus's Outpost Among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498 |year=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13389-9 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iWGZP0V8WroC&pg=PA32}}</ref>
{{quote|''When I was in the ship, I turned into captivity a beautiful caribe woman, given to me as a gift by the Almirant, and after I took her to my stateroom, and while she was naked as their custom is, I felt desires of laying with her. I want to satisfy my desire but she didn’t want and gave me such a treatment with her nails that I think it would be better to never begun. But when I saw this (and to tell you everything up to the end), I take a rope and whipped her, after what she screamed a lot, in such a way you cannot believe your ears. Finally we reached such an agreement that I can tell you she appeared to be trained in a whore school.<br><br><small>Original text:<br>Mientras estaba en la barca, hice cautiva a una hermosísima mujer caribe, que el susodicho Almirante me regaló, y después que la hube llevado a mi camarote, y estando ella desnuda según es su costumbre, sentí deseos de holgar con ella. Quise cumplir mi deseo pero ella no lo consintió y me dió tal trato con sus uñas que hubiera preferido no haber empezado nunca. Pero al ver esto (y para contártelo todo hasta el final), tomé una cuerda y le di de azotes, después de los cuales echó grandes gritos, tales que no hubieras podido creer tus oídos. Finalmente llegamos a estar tan de acuerdo que puedo decirte que parecía haber sido criada en una escuela de putas.</small><ref>Cólón, Cristóbal, Michel de Cúneo y otros (1982). Cronistas de Indias: antología, Buenos Aires: Colihue ISBN 950-581-020-2</ref>}}


Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba, where he landed on 28 October. On the night of 26 November, Martín Alonso Pinzón took the ''Pinta'' on an unauthorized expedition in search of an island called "Babeque" or "Baneque",<ref name="Hunter2012">{{cite book |last1=Hunter |first1=Douglas |title=The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery |year=2012 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-34165-4 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYrvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62}}</ref> which the natives had told him was rich in gold.<ref name="Magasich-AirolaBeer2007">{{cite book |last1=Magasich-Airola |first1=Jorge |last2=Beer |first2=Jean-Marc de |title=America Magica: When Renaissance Europe Thought It Had Conquered Paradise |edition=2nd |year=2007 |publisher=Anthem |isbn=978-1-84331-292-5 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SauW0UOVcp0C&pg=PA61}}</ref> Columbus, for his part, continued to the northern coast of ], where he landed on 6 December.<ref name="Anderson-Córdova2017">{{cite book |last1=Anderson-Córdova |first1=Karen F. |title=Surviving Spanish Conquest: Indian Fight, Flight, and Cultural Transformation in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico |year=2017 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-1946-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RNoZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |page=55}}</ref> There, the ''Santa María'' ran aground on 25 December 1492 and had to be abandoned. The wreck was used as a target for cannon fire to impress the native peoples.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|pp=31–32}} Columbus was received by the native '']'' ], who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including the interpreter ],{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=145}}{{Efn|Torres spoke ] and some ]; the latter was then believed to be the ] of all languages.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=145}}}} and founded the settlement of ], in present-day ].<ref name="DeaganCruxent1993">{{cite journal |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen |last2=Cruxent |first2=José Maria |author1-link=Kathleen Deagan |author2-link=José Cruxent |title=From Contact to Criollos: The Archaeology of Spanish Colonization in Hispaniola |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=1993 |volume=81 |page=73 |url=http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/81p067.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/81p067.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Maclean2008">{{cite magazine |last=Maclean |first=Frances |title=The Lost Fort of Columbus |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-lost-fort-of-columbus-8026921/ |magazine=] |date=January 2008 |access-date=24 January 2008}}</ref> Columbus took more natives prisoner and continued his exploration.<ref name=Zinn /> He kept sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship until he encountered Pinzón and the ''Pinta'' on 6 January.<ref name="Gužauskytė2014">{{cite book |last1=Gužauskytė |first1=Evelina |title=Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation |year=2014 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6825-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0SWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |page=96}}</ref>
===Third voyage===


On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop of this voyage in the Americas, in the ] in northeast Hispaniola.<ref>Fuson, Robert. ''The Log of Christopher Columbus'' (Camden, International Marine, 1987) 173.</ref> There he encountered the ], the only natives who offered violent resistance during this voyage.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTsLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA33 |title=Confronting Columbus: An Anthology |publisher=McFarland & Co. |last=Yewell |first=John |first2=Chris |last2=Dodge |year=1992 |location=Jefferson, NC |page=33 |isbn=978-0-89950-696-8 |access-date=28 February 2016}}</ref> The Ciguayos refused to trade the amount of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing clash one Ciguayo was stabbed in the buttocks and another wounded with an arrow in his chest.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XwI7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA159 |title=The Journal of Christopher Columbus |publisher=Hakluyt Society |last=Markham |first=Clements R. |year=1893 |location=London |pages=159–160 |access-date=28 February 2016}}</ref> Because of these events, Columbus called the inlet the {{lang|es|Golfo de Las Flechas}} (']').<ref name="DunnKelly1989341">{{cite book |last1=Dunn |first1=Oliver |last2=Kelley |first2=James E. Jr. |title=The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492–1493 |year=1989 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2384-4 |page=341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS6kRnXJgCEC&pg=PA341}}</ref>
]
], the starting point for Columbus' third journey.]]


Columbus headed for Spain on the ''Niña'', but a storm separated him from the ''Pinta'', and forced the ''Niña'' to stop at the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Half of his crew went ashore to say prayers of thanksgiving in a chapel for having survived the storm. But while praying, they were imprisoned by the governor of the island, ostensibly on suspicion of being pirates. After a two-day stand-off, the prisoners were released, and Columbus again set sail for Spain.<ref name="Catz1990">{{Cite journal |title=Columbus in the Azores |jstor=41104900 |journal=Portuguese Studies |date=1990 |pages=19–21 |volume=6 |first=Rebecca |last=Catz}}</ref>
On ], ], Columbus left with six ships from ], for his third trip to the New World. He was accompanied by the young ], who would later provide partial transcripts of Columbus' logs.


Another storm forced Columbus into the port at Lisbon.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|p=}} From there he went to {{lang|pt|Vale do Paraíso}} north of Lisbon to meet King John II of Portugal, who told Columbus that he believed the voyage to be in violation of the 1479 ]. After spending more than a week in Portugal, Columbus set sail for Spain. Returning to Palos on 15 March 1493, he was given a hero's welcome and soon afterward received by Isabella and Ferdinand in Barcelona.<ref name="Kamen2014">{{cite book |last1=Kamen |first1=Henry |title=Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-75500-5 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akIsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51}}</ref> To them he presented kidnapped Taínos and various plants and items he had collected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fernández-Armesto |first=Felipe |author-link=Felipe Fernández-Armesto |url=https://archive.org/details/amerigomanwhogav0000fern |title=Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America |publisher=Random House |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4000-6281-2 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|54}}
Columbus led the fleet to the Portuguese island of ], his wife's native land. He then sailed to ] and spent some time there with the Portuguese captain João Gonçalves da Camara before sailing to the ] and ]. Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of ] on ]. From ] through ], he explored the ] which separates ] from ]. He explored the mainland of ], including the ]. He also sailed to the islands of ] and ] and sighted and named ] (Bella Forma) and ] (Concepcion).


One of the ten Natives taken on the return trip was a Lucayan Taíno from Guanahani thought to be 13–15 years of age, who Columbus adopted as his son upon their arrival in Spain; the boy, whose Lucayan name is unknown, received the name '']'' at baptism. Initially, Diego had been recognized for his intelligence and rapid acquisition of Spanish customs, and would serve as a guide and interpreter on each of Columbus's subsequent voyages. By the second voyage's departure later in 1493, Diego was the only Native out of the ten taken to Europe who had not died or become seriously ill as the result of disease; while on this voyage, he played a vital role in the discovery of La Navidad. He subsequently married and had a son, also named Diego, who died of illness in 1506. Following Columbus's death, Diego spent the rest of his life confined to ], and does not reappear in the historical record following a smallpox epidemic that swept Hispaniola in 1519.{{sfnm|Caballos|2004|Ostapkowicz|2023|2pp=314–316}}
Columbus returned to ] on ] to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were discontented, having been misled by Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the new world. An entry in his journal from September 1498 reads, "From here one might send, in the name of the Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold..."


], probably dispatched to the Spanish court upon arrival in Lisbon, was instrumental in spreading the news throughout Europe about his voyage. Almost immediately after his arrival in Spain, printed versions began to appear, and word of his voyage spread rapidly.<ref name="Ife1992">{{cite web |last1=Ife |first1=Barry |title=Early Modern Spain: Introduction to the Letters from America |url=http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/pub/b002.html |website=King's College London |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424100905/http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/pub/b002.html |archive-date=24 April 2021 |year=1992}}</ref> Most people initially believed that he had reached Asia.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=381}} The ], three papal bulls of ] delivered in 1493, purported to grant overseas territories to Portugal and the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. They were replaced by the ] of 1494.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Diffie |first=Bailey Wallys |title=Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |others=Winius, George D. |year=1977 |isbn=0-8166-0782-6 |location=Minneapolis |page=173 |oclc=3488742 |author-link=Bailey W. Diffie}}</ref>
Columbus repeatedly had to deal with rebellious settlers and natives. He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. On his return he was arrested for a period (see Governorship and arrest section below).


The two earliest published copies of Columbus's letter on the first voyage aboard the ''Niña'' were donated in 2017 by the Jay I. Kislak Foundation to the ] library in ], where they are housed.<ref>{{cite news |last=Veciana-Suarez |first=Ana |date=22 January 2017 |title=This college donation is truly historic. And it's not just the artifacts involved |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article128075264.html |newspaper=] |access-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223042258/http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article128075264.html |archive-date=23 February 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>
===Fourth voyage===


=== Second voyage (1493–1496) ===
]
] at the end of his second voyage before sailing back to Spain.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|pp=498–501}}}}]]
Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search of the ] to the ]. Accompanied by his brother ] and his 13-year-old son ], he left Cádiz, Spain, on ], ], with the ships ''Capitana'', ''Gallega'', ''Vizcaína'' and ''Santiago de Palos''. He sailed to ] on the Moroccan coast to rescue ] soldiers whom he had heard were under siege by the ]. On June 15, they landed at Carbet on the island of ] (''Martinica''). A ] was brewing, so he continued on, hoping to find shelter on ]. He arrived at ] on June 29, but was denied port, and the new governor refused to listen to his storm prediction. Instead, while Columbus' ships sheltered at the mouth of the ], the first Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane. Columbus' ships survived with only minor damage, while twenty-nine of the thirty ships in the governor's fleet were lost to ]. In addition to the ships, 500 lives (including that of the governor, ]) and an immense cargo of gold were surrendered to the sea.


On 24 September 1493, Columbus sailed from ] with 17 ships, and supplies to establish permanent colonies in the Americas. He sailed with nearly 1,500 men, including sailors, soldiers, priests, carpenters, stonemasons, metalworkers, and farmers. Among the expedition members were ], a physician who wrote a detailed account of the second voyage; Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of ] and Florida; the father of Bartolomé de las Casas; ], a cartographer who is credited with making the first ]; and Columbus's youngest brother Diego.<ref name="DeaganCruxent2008">{{cite book |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen A. |last2=Cruxent |first2=José María |title=Archaeology at La Isabela: America's First European Town |date=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13391-2 |page=xxxix (5)<!-- part of preface numbering --> |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rv4aeMw_PA4C&pg=PR39 |language=en}}</ref> The fleet stopped at the Canary Islands to take on more supplies, and set sail again on 7 October, deliberately taking a more southerly course than on the first voyage.<ref name="Bedini2016705">{{cite book |last1=Bedini |first1=Silvio A. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=705 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA705 |language=en }}</ref>
After a brief stop at ], Columbus sailed to ], arriving at ] in the ] off the coast of ] on ]. Here Bartolomeo found native merchants and a large canoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. On ], he landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near ]. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, ], and ], before arriving in Almirante Bay, ] on ].


On 3 November, they arrived in the ]; the first island they encountered was named ] by Columbus, but not finding a good harbor there, they anchored off a nearby smaller island, which he named ''Mariagalante'', now a part of ] and called ]. Other islands named by Columbus on this voyage were ], ], ], the ], as well as many others.<ref name="Bedini2016705" />
On ], ], Columbus and his crew found themselves in a storm unlike any they had ever experienced. In his journal Columbus writes,
<blockquote> For nine days I was as one lost, without hope of life. Eyes never beheld the sea so angry, so high, so covered with foam. The wind not only prevented our progress, but offered no opportunity to run behind
any headland for shelter; hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody
ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire. Never did the sky look more
terrible; for one whole day and night it blazed like a furnace, and the lightning broke with such violence that each time I wondered if it had carried off my spars and sails; the flashes came with such fury and frightfulness that we all thought that the ship would be blasted. All
this time the water never ceased to fall from the sky; I do not say it rained, for it was like another deluge. The men were so worn out that
they longed for death to end their dreadful suffering.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot,''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', Boston, 1942, page 617.</ref>
</blockquote>


On 17 November, Columbus first sighted the eastern coast of the ] of ], known to its native ] people as ]. His fleet sailed along the island's southern coast for a whole day, before making landfall on its northwestern coast at the Bay of ], early on 19 November. Upon landing, Columbus christened the island ''San Juan Bautista'' after ], and remained anchored there for two days from 20 to 21 November, filling the water casks of the ships in his fleet.<ref name="Monson1986">{{cite book |last1=Morison |first1=Samuel Eliot |title=The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America |date=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504222-1 |pages=440, 448–449 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JnotvLHX80gC&pg=PA448}}</ref>
In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. After much exploration, in January 1503 he established a garrison at the mouth of the ]. On April 6 one of the ships became stranded in the river. At the same time, the garrison was attacked, and the other ships were damaged. Columbus left for Hispaniola on April 16, heading north. On May 10 he sighted the ], naming them "''Las Tortugas''" after the numerous ]s there. His ships next sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel farther, on ], ], the ships were beached in ].


]
Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica for a year. Two Spaniards, with native paddlers, were sent by ] to get help from Hispaniola. That island's governor obstructed all efforts to rescue Columbus and his men. In the meantime Columbus, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, successfully intimidated the natives by correctly predicting a ] for ], ], using the '']'' of the German astronomer ].<ref>], ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', 1955, pp. 184-92.</ref> Grudging help finally arrived on ], ], and Columbus and his men arrived in ], on November 7.


On 22 November, Columbus returned to ] to visit ''La Navidad'' in modern-day ], where 39 Spaniards had been left during the first voyage. Columbus found the fort in ruins. He learned from ], the local tribe leader, that his men had quarreled over gold and taken women from the tribe, and that after some left for the territory of ], Caonabo came and burned the fort and killed the rest of the men there. {{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=423–427}}<ref name="DeaganCruxent1993" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/taino/taino-conquest.htm |title=The Spanish Conquest of the Tainos |author=Antonio de la Cova |website=Latin American Studies |publisher=Antonio Rafael de la Cova |access-date=10 July 2011}}</ref><ref>Las Casas, Bartolomé, Las Casas on Columbus: Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages (consisting of a section of History of the Indies by Las Casas, and commentary), Translated and Edited by Nigel Griffen, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, Belgium, 1999 (original work: 1535), pp. 96–97</ref>
==Governorship and arrest==


Columbus then established a poorly located and short-lived settlement to the east, ],<ref name="DeaganCruxent2008" /> in the present-day ].<ref>"". ''ScienceDaily''. 20 March 2009.</ref> By the end of 1494, disease and famine had killed two-thirds of the Spanish settlers there.<ref name="Austin-Alchon2003">{{Cite book|last=Austin Alchon|first=Suzanne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiHHnV08ebkC&pg=PA62|title=A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8263-2871-7|page=62|access-date=28 February 2016}}</ref>
During Columbus's stint as governor and viceroy, disgruntled Spaniards, who chafed at being governed by an Italian, claimed that he ruled his domain tyrannically {{Fact|date=March 2007}}. Columbus was physically and mentally exhausted; his body was wracked by arthritis and his eyes by ]. In October 1499, he sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Spain to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern.


From April to August 1494, Columbus explored Cuba and Jamaica, then returned to Hispaniola.<ref>Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages, pp. 118–130</ref> Before leaving on this exploration to Cuba, Columbus had ordered a large amount of men, under Pedro Margarit, to "journey the length and breadth of the island, enforcing Spanish control and bringing all the people under the Spanish yoke."<ref>Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages, pp. 117–118</ref> These men, in his absence, raped women, took men captive to be servants, and stole from the indigenous people. A number of Spanish were killed in retaliation. By the time Columbus returned from exploring Cuba, the four primary leaders of the Arawak people in Hispaniola were gathering for war to try to drive the Spanish from the Island. Columbus assembled a large number of troops, and joined with his one native ally, chief , met for battle. The Spanish, even though they were largely outnumbered, won this battle, and over the next 9 months Columbus continued to wage war on the native ] on Hispaniola until they surrendered and agreed to pay tribute.<ref>Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages, pp. 130–134, 137–138, 147–149</ref>
The Court appointed ], a member of the ]; however, his authority stretched far beyond what Columbus had requested. Bobadilla was given total control as governor from 1500 until his death in 1502. Arriving in Santo Domingo while Columbus was away, Bobadilla was immediately peppered with complaints about all three of the Columbus brothers: Christopher, Bartolomé, and Diego. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place."<ref name=newspaper1>{{cite news |author=Giles Tremlett |title=Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean |url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1838823,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12 | publisher=] | date=] | accessdate=2006-10-10 | language=English }}</ref><ref>Bobadilla's 48-page report&mdash;derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers&mdash;had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in 2005 in the Spanish archives in ]. It contained an account of Columbus' seven-year reign as the first ].</ref>


Columbus implemented '']'',<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Yeager|first1=Timothy J.|date=3 March 2009|title=''Encomienda'' or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=55|issue=4|pages=842–859|doi=10.1017/S0022050700042182|jstor=2123819|s2cid=155030781 }}</ref><ref>Lyle N. McAlister (1984). '']''. University of Minnesota Press. p. 164. {{ISBN|0-8166-1218-8}}.</ref> a Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of conquered non-Christian people. It is also recorded that punishments to both Spaniards and natives included whippings and mutilation (cutting noses and ears).<ref>De Cuneo, Michele. "Michel de Cuneo's Letter on the Second Voyage, 28 October 1495." Journal and other Documents in the Life of Christopher Columbus. Edited and Translated by Samuel Eliot Morison. New York: The Heritage Press, 1963. p. 215</ref><ref>Cólon, Ferdinand. The Life of The Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand. Edited and translated by Benjamin Keen. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1959 (Originally published 1571), p. 129</ref>
As a result of these testimonies, Columbus, upon his return and without being allowed a word in his own defense, was clapped with manacles on his arms and chains on his feet and cast into prison to await return to Spain. He was 53 years old.


Columbus and the colonists enslaved many of the indigenous people,{{Sfn|Morison|1991|pp=482–85}} including children.<ref>Olson, Julius E. and Edward G. Bourne (editors). "The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985–1503", in ''The Voyages of the Northmen; The Voyages of Columbus and of John Cabot''. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1906), pp. 369–383.</ref> Natives were beaten, raped, and tortured for the location of imagined gold.<ref name="Stannard1993">{{cite book |last1=Stannard |first1=David E. |author-link=David Stannard |title=American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World |year=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |isbn=978-0-19-983898-1 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uWhdMtGt5xUC&pg=PA69 |language=en}}</ref> Thousands committed suicide rather than face the oppression.<ref>Koning, Hans. Columbus, His Enterprise: Exploding the Myth. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976: 83–83.</ref>{{efn|The tribute system had all but collapsed by 1497.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Deagan|first1=Kathleen A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iWGZP0V8WroC&pg=PA62|title=Columbus's Outpost Among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498|last2=Cruxent|first2=José María|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-300-13389-9|location=New Haven, CT|page=62|language=en}}</ref>}}
On ], ], Columbus and his two brothers, likewise in chains, were sent back to Spain. Once in Cádiz, a grieving Columbus wrote to a friend at court:
<blockquote>
It is now seventeen years since I came to serve these princes with the Enterprise of the Indies. They made me pass eight of them in discussion, and at the end rejected it as a thing of jest. Nevertheless I persisted therein...Over there I have placed under their sovereignty more land than there is in Africa and Europe, and more than 1,700 islands...In seven years I, by the divine will, made that conquest. At a time when I was entitled to expect rewards and retirement, I was incontinently arrested and sent home loaded with chains...The accusation was brought out of malice on the basis of charges made by civilians who had revolted and wished to take possession on the land....


In February 1495, Columbus rounded up about 1,500 Arawaks, some of whom had rebelled, in a great slave raid. About 500 of the strongest were shipped to Spain as slaves,{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}} with about two hundred of those dying en route.<ref name="Zinn" /><ref name="CohenPenman2017">{{Cite web|last1=Cohen|first1=Rhaina|last2=Penman|first2=Maggie|last3=Boyle|first3=Tara|last4=Vedantam|first4=Shankar|date=20 November 2017|title=An American Secret: The Untold Story Of Native American Enslavement|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/11/20/565410514/an-american-secret-the-untold-story-of-native-american-enslavement|url-status=live|access-date=25 May 2021|website=NPR|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171121033940/https://www.npr.org/2017/11/20/565410514/an-american-secret-the-untold-story-of-native-american-enslavement |archive-date=21 November 2017 }}</ref>
<P>I beg your graces, with the zeal of faithful Christians in whom their Highneses have confidence, to read all my papers, and to consider how I, who came from so far to serve these princes...now at the end of my days have been despoiled of my honor and my property without cause, wherein is neither justice nor mercy.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot ''"Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus"'' page 576, Boston, 1942</ref>
</blockquote>


In June 1495, the Spanish crown sent ships and supplies to Hispaniola. In October, Florentine merchant Gianotto Berardi, who had won the contract to provision the fleet of Columbus's second voyage and to supply the colony on Hispaniola, received almost 40,000 '']s'' worth of enslaved Indians. He renewed his effort to get supplies to Columbus, and was working to organize a fleet when he suddenly died in December.<ref name="Felipe2007">{{Cite book|last=Fernández-Armesto|first=Felipe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9khjlWQPWUC&pg=PA54|title=Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America|publisher=Random House|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4000-6281-2|location=New York|pages=54–55|language=en}}</ref> On 10 March 1496, having been away about 30 months,{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=497}} the fleet departed La Isabela. On 8 June the crew sighted land somewhere between Lisbon and ], and disembarked in Cádiz on 11 June.<ref name="Cook 1998">{{cite book|last=Cook|first=Noble David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvjNyZTFrS4C&pg=PA36|title=Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650|year=1998|publisher=]|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=978-0-521-62730-6|page=36}}</ref>
Columbus and his brothers lingered in jail for six weeks before the busy King Ferdinand ordered their release. Not long thereafter, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to their presence at the ] palace in ]. There the royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; restored their freedom and their wealth; and, after much persuasion, agreed to fund Columbus' fourth voyage. But the door was firmly shut on Christopher Columbus's role as governor. From that point forward, ] was to be the new governor of the west Indies.


=== Third voyage (1498–1500) ===
==Later life==
]


On 30 May 1498, Columbus left with six ships from ], Spain. The fleet called at Madeira and the Canary Islands, where it divided in two, with three ships heading for Hispaniola and the other three vessels, commanded by Columbus, sailing south to the Cape Verde Islands and then westward across the Atlantic. It is probable that this expedition was intended at least partly to confirm rumors of a large continent south of the Caribbean Sea, that is, South America.<ref name="Saunders2005">{{cite book |last1=Saunders |first1=Nicholas J. |title=The Peoples of the Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archaeology and Traditional Culture |year=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-701-6 |pages=75–76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNbqUR_IoOMC&pg=PA75 |language=en}}</ref>
], Spain, the city where Columbus died.]]


On 31 July they sighted ],<ref name="Flint2017">{{cite book |last1=Flint |first1=Valerie Irene Jane |title=The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus |date=2017 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-8717-0 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65srDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA158 |language=en}}</ref> the most southerly of the Caribbean islands. On 5 August, Columbus sent several small boats ashore on the southern side of the ] in what is now Venezuela,<ref name="Allen1997">{{cite book |last1=Fuson |first1=Robert H. |editor1-last=Allen |editor1-first=John Logan |title=North American Exploration |chapter=The Columbian Voyages |year=1997 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-1015-8 |pages=180–181 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RGlz9a4wVYC&pg=PA180 |language=en}}</ref>{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|p=249}} near the mouth of the ] river.<ref name="Saunders2005" /> This was the first recorded landing of Europeans on the mainland of South America,<ref name="Allen1997" /> which Columbus realized must be a continent.<ref name="Zeruvabel2003">{{cite book|title=Terra Cognita: The Mental Discovery of America |last=Zerubavel |first=Eviatar |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7658-0987-2 |pages=90–91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkLCiKN0x4UC&pg=PA90}}</ref><ref name="Cervantes2021">{{cite book |last1=Cervantes |first1=Fernando |title=Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest |year=2021 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-98128-3 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7LQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 |language=en}}</ref> The fleet then sailed to the islands of ] and ], reaching the latter on 14 August,{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|p=258}} and sighted ] and ] from afar, according to some scholars.<ref name="MorisonObregón1964">{{cite book |last1=Morison |first1=Samuel Eliot |last2=Obregón |first2=Mauricio |title=The Caribbean as Columbus Saw it |date=1964 |publisher=Little, Brown |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcFkAAAAMAAJ&q=%2214%20August%22 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Allen1997" />
While Columbus had always given the conversion of non-believers as one reason for his explorations, he grew increasingly religious in his later years. He claimed to hear divine voices, lobbied for a new ] to capture ], often wore ] habit, and described his explorations to the "paradise" as part of God's plan which would soon result in the ] and the end of the world.


On 19 August, Columbus returned to Hispaniola. There he found settlers in rebellion against his rule, and his unfulfilled promises of riches. Columbus had some of the Europeans tried for their disobedience; at least one rebel leader was hanged.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|pp=284–285}}
In his later years, Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands, pursuant to earlier agreements. Because he had been relieved of his duties as governor, the crown did not feel bound by these contracts, and his demands were rejected. After his death his family later sued for part of the profits from trade with America in the ''pliegos colombinos''.


In October 1499, Columbus sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Spain to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brink|first=Christopher|url={{GBurl|T9NoDwAAQBAJ|p=78}}|title=Christopher Columbus: Controversial Explorer of the Americas|page=78|publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing|date=2019}}</ref> By this time, accusations of tyranny and incompetence on the part of Columbus had also reached the Court. The sovereigns sent ], a relative of Marquesa ], a patron of Columbus and a close friend of Queen Isabella,<ref name="Hofman1994">{{cite book |last1=Hofmann |first1=Heinz |editor1-last=Haase |editor1-first=Wolfgang |editor2-last=Meyer |editor2-first=Reinhold |title=The Classical Tradition and the Americas: European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition (2 pts.) |year=1994 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-011572-7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I1LEmKPgJ8MC&pg=PA617 |language=en |chapter=Columbus in Neo-Latin Epic Poetry}}</ref>{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=125}} to investigate the accusations of brutality made against the Admiral. Arriving in Santo Domingo while Columbus was away, Bobadilla was immediately met with complaints about all three Columbus brothers.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|pp=276–277}} He moved into Columbus's house and seized his property, took depositions from the Admiral's enemies, and declared himself governor.<ref name="Allen1997" />
]. It is borne by four statues of kings representing the Kingdoms of ], ], ], and ].]]
On ], ], at about the age of 55, Columbus died in ], fairly wealthy from the gold his men had accumulated in Hispaniola. When he died he was still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia. According to a study, published in February 2007, by Antonio Rodriguez Cuartero, Department of Internal Medicine of the ], he died of a heart attack caused by ] (also called reactive arthritis). According to his personal diaries and notes by contemporaries, the symptoms of this illness (burning pain during urination, pain and swelling of the knees, and ] of the eyes) were clearly visible in his last three years.<ref></ref>


Bobadilla reported to Spain that Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. He claimed that Columbus regularly used ] and ] to govern Hispaniola.{{efn|Bobadilla's 48-page report, derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers—had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in 2005 in the Spanish archives in ]. It contained an account of Columbus's seven-year reign as the first governor of the Indies. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place."<ref name="newspaper1"/>}} Testimony recorded in the report stated that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartholomew on "defending the family" when the latter ordered for a woman to be paraded naked through the streets and then had her tongue cut because she had "spoken ill of the admiral and his brothers".{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|pp=283}} The document also describes how Columbus put down native unrest and revolt: he first ordered a brutal suppression of the uprising in which many natives were killed, and then paraded their dismembered bodies through the streets in an attempt to discourage further rebellion.<ref name="A&E">{{cite web|title=Columbus Controversy|url=http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-controversy|access-date=12 August 2013|publisher=A&E Television Networks}}</ref> Columbus vehemently denied the charges.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Columbus|first=Christopher|title=Select Letters of Christopher Columbus: With Other Original Documents, Relating to his Four Voyages to the New World|date=2010|others=Richard Henry Major, Diego Alvarez Chanca|isbn=978-0-511-70808-4|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|oclc=889952068}}</ref> The neutrality and accuracy of the accusations and investigations of Bobadilla toward Columbus and his brothers have been disputed by historians, given the anti-Italian sentiment of the Spaniards and Bobadilla's desire to take over Columbus's position.<ref>{{cite book|last=]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4w8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46|title=Columbus on himself|date=2010|publisher=Hackett Pub. Co|others=Christopher Columbus|isbn=978-1-60384-317-1|location=Indianapolis|page=186|oclc=794493189|quote=Bobadilla was prejudiced in advance by what he heard, or what the monarchs relayed, from Columbus detractors. HIs brief was to conduct a judicial inquiry into Columbus' conduct, an unjust proceeding, in the Admiral's submission, since Bobadilla had a vested interest in an outcome that would keep him in power. Motivated by self-interest or excessive zeal, Bobadilla clapped Columbus in irons with his brothers, gathered depositions against them, and shipped them back to Spain.}}</ref><ref name="nas.org">{{cite web|title=National Association of Scholars – Remembering Columbus: Blinded by Politics by Robert Carle|url=https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/32/1/rembering_columbus_blinded_by_politics|website=www.nas.org|language=en|access-date=18 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="Cervantes202146">{{cite book |last1=Cervantes |first1=Fernando |title=Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest |year=2021 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-98128-3 |pages=46–47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7LQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 |location=New York|language=en}}</ref>
Following his death, his body underwent ]&mdash;the flesh was removed so that only his bones remained. His remains were first buried in Valladolid and then at the monastery of La Cartuja in ] (southern Spain), by the will of his son ], who had been governor of Hispaniola. Then in 1542, his remains were transferred to ], in eastern Hispaniola. In 1795, the French took over Hispaniola, and his remains were moved to ], Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the ] in 1898, his remains were moved back to the ] in Spain, where they were placed on an elaborate ]. However, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus" and containing fragments of bone and a bullet was discovered at Santo Domingo in 1877.


In early October 1500, Columbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard ''La Gorda'', the caravel on which Bobadilla had arrived at Santo Domingo.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|p=276}}<ref name="Gužauskytė2014179">{{cite book |last1=Gužauskytė |first1=Evelina |title=Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation |year=2014 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6825-6 |page=179 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0SWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA179 |language=en}}</ref> They were returned to Spain, and languished in jail for six weeks before King Ferdinand ordered their release. Not long after, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to the Alhambra palace in Granada. The sovereigns expressed indignation at the actions of Bobadilla, who was then recalled and ordered to make restitutions of the property he had confiscated from Columbus.<ref name=":2">{{cite book|last=Hale|first=Edward Everett|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=40vhDAAAQBAJ|title=The Life of Christopher Columbus|date= 2021|publisher=Prabhat Prakashan|language=en}}</ref> The royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; restored their freedom and wealth; and, after much persuasion, agreed to fund Columbus's fourth voyage.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cervantes|first=Fernando|title=Conquistadores: a new history of Spanish discovery and conquest|date=2021|isbn=978-1-101-98126-9|edition=1st|location=New York|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|oclc=1258043161}}</ref> However, ] was to replace Bobadilla and be the new governor of the ].<ref name=":3">Noble, David Cook. "Nicolás de Ovando" in ''Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture'', vol.4, p. 254. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.</ref>
To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics were moved to Havana and that the remains of Columbus were left buried in the cathedral of Santo Domingo, ] samples were taken in June 2003 (''History Today'' August 2003). The results are not definitively conclusive. Initial observations suggested that the bones did not appear to belong to somebody with the physique or age at death associated with Columbus.<ref>Giles Tremlett, , '']'', August 11, 2004</ref> DNA extraction proved difficult; only a few limited fragments of ] could be isolated. However, such as they are, these do appear to match corresponding DNA from Columbus's brother, giving support to the idea that the two had the same mother and that the body therefore may be that of Columbus.<ref name="remains">{{cite news |first=Rossella |last=Lorenzi |title= DNA Suggests Columbus Remains in Spain |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041004/columbus.html | publisher=] |date=], ] | accessdate=2006-10-11 | language=English}}</ref><ref>, '']'', 19 May 2006</ref> The authorities in Santo Domingo have not allowed the remains there to be exhumed, so it is unknown if any of those remains could be from Columbus's body.


New light was shed on the seizure of Columbus and his brother Bartholomew, the ], with the discovery by archivist Isabel Aguirre of an incomplete copy of the testimonies against them gathered by Francisco de Bobadilla at Santo Domingo in 1500. She found a manuscript copy of this ''pesquisa'' (inquiry) ‌in the Archive of ], Spain, uncatalogued until she and Consuelo Varela published their book, ''La caída de Cristóbal Colón: el juicio de Bobadilla'' (''The fall of Christopher Colón: the judgement of Bobadilla'') in 2006.<ref name="Leon2012">{{cite journal |last1=Leon |first1=Istvan Szaszdi |title=Castilian Justice and Columbian Injustice. The end of the Columbian Government in Hispaniola |journal=Journal on European History of Law |volume=3 |issue=2 |date=1 January 2012 |page=9 |url=https://www.academia.edu/42882992}}</ref><ref name="VarelaAguirre2006">{{cite book |last1=Varela |first1=Consuelo |last2=Aguirre |first2=Isabel |title=La caída de Cristóbal Colón: el juicio de Bobadilla |year=2006 |publisher=Marcial Pons Historia |isbn=978-84-96467-28-6 |page=175 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SwtMUtesSDEC&pg=PA175 |language=es}}</ref>
==Legacy==


=== Fourth voyage (1502–1504) ===
{{refimprove|section|date=December 2006}}
{{main|Fourth voyage of Columbus}}
{{globalize/US}}
]
] granted to Christopher Columbus and the ] by ] '']'' in 1502]]


On 9 May 1502,{{refn|Some scholars, including Sauer, say the fleet sailed 11 May; Cook says 9 May.}} Columbus left Cádiz with his flagship ''Santa María'' and three other vessels. The ships were crewed by 140 men, including his brother Bartholomew as second in command and his son Fernando.<ref name="Sauer2008">{{cite book |last1=Sauer |first1=Carl Ortwin |title=The Early Spanish Main |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-08848-0 |pages=121–122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plzS7SL_-f0C&pg=PA121 |language=en}}</ref> He sailed to ] on the Moroccan coast to rescue Portuguese soldiers said to be besieged by the ]. The siege had been lifted by the time they arrived, so the Spaniards stayed only a day and continued on to the Canary Islands.<ref name="Cook199846">{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Noble David |title=Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650 |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-62730-6 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvjNyZTFrS4C&pg=PA46 |language=en}}</ref>
], ] by Jerónimo Suñol, 1894.]]
]


On 15 June, the fleet arrived at ], where it lingered for several days. A ] was forming, so Columbus continued westward,<ref name="Sauer2008" /> hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. He arrived at ] on 29 June, but was denied port, and the new governor Francisco de Bobadilla refused to listen to his warning that a hurricane was approaching. Instead, while Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the Rio Jaina, the first ] sailed into the hurricane. Columbus's ships survived with only minor damage, while 20 of the 30 ships in the governor's fleet were lost along with 500 lives (including that of Francisco de Bobadilla). Although a few surviving ships managed to straggle back to Santo Domingo, ''Aguja'', the fragile ship carrying Columbus's personal belongings and his 4,000 ''pesos'' in gold was the sole vessel to reach Spain.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|pp=288–289, 302–303}}<ref name="Gužauskytė2014185">{{cite book |last1=Gužauskytė |first1=Evelina |title=Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation |year=2014 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6825-6 |page=185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0SWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA185 |language=en}}</ref> The gold was his ''tenth'' (''décimo'') of the profits from Hispaniola, equal to 240,000 maravedis,<ref name="Bedini2016200">{{cite book |last1=Bedini |first1=Silvio A. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=200 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 |language=en }}</ref> guaranteed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.<ref name="Armas1985">{{cite book |last1=Armas |first1=Antonio Rumeu de |title=Nueva luz sobre las capitulaciones de Santa Fe de 1492 concertadas entre los Reyes Católicos y Cristóbal Colón: estudio institucional y diplomático |date=1985 |publisher=Editorial CSIC – CSIC Press |isbn=978-84-00-05961-3 |page=201 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FgKarEsZWecC&pg=PA201 |language=es}}</ref>
]'s travel journals, published 1502-4, convinced ] that the discovered place was not India, as Columbus always believed, but a new ], and in 1507, a year after Columbus' death, Waldseemüller published a world map ] ''America'' from Vespucci's Latinized name "Americus". Though he never set foot in what became the ], Columbus is often viewed as a hero in that country.


After a brief stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at the coast of ] on 30 July. Here Bartholomew found native merchants and a large canoe. On 14 August, Columbus landed on the continental mainland at Punta Caxinas, now ].<ref name="Colindres1975">{{cite book |last1=Colindres |first1=Enrique Ortez |title=Integración Política de Centroamérica |date=1975 |publisher=Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-wYPAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Crist%C3%B3bal%20Col%C3%B3n%22%20%22Punta%20Caxinas%22 |language=es |quote=El 14 de agosto de 1502 Cristóbal Colón descubrió Punta Caxinas, hoy Punta Castilla o Cabo de Honduras.}}</ref> He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, ], and ], seeking a strait in the western Caribbean through which he could sail to the Indian Ocean. Sailing south along the Nicaraguan coast, he found a channel that led into Almirante Bay in ] on 5 October.<ref name="Calvo2004">{{cite book |last1=Calvo |first1=Alfredo Castillero |title=Historia general de Panamá: Tomo 1. Las sociedades originarias; El orden colonial. Tomo 2. El orden colonial |year=2004 |publisher=Comité Nacional del Centenario de la República |isbn=978-9962-02-581-8 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XlVrAAAAMAAJ&q=%225%20de%20octubre%22 |language=es}}</ref><ref name="Bedini2016720">{{cite book |last1=Bedini |first1=Silvio A. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |pages=720, 724 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA724 |language=en }}</ref>
===Columbus ascendant===


As soon as his ships anchored in Almirante Bay, Columbus encountered ] people in canoes who were wearing gold ornaments.<ref name="StirlingStirling1964">{{cite book |last1=Stirling |first1=Matthew Williams |last2=Stirling |first2=Marion |title=Archeological Notes on Almirante Bay, Bocas Del Toro, Panama |date=1964 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UxlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA260 |language=en}}</ref> In January 1503, he established a ] at the mouth of the ]. Columbus left for Hispaniola on 16 April. On 10 May he sighted the ], naming them "''Las Tortugas''" after the numerous ]s there.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|p=330}} His ships sustained damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel farther, on 25 June 1503 they were beached in ].{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|p=330–332}}
The nascent countries of the ], particularly the newly independent United States, seemed to need a historical narrative to give them roots. This narrative was supplied in part by ] in 1828 with '']'', which may be the true source of much of the associations held about the explorer.


For six months Columbus and 230 of his men remained stranded on Jamaica. Diego Méndez de Segura, who had shipped out as a personal secretary to Columbus, and a Spanish shipmate called Bartolomé Flisco, along with six natives, paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola.<ref name="Roorda2020">{{cite book |last1=Méndez |first1=Diego |editor1-last=Roorda |editor1-first=Paul |title=The Ocean Reader: History, Culture, Politics |year=2020 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-1-4780-0745-6 |page=300 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781478007456-065/html |language=en |chapter=VIII: Shipwrecked by Worms, Saved by Canoe: The Last Voyage of Columbus|doi=10.1515/9781478007456-065 |s2cid=241132438 }}</ref> The governor, ], detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men.<ref name="Vigneras1978">{{cite journal |last1=Vigneras |first1=Louis André |title=Diego Méndez, Secretary of Christopher Columbus and Alguacil Mayor of Santo Domingo: A Biographical Sketch |journal=Hispanic American Historical Review |date=1 November 1978 |volume=58 |issue=4 |page=680 |doi=10.1215/00182168-58.4.676 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/58/4/676/152812/ |access-date=26 January 2022 |issn=0018-2168|doi-access=free }}</ref> In the meantime Columbus, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, won their favor by predicting a ], using ]'s astronomical charts.<ref name="Hakin2002">{{cite book |last1=Hakim |first1=Joy |title=The First Americans |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-515319-4 |page=85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhlVOp-xrSsC&pg=PA85 |language=en}}</ref><ref>Clayton J., Drees, ''The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal: 1300–1500 a Biographical Dictionary'', 2001, p. 511</ref><ref name="Kadir1992">{{cite book |last1=Kadir |first1=Djelal |title=Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology |year=1992 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California |page=67 |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1n39n7x0&chunk.id=d0e1397&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e1380 |chapter=IV: Charting the Conquest}}</ref> Despite the governor's obstruction, Christopher Columbus and his men were rescued on 28 June 1504, and arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on 7 November.<ref name="Vigneras1978" />
Hero worship of Columbus perhaps reached a zenith around 1892 when the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas occurred. Monuments to Columbus like the ] in ] were erected throughout the United States and ] extolling him. Numerous cities, towns, and streets were named after him, including the ] of two U.S. ] (] and ]).


== Later life, illness, and death ==
The story that Columbus thought the world was round while his contemporaries believed in a flat earth was often repeated despite the fact that the real issue was the ''size'' of the Earth rather than its roundness.<ref></ref> (In fact even ], a key Classical figure in the Church doctrine of the day, had argued that the Earth was a globe<ref>.</ref><ref>Compare also of ]'s '']'', where the roundness of the Earth is given as a standard example of a well-known scientific truth.</ref>, and Columbus's failure to reach China would have meant that, had he been trying to prove the world was round, he actually would have failed). This tale was used to show that Columbus was enlightened and forward looking. Columbus' apparent defiance of convention in sailing west to get to the far east was hailed as a model of "American"-style can-do inventiveness.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}
], 1893]]


Columbus had always claimed that the ] of non-believers was one reason for his explorations, and he grew increasingly religious in his later years.<ref name="RiveraPagán1992">{{cite book |last1=Rivera |first1=Luis N. |last2=Pagán |first2=Luis Rivera |title=A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas |date=1992 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |isbn=978-0-664-25367-7 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N2Y-wARCI7UC&pg=PA5 |language=en}}</ref> Probably with the assistance of his son Diego and his friend the ] monk Gaspar Gorricio, Columbus produced two books during his later years: a '']'' (1502), detailing and documenting the rewards from the Spanish Crown to which he believed he and his heirs were entitled, and a '']'' (1505), in which passages from the Bible were used to place his achievements as an explorer in the context of ].<ref name="Watts1985">{{cite journal |last1=Watts |first1=Pauline Moffitt |title=Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus's "Enterprise of the Indies". |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1985 |volume=90 |issue=1 |page=92 |doi=10.2307/1860749 |jstor=1860749 |issn=0002-8762}}</ref>
The admiration of Columbus was particularly embraced by some members of the Italian American, Hispanic, and Catholic communities. These groups point to Columbus as one of their own to show that Mediterranean Catholics could and did make great contributions to the U.S. The modern vilification of Columbus is seen by his supporters as being politically motivated.


In his later years, Columbus demanded that the ] give him his tenth of all the riches and trade goods yielded by the new lands, as stipulated in the ].<ref name="González-Sánchez2006" /> Because he had been relieved of his duties as governor, the Crown did not feel bound by that contract and his demands were rejected. After his death, his heirs sued the Crown for a part of the profits from trade with America, as well as other rewards. This led to a protracted series of legal disputes known as the '']'' ("Columbian lawsuits").<ref name="McDonald2005">{{cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=Mark P. |title=Ferdinand Columbus: Renaissance Collector (1488–1539) |year=2005 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=978-0-7141-2644-9 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCfrAAAAMAAJ&q=%221790%22 |language=en}}</ref>
In 1909, descendants of Columbus undertook to dismantle the Columbus family chapel in Spain and move it to a site near ], Pennsylvania, where it may now be visited by the public. At the museum associated with the chapel, there are a number of Columbus relics worthy of note, including the armchair which the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" used at his chart table.


]]]
===Modern day===
During a violent storm on his first return voyage, Columbus, then 41, had suffered an attack of what was believed at the time to be ]. In subsequent years, he was plagued with what was thought to be ] and other fevers, bleeding from the eyes, temporary blindness and prolonged attacks of gout. The attacks increased in duration and severity, sometimes leaving Columbus bedridden for months at a time, and culminated in his death 14 years later.


Based on Columbus's lifestyle and the described symptoms, some modern commentators suspect that he suffered from ], rather than gout.<ref name=UMD /><ref name=Hoenig>{{cite journal |last1=Hoenig |first1=Leonard J. |title=The Arthritis of Christopher Columbus |journal=Archives of Internal Medicine |date=1 February 1992 |volume=152 |issue=2 |pages=274–277 |doi=10.1001/archinte.1992.00400140028008 |pmid=1472175 }}</ref> Reactive arthritis is a joint inflammation caused by intestinal bacterial infections or after acquiring certain sexually transmitted diseases (primarily ] or ]). In 2006, Frank C. Arnett, a medical doctor, and historian Charles Merrill, published their paper in ''The American Journal of the Medical Sciences'' proposing that Columbus had a form of reactive arthritis; Merrill made the case in that same paper that Columbus was the son of Catalans and his mother possibly a member of a prominent '']'' (converted Jew) family.<ref name="ArnettMerrill2006">{{cite journal |last1=Arnett |first1=F. |last2=Merrill |first2=C. |last3=Albardaner |first3=Francesc |last4=Mackowiak |first4=P. |title=A Mariner with Crippling Arthritis and Bleeding Eyes. |journal=The American Journal of the Medical Sciences |date= September 2006 |volume=332 |issue=3 |page=125 |doi=10.1097/00000441-200609000-00005 |pmid=16969141 |s2cid=6358022 }}</ref> "It seems likely that acquired reactive arthritis from food poisoning on one of his ocean voyages because of poor sanitation and improper food preparation", says Arnett, a ] and professor of internal medicine, pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.<ref name=UMD>{{cite press release |title=Christopher Columbus Suffered From a Fatal Form of Arthritis |publisher=University of Maryland School of Medicine |date=6 May 2005 |url=http://www.nahfoundation.org/news-and-events/news-releases/2005/christopher-columbus-suffered-from-a-fatal-form-of-arthritis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123072824/http://www.nahfoundation.org/news-and-events/news-releases/2005/christopher-columbus-suffered-from-a-fatal-form-of-arthritis |archive-date=23 January 2018 }}</ref>
] in ]. Italian sculptor central monument was dedicated in ], 400 years after Columbus arrived in ].]]Culpability is sometimes placed on contemporary governments and their citizens for the hardship suffered by Native Americans during the time of Christopher Columbus. Columbus myths and celebrations are generally a positive affair, making less room for this concept in history books.


Some historians such as H. Micheal Tarver and Emily Slape,<ref name="TarverSlape2016">{{cite book |last1=Tarver |first1=H. Micheal |last2=Slape |first2=Emily |editor1-last=Tarver |editor1-first=H. Micheal |editor2-last=Slape |editor2-first=Emily |title=The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia : A Historical Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-422-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LCJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA143 |page=143 |language=en}}</ref> as well as medical doctors such as Arnett and Antonio Rodríguez Cuartero,<ref name="ElUniversal2007">{{cite news|title=Esclarecen causas de muerte de Cristóbal Colón |url=https://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/408828.html |access-date=2 February 2022 |work=El Universal |date=25 February 2007 |language=es}}</ref> believe that Columbus had such a form of reactive arthritis, but according to other authorities, this is "speculative",<ref name="ScottGalloway2015">{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Ian C. |last2=Galloway |first2=James B. |last3=Scott |first3=David L. |title=Inflammatory Arthritis in Clinical Practice |year=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4471-6648-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gC-TBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 |page=4 |language=en}}</ref> or "very speculative".<ref name="RitchlinFitzGerald2007">{{cite book |last1=Ritchlin |first1=Christopher T. |last2=FitzGerald |first2=Oliver |title=Psoriatic and Reactive Arthritis: A Companion to Rheumatology |date=2007 |publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences |isbn=978-0-323-03622-1 |page=132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RN-B2g2YjmAC&pg=PA132 |language=en}}</ref>
The Spanish colonization of the Americas, and the subsequent effects on the native peoples, were dramatized in the 1992 feature film '']'' to commemorate the 500th anniversary of his landing in the Americas. In 2003, Venezuelan President ] urged Native American Latin Americans to not celebrate the Columbus Day holiday. Chavez blamed Columbus for leading the way in the mass genocide of the Native Americans by the Spanish.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3184668.stm |title=Columbus 'sparked a genocide' |accessdate=2006-10-21 |date=October 12, 2003 |publisher=BBC News}}</ref>


After his arrival to Sanlúcar from his fourth voyage (and Queen Isabella's death), an ill Columbus settled in Seville in April 1505. He stubbornly continued to make pleas to the Crown to defend his own personal privileges and his family's.{{Sfn|Cuartero y Huerta|1988|p=74}} He moved to ] (where the court was at the time) on a mule by early 1506,<ref name="Kadir1992193">{{cite book |last1=Kadir |first1=Djelal |title=Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology |year=1992 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, California |pages=193–194 |url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1n39n7x0&chunk.id=d0e1397&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e1380 |chapter=Chapter VII Making Ends Meet: The Dire Unction of Prophecy}}</ref> and, on the occasion of the wedding of King Ferdinand with ] in ], Spain, in March 1506, Columbus moved to that city to persist with his demands.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://institucional.us.es/revistas/rasbl/16/art_9.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://institucional.us.es/revistas/rasbl/16/art_9.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|page=74|first=Baltasar|last=Cuartero y Huerta|year=1988|title=Los Colón en la Cartuja|journal=Boletín de la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras: Minervae Baeticae|volume=16<!--|pages=67–152-->}}</ref> On 20 May 1506, aged 54, Columbus died in Valladolid.{{sfn|Dyson|1991|p=194}}
Christopher Columbus was also strongly criticised in a song by Jamaican artiste ] titled 'A Damn Blasted Liar.' The controversial song opened a strong opinionated debate across much of the Caribbean region on the effects that Christopher Columbus and his leadership had on the regions native peoples.


== Location of remains ==
==Notes==
{{multiple image
| align = right
| total_width = 320
| image1 = Tumba de Colon-Sevilla.jpg
| alt1 =
| caption1 = Tomb in ]. The remains in the casket are borne by kings of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre.
| image2 = Columbus Tomb Dominican Republic 01 2018 6805.jpg
| alt2 = A large white, black, and gold tomb elaborately adorned with sculpture and writing, claiming to be the resting place of Cristobal Colon
| caption2 = Tomb in ], ], Dominican Republic
| footer =
}}
Columbus's remains were first buried at the Chapel of Wonders at the ],{{sfn|Dyson|1991|p=196}} but were then moved to the ] in Seville (southern Spain) by the will of his son Diego.<ref name="Nash2005">{{cite book |last1=Nash |first1=Elizabeth |title=Seville, Cordoba, and Granada: A Cultural History |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press, US |isbn=978-0-19-518204-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vVA1reAI7w0C&pg=PA73 |page=73 |language=en}}</ref> They may have been exhumed in 1513 and interred at the ]. In about 1536, the remains of both Columbus and his son Diego were moved to a cathedral in ], in the present-day ]; Columbus had requested to be buried on the island.<ref name="Guardian2003" /> By some accounts, in 1793, when France took over the entire island of Hispaniola, Columbus's remains were moved to ], Cuba.<ref name="ElPaís2021">{{cite news |last1=Olaya |first1=Vicente G. |title=Study of Christopher Columbus' DNA set to reveal his true origins |url=https://english.elpais.com/arts/2021-05-24/study-of-christopher-columbus-dna-set-to-reveal-his-true-origins.html |access-date=3 February 2022 |work=El País |date=24 May 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>Captain George Farquar of ] brought the news to Liverpool in 1796 that while he had been at Havana, the Spanish ] {{ship|Spanish ship|San Lorenzo|1768|2}} had arrived there carrying the "coffin, bones and fetters of Christopher Columbus" from San Domingo to be re-interred at Havana with "the highest military honours."</ref> After Cuba became independent following the ] in 1898, at least some of these remains were moved back to the Seville Cathedral,{{sfn|Dyson|1991|p=196}}<ref name="DNA" /> where they were placed on an elaborate ].


In June 2003, ] samples were taken from the remains in Seville, as well as those of Columbus's brother Diego and younger son Fernando.<ref name="Guardian2003">{{cite news |date=3 June 2003 |title='Columbus bones' for DNA tests |language=en |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/03/spain |url-status=live |access-date=20 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827041628/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jun/03/spain |archive-date=27 August 2013}}</ref> Initial observations suggested that the bones did not appear to match Columbus's physique or age at death.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Tremlett|first1=Giles|date=11 August 2004|title=Young bones lay Columbus myth to rest|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/11/spain.science|access-date=26 October 2014}}</ref> DNA extraction proved difficult; only short fragments of ] could be isolated. These matched corresponding DNA from Columbus's brother, supporting that the two men had the same mother.<ref name="DNA">{{cite news |last=Associated Press |date=20 May 2006 |title=DNA verifies Columbus' remains in Spain |work=MSNBC |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12871458 |url-status=live |access-date=15 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031014325/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12871458/ |archive-date=31 October 2013}}</ref> Such evidence, together with ] and historic analyses, led the researchers to conclude that the remains belonged to Christopher Columbus.<ref name="ÁlvarezMartinez2010">{{cite journal|last1=Álvarez-Cubero|first1=M.J.|last2=Martinez-Gonzalez|first2=L.J.|last3=Saiz|first3=M.|last4=Álvarez|first4=J.C.|last5=Lorente|first5=J.A.|date=June 2010|title=Nuevas aplicaciones en identificación genética|trans-title=New applications in genetic identification|journal=Cuadernos de Medicina Forense|language=es|volume=16|issue=1–2|doi=10.4321/S1135-76062010000100002|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{efn|name=ancestry|DNA from Columbus's presumed remains in Seville were to be used to conduct further ancestral studies, with results initially expected in 2021.<ref>{{cite web|date=19 May 2021|title=Countdown begins to discover where Columbus came from|url=https://apnews.com/article/europe-science-0c320f8e80478206df0515c8047adce5|url-status=live|access-date=21 May 2021|website=AP News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519095238/https://apnews.com/article/europe-science-0c320f8e80478206df0515c8047adce5 |archive-date=19 May 2021 }}</ref>}}
{{reflist}}


In 1877, a priest discovered a lead box at Santo Domingo inscribed: "Discoverer of America, First Admiral". Inscriptions found the next year read "Last of the remains of the first admiral, Sire Christopher Columbus, discoverer."{{sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|pp=363–364}} The box contained bones of an arm and a leg, as well as a bullet.{{efn|This same year, dust collected from these remains was placed in a locket, which was placed inside the stern of a ]. Two tiny portions of dust from the same source were placed in separate vials.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thacher|first=John Boyd|url=https://archive.org/details/christophercolu01thacgoog|title=Christopher Columbus: his life, his works, his remains: as revealed by original printed and manuscript records, together with an essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and Bartolomé de las Casas, the first historians of America|publisher=]|year=1904|location=New York|pages=|author-link=John Boyd Thacher}}</ref>}} These remains were considered legitimate by physician and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State ], who suggested in 1913 that they travel through the ] as a part of its opening ceremony.<ref name="EveStar">{{cite news|date=17 July 1913|title=Columbus Buried In San Domingo?|page=11|work=Evening Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=41508800|url-status=live|access-date=15 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102035715/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41508800/evening_star/|archive-date=2 January 2020|via=]}}</ref>{{Efn|Osborne erroneously cited the bullet as evidence that the remains belonged to Columbus.<ref name=EveStar/>{{sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|pp=363–364}} (England's ], a subsequent infamous explorer, took the ball of an ] in the Indies.)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bergreen |first1=Laurence |title=In Search of a Kingdom |date=2021 |publisher=Mariner Books |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-06-287535-8 |page=188}}</ref>}} These remains were kept at the ] (in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo) before being moved to the ] (], inaugurated in 1992). The authorities in Santo Domingo have never allowed these remains to be DNA-tested, so it is unconfirmed whether they are from Columbus's body as well.<ref name="DNA" /><ref name="bare_url">{{cite journal|last1=Álvarez-Cubero|first1=M.J.|last2=Mtnez.-Gonzalez|first2=L.J.|last3=Saiz|first3=M.|last4=Álvarez|first4=J.C.|last5=Lorente|first5=J.A.|date=June 2010|title=Nuevas aplicaciones en identificación genética|trans-title=New applications in genetic identification|journal=Cuadernos de Medicina Forense|language=es|volume=16|issue=1–2|doi=10.4321/S1135-76062010000100002|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{efn|In his 2008 book, author ] recounts his attempt to see these remains, which are apparently briefly displayed in their crypt (behind a sheet of glass) once a year on Columbus Day.{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|pp=89–90, 92}}}}
==References==


== Commemoration ==
* Cohen, J.M. (1969) ''The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son Hernando Colon and Others''. London UK: Penguin Classics.
{{Further|List of places named for Christopher Columbus|List of monuments and memorials to Christopher Columbus}}
* Cook, Sherburn and Woodrow Borah (1971) ''Essays in Population History, Volume I''. Berkeley CA: University of California Press
] of 1893.]]
* Crosby, A. W. (1987) ''The Columbian Voyages: the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians.'' Washington, DC: American Historical Association.
] in 1893]]
* ] (2005) ''The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century''. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.
] parade in New York City, 2009]]
* ] (1992) '']''. Seacaucus NJ: Carol Publishing Group.
* Keen, Benjamin (1978) ''The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand,'' Westport CT: Greenwood Press.
* Lowen, James. "Lies My Teacher Told Me".
*Nelson, Diane M. (1999) ''A Finger in the Wound: Body Politics in Quincentennial Guatemala''. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
* ], ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1942.
* ], ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1955.
* Phillips, W. D. and C. R. Phillips (1992) ''The Worlds of Christopher Columbus.'' Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
* Turner, Jack (2004) ''Spice: The History of a Temptation''. New York: Random House.
* Wilford, John Noble (1991) ''The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
* ] (2006) ''O Mistério Colombo Revelado''. Lisbon: Ésquilo.


The figure of Columbus was not ignored in the British colonies during the colonial era: Columbus became a unifying symbol early in the history of the colonies that became the United States when Puritan preachers began to use his life story as a model for a "developing American spirit".<ref name="West1992">{{cite journal |last1=West |first1=Delno |title=Christopher Columbus and His Enterprise to the Indies: Scholarship of the Last Quarter Century |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |date=April 1992 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=254–277 |doi=10.2307/2947272 |jstor=2947272 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2947272 |issn=0043-5597 |quote=Christopher Columbus did not discover a new world, nor did he ever set foot on the North American continent. Rather, he established continuous contact between two continents, each with major populations. But he became a national hero for the United States, and, as such, he has frequently been placed on the same level with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln by Americans who prefer mythology to facts. Early in our history, he became a unifying symbol to the struggling English colonies when Puritan preachers began to use his life as an exemplum of the developing American spirit. On the eve of the American Revolution, poems, songs, sermons, and polemic essays in which Columbus was idealized as the discoverer of a new land for a new people flowed from New England. Such veneration culminated in a movement to name the nation "Columbia."}}</ref> In the spring of 1692, ] preacher ] described Columbus's voyage as one of three shaping events of the modern age, connecting Columbus's voyage and the Puritans' migration to North America, seeing them together as the key to a grand design.<ref name="Bercovitch2014">{{cite book |last1=Bercovitch |first1=Sacvan |title=The Rites of Assent: Transformations in the Symbolic Construction of America |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-79619-0 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndmsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |language=en |quote=Thinking back in spring 1692 to "the antiquities of New England," Cotton Mather came upon a crucial connection, as he saw it, between the voyage of Columbus two centuries before and the Puritans' Great Migration. Considered together, the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the landing at San Salvador held the key to a great design. To begin with, Columbus's voyage was one of three shaping events of the modern age, all of which occurred in rapid succession at the turn of the sixteenth century: (1) "''the Resurrection of Literature''",... (2) the discovery of America, ... and (3) the Protestant Reformation.}}</ref>
==See also==
* '']'', a 1992 ] film by ]
* ]
* ]
* ], ] country named in honor of ''Christopher Columbus''
* ]
* ] (a discussion of candidates for site of first landing)
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ] - Possible true identity of Columbus.
* ]


The use of Columbus as a founding figure of New World nations spread rapidly after the American Revolution. This was out of a desire to develop a national history and ] with fewer ties to Britain.<ref name="Bushman1992">{{cite book |last1=Bushman |first1=Claudia L. |title=America Discovers Columbus: How an Italian Explorer Became an American Hero |year=1992 |publisher=University Press of New England |isbn=978-0-87451-576-3 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNB1AAAAMAAJ&q=%22bypassed%20England.%22 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Bartosik-Vélez20142">{{Cite book|url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/fbb06e57-759f-43c2-bf3b-792cee697ee2/external_content.pdf|page=2|chapter=The Incorporation of Columbus into the Story of Western Empire|isbn=978-0-8265-1953-5|title=The Legacy of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. New Nations and a Transatlantic Discourse of Empire|first=Elise|last=Bartosik-Vélez|publisher=]|location=Nashville|year=2014}}</ref><ref name="Burmila20171009">{{cite news|last1=Burmila|first1=Edward|date=9 October 2017|title=The Invention of Christopher Columbus, American Hero|work=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-invention-of-christopher-columbus-american-hero/}}</ref> His name was the basis for the female ] of the ], ],<ref name="Dewey2007">{{cite book |last1=Dewey |first1=Donald |title=The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons |year=2007 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1985-5 |pages=12–13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNI9046BaRAC&pg=PA13 |language=en}}</ref> in use since the 1730s with reference to the original ], and also a historical name applied to the ] and to the ]. ] and '']'', the ship for which the ] was named, are named for Columbus.<ref name="Benke2011">{{cite book |last1=Stanford |first1=Jack A. |last2=Hauer |first2=F. Richard |last3=Gregory |first3=Stanley V. |last4=Snyder |first4=Eric B. |editor1-last=Benke |editor1-first=Arthur C. |editor2-last=Cushing |editor2-first=Colbert E. |title=Rivers of North America |year=2011 |publisher=Elsevier |location= |isbn=978-0-08-045418-4 |page=501 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=faOU1wkiYFIC&pg=PA591 |language=en |chapter=Columbia River Basin}}</ref>
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons|Christophorus Columbus|Christopher Columbus}}
*
*
*
* Reconstructed in a contemporary style.
*
* {{gutenberg author| id=Christopher+Columbus+(1451-1506) | name=Christopher Columbus}}
* Science News ] ]
* By Howard Zinn, from ''A People's History of the United States''
* A new biography showing the lack of proof and invented facts about a Genoese turning the known history upside down.
* &mdash; Theory of the Catalan origin of (Joan) Cristòfor Colom (i Bertran)
* 1911 Britannica article
*


Columbus's name was given to the newly born ] in the early 19th century, inspired by the political project of "Colombeia" developed by revolutionary ], which was put at the service of the emancipation of continental Hispanic America.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.redalyc.org/journal/1271/127149937006/html/ |title=La construcción de Colombeia: Francisco de Miranda y su paso por el Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, 1785–1789 |first1=Michael |last1=Zeuske |first2=Andrés |last2=Otálvaro |year=2017 |doi=10.15446/achsc.v44n1.61224 |journal=Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura |volume=44 |page=177 |issn=0120-2456|doi-access=free }}</ref><!--Towns, streets, and plazas throughout Latin America and Spain have been named after him.-->
;IMDB
*{{imdb title|id=0956118|title=Animated Hero Classics: Christopher Columbus (1991)}}
*{{imdb title|id=|0103594|title=1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)}}


To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus,<ref name="WDL">{{cite web|year=1893|title=Bird's-Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11369/|access-date=17 July 2013|website=]}}</ref> the 1893 ] in Chicago was named the ].<ref name="BolotinLaing2002">{{cite book |last1=Bolotin |first1=Norm |last2=Laing |first2=Christine |title=The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 |date=2002 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-07081-5 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfsw96Eqko8C&pg=PR7 |language=en}}</ref> The ] issued the first U.S. ]s, the ],<ref name="Handler2016">{{cite journal |last1=Handler |first1=Richard |title=Mining the time-space matrix: Commemorative postage stamps and US world's fairs, 1893–1915 |journal=HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory |date=June 2016 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=296–300 |doi=10.14318/hau6.1.017|s2cid=159668550 }}</ref> depicting Columbus, Queen Isabella and others in various stages of his several voyages.<ref name="West2014">{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Chris |title=A History of America in Thirty-six Postage Stamps |date=2014 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-250-04368-9 |page=89 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RACEBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |language=en}}</ref> A ] was also struck, which remains the only U.S. currency issued having a foreigner as its subject. The policies related to the celebration of the Spanish colonial empire as the vehicle of a nationalist project undertaken in Spain during the ] in the late 19th century took form with the commemoration of the 4th centenary on 12 October 1892 (in which the figure of Columbus was extolled by the Conservative government), eventually becoming the very same national day.{{Sfn|Marcilhacy|2011|pp=135–138}} Several monuments commemorating the "discovery" were erected in cities such as Palos, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, Salamanca, Valladolid and Seville in the years around the 400th anniversary.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/31/87/09marcilhacy.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/31/87/09marcilhacy.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|title=Las fiestas del 12 de octubre y las conmemoraciones americanistas bajo la restauración borbónica: España frente a su pasado colonial|first=David|last=Marcilhacy|pages=135–138|journal=Jerónimo Zurita|volume=86|year=2011|issn=0044-5517}}</ref>{{efn|group=n.|See: ] (1888), ] (1892), ] (1892), ] (1892), ] (1893), ] (inaugurated in 1905, but whose inception dates to an earlier date and a tentative location in Spanish ]).}}
<!-- Metadata: see ] -->


For the ] in 1992, a second Columbian issue was released jointly with Italy, Portugal, and Spain.<ref>"Columbian Exposition Souvenir Sheets", Arago: people, postage & the post, National Postal Museum online, viewed 18 April 2014.</ref> Columbus was celebrated at ], and ].
{{Persondata

|NAME=Columbus, Christopher
The Boal Mansion Museum, founded in 1951, contains a collection of materials concerning later descendants of Columbus and collateral branches of the family. It features a 16th-century chapel from a Spanish castle reputedly owned by Diego Colón which became the residence of Columbus's descendants. The chapel interior was dismantled and moved from Spain in 1909 and re-erected on the Boal estate at ], Pennsylvania. Inside it are numerous religious paintings and other objects including a ] with fragments of wood supposedly from the ]. The museum also holds a collection of documents mostly relating to Columbus descendants of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.<ref name="Bedini2016489">{{cite book |last1=Bedini |first1=Silvio A. |editor1-last=Bedini |editor1-first=Silvio A. |title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-12573-9 |page=489 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmmMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR8 |language=en }}</ref>
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Cristoforo Colombo, Cristóbal Colón

|SHORT DESCRIPTION=] and an ] for the ]
In many countries of the Americas, as well as Spain and Italy, ] celebrates the anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas on 12 October 1492.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Columbus Day|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Columbus-Day|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=5 July 2022}}</ref>
|DATE OF BIRTH=c. 1451

|PLACE OF BIRTH=Genoa
== Legacy ==
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1506|5|20|mf=y}}
The voyages of Columbus are considered a turning point in human history,<ref name="BelloShaver2011">{{cite book |last1=Bello |first1=Manuel |last2=Shaver |first2=Annis N. |editor1-last=Provenzo |editor1-first=Eugene F. Jr. |editor2-last=Shaver |editor2-first=Annis N |editor3-last=Bello |editor3-first=Manuel |title=The Textbook as Discourse: Sociocultural Dimensions of American Schoolbooks |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-86063-8 |page=152 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fxasAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA152 |language=en |chapter=Representation of Columbus in History Textbboks}}</ref> marking the beginning of ] and accompanying demographic, commercial, economic, social, and political changes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boivin |first1=Nicole |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian Q |last3=Crowther |first3=Alison |title=Old World globalization and the Columbian exchange: comparison and contrast |journal=World Archaeology |date=September 2012 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=452–469 |doi=10.1080/00438243.2012.729404 |jstor=42003541 |s2cid=3285807 }}</ref>
|PLACE OF DEATH=], ]
]. The landing of Columbus became a powerful icon of American genesis in the 19th century.]]
His explorations resulted in permanent contact between the two hemispheres, and the term "]" is used to refer to the cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors.<ref name="McFarlane2004">{{cite book |author1=McFarlane, Anthony |editor1-last=King |editor1-first=John |title=The Cambridge Companion to Modern Latin American Culture |year=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-63651-3 |page=9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE30cHBvjM8C&pg=PA9 |language=en |chapter=Pre-Columbian and colonial Latin America}}</ref> The ensuing Columbian exchange saw the massive ] of animals, plants, fungi, diseases, technologies, mineral wealth and ideas.<ref>{{Citation | last1 =Nunn | first1 =Nathan | last2 =Qian | first2 =Nancy | title =The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas | journal =Journal of Economic Perspectives | volume =24 | issue =2 | pages =163–188 | date =Spring 2010 | doi =10.1257/jep.24.2.163 | url =https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/nunn/files/nunn_qian_jep_2010.pdf}}</ref>

In the first century after his endeavors, Columbus's figure largely languished in the backwaters of history, and his reputation was beset by his failures as a colonial administrator. His legacy was somewhat rescued from oblivion when he began to appear as a character in Italian and Spanish plays and poems from the late 16th century onward.<ref name="noble">{{Cite journal|pages=79–80|url=http://archive.wilsonquarterly.com/sites/default/files/articles/WQ_VOL15_A_1991_Article_03.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://archive.wilsonquarterly.com/sites/default/files/articles/WQ_VOL15_A_1991_Article_03.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|year=1991|title=Columbus and the Labyrinth of History|first=John Noble|last=Wilford|journal=The Wilson Quarterly|volume=15|issue=4}}</ref>

Columbus was subsumed into the Western narrative of colonization and empire building, which invoked notions of '']'' and '']'' to underline who was considered "civilized" and who was not.<ref name="Bartosik-Vélez2014">{{Cite book|url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/fbb06e57-759f-43c2-bf3b-792cee697ee2/external_content.pdf|page=45|chapter=The Incorporation of Columbus into the Story of Western Empire|isbn=978-0-8265-1953-5|title=The Legacy of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. New Nations and a Transatlantic Discourse of Empire|first=Elise|last=Bartosik-Vélez|publisher=]|location=Nashville|year=2014}}</ref>

]'' sculpture, depicting Columbus and a cowering Indian maiden, stood outside the ] from 1844 to 1958.]]
The Americanization of the figure of Columbus began in the latter decades of the 18th century, after the revolutionary period of the United States,<ref name="Heike2014">{{Cite book|url=http://oaresource.library.carleton.ca/oa-America9783839414859.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://oaresource.library.carleton.ca/oa-America9783839414859.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|pages=53, 59|chapter=Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery'|first=Heike|last=Paul|year=2014|title=The Myths That Made America|publisher=transcript Verlag |isbn=978-3-8394-1485-9}}</ref> elevating the status of his reputation to a national myth, ''homo americanus''.{{Sfn|Paul|2014|pp=58; 60}} His landing became a powerful icon as an "image of American genesis".<ref name="Heike2014" /> '']'' sculpture, depicting Columbus and a cowering Native maiden, was commissioned on 3 April 1837, when U.S. President ] sanctioned the engineering of ]'s design. This representation of Columbus's triumph and the Native's recoil is a demonstration of supposed white superiority over savage, naive Natives.<ref name="Fryd2001">{{Cite book|last=Fryd|first=Vivienne|title=Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815–1860|publisher=Ohio University Press|year=2001|location=Athens, OH|pages=37, 89, 91, 94, 99–100, 105}}</ref> As recorded during its unveiling in 1844, the sculpture extends to "represent the meeting of the two races", as Persico captures their first interaction, highlighting the "moral and intellectual inferiority" of Natives.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=November 1844|title=Persico's Columbus|journal=The United States Magazine and Democratic Review|volume=15|pages=95–97|via=Google Books}}</ref> Placed outside the U.S. Capitol building where it remained until its removal in the mid-20th century, the sculpture reflected the contemporary view of whites in the U.S. toward the Natives; they are labeled "merciless Indian savages" in the ].<ref>{{cite book|title=Out West|date=2000|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|page=96}}</ref> In 1836, Pennsylvania senator and future U.S. President ], who proposed the sculpture, described it as representing "the great discoverer when he first bounded with ecstasy upon the shore, ail his toils past, presenting a hemisphere to the astonished world, with the name America inscribed upon it. Whilst he is thus standing upon the shore, a female savage, with awe and wonder depicted in her countenance, is gazing upon him."<ref>Congressional Globe, 28 April 1836, p. 1316.</ref>

The American Columbus myth was reconfigured later in the century when he was enlisted as an ethnic hero by immigrants to the United States who were not of Anglo-Saxon stock, such as Jewish, Italian, and Irish people, who claimed Columbus as a sort of ethnic founding father.{{Sfn|Paul|2014|pp=63–64}}<ref name="Dennis2018">{{cite book |last1=Dennis |first1=Matthew |title=Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar |date=2018 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-2370-4 |pages=119–120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a6JhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA119 |language=en}}</ref> Catholics unsuccessfully tried to promote him for ] in the 19th century.{{Sfn|Wilford|1991|p=80}}<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Who's Afraid of Columbus?|first=William J.|last=Connell|journal=Italian Americana|volume=31|issue=2|year=2013|pages=136–147|jstor=41933001}}</ref>

From the 1990s onward, a narrative of Columbus being responsible for the ] and environmental destruction began to compete with the then predominant discourse of Columbus as Christ-bearer, scientist, or father of America.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Christopher Columbus|url=https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/armitage/files/columbus.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/armitage/files/columbus.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|year=1992|page=55|first=David|last=Armitage|journal=History Today|volume=42|issue=5|author-link=David Armitage (historian)}}</ref> This narrative features the negative effects of Columbus' conquests on native populations.<ref name="Stannard1993" /> Exposed to ] diseases, the ] collapsed,<ref name="Axtell1992">{{cite journal |last1=Axtell |first1=James |title=Moral Reflections on the Columbian Legacy |journal=The History Teacher |date=1992 |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=407–425 |doi=10.2307/494350 |jstor=494350 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/494350 |issn=0018-2745 |quote=... Alfred Crosby, a scholar with the mind of a scientist and the heart of a humanist. He writes that "the major initial effect of the Columbian voyages was the transformation of America into a charnel house." The cataclysmic loss of native life, largely to imported diseases, "was surely the greatest tragedy in the history of the human species.}}</ref> and were largely replaced by Europeans and Africans,<ref name="Houbert2003">{{cite book |last1=Houbert |first1=Jean |editor1-last=Jayasuriya |editor1-first=Shihan de S. |editor2-last=Pankhurst |editor2-first=Richard |title=The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean |year=2003 |publisher=Africa World Press |isbn=978-0-86543-980-1 |page=176 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mdpcgy_aopwC&pg=PA176 |language=en |chapter=Creolisation and Decolonisation}}</ref> who brought with them new methods of farming, business, governance, and religious worship.

===Originality of discovery of America===
{{main|Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories|Norse colonization of North America}}
] commemorates the voyages of discovery of ] ({{Circa|1000|lk=no}}) and Christopher Columbus (1492).]]

Though Christopher Columbus came to be considered the European discoverer of America in Western popular culture, his historical legacy is more nuanced.<ref name="Phillips2000">{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=William D. |title=Testimonies from the Columbian Lawsuits |year=2000 |publisher=Brepols |isbn=978-2-503-51028-6 |page=25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cz0LAAAAYAAJ&q=%22nuance%20of%20semantics%22 |quote=When we speak today of the "legacy" of Christopher Columbus, we usually refer to the broadly historic consequences of his famous voyages, meaning the subsequent European conquest and colonization of the Americas. |language=en}}</ref> After settling Iceland, the ] settled the uninhabited southern part of ] beginning in the 10th century.<ref name="Nedkvitne2018">{{cite book |last1=Nedkvitne |first1=Arnved |title=Norse Greenland: Viking Peasants in the Arctic |year=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-25958-3 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xs5wDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT13 |language=en}}</ref> Norsemen are believed to have then set sail from Greenland and Iceland to become the first known Europeans to reach the North American mainland, nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean.<ref name=":6">{{cite magazine|last=Little|first=Becky|date=11 October 2015|title=Why Do We Celebrate Columbus Day and Not Leif Erikson Day?|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151011-columbus-day-leif-erikson-italian-americans-holiday-history/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807004208/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151011-columbus-day-leif-erikson-italian-americans-holiday-history/|archive-date=7 August 2019|magazine=]|access-date=12 October 2015|url-access=limited}}</ref> The 1960s discovery of a Norse settlement dating to c. 1000 AD at ], ], partially corroborates accounts within the ] of ]'s colonization of Greenland and his son ]'s subsequent exploration of a place he called ].<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=History – Leif Erikson (11th century)|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erikson_leif.shtml|access-date=12 October 2015|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

In the 19th century, amid ], ] and ] wrote works establishing that the Norse had preceded Columbus in colonizing the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rafn, Carl Christian, 1795–1864 |url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=477&term_type_id=1&term_type_text=people&letter=R |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226221116/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=477&term_type_id=1&term_type_text=people&letter=R |archive-date=26 February 2014 |access-date=22 March 2022 |website=]}}</ref><ref name="EB1911">Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "]". '']''. Vol.&nbsp;7 (11th&nbsp;ed.). Cambridge University Press. p.&nbsp;915.</ref> Following this, in 1874 ] argued that Columbus must have known of the North American continent before he started his voyage of discovery.<ref name="Kolodny2012">{{cite book |last1=Kolodny |first1=Annette |title=In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery |date=2012 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-5286-0 |pages=226–227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2qpdOb8o4cC&pg=PA226 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> Most modern scholars doubt Columbus had knowledge of the Norse settlements in America, with his arrival to the continent being most likely an ].<ref name="Enterline2003" /><ref name="PaolucciPaolucci1992" /><ref name="Kolodny2012" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name="Restall2021">{{cite book|last1=Restall|first1=Matthew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXQjEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA4|title=Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest: Updated Edition|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2021|isbn=978-0-19-753729-9|page=4|language=en}}</ref>

Europeans devised explanations for the ] and their geographical distribution with narratives that often served to reinforce their own ]s built on ancient intellectual foundations.<ref name="Berkhofer1979">{{cite book |last1=Berkhofer |first1=Robert F. |title=The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian, from Columbus to the Present |date=1979 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-394-72794-3 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HcGGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |language=en}}</ref> In modern Latin America, the non-Native populations of some countries often demonstrate an ambiguous attitude toward the perspectives of indigenous peoples regarding the so-called "discovery" by Columbus and the era of ] that followed.<ref name="Coronil1989">{{cite journal |last1=Coronil |first1=Fernando |title=Discovering America Again: The Politics of Selfhood in the Age of Post-Colonial Empires |journal=Dispositio |date=1989 |volume=14 |issue=36/38 |pages=315–331 |publisher=Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor |jstor=41491365 |issn=0734-0591|quote=When referring to the conquest, Venezuelans tend to side with the original "Indians" inhabiting the territory, even though "we" are generally careful to distinguish ourselves from them, and above all from their contemporary descendants. This tactical identification suggests that the force of this rejoinder comes not just from the hold of the familiar—Columbus already discovered America, so what's new—but from the appeal of a more exclusive familiarity evoked by a shift of location — he only "discovered" it for Europe, not for "us". It is as if we viewed Columbus's arrival from two perspectives, his own, and that of the natives. When we want to privilege "our" special viewpoint, we claim as ours the standpoint of the original Americans, the view not from the foreign ship but from our "native" land.}}</ref>
In his 1960 ], Mexican philosopher and historian ] explicitly rejects the Columbus discovery myth, arguing that the idea that Columbus discovered America was a misleading legend fixed in the public mind through the works of American author ] during the 19th century. O'Gorman argues that to assert Columbus "discovered America" is to shape the facts concerning the events of 1492 to make them conform to an interpretation that arose many years later.<ref name="Nuccetelli2020">{{cite book |last1=Nuccetelli |first1=Susana |chapter=Setting the Scene: The Iberian Conquest |title=An Introduction to Latin American Philosophy |date=31 October 2020 |pages=16–17 |doi=10.1017/9781107705562.002|isbn=978-1-107-70556-2 |s2cid=234937836 }}</ref> For him, the ] view of the discovery of America sustains systems of domination in ways that favor Europeans.<ref name="Lazo2013">{{cite journal |last1=Lazo |first1=Rodrigo |title=The Invention of America Again: On the Impossibility of an Archive |journal=American Literary History |date=1 December 2013 |volume=25 |issue=4 |page=755 |doi=10.1093/alh/ajt049}}</ref> In a 1992 article for '']'', Félix Fernández-Shaw argues that the word "discovery" prioritizes European explorers as the "heroes" of the contact between the Old and New World. He suggests that the word "encounter" is more appropriate, being a more universal term which includes Native Americans in the narrative.<ref name="Fernández-Shaw1992">{{cite journal |last1=Fernández-Shaw |first1=Félix |title=Five hundred years from now {{!}} From Discovery to Encounter |journal=The UNESCO Courier |date=May 1992 |volume=45 |issue=5, Rediscovering 1492 |page=45 |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000091221 |access-date=8 February 2022 |publisher=UNESCO Digital Library |language=en |quote= The encounter between two worlds is a fact that cannot be denied... The word ''discovery'' gives prominence to the heroes of the enterprise; the word ''encounter'' gives more emphasis to the peoples who actually "encountered" each other and gave substance to a New World. Whereas ''discovery'' marks a happening, an event, ''encounter'' conveys better the idea of the political journey that has brought us to the reality of today, spanning the five hundred years since 1492... These historical and political milestones are valuable because they relate the present to both the past and the future. It was inevitable that history written from a Eurocentric standpoint should speak in terms of discovery and it is equally inevitable that, as history has now come to be seen in universal terms, we should have adopted so evocative a term as encounter.}}</ref>

=== America as a distinct land ===
] in ], New York City]]

Historians have traditionally argued that Columbus remained convinced until his death that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia as he originally intended<ref>{{cite book|title=North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent |author1=Thomas F. McIlwraith |author2=Edward K. Muller |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7425-0019-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8NS0OTXRlTMC&pg=PA35 |page=35}}</ref><ref name="Burmila20171009" /> (excluding arguments such as Anderson's).<ref name="Kolodny2012" /> On his third voyage he briefly referred to South America as a "hitherto unknown" continent,{{Efn|name=incognita}} while also rationalizing that it was the ] (Eden) located "at the end of the ]".<ref name="Zeruvabel2003" /> Columbus continued to claim in his later writings that he had reached Asia; in a 1502 letter to ], he asserts that Cuba is the east coast of Asia.{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|p=227}} On the other hand, in a document in the ''Book of Privileges'' (1502), Columbus refers to the New World as the ''Indias Occidentales'' ('West Indies'), which he says "were unknown to all the world".<ref>{{cite book|last=Sale|first=Kirkpatrick|author-link=Kirkpatrick Sale|url=https://archive.org/details/conquestofparadi00sale/page/204/mode/2up|title=The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy|publisher=Plume|year=1991|orig-date=1990|isbn=0-452-26669-6|location=New York|pages=204–209|oclc=23940970}}</ref>

=== Shape of the Earth ===
{{further|Myth of the flat Earth}}
], a Museum and ] in homage to Christopher Columbus in ]]]

Washington Irving's 1828 biography of Columbus popularized the idea that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because many Catholic theologians insisted that the ],<ref name="book3">{{cite book|last=Boller|first=Paul F.|url=https://archive.org/details/notsopopularmyth00boll|title=Not So!: Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton|publisher=]|location=New York, Oxford |year=1995|isbn=978-0-19-509186-1}}</ref> but this is a popular misconception which can be traced back to 17th-century Protestants campaigning against Catholicism.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hannam|first=James|date=18 May 2010|title=Science Versus Christianity?|url=https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2010/05/science-versus-christianity|access-date=5 September 2020|website=]|language=en}}</ref> In fact, the spherical shape of the Earth had been known to scholars since antiquity, and was common knowledge among sailors, including Columbus.{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|p=244}} Coincidentally, the oldest surviving globe of the Earth, the ], was made in 1492, just before Columbus's return to Europe from his first voyage. As such it contains no sign of the Americas and yet demonstrates the common belief in a spherical Earth.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Jeffrey Burton|last=Russell|title=Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and modern historians|date=1991|publisher=Praeger|isbn=978-0-275-95904-3|location=New York City|author-link=Jeffrey Burton Russell}}</ref>

In 1492, Columbus correctly measured ]'s ] around ] as having a diameter of almost 7°.{{Sfn|Morison|1942a|pp=241–242, 270–271}} In 1498, while sailing west through the ] 8° north in July and again in August sailing the trade winds 13° north, Columbus reported seeing Polaris with a diurnal motion of 10° in diameter. He accounted for the shift by concluding that Earth's ], with the 'stalk' portion (comparing this to a woman's ]) being nearest Heaven and upon which was centered the Earthly Paradise.<ref name="Randles2011">{{cite book |last1=Randles |first1=W.G.L. |title=European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2011 |isbn=978-3-11-087024-4 |editor1-last=Haase |editor1-first=Wolfgang |chapter=Classical Geography and Discovery of America |editor2-last=Meyer |editor2-first=Reinhold |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cP3XT_vYgxsC&pg=PA48}}</ref>{{Sfn|Morison|1942b|pp=513–515, 517, 544–546}}<ref name="Willingham2015">{{cite book |last1=Willingham |first1=Elizabeth Moore |title=Mythical Indies and Columbus's Apocalyptic Letter: Imagining the Americas in the Late Middle Ages |year=2015 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78284-037-4 |page=293 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1-VEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PT293}}</ref> Although Columbus's later readings were incorrect, 20th-century satellite data happens to indicate that the Earth has a slight pear shape.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tyson |first=Neil deGrasse |author-link=Neil deGrasse Tyson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0co_UQgNXacC&pg=PA52 |title=Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-393-06224-3 |edition=1st |location=New York |page=52 |oclc=70265574 |orig-date=2007}}</ref><ref>O'Keefe, J. A., Eckeis, A., and Squires, R. K. (1959). "Vanguard Measurements Give Pear-Shaped Component of Earth's Figure". ''Science'', 129 (3348), 565–566. {{doi|10.1126/science.129.3348.565}}.</ref><ref>{{cite report |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA142764 |title=Geodesy for the Layman |author=Defense Mapping Agency |date=1983 |publisher=United States Air Force |edition=4th}}</ref>

=== Criticism and defense ===
Columbus has been criticized both for his brutality and for initiating the depopulation of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, whether by imported diseases or intentional violence. According to scholars of Native American history, ] and Mark Freedman, Columbus was responsible for creating a cycle of "murder, violence, and slavery" to maximize exploitation of the Caribbean islands' resources, and that Native deaths on the scale at which they occurred would not have been caused by new diseases alone. Further, they describe the proposition that disease and not genocide caused these deaths as "American ]".<ref name="TinkerFreeland2008">{{cite journal |last1=Tinker |first1=George E. |last2=Freeland |first2=Mark |title=Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline |journal=Wíčazo Ša Review |date=2008 |volume=23 |issue=1 |doi=10.1353/wic.2008.0002 |url=https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/e/58600/files/2018/02/Tinker-Tink-Source-12j35s4.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/e/58600/files/2018/02/Tinker-Tink-Source-12j35s4.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |quote=Colón was directly responsible for instituting this cycle of violence, murder, and slavery... This cycle of violence, intentionally created to maximize the extraction of wealth from the islands, in combination with the epidemic diseases that were running rampant through the Taino population, together promoted the genocide of the Taino people... Disease, only in combination with this cycle of brutal colonial violence, could produce the death toll that we see on the island of Española. Therefore, at best, the theory that disease did the business of killing and not the invaders can only be seen as a gratuitous colonizer apologetic designed to absolve the guilt of the continued occupation and exploitation of the indigenous people of this continent. However, the truth of the matter is much worse and should be called by its appropriate name: American holocaust denial. |page=37 |s2cid=159481939 }}</ref> Historian ] disputes whether it is appropriate to use the term "genocide" when the atrocities were not Columbus's intent, but resulted from his decrees, family business goals, and negligence.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|last=Lane|first=Kris|date=8 October 2015|title=Five myths about Christopher Columbus|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-christopher-columbus/2015/10/08/3e80f358-6d23-11e5-b31c-d80d62b53e28_story.html|access-date=4 August 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en}}</ref> Other scholars defend Columbus's actions or allege that the worst accusations against him are not based in fact while others claim that "he has been blamed for events far beyond his own reach or knowledge".<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Flint |first=Valerie I.J. |author-link=Valerie Flint |date=26 July 1999 |title=Legacy of Christopher Columbus |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus/Legacy |access-date=9 January 2022 |website=] |language=en}}</ref>

As a result of the ] that followed the ] in 2020, many public ].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Brito|first=Christopher|date=25 September 2020|title=Dozens of Christopher Columbus statues have been removed since June|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christopher-columbus-statue-removed-cities/|access-date=26 September 2020|website=CBS News|language=en-US}}</ref>

==== Brutality ====
] in the Baltimore inner harbor area. The statue was thrown into the harbor on 4 July 2020, as part of the ].]]

Some historians have criticized Columbus for initiating the widespread colonization of the Americas and for abusing its native population.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bigelow |first1=Bill |date=1992 |title=Once upon a Genocide: Christopher Columbus in Children's Literature |journal=] |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=106–121 |jstor=29766680 }}.</ref><ref name="Zinn" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/columbus.html|first=Jack|last=Weatherford |title=Examining the reputation of Christopher Columbus|website=Hartford-hwp.com|date=20 April 2001|access-date=29 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/100.html|title=Pre-Columbian Hispaniola – Arawak/Taino Indians|website=Hartford-hwp.com|date=15 September 2001|access-date=29 July 2009}}</ref> On ], Columbus's friend Michele da Cuneo—according to his own account—kept an indigenous woman he captured, whom Columbus "gave to ", then brutally raped her.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=417}}{{efn|Cuneo wrote,
<blockquote>While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=J.M.|title=The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus|year=1969|publisher=Penguin|location=NY|isbn=978-0-14-044217-5|page=139}}</ref></blockquote>}}{{efn|Author ] notes that this is the first recorded instance of sexuality between a European and Native American.{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|p=69}}}}

According to some historians, the punishment for an indigenous person, aged 14 and older, failing to pay a hawk's bell, or ''cascabela'',<ref name="DeaganCruxent2002">{{cite book |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen A. |last2=Cruxent |first2=José María |title=Archaeology at La Isabela: America's First European Town |year=2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09041-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twI0PjfqdGYC&pg=PA201 |page=201 |language=en}}</ref> worth of gold dust every six months (based on ]'s account) was cutting off the hands of those without tokens, often leaving them to bleed to death.<ref name="TinkerFreeland2008" /><ref name="Zinn" /><ref name="Koning">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oxa-SjBh_cYC|title=Columbus|last=Koning|first=Hans|date=1976|publisher=Monthly Review Press|isbn=978-0-85345-600-1|page=86|ref=Koning|access-date=1 May 2015}}</ref> Other historians dispute such accounts. For example, a study of ] showed that the ''cascabela'' quotas were imposed by ], not Columbus, and that there is no mention, in the primary sources, of punishment by cutting off hands for failing to pay.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lynch |first=Lawrence Dixson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B93gAAAAMAAJ |title=Discovery in the Archives of Spain and Portugal: Quincentenary Essays, 1492–1992 |date=1993 |publisher=Haworth Press |isbn=978-1-56024-643-5 |editor-last=McCrank |editor-first=Lawrence J. |page=265 |language=en |chapter=Columbus in Myth and History |series=Primary Sources & Original Works |volume=2 |issue=1–2 |doi=10.1300/J269v02n01_09 |chapter-url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J269v02n01_09}}</ref> Columbus had an economic interest in the enslavement of the Hispaniola natives and for that reason was not eager to baptize them, which attracted criticism from some churchmen.<ref name="varela">{{cite book|last1=Varela|first1=Consuelo|title=La caída de Cristóbal Colón: el juicio de Bobadilla|last2=Aguirre|first2=Isabel|date=2006|publisher=Marcial Pons Historia|isbn=978-84-96467-28-6|pages=111–118|language=es|trans-title=The fall of Christopher Columbus: the Bobadilla trial|chapter=La venta de esclavos|trans-chapter=The sale of slaves|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SwtMUtesSDEC&pg=PA111}}</ref> Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, stated that "Columbus's government was characterized by a form of tyranny. Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place."<ref name="newspaper1">{{Cite news|first=Giles|last=Tremlett|author-link=Giles Tremlett|date=7 August 2006|title=Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean|work=]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/aug/07/books.spain|access-date=16 May 2013}}</ref> Other historians have argued that some of the accounts of the brutality of Columbus and his brothers have been exaggerated as part of the ], a historical tendency towards anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic sentiment in historical sources dating as far back as the 16th century, which they speculate may continue to taint scholarship into the present day.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hanke|first1=Lewis|date=1 February 1971|title=A Modest Proposal for a Moratorium on Grand Generalizations: Some Thoughts on the Black Legend|journal=]|publisher=]|location=Durham, North Carolina|volume=51|issue=1|pages=112–127|doi=10.1215/00182168-51.1.112|jstor=2512616|doi-access=free|author-link1=Lewis Hanke}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Keen|first1=Benjamin|date=1 November 1969|title=The Black Legend Revisited: Assumptions and Realities|journal=]|publisher=]|location=Durham, North Carolina|volume=49|issue=4|pages=703–719|doi=10.1215/00182168-49.4.703|jstor=2511162|doi-access=free|author-link1=Benjamin Keen}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Keen|first1=Benjamin|date=1 May 1971|title=The White Legend Revisited: A Reply to Professor Hanke's 'Modest Proposal'|journal=]|publisher=]|location=Durham, North Carolina|volume=51|issue=2|pages=336–355|doi=10.1215/00182168-51.2.336|jstor=2512479|doi-access=free}}</ref>

According to historian Emily Berquist Soule, the immense Portuguese profits from the maritime trade in African slaves along the West African coast served as an inspiration for Columbus to create a counterpart of this apparatus in the New World using indigenous American slaves.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Soule |first1=Emily Berquist |date=23 April 2017 |title=From Africa to the Ocean Sea: Atlantic slavery in the origins of the Spanish Empire |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14788810.2017.1315514 |journal=Atlantic Studies |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=16–39 |doi=10.1080/14788810.2017.1315514 |s2cid=218620874 |access-date=29 March 2022}}</ref> Historian ] has argued that while Columbus "brought the entrepreneurial form of slavery to the New World", this "was a phenomenon of the times", further arguing that "we have to be very careful about applying 20th-century understandings of morality to the morality of the 15th century."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Fusco|first=Mary Ann Castronovo|date=8 October 2000|title=In Person; In Defense Of Columbus|language=en|work=]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/08/nyregion/in-person-in-defense-of-columbus.html|access-date=9 August 2018}}</ref> In a less popular defense of colonization, Spanish ambassador {{Ill|María Jesús Figa|es}} has argued, "Normally we melded with the cultures in America, we stayed there, we spread our language and culture and religion."{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|p=84}}

British historian ] has dubbed Columbus the "father of the ]",<ref>{{cite journal|first=Basil|last=Davidson|author-link=Basil Davidson|title=Columbus: the bones and blood of racism|journal=]|volume=33|issue=3|publisher=]|location=Thousand Oaks, California|date=January 1992|pages=17–25|doi=10.1177/030639689203300303|s2cid=145462012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Bigelow|first=Bill|date=10 October 2015|title=Columbus Day must be abolished|url=https://www.ottawaherald.com/article/20151010/OPINION/310109846|access-date=16 July 2021|newspaper=]|language=en|archive-date=24 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524142025/https://www.ottawaherald.com/article/20151010/OPINION/310109846}}</ref> citing the fact that the first license to ship enslaved Africans to the Caribbean was issued by the Catholic Monarchs in 1501 to the first royal governor of Hispaniola, ].<ref name="Jennings2020">{{cite book |last1=Jennings |first1=Evelyn |title=Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana: State Slavery in Defense and Development, 1762–1835 |date=2020 |publisher=LSU Press |isbn=978-0-8071-7464-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kOHcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Depopulation ====
{{Further|Taino#Depopulation}}
{{see also|Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates for the {{nowrap|pre-Columbian}} population of Hispaniola ranged between 250,000 and two million,{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}}{{Sfn|Zinn|2003|p=5}}<ref name=Keegan>Keegan, William F., "Destruction of the Taino" in ''Archaeology''. January/February 1992, pp. 51–56.</ref>{{efn|] estimated that there were three to four million Taínos in Hispaniola, and said 500,000 Lucayans were killed in the Bahamas. Most modern historians reject his figures.<ref name=Keegan/>}} but ] published in late 2020 suggests that smaller figures are more likely, perhaps as low as 10,000–50,000 for Hispaniola and Puerto Rico combined.<ref name="Fernandes">{{cite journal|last1=Fernandes|first1=D.M.|last2=Sirak|first2=K.A.|last3=Ringbauer|first3=H.|date=23 December 2020|display-authors=etal|title=A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean|journal=]|volume=590|issue=7844|pages=103–110|doi=10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2|pmid=33361817|pmc=7864882|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Dutchen|first=Stephanie|date=23 December 2020|title=Ancient DNA shines light on Caribbean history, prehistory|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/12/ancient-dna-shines-light-on-caribbean-history-prehistory/|url-status=live|access-date=27 May 2021|website=]|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223163004/https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/12/ancient-dna-shines-light-on-caribbean-history-prehistory/ |archive-date=23 December 2020 }}</ref> Based on the previous figures of a few hundred thousand, some have estimated that a third or more of the natives in Haiti were dead within the first two years of Columbus's governorship.<ref name="Zinn" />{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}} Contributors to depopulation included disease, warfare, and harsh enslavement.{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|p=}}<ref>{{cite book|first=Alfred W.|last=Crosby|author-link=Arthur W. Crosby|title=The Columbian Exchange|publisher=]|location=Westport, Connecticut|date=1972|isbn=978-0-8371-7228-6|page=47}}</ref> Indirect evidence suggests that some serious illness may have arrived with the 1,500 colonists who accompanied Columbus' second expedition in 1493.{{sfn|Horwitz|2008|p=}} ] writes that "It was as if the suffering these diseases had caused in ] over the past millennia were concentrated into the span of decades."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mann|first=Charles C.|title=1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created|publisher=]|date=2011|location=New York |isbn= 978-0-307-27824-1 |page=12}}</ref> A third of the natives forced to work in gold and silver mines died every six months.<ref name="Hickel">{{cite book|last=Hickel|first=Jason|title=The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions|date=2018|publisher=Windmill Books|location=London, England|isbn=978-1-78609-003-4|page=70|author-link=Jason Hickel}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Within three to six decades, the surviving Arawak population numbered only in the hundreds.<ref name="Hickel" />{{sfn|Dyson|1991|pp=183, 190}}<ref>Crosby (1972) p. 45.</ref> The indigenous population of the Americas overall is thought to have been reduced by about 90% in the century after Columbus's arrival.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Koch|first1=Alexander|last2=Brierley|first2=Chris|last3=Maslin|first3=Mark|last4=Lewis|first4=Simon|date=1 March 2019|title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=207|pages=13–36|bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004|doi-access=free}}</ref> Among indigenous peoples, Columbus is often viewed as a key agent of genocide.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Schuman|first1=H.|last2=Schwartz|first2=B.|last3=D'Arcy|first3=H.|date=28 February 2005|title=Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Christopher Columbus, Hero or Villain?|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c45b/6dae70b6f92891b09a99a0337cbf0235eb97.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226064041/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c45b/6dae70b6f92891b09a99a0337cbf0235eb97.pdf|archive-date=26 February 2020|journal=Public Opinion Quarterly|volume=69|issue=1|pages=2–29|doi=10.1093/poq/nfi001|s2cid=145447081}}</ref> ], a ] historian and author of a multivolume biography on Columbus, writes, "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."<ref name="Morison">{{cite book|last1=Morison|first1=Samuel Eliot|url=https://archive.org/details/christophercolum00mori|title=Christopher Columbus, Mariner|publisher=Little Brown & Co (T); First edition|location=New York |year=1955|isbn=978-0-316-58356-5|url-access=registration}}</ref>

According to Noble David Cook, "There were too few Spaniards to have killed the millions who were reported to have died in the first century after Old and New World contact." He instead estimates that the death toll was caused by ],<ref name="Cook1998">{{cite book|last=Cook|first=Noble David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvjNyZTFrS4C&pg=PA9|title=Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650|year=1998|publisher=]|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=978-0-521-62730-6|pages=9–14}}</ref> which may have caused a pandemic only after the arrival of ] in 1519.<ref>{{cite book|title=Smallpox and its eradication|vauthors=Fenner F, Henderson DA, Arita I, Ježek Z, Ladnyi ID|date=1988|publisher=World Health Organization|isbn=978-92-4-156110-5|series=History of International Public Health|volume=6|location=Geneva|page=236|chapter=The History of Smallpox and its Spread Around the World|hdl=10665/39485|access-date=29 April 2021|chapter-url=https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/bt/smallpox/who/red-book/9241561106_chp5.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/bt/smallpox/who/red-book/9241561106_chp5.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Oliver|first1=José R.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkYAMSusYKkC&q=hispaniola+pandemic+1519&pg=PA192|title=Caciques and Cemí idols: the web spun by Taíno rulers between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico|date=2009|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-8173-5515-9|edition=.|location=Tuscaloosa|page=192|access-date=25 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Deadly Diseases: Epidemics throughout history|website=CNN|url=https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/10/health/epidemics-through-history/|access-date=25 December 2017}}</ref> According to some estimates, smallpox had an 80–90% fatality rate in Native American populations.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Arthur C.|last1=Aufderheide|first2=Conrado|last2=Rodríguez-Martín|first3=Odin|last3=Langsjoen|date=1998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC&pg=PA205|title=The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology|publisher=]|location=Cambridge, England|page=205|isbn=0-521-55203-6}}</ref> The natives had no ] to these new diseases and suffered high fatalities. There is also evidence that they had poor diets and were overworked.<ref name="Austin-Alchon2003" /><ref>Crosby (1972) pp. 39, 47</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Martin|first1=Debra L.|last2=Goodman|first2=Alan H.|date=2002|title=Health conditions before Columbus: paleopathology of native North Americans|journal=]|publisher=]|location=London, England|volume=176|issue=1|pages=65–68|doi=10.1136/ewjm.176.1.65|pmc=1071659|pmid=11788545}}</ref> Historian ] of ], says the available evidence suggests "slavery has emerged as major killer" of the indigenous populations of the Caribbean between 1492 and 1550 more so than diseases such as smallpox, influenza and malaria.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reséndez|first=Andrés|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2gpCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|title=The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America|date=2016|publisher=]|isbn=978-0-547-64098-3|page=17|author-link=Andrés Reséndez}}</ref> He says that indigenous populations did not experience a rebound like European populations did following the ] because unlike the latter, a large portion of the former were subjected to deadly forced labor in the mines.<ref name=":4">{{cite news|last=Treuer|first=David|date=13 May 2016|title=The new book 'The Other Slavery' will make you rethink American history|newspaper=]|url=https://latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-native-american-slavery-20160505-snap-story.html|access-date=21 June 2019}}</ref>

The diseases that devastated the Native Americans came in multiple waves at different times, sometimes as much as centuries apart, which would mean that survivors of one disease may have been killed by others, preventing the population from recovering.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koch |first1=Alexander |last2=Brierley |first2=Chris |last3=Maslin |first3=Mark |last4=Lewis |first4=Simon |title=Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 |journal=] |publisher=]|location=Wollongong, New South Wales|date=1 March 2019 |volume=207 |pages=13–36 |doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004 |bibcode=2019QSRv..207...13K |quote=While most of the other epidemics in history however were confined to a single pathogen and typically lasted for less than a decade, the Americas differed in that multiple pathogens caused multiple waves of virgin soil epidemics over more than a century. Those who survived influenza, may later have succumbed to smallpox, while those who survived both, may then have caught a later wave of measles. Hence, there were documented disease outbreaks in the Americas that killed 30% of the remaining indigenous population over 50 years after initial contact, i.e. between 1568 CE and 1605 CE|doi-access=free }}</ref> Historian ] describes the depopulation of the indigenous Americans as "neither inadvertent nor inevitable", saying it was the result of both disease and intentional genocide.<ref name="Stannard1993xii">{{cite book |last1=Stannard |first1=David E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzFsODcGjfcC&pg=PR12 |title=American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-983898-1 |location=Oxford, England |page=xii |language=en |author-link=David Stannard}}</ref>

====Navigational expertise====
Biographers and historians have a wide range of opinions about Columbus's expertise and experience navigating and captaining ships. One scholar lists some European works ranging from the 1890s to 1980s that support Columbus's experience and skill as among the best in Genoa, while listing some American works over a similar timeframe that portray the explorer as an untrained entrepreneur, having only minor crew or passenger experience prior to his noted journeys.<ref name="Peck">{{cite journal|title=The Controversial Skill of Columbus as a Navigator: An Enduring Historical Enigma|first=Douglas T.|last=Peck|journal=The Journal of Navigation|volume=62|year=2009|issue=3|pages=417–425|doi=10.1017/S0373463309005359|bibcode=2009JNav...62..417P|s2cid=59570444|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3bcb/6e3fb8c43f27099b9b0cbab75585ac12cdc5.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200705003711/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3bcb/6e3fb8c43f27099b9b0cbab75585ac12cdc5.pdf|archive-date=5 July 2020|access-date=4 July 2020}}</ref> According to Morison, Columbus's success in utilizing the trade winds might owe significantly to luck.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|pp=59, 198–199}}

== Physical appearance ==
{{multiple image
| align = right
| image1 = Fernandez-Virgin of the Navigators (proper inversion).jpg
| width1 = 149
| caption1 = '']'' by ] (1531–1536)
| image2 = Christopher Columbus Face.jpg
| width2 = 180
| caption2 = Close-up for Fernández's depiction of Columbus
}} }}
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Contemporary descriptions of Columbus, including those by his son Fernando and Bartolomé de las Casas, describe him as taller than average, with light skin (often sunburnt), blue or hazel eyes, high cheekbones and freckled face, an ], and blond to reddish hair and beard (until about the age of 30, when it began to whiten).{{Sfn|Morison|1991|pp=43–45}}<ref>Bartolomé de Las Casas, ''Historia de las Indias'', ed. Agustín Millares Carlo, 3 vols. (Mexico City, 1951), book 1, chapter 2, 1:29.</ref> One Spanish commentator described his eyes using the word ''garzos'', now usually translated as "light blue", but it seems to have indicated light grey-green or hazel eyes to Columbus's contemporaries. The word ''rubios'' can mean "blond", "fair", or "ruddy".{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=85–86}} Although an abundance of artwork depicts Columbus, no authentic contemporary portrait is known.<ref name="Wilson1991">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Ian |title=The Columbus Myth: Did Men of Bristol Reach America Before Columbus? |year=1991 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-0-671-71067-5 |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHoLAAAAYAAJ&q=%22made%20in%20his%20lifetime%22 |language=en |quote=Of Columbus, too, none of the familiarly reproduced portraits is thought to have been made in his lifetime.}}</ref>
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A well-known image of Columbus is ] by ], which has been reproduced in many textbooks. It agrees with descriptions of Columbus in that it shows a large man with auburn hair, but the painting dates from 1519 so cannot have been painted from life. Furthermore, the inscription identifying the subject as Columbus was probably added later, and the face shown differs from that of other images.<ref name="Met-Piombo">{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/437645|title=Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) &#124; Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus (born about 1446, died 1506)|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref>
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Sometime between 1531 and 1536, ] painted an altarpiece, '']'', that includes a depiction of Columbus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Linda B. |title=Mary, Mother and Warrior: The Virgin in Spain and the Americas |date=2004 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-70595-1 |page=46 }}</ref> The painting was commissioned for a chapel in Seville's ] (House of Trade) in the ] and remains there.<ref name="Phillips2018">{{cite journal |last1=Phillips |first1= Carla Rahn|title=Visualizing Imperium: The Virgin of the Seafarers and Spain's Self-Image in the Early Sixteenth Century |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date= 20 November 2018 |volume=58 |issue=3 |page=816 |doi=10.1353/ren.2008.0864 |s2cid= 233339652|language=en |issn=0034-4338}}</ref>
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[[zh:克里斯托弗·
At the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, 71 alleged portraits of Columbus were displayed; most of them did not match contemporary descriptions.{{sfn|Morison|1991|pp=47–48}}

== See also ==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* '']''

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last=Bergreen|first=Lawrence|author-link=Laurence Bergreen|title=Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1493–1504|year=2011|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-54432-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KbxvDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Caballos |first=Estaban Mira |year=2004 |title=Caciques guatiaos en los inicios de la colonización: el caso del indio Diego Colón |trans-title=''Guatiao'' Caciques at the beginning of colonization: the case of the Indian Diego Colón |jstor=41675598 |journal=Iberoamericana |language=es |volume=4 |issue=16 |pages=7–16
}}
* {{cite book
| first1= Christopher
| last1= Columbus
|editor-last= Major
|editor-first= Richard Henry
|title=Select Letters of Christopher Columbus: With Other Original Documents, Relating to His Four Voyages to the New World
|publisher=The Hakluyt Society
|location= London
|url=https://archive.org/details/selectlettersch00colugoog
|year=1847
}}
* {{cite book
| first1= Christopher
| last1= Columbus
| first2= Paolo
| last2= Toscanelli
|editor-last= Markham
|editor-first= Clements R.
|title=The Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage)
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MI7dzFQZHOoC
|year=2010
|orig-date= 1893
|isbn= 978-1-108-01284-3
}}
* {{cite book
| first1= Christopher
| last1= Columbus
|title=First Voyage to America: From the log of the "Santa Maria"
|publisher=Dover
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxbLxcS5uYgC
|year=1991
|orig-date= 1938
|isbn= 978-0-486-26844-6
}}
* {{cite book|title=A History of the Life and Actions of Adm. Christopher Columbus|first=Ferdinand |last=Columbus|author-link=Ferdinand Columbus|year=1571}} in {{cite book|title=A Collection of voyages and travels|volume=2|year=1732|first=Awnsham|last=Churchill|author-link=Awnsham Churchill|pages=501–624|url= https://archive.org/details/cihm_33298|publisher=London : Printed by assignment from Messrs. Churchill for John Walthoe ..., Tho. Wotton ..., Samuel Birt ..., Daniel Browne ..., Thomas Osborn ..., John Shuckburgh ... and Henry Lintot ...|isbn=978-0-665-33298-2}}
* Crosby, A. W. (1987) ''The Columbian Voyages: the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians.'' Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association.
* {{Cite book
| title= Columbus then and now: a life reexamined
| first= Miles H.
| last= Davidson
| year=1997
| publisher= University of Oklahoma Press
| location= Norman
| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BR6Ek48GgzEC
| isbn= 978-0-8061-2934-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Dyson |first=John |title=Columbus: For Gold, God and Glory |url=https://archive.org/details/columbusforgoldg00dyso_0/ |publisher=Madison Press |isbn=978-0-670-83725-0 |year=1991 }}
* Fuson, Robert H. (1992) ''The Log of Christopher Columbus''. International Marine
* {{Cite book|last=Horwitz|first=Tony|author-link=Tony Horwitz|title=A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World|date=2008|publisher=Henry Holt & Co.|isbn=978-0-8050-7603-5|location=New York}}
* {{cite book| last = Joseph| first = Edward Lanzar| title = History of Trinidad| publisher = A. K. Newman & Co.| year = 1838| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3GNZAAAAcAAJ}}
* {{Cite book| title= The Rediscovery of North America| first= Barry| last= Lopez| publisher=University Press of Kentucky| location= Lexington| year= 1990| isbn= 978-0-8131-1742-3| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=wyh9-rhsaQgC}}
* {{Cite book| title= Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus| first= Samuel Eliot| last= Morison| author-link= Samuel Eliot Morison| publisher=Little, Brown & Co.| location= Boston| year= 1991| orig-date= 1942| isbn= 978-0-316-58478-4}}
** {{Cite book| title= Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus| first= Samuel Eliot| last= Morison| author-mask=3 | publisher=Little, Brown & Co.| location= New York| year= 1942 |url=https://archive.org/details/admiralofoceanse0001samu/ |volume=1 |ref = {{sfnRef|Morison|1942a}}}}
** {{Cite book| title= Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus| first= Samuel Eliot| last= Morison| author-mask=3 |publisher=Time| location= New York| year= 1942 |url=https://archive.org/details/admiralofoceanse0002samu/ |volume=2 |ref = {{sfnRef|Morison|1942b}}}}
* {{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=Patrick J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHENYeBsYkEC|title=Mutiny and Its Bounty: Leadership Lessons from the Age of Discovery|last2=Coye|first2=Ray W.|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-300-17028-3|location=New Haven, CT}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ostapkowicz |first=Joanna |url=https://www.sidestone.com/bookviewer/9789464261011 |title=Lucayan Legacies: Indigenous lifeways in The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands |publisher=Sidestone |year=2023 |isbn=978-94-6426-102-8 |pages=314–316}}
* {{Cite book| title= The Worlds of Christopher Columbus| first1= William D. Jr.| last1= Phillips| first2= Carla Rahn| last2= Phillips| year=1992| publisher= Cambridge University Press |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8jhtmzLlX70C| isbn= 978-0-521-35097-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Zinn|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Zinn|url=https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00howa/page/1|title=A People's History of the United States|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2003|orig-date=1980|isbn=978-0-06-052837-9|location=New York}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |translator-last=Keen |translator-first=Benjamin | translator-link= Benjamin Keen| year=1978 |orig-date=1959 |title=The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand |place= Westport, CT |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-20175-2}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Columbus, Christopher |volume= 6 |last= Beazley |first= Charles Raymond |author-link= Charles Raymond Beazley | pages = 741–746 |short= 1}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Ruddock |first=Alwyn A. |date=1970 |title=Columbus and Iceland: New Light on an Old Problem |journal=The Geographical Journal |volume=136 |issue=2 |pages=177–189 |doi=10.2307/1796276 |jstor=1796276 |bibcode=1970GeogJ.136..177R |issn=0016-7398}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Walter George |title=Christopher Columbus: An Address Delivered Before the American Catholic Historical Society |journal=Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia |date=1906 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=374–398 |jstor=44208924 }}
* Wey, Gómez Nicolás (2008). . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. {{ISBN|978-0-262-23264-7}}
* Wilford, John Noble (1991), ''The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
* {{cite book |last=Winsor |first=Justin |year=1891 |title=Christopher Columbus and How He Received and Imparted the Spirit of Discovery |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |place=Boston |url=https://archive.org/stream/christophercolum00winsrich#page/n7/mode/2up}}

== External links ==
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Commons|Christophorus Columbus|Christopher Columbus}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Library resources box}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Columbus,+Christopher |name=Christopher Columbus}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Christopher Columbus}}
* {{Librivox author |id=348}}
* '''', translated and edited by ] in ] format
*
*
* (overview of monuments for Columbus all over the world)
* , Tiziano Thomas Dossena, ''Bridgepugliausa.it'', 2012.

{{History of the Americas}}
{{Spanish Empire}}
{{Authority control}}


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Latest revision as of 13:31, 4 January 2025

Italian navigator and explorer (1451–1506) "Cristoforo Colombo" and "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" redirect here. For his direct descendant, see Cristóbal Colón de Carvajal, 18th Duke of Veragua. For other uses, see Christopher Columbus (disambiguation) and Cristoforo Colombo (disambiguation).

Admiral of the Ocean SeaChristopher Columbus
Posthumous portrait of a man, said to be Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519
1st Governor of the Indies
In office
1492–1499
Appointed byIsabella I of Castile
Preceded byOffice Established
Succeeded byFrancisco de Bobadilla
Personal details
BornBetween 25 August and 31 October 1451
Genoa, Republic of Genoa
Died(1506-05-20)20 May 1506 (aged 54)
Valladolid, Castile
Resting placeSeville Cathedral, Seville, Spain
Spouse Filipa Moniz Perestrelo ​ ​(m. 1479; died 1484)
Domestic partnerBeatriz Enríquez de Arana
Children
Parents
RelativesBartholomew Columbus (brother)
ProfessionMaritime explorer
Signature

Christopher Columbus (/kəˈlʌmbəs/; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed four Spanish-based voyages across the Atlantic Ocean sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions were the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The name Christopher Columbus is the anglicization of the Latin Christophorus Columbus. Growing up on the coast of Liguria, he went to sea at a young age and traveled widely, as far north as the British Isles and as far south as what is now Ghana. He married Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, who bore a son, Diego, and was based in Lisbon for several years. He later took a Castilian mistress, Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, who bore a son, Ferdinand.

Largely self-educated, Columbus was knowledgeable in geography, astronomy, and history. He developed a plan to seek a western sea passage to the East Indies, hoping to profit from the lucrative spice trade. After the Granada War, and Columbus's persistent lobbying in multiple kingdoms, the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, agreed to sponsor a journey west. Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships and made landfall in the Americas on 12 October, ending the period of human habitation in the Americas now referred to as the pre-Columbian era. His landing place was an island in the Bahamas, known by its native inhabitants as Guanahani. He then visited the islands now known as Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing a colony in what is now Haiti. Columbus returned to Castile in early 1493, with captured natives. Word of his voyage soon spread throughout Europe.

Columbus made three further voyages to the Americas, exploring the Lesser Antilles in 1493, Trinidad and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the east coast of Central America in 1502. Many names he gave to geographical features, particularly islands, are still in use. He gave the name indios ("Indians") to the indigenous peoples he encountered. The extent to which he was aware the Americas were a wholly separate landmass is uncertain; he never clearly renounced his belief he had reached the Far East. As a colonial governor, Columbus was accused by some of his contemporaries of significant brutality and removed from the post. Columbus's strained relationship with the Crown of Castile and its colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and removal from Hispaniola in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the privileges he and his heirs claimed were owed to them by the crown.

Columbus's expeditions inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries, thus bringing the Americas into the European sphere of influence. The transfer of plants, animals, precious metals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Old World and New World that followed his first voyage are known as the Columbian exchange, named after him. These events and the effects which persist to the present are often cited as the beginning of the modern era.

Columbus was widely celebrated in the centuries after his death, but public perception fractured in the 21st century due to greater attention to the harms committed under his governance, particularly the beginning of the depopulation of Hispaniola's indigenous Taíno people, caused by Old World diseases and mistreatment, including slavery. Many places in the Western Hemisphere bear his name, including the South American country of Colombia, the Canadian province of British Columbia, the American city Columbus, Ohio, and the United States capital, the District of Columbia.

Early life

Further information on Columbus's birthplace and background: Origin theories of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus House in Genoa, Italy, an 18th-century reconstruction of the house in which Columbus grew up. The original was likely destroyed during the 1684 bombardment of Genoa.

Columbus's early life is obscure, but scholars believe he was born in the Republic of Genoa between 25 August and 31 October 1451. His father was Domenico Colombo, a wool weaver who worked in Genoa and Savona, and owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers—Bartholomew, Giovanni Pellegrino, and Giacomo (also called Diego)—as well as a sister, Bianchinetta. Bartholomew ran a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood.

His native language is presumed to have been a Genoese dialect (Ligurian) as his first language, though Columbus probably never wrote in it. His name in 15th-century Genoese was Cristoffa Corombo, in Italian, Cristoforo Colombo, and in Spanish Cristóbal Colón.

In one of his writings, he says he went to sea at 14. In 1470, the family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. Some modern authors have argued that he was not from Genoa, but from the Aragon region of Spain or from Portugal. These competing hypotheses have been discounted by most scholars.

Colombo giovinetto, sculpture of young Columbus by Giulio Monteverde, Genoa

In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the wealthy Spinola, Centurione, and Di Negro families of Genoa. Later, he made a trip to the Greek island Chios in the Aegean Sea, then ruled by Genoa. In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry valuable cargo to northern Europe. He probably visited Bristol, England, and Galway, Ireland, where he may have visited St. Nicholas' Collegiate Church. It has been speculated he went to Iceland in 1477, though many scholars doubt this. It is known that in the autumn of 1477, he sailed on a Portuguese ship from Galway to Lisbon, where he found his brother Bartholomew, and they continued trading for the Centurione family. Columbus based himself in Lisbon from 1477 to 1485. In 1478, the Centuriones sent Columbus on a sugar-buying trip to Madeira. He married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrello, a Portuguese nobleman of Lombard origin, who had been the donatary captain of Porto Santo.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus preserved in the Library of Congress of the United States of America – 19th century copy from an engraving by Aliprando Caprioli

In 1479 or 1480, Columbus's son Diego was born. Between 1482 and 1485, Columbus traded along the coasts of West Africa, reaching the Portuguese trading post of Elmina at the Guinea coast in present-day Ghana. Before 1484, Columbus returned to Porto Santo to find that his wife had died. He returned to Portugal to settle her estate and take Diego with him.

He left Portugal for Castile in 1485, where he took a mistress in 1487, a 20-year-old orphan named Beatriz Enríquez de Arana. It is likely that Beatriz met Columbus when he was in Córdoba, a gathering place for Genoese merchants and where the court of the Catholic Monarchs was located at intervals. Beatriz, unmarried at the time, gave birth to Columbus's second son, Fernando Columbus, in July 1488, named for the monarch of Aragon. Columbus recognized the boy as his offspring. Columbus entrusted his older, legitimate son Diego to take care of Beatriz and pay the pension set aside for her following his death, but Diego was negligent in his duties.

Columbus's copy of The Travels of Marco Polo, with his handwritten notes in Latin written in the margins

Columbus learned Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian. He read widely about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of Ptolemy, Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, the travels of Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville, Pliny's Natural History, and Pope Pius II's Historia rerum ubique gestarum. According to historian Edmund Morgan,

Columbus was not a scholarly man. Yet he studied these books, made hundreds of marginal notations in them and came out with ideas about the world that were characteristically simple and strong and sometimes wrong ...

Quest for Asia

Background

Toscanelli's notions of the geography of the Atlantic Ocean (shown superimposed on a modern map), which directly influenced Columbus's plans

Under the Mongol Empire's hegemony over Asia and the Pax Mongolica, Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage on the Silk Road to India, parts of East Asia, including China and Maritime Southeast Asia, which were sources of valuable goods. With the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, the Silk Road was closed to Christian traders.

In 1474, the Florentine astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli suggested to King Afonso V of Portugal that sailing west across the Atlantic would be a quicker way to reach the Maluku (Spice) Islands, China, Japan and India than the route around Africa, but Afonso rejected his proposal. In the 1480s, Columbus and his brother proposed a plan to reach the East Indies by sailing west. Columbus supposedly wrote to Toscanelli in 1481 and received encouragement, along with a copy of a map the astronomer had sent Afonso implying that a westward route to Asia was possible. Columbus's plans were complicated by Bartolomeu Dias's rounding of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, which suggested the Cape Route around Africa to Asia.

Columbus had to wait until 1492 for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to support his voyage across the Atlantic to find gold, spices, a safer route to the East, and converts to Christianity.

Carol Delaney and other commentators have argued that Columbus was a Christian millennialist and apocalypticist and that these beliefs motivated his quest for Asia in a variety of ways. Columbus often wrote about seeking gold in the log books of his voyages and writes about acquiring it "in such quantity that the sovereigns... will undertake and prepare to go conquer the Holy Sepulcher" in a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Columbus often wrote about converting all races to Christianity. Abbas Hamandi argues that Columbus was motivated by the hope of " Jerusalem from Muslim hands" by "using the resources of newly discovered lands".

Geographical considerations

Despite a popular misconception to the contrary, nearly all educated Westerners of Columbus's time knew that the Earth is spherical, a concept that had been understood since antiquity. The techniques of celestial navigation, which uses the position of the Sun and the stars in the sky, had long been in use by astronomers and were beginning to be implemented by mariners.

However Columbus made several errors in calculating the size of the Earth, the distance the continent extended to the east, and therefore the distance to the west to reach his goal.

First, as far back as the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes had correctly computed the circumference of the Earth by using simple geometry and studying the shadows cast by objects at two remote locations. In the 1st century BC, Posidonius confirmed Eratosthenes's results by comparing stellar observations at two separate locations. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but Ptolemy's use of the smaller, old-fashioned units of distance led Columbus to underestimate the size of the Earth by about a third.

"Columbus map", drawn c. 1490 in the Lisbon mapmaking workshop of Bartholomew and Christopher Columbus

Second, three cosmographical parameters determined the bounds of Columbus's enterprise: the distance across the ocean between Europe and Asia, which depended on the extent of the oikumene, i.e., the Eurasian land-mass stretching east–west between Spain and China; the circumference of the Earth; and the number of miles or leagues in a degree of longitude, which was possible to deduce from the theory of the relationship between the size of the surfaces of water and the land as held by the followers of Aristotle in medieval times.

From Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi (1410), Columbus learned of Alfraganus's estimate that a degree of latitude (equal to approximately a degree of longitude along the equator) spanned 56.67 Arabic miles (equivalent to 66.2 nautical miles, 122.6 kilometers or 76.2 mi), but he did not realize that this was expressed in the Arabic mile (about 1,830 meters or 1.14 mi) rather than the shorter Roman mile (about 1,480 m) with which he was familiar. Columbus therefore estimated the size of the Earth to be about 75% of Eratosthenes's calculation.

Third, most scholars of the time accepted Ptolemy's estimate that Eurasia spanned 180° longitude, rather than the actual 130° (to the Chinese mainland) or 150° (to Japan at the latitude of Spain). Columbus believed an even higher estimate, leaving a smaller percentage for water. In d'Ailly's Imago Mundi, Columbus read Marinus of Tyre's estimate that the longitudinal span of Eurasia was 225° at the latitude of Rhodes. Some historians, such as Samuel Eliot Morison, have suggested that he followed the statement in the apocryphal book 2 Esdras (6:42) that "six parts are habitable and the seventh is covered with water." He was also aware of Marco Polo's claim that Japan (which he called "Cipangu") was some 2,414 km (1,500 mi) to the east of China ("Cathay"), and closer to the equator than it is. He was influenced by Toscanelli's idea that there were inhabited islands even farther to the east than Japan, including the mythical Antillia, which he thought might lie not much farther to the west than the Azores, and the distance westward from the Canary Islands to the Indies as only 68 degrees, equivalent to 3,080 nmi (5,700 km; 3,540 mi) (a 58% error).

Based on his sources, Columbus estimated a distance of 2,400 nmi (4,400 km; 2,800 mi) from the Canary Islands west to Japan; the actual distance is 10,600 nmi (19,600 km; 12,200 mi). No ship in the 15th century could have carried enough food and fresh water for such a long voyage, and the dangers involved in navigating through the uncharted ocean would have been formidable. Most European navigators reasonably concluded that a westward voyage from Europe to Asia was unfeasible. The Catholic Monarchs, however, having completed the Reconquista, an expensive war against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula, were eager to obtain a competitive edge over other European countries in the quest for trade with the Indies. Columbus's project, though far-fetched, held the promise of such an advantage.

Christopher Columbus at the gates of the monastery of Santa María de la Rábida with his son Diego, by Benet Mercadé

Nautical considerations

Though Columbus was wrong about the number of degrees of longitude that separated Europe from the Far East and about the distance that each degree represented, he did take advantage of the trade winds, which would prove to be the key to his successful navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. He planned to first sail to the Canary Islands before continuing west with the northeast trade wind. Part of the return to Spain would require traveling against the wind using an arduous sailing technique called beating, during which progress is made very slowly. To effectively make the return voyage, Columbus would need to follow the curving trade winds northeastward to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where he would be able to catch the "westerlies" that blow eastward to the coast of Western Europe.

The navigational technique for travel in the Atlantic appears to have been exploited first by the Portuguese, who referred to it as the volta do mar ('turn of the sea'). Through his marriage to his first wife, Felipa Perestrello, Columbus had access to the nautical charts and logs that had belonged to her deceased father, Bartolomeu Perestrello, who had served as a captain in the Portuguese navy under Prince Henry the Navigator. In the mapmaking shop where he worked with his brother Bartholomew, Columbus also had ample opportunity to hear the stories of old seamen about their voyages to the western seas, but his knowledge of the Atlantic wind patterns was still imperfect at the time of his first voyage. By sailing due west from the Canary Islands during hurricane season, skirting the so-called horse latitudes of the mid-Atlantic, he risked being becalmed and running into a tropical cyclone, both of which he avoided by chance.

Quest for financial support for a voyage

Columbus offers his services to the King of Portugal; Chodowiecki, 17th century

By about 1484, Columbus proposed his planned voyage to King John II of Portugal. The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his advisors, who rejected it, correctly, on the grounds that Columbus's estimate for a voyage of 2,400 nmi was only a quarter of what it should have been. In 1488, Columbus again appealed to the court of Portugal, and John II again granted him an audience. That meeting also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal with news of his successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa (near the Cape of Good Hope).

Monastery of La Rábida, in which Columbus stayed in the years before his first expedition

Columbus sought an audience with the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, who had united several kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying and now ruled together. On 1 May 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. The learned men of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated the distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and advised the Catholic Monarchs to pass on the proposed venture. To keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the sovereigns gave him an allowance, totaling about 14,000 maravedis for the year, or about the annual salary of a sailor. In May 1489, the queen sent him another 10,000 maravedis, and the same year the monarchs furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their dominion to provide him food and lodging at no cost.

Columbus also dispatched his brother Bartholomew to the court of Henry VII of England to inquire whether the English crown might sponsor his expedition, but he was captured by pirates en route, and only arrived in early 1491. By that time, Columbus had retreated to La Rábida Friary, where the Spanish crown sent him 20,000 maravedis to buy new clothes and instructions to return to the Spanish court for renewed discussions.

Agreement with the Spanish crown

The Alhambra, where Columbus received permission from the Catholic Monarchs for his first voyage

Columbus waited at King Ferdinand's camp until Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, in January 1492. A council led by Isabella's confessor, Hernando de Talavera, found Columbus's proposal to reach the Indies implausible. Columbus had left for France when Ferdinand intervened, first sending Talavera and Bishop Diego Deza to appeal to the queen. Isabella was finally convinced by the king's clerk Luis de Santángel, who argued that Columbus would take his ideas elsewhere, and offered to help arrange the funding. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch Columbus, who had traveled 2 leagues (over 10 km) toward Córdoba.

In the April 1492 "Capitulations of Santa Fe", King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella promised Columbus that if he succeeded he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands he might claim for Spain. He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. He would be entitled to 10% (diezmo) of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. He also would have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture in the new lands, and receive one-eighth (ochavo) of the profits.

In 1500, during his third voyage to the Americas, Columbus was arrested and dismissed from his posts. He and his sons, Diego and Fernando, then conducted a lengthy series of court cases against the Castilian crown, known as the pleitos colombinos, alleging that the Crown had illegally reneged on its contractual obligations to Columbus and his heirs. The Columbus family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego's position as viceroy but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, and further disputes initiated by heirs continued until 1790.

Voyages

Main article: Voyages of Christopher Columbus See also: Christopher Columbus Copy Book
Captain's ensign of Columbus's ships
The voyages of Christopher Columbus (conjectural)

Between 1492 and 1504, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas, each voyage being sponsored by the Crown of Castile. On his first voyage he reached the Americas, initiating the European exploration and colonization of the continent, as well as the Columbian exchange. His role in history is thus important to the Age of Discovery, Western history, and human history writ large.

In Columbus's letter on the first voyage, published following his first return to Spain, he claimed that he had reached Asia, as previously described by Marco Polo and other Europeans. Over his subsequent voyages, Columbus refused to acknowledge that the lands he visited and claimed for Spain were not part of Asia, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary. This might explain, in part, why the American continent was named after the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci—who received credit for recognizing it as a "New World"—and not after Columbus.

First voyage (1492–1493)

First voyage (conjectural). Modern place names in black, Columbus's place names in blue

On the evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from Palos de la Frontera with three ships. The largest was a carrack, the Santa María, owned and captained by Juan de la Cosa, and under Columbus's direct command. The other two were smaller caravels, the Pinta and the Niña, piloted by the Pinzón brothers. Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands. There he restocked provisions and made repairs then departed from San Sebastián de La Gomera on 6 September, for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.

On 7 October, the crew spotted "mmense flocks of birds". On 11 October, Columbus changed the fleet's course to due west, and sailed through the night, believing land was soon to be found. At around 02:00 the following morning, a lookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana, spotted land. The captain of the Pinta, Martín Alonso Pinzón, verified the sight of land and alerted Columbus. Columbus later maintained that he had already seen a light on the land a few hours earlier, thereby claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to sight land. Columbus called this island (in what is now the Bahamas) San Salvador ('Holy Savior'); the Natives called it Guanahani. Christopher Columbus's journal entry of 12 October 1492 states:

I saw some who had marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to them asking what they were; and they showed me how people from other islands nearby came there and tried to take them, and how they defended themselves; and I believed and believe that they come here from tierra firme to take them captive. They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak.

Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited Los Indios (Spanish for 'Indians'). He initially encountered the Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak peoples. Noting their gold ear ornaments, Columbus took some of the Arawaks prisoner and insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold. Columbus did not believe he needed to create a fortified outpost, writing, "the people here are simple in war-like matters ... I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased." The Taínos told Columbus that another indigenous tribe, the Caribs, were fierce warriors and cannibals, who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing their women, although this may have been a belief perpetuated by the Spaniards to justify enslaving them.

Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba, where he landed on 28 October. On the night of 26 November, Martín Alonso Pinzón took the Pinta on an unauthorized expedition in search of an island called "Babeque" or "Baneque", which the natives had told him was rich in gold. Columbus, for his part, continued to the northern coast of Hispaniola, where he landed on 6 December. There, the Santa María ran aground on 25 December 1492 and had to be abandoned. The wreck was used as a target for cannon fire to impress the native peoples. Columbus was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including the interpreter Luis de Torres, and founded the settlement of La Navidad, in present-day Haiti. Columbus took more natives prisoner and continued his exploration. He kept sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship until he encountered Pinzón and the Pinta on 6 January.

On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop of this voyage in the Americas, in the Bay of Rincón in northeast Hispaniola. There he encountered the Ciguayos, the only natives who offered violent resistance during this voyage. The Ciguayos refused to trade the amount of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing clash one Ciguayo was stabbed in the buttocks and another wounded with an arrow in his chest. Because of these events, Columbus called the inlet the Golfo de Las Flechas ('Bay of Arrows').

Columbus headed for Spain on the Niña, but a storm separated him from the Pinta, and forced the Niña to stop at the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Half of his crew went ashore to say prayers of thanksgiving in a chapel for having survived the storm. But while praying, they were imprisoned by the governor of the island, ostensibly on suspicion of being pirates. After a two-day stand-off, the prisoners were released, and Columbus again set sail for Spain.

Another storm forced Columbus into the port at Lisbon. From there he went to Vale do Paraíso north of Lisbon to meet King John II of Portugal, who told Columbus that he believed the voyage to be in violation of the 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas. After spending more than a week in Portugal, Columbus set sail for Spain. Returning to Palos on 15 March 1493, he was given a hero's welcome and soon afterward received by Isabella and Ferdinand in Barcelona. To them he presented kidnapped Taínos and various plants and items he had collected.

One of the ten Natives taken on the return trip was a Lucayan Taíno from Guanahani thought to be 13–15 years of age, who Columbus adopted as his son upon their arrival in Spain; the boy, whose Lucayan name is unknown, received the name Diego at baptism. Initially, Diego had been recognized for his intelligence and rapid acquisition of Spanish customs, and would serve as a guide and interpreter on each of Columbus's subsequent voyages. By the second voyage's departure later in 1493, Diego was the only Native out of the ten taken to Europe who had not died or become seriously ill as the result of disease; while on this voyage, he played a vital role in the discovery of La Navidad. He subsequently married and had a son, also named Diego, who died of illness in 1506. Following Columbus's death, Diego spent the rest of his life confined to Santo Domingo, and does not reappear in the historical record following a smallpox epidemic that swept Hispaniola in 1519.

Columbus's letter on the first voyage, probably dispatched to the Spanish court upon arrival in Lisbon, was instrumental in spreading the news throughout Europe about his voyage. Almost immediately after his arrival in Spain, printed versions began to appear, and word of his voyage spread rapidly. Most people initially believed that he had reached Asia. The Bulls of Donation, three papal bulls of Pope Alexander VI delivered in 1493, purported to grant overseas territories to Portugal and the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. They were replaced by the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494.

The two earliest published copies of Columbus's letter on the first voyage aboard the Niña were donated in 2017 by the Jay I. Kislak Foundation to the University of Miami library in Coral Gables, Florida, where they are housed.

Second voyage (1493–1496)

Columbus's second voyage

On 24 September 1493, Columbus sailed from Cádiz with 17 ships, and supplies to establish permanent colonies in the Americas. He sailed with nearly 1,500 men, including sailors, soldiers, priests, carpenters, stonemasons, metalworkers, and farmers. Among the expedition members were Alvarez Chanca, a physician who wrote a detailed account of the second voyage; Juan Ponce de León, the first governor of Puerto Rico and Florida; the father of Bartolomé de las Casas; Juan de la Cosa, a cartographer who is credited with making the first world map depicting the New World; and Columbus's youngest brother Diego. The fleet stopped at the Canary Islands to take on more supplies, and set sail again on 7 October, deliberately taking a more southerly course than on the first voyage.

On 3 November, they arrived in the Windward Islands; the first island they encountered was named Dominica by Columbus, but not finding a good harbor there, they anchored off a nearby smaller island, which he named Mariagalante, now a part of Guadeloupe and called Marie-Galante. Other islands named by Columbus on this voyage were Montserrat, Antigua, Saint Martin, the Virgin Islands, as well as many others.

On 17 November, Columbus first sighted the eastern coast of the island of Puerto Rico, known to its native Taino people as Borikén. His fleet sailed along the island's southern coast for a whole day, before making landfall on its northwestern coast at the Bay of Añasco, early on 19 November. Upon landing, Columbus christened the island San Juan Bautista after John the Baptist, and remained anchored there for two days from 20 to 21 November, filling the water casks of the ships in his fleet.

The Inspiration of Christopher Columbus by José María Obregón, 1856

On 22 November, Columbus returned to Hispaniola to visit La Navidad in modern-day Haiti, where 39 Spaniards had been left during the first voyage. Columbus found the fort in ruins. He learned from Guacanagaríx, the local tribe leader, that his men had quarreled over gold and taken women from the tribe, and that after some left for the territory of Caonabo, Caonabo came and burned the fort and killed the rest of the men there.

Columbus then established a poorly located and short-lived settlement to the east, La Isabela, in the present-day Dominican Republic. By the end of 1494, disease and famine had killed two-thirds of the Spanish settlers there.

From April to August 1494, Columbus explored Cuba and Jamaica, then returned to Hispaniola. Before leaving on this exploration to Cuba, Columbus had ordered a large amount of men, under Pedro Margarit, to "journey the length and breadth of the island, enforcing Spanish control and bringing all the people under the Spanish yoke." These men, in his absence, raped women, took men captive to be servants, and stole from the indigenous people. A number of Spanish were killed in retaliation. By the time Columbus returned from exploring Cuba, the four primary leaders of the Arawak people in Hispaniola were gathering for war to try to drive the Spanish from the Island. Columbus assembled a large number of troops, and joined with his one native ally, chief , met for battle. The Spanish, even though they were largely outnumbered, won this battle, and over the next 9 months Columbus continued to wage war on the native Taino on Hispaniola until they surrendered and agreed to pay tribute.

Columbus implemented encomienda, a Spanish labor system that rewarded conquerors with the labor of conquered non-Christian people. It is also recorded that punishments to both Spaniards and natives included whippings and mutilation (cutting noses and ears).

Columbus and the colonists enslaved many of the indigenous people, including children. Natives were beaten, raped, and tortured for the location of imagined gold. Thousands committed suicide rather than face the oppression.

In February 1495, Columbus rounded up about 1,500 Arawaks, some of whom had rebelled, in a great slave raid. About 500 of the strongest were shipped to Spain as slaves, with about two hundred of those dying en route.

In June 1495, the Spanish crown sent ships and supplies to Hispaniola. In October, Florentine merchant Gianotto Berardi, who had won the contract to provision the fleet of Columbus's second voyage and to supply the colony on Hispaniola, received almost 40,000 maravedís worth of enslaved Indians. He renewed his effort to get supplies to Columbus, and was working to organize a fleet when he suddenly died in December. On 10 March 1496, having been away about 30 months, the fleet departed La Isabela. On 8 June the crew sighted land somewhere between Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent, and disembarked in Cádiz on 11 June.

Third voyage (1498–1500)

Third voyage

On 30 May 1498, Columbus left with six ships from Sanlúcar, Spain. The fleet called at Madeira and the Canary Islands, where it divided in two, with three ships heading for Hispaniola and the other three vessels, commanded by Columbus, sailing south to the Cape Verde Islands and then westward across the Atlantic. It is probable that this expedition was intended at least partly to confirm rumors of a large continent south of the Caribbean Sea, that is, South America.

On 31 July they sighted Trinidad, the most southerly of the Caribbean islands. On 5 August, Columbus sent several small boats ashore on the southern side of the Paria Peninsula in what is now Venezuela, near the mouth of the Orinoco river. This was the first recorded landing of Europeans on the mainland of South America, which Columbus realized must be a continent. The fleet then sailed to the islands of Chacachacare and Margarita, reaching the latter on 14 August, and sighted Tobago and Grenada from afar, according to some scholars.

On 19 August, Columbus returned to Hispaniola. There he found settlers in rebellion against his rule, and his unfulfilled promises of riches. Columbus had some of the Europeans tried for their disobedience; at least one rebel leader was hanged.

In October 1499, Columbus sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Spain to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern. By this time, accusations of tyranny and incompetence on the part of Columbus had also reached the Court. The sovereigns sent Francisco de Bobadilla, a relative of Marquesa Beatriz de Bobadilla, a patron of Columbus and a close friend of Queen Isabella, to investigate the accusations of brutality made against the Admiral. Arriving in Santo Domingo while Columbus was away, Bobadilla was immediately met with complaints about all three Columbus brothers. He moved into Columbus's house and seized his property, took depositions from the Admiral's enemies, and declared himself governor.

Bobadilla reported to Spain that Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. He claimed that Columbus regularly used torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. Testimony recorded in the report stated that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartholomew on "defending the family" when the latter ordered for a woman to be paraded naked through the streets and then had her tongue cut because she had "spoken ill of the admiral and his brothers". The document also describes how Columbus put down native unrest and revolt: he first ordered a brutal suppression of the uprising in which many natives were killed, and then paraded their dismembered bodies through the streets in an attempt to discourage further rebellion. Columbus vehemently denied the charges. The neutrality and accuracy of the accusations and investigations of Bobadilla toward Columbus and his brothers have been disputed by historians, given the anti-Italian sentiment of the Spaniards and Bobadilla's desire to take over Columbus's position.

In early October 1500, Columbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard La Gorda, the caravel on which Bobadilla had arrived at Santo Domingo. They were returned to Spain, and languished in jail for six weeks before King Ferdinand ordered their release. Not long after, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to the Alhambra palace in Granada. The sovereigns expressed indignation at the actions of Bobadilla, who was then recalled and ordered to make restitutions of the property he had confiscated from Columbus. The royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; restored their freedom and wealth; and, after much persuasion, agreed to fund Columbus's fourth voyage. However, Nicolás de Ovando was to replace Bobadilla and be the new governor of the West Indies.

New light was shed on the seizure of Columbus and his brother Bartholomew, the Adelantado, with the discovery by archivist Isabel Aguirre of an incomplete copy of the testimonies against them gathered by Francisco de Bobadilla at Santo Domingo in 1500. She found a manuscript copy of this pesquisa (inquiry) ‌in the Archive of Simancas, Spain, uncatalogued until she and Consuelo Varela published their book, La caída de Cristóbal Colón: el juicio de Bobadilla (The fall of Christopher Colón: the judgement of Bobadilla) in 2006.

Fourth voyage (1502–1504)

Main article: Fourth voyage of Columbus
Columbus's fourth voyage
Coat of arms granted to Christopher Columbus and the House of Colon by Pope Alexander VI motu proprio in 1502

On 9 May 1502, Columbus left Cádiz with his flagship Santa María and three other vessels. The ships were crewed by 140 men, including his brother Bartholomew as second in command and his son Fernando. He sailed to Asilah on the Moroccan coast to rescue Portuguese soldiers said to be besieged by the Moors. The siege had been lifted by the time they arrived, so the Spaniards stayed only a day and continued on to the Canary Islands.

On 15 June, the fleet arrived at Martinique, where it lingered for several days. A hurricane was forming, so Columbus continued westward, hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. He arrived at Santo Domingo on 29 June, but was denied port, and the new governor Francisco de Bobadilla refused to listen to his warning that a hurricane was approaching. Instead, while Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the Rio Jaina, the first Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane. Columbus's ships survived with only minor damage, while 20 of the 30 ships in the governor's fleet were lost along with 500 lives (including that of Francisco de Bobadilla). Although a few surviving ships managed to straggle back to Santo Domingo, Aguja, the fragile ship carrying Columbus's personal belongings and his 4,000 pesos in gold was the sole vessel to reach Spain. The gold was his tenth (décimo) of the profits from Hispaniola, equal to 240,000 maravedis, guaranteed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.

After a brief stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at the coast of Honduras on 30 July. Here Bartholomew found native merchants and a large canoe. On 14 August, Columbus landed on the continental mainland at Punta Caxinas, now Puerto Castilla, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, seeking a strait in the western Caribbean through which he could sail to the Indian Ocean. Sailing south along the Nicaraguan coast, he found a channel that led into Almirante Bay in Panama on 5 October.

As soon as his ships anchored in Almirante Bay, Columbus encountered Ngäbe people in canoes who were wearing gold ornaments. In January 1503, he established a garrison at the mouth of the Belén River. Columbus left for Hispaniola on 16 April. On 10 May he sighted the Cayman Islands, naming them "Las Tortugas" after the numerous sea turtles there. His ships sustained damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel farther, on 25 June 1503 they were beached in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica.

For six months Columbus and 230 of his men remained stranded on Jamaica. Diego Méndez de Segura, who had shipped out as a personal secretary to Columbus, and a Spanish shipmate called Bartolomé Flisco, along with six natives, paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola. The governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men. In the meantime Columbus, in a desperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, won their favor by predicting a lunar eclipse for 29 February 1504, using Abraham Zacuto's astronomical charts. Despite the governor's obstruction, Christopher Columbus and his men were rescued on 28 June 1504, and arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on 7 November.

Later life, illness, and death

The death of Columbus, lithograph by L. Prang & Co., 1893

Columbus had always claimed that the conversion of non-believers was one reason for his explorations, and he grew increasingly religious in his later years. Probably with the assistance of his son Diego and his friend the Carthusian monk Gaspar Gorricio, Columbus produced two books during his later years: a Book of Privileges (1502), detailing and documenting the rewards from the Spanish Crown to which he believed he and his heirs were entitled, and a Book of Prophecies (1505), in which passages from the Bible were used to place his achievements as an explorer in the context of Christian eschatology.

In his later years, Columbus demanded that the Crown of Castile give him his tenth of all the riches and trade goods yielded by the new lands, as stipulated in the Capitulations of Santa Fe. Because he had been relieved of his duties as governor, the Crown did not feel bound by that contract and his demands were rejected. After his death, his heirs sued the Crown for a part of the profits from trade with America, as well as other rewards. This led to a protracted series of legal disputes known as the pleitos colombinos ("Columbian lawsuits").

The remains of Christopher Columbus preserved in the University Library of Pavia

During a violent storm on his first return voyage, Columbus, then 41, had suffered an attack of what was believed at the time to be gout. In subsequent years, he was plagued with what was thought to be influenza and other fevers, bleeding from the eyes, temporary blindness and prolonged attacks of gout. The attacks increased in duration and severity, sometimes leaving Columbus bedridden for months at a time, and culminated in his death 14 years later.

Based on Columbus's lifestyle and the described symptoms, some modern commentators suspect that he suffered from reactive arthritis, rather than gout. Reactive arthritis is a joint inflammation caused by intestinal bacterial infections or after acquiring certain sexually transmitted diseases (primarily chlamydia or gonorrhea). In 2006, Frank C. Arnett, a medical doctor, and historian Charles Merrill, published their paper in The American Journal of the Medical Sciences proposing that Columbus had a form of reactive arthritis; Merrill made the case in that same paper that Columbus was the son of Catalans and his mother possibly a member of a prominent converso (converted Jew) family. "It seems likely that acquired reactive arthritis from food poisoning on one of his ocean voyages because of poor sanitation and improper food preparation", says Arnett, a rheumatologist and professor of internal medicine, pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Some historians such as H. Micheal Tarver and Emily Slape, as well as medical doctors such as Arnett and Antonio Rodríguez Cuartero, believe that Columbus had such a form of reactive arthritis, but according to other authorities, this is "speculative", or "very speculative".

After his arrival to Sanlúcar from his fourth voyage (and Queen Isabella's death), an ill Columbus settled in Seville in April 1505. He stubbornly continued to make pleas to the Crown to defend his own personal privileges and his family's. He moved to Segovia (where the court was at the time) on a mule by early 1506, and, on the occasion of the wedding of King Ferdinand with Germaine of Foix in Valladolid, Spain, in March 1506, Columbus moved to that city to persist with his demands. On 20 May 1506, aged 54, Columbus died in Valladolid.

Location of remains

Tomb in Seville Cathedral. The remains in the casket are borne by kings of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Navarre.A large white, black, and gold tomb elaborately adorned with sculpture and writing, claiming to be the resting place of Cristobal ColonTomb in Columbus Lighthouse, Santo Domingo Este, Dominican Republic

Columbus's remains were first buried at the Chapel of Wonders at the Convent of St. Francis, Valladolid, but were then moved to the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville (southern Spain) by the will of his son Diego. They may have been exhumed in 1513 and interred at the Seville Cathedral. In about 1536, the remains of both Columbus and his son Diego were moved to a cathedral in Colonial Santo Domingo, in the present-day Dominican Republic; Columbus had requested to be buried on the island. By some accounts, in 1793, when France took over the entire island of Hispaniola, Columbus's remains were moved to Havana, Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the Spanish–American War in 1898, at least some of these remains were moved back to the Seville Cathedral, where they were placed on an elaborate catafalque.

In June 2003, DNA samples were taken from the remains in Seville, as well as those of Columbus's brother Diego and younger son Fernando. Initial observations suggested that the bones did not appear to match Columbus's physique or age at death. DNA extraction proved difficult; only short fragments of mitochondrial DNA could be isolated. These matched corresponding DNA from Columbus's brother, supporting that the two men had the same mother. Such evidence, together with anthropologic and historic analyses, led the researchers to conclude that the remains belonged to Christopher Columbus.

In 1877, a priest discovered a lead box at Santo Domingo inscribed: "Discoverer of America, First Admiral". Inscriptions found the next year read "Last of the remains of the first admiral, Sire Christopher Columbus, discoverer." The box contained bones of an arm and a leg, as well as a bullet. These remains were considered legitimate by physician and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Eugene Osborne, who suggested in 1913 that they travel through the Panama Canal as a part of its opening ceremony. These remains were kept at the Basilica Cathedral of Santa María la Menor (in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo) before being moved to the Columbus Lighthouse (Santo Domingo Este, inaugurated in 1992). The authorities in Santo Domingo have never allowed these remains to be DNA-tested, so it is unconfirmed whether they are from Columbus's body as well.

Commemoration

Further information: List of places named for Christopher Columbus and List of monuments and memorials to Christopher Columbus
U.S. Columbian Issue of 1893.
Replicas of Niña, Pinta and Santa María sailed from Spain to the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893
Columbus Day parade in New York City, 2009

The figure of Columbus was not ignored in the British colonies during the colonial era: Columbus became a unifying symbol early in the history of the colonies that became the United States when Puritan preachers began to use his life story as a model for a "developing American spirit". In the spring of 1692, Puritan preacher Cotton Mather described Columbus's voyage as one of three shaping events of the modern age, connecting Columbus's voyage and the Puritans' migration to North America, seeing them together as the key to a grand design.

The use of Columbus as a founding figure of New World nations spread rapidly after the American Revolution. This was out of a desire to develop a national history and founding myth with fewer ties to Britain. His name was the basis for the female national personification of the United States, Columbia, in use since the 1730s with reference to the original Thirteen Colonies, and also a historical name applied to the Americas and to the New World. Columbia, South Carolina and Columbia Rediviva, the ship for which the Columbia River was named, are named for Columbus.

Columbus's name was given to the newly born Republic of Colombia in the early 19th century, inspired by the political project of "Colombeia" developed by revolutionary Francisco de Miranda, which was put at the service of the emancipation of continental Hispanic America.

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus, the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago was named the World's Columbian Exposition. The U.S. Postal Service issued the first U.S. commemorative stamps, the Columbian Issue, depicting Columbus, Queen Isabella and others in various stages of his several voyages. A commemorative silver half dollar was also struck, which remains the only U.S. currency issued having a foreigner as its subject. The policies related to the celebration of the Spanish colonial empire as the vehicle of a nationalist project undertaken in Spain during the Restoration in the late 19th century took form with the commemoration of the 4th centenary on 12 October 1892 (in which the figure of Columbus was extolled by the Conservative government), eventually becoming the very same national day. Several monuments commemorating the "discovery" were erected in cities such as Palos, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, Salamanca, Valladolid and Seville in the years around the 400th anniversary.

For the Columbus Quincentenary in 1992, a second Columbian issue was released jointly with Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Columbus was celebrated at Seville Expo '92, and Genoa Expo '92.

The Boal Mansion Museum, founded in 1951, contains a collection of materials concerning later descendants of Columbus and collateral branches of the family. It features a 16th-century chapel from a Spanish castle reputedly owned by Diego Colón which became the residence of Columbus's descendants. The chapel interior was dismantled and moved from Spain in 1909 and re-erected on the Boal estate at Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. Inside it are numerous religious paintings and other objects including a reliquary with fragments of wood supposedly from the True Cross. The museum also holds a collection of documents mostly relating to Columbus descendants of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

In many countries of the Americas, as well as Spain and Italy, Columbus Day celebrates the anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas on 12 October 1492.

Legacy

The voyages of Columbus are considered a turning point in human history, marking the beginning of globalization and accompanying demographic, commercial, economic, social, and political changes.

Landing of Columbus at the Island of Guanahaní, West Indies (1846), by John Vanderlyn. The landing of Columbus became a powerful icon of American genesis in the 19th century.

His explorations resulted in permanent contact between the two hemispheres, and the term "pre-Columbian" is used to refer to the cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors. The ensuing Columbian exchange saw the massive exchange of animals, plants, fungi, diseases, technologies, mineral wealth and ideas.

In the first century after his endeavors, Columbus's figure largely languished in the backwaters of history, and his reputation was beset by his failures as a colonial administrator. His legacy was somewhat rescued from oblivion when he began to appear as a character in Italian and Spanish plays and poems from the late 16th century onward.

Columbus was subsumed into the Western narrative of colonization and empire building, which invoked notions of translatio imperii and translatio studii to underline who was considered "civilized" and who was not.

The Discovery of America sculpture, depicting Columbus and a cowering Indian maiden, stood outside the U.S. Capitol from 1844 to 1958.

The Americanization of the figure of Columbus began in the latter decades of the 18th century, after the revolutionary period of the United States, elevating the status of his reputation to a national myth, homo americanus. His landing became a powerful icon as an "image of American genesis". The Discovery of America sculpture, depicting Columbus and a cowering Native maiden, was commissioned on 3 April 1837, when U.S. President Martin Van Buren sanctioned the engineering of Luigi Persico's design. This representation of Columbus's triumph and the Native's recoil is a demonstration of supposed white superiority over savage, naive Natives. As recorded during its unveiling in 1844, the sculpture extends to "represent the meeting of the two races", as Persico captures their first interaction, highlighting the "moral and intellectual inferiority" of Natives. Placed outside the U.S. Capitol building where it remained until its removal in the mid-20th century, the sculpture reflected the contemporary view of whites in the U.S. toward the Natives; they are labeled "merciless Indian savages" in the United States Declaration of Independence. In 1836, Pennsylvania senator and future U.S. President James Buchanan, who proposed the sculpture, described it as representing "the great discoverer when he first bounded with ecstasy upon the shore, ail his toils past, presenting a hemisphere to the astonished world, with the name America inscribed upon it. Whilst he is thus standing upon the shore, a female savage, with awe and wonder depicted in her countenance, is gazing upon him."

The American Columbus myth was reconfigured later in the century when he was enlisted as an ethnic hero by immigrants to the United States who were not of Anglo-Saxon stock, such as Jewish, Italian, and Irish people, who claimed Columbus as a sort of ethnic founding father. Catholics unsuccessfully tried to promote him for canonization in the 19th century.

From the 1990s onward, a narrative of Columbus being responsible for the genocide of indigenous peoples and environmental destruction began to compete with the then predominant discourse of Columbus as Christ-bearer, scientist, or father of America. This narrative features the negative effects of Columbus' conquests on native populations. Exposed to Old World diseases, the indigenous populations of the New World collapsed, and were largely replaced by Europeans and Africans, who brought with them new methods of farming, business, governance, and religious worship.

Originality of discovery of America

Main articles: Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories and Norse colonization of North America
Discovery of America, a postage stamp from the Faroe Islands commemorates the voyages of discovery of Leif Erikson (c. 1000) and Christopher Columbus (1492).

Though Christopher Columbus came to be considered the European discoverer of America in Western popular culture, his historical legacy is more nuanced. After settling Iceland, the Norse settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century. Norsemen are believed to have then set sail from Greenland and Iceland to become the first known Europeans to reach the North American mainland, nearly 500 years before Columbus reached the Caribbean. The 1960s discovery of a Norse settlement dating to c. 1000 AD at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, partially corroborates accounts within the Icelandic sagas of Erik the Red's colonization of Greenland and his son Leif Erikson's subsequent exploration of a place he called Vinland.

In the 19th century, amid a revival of interest in Norse culture, Carl Christian Rafn and Benjamin Franklin DeCosta wrote works establishing that the Norse had preceded Columbus in colonizing the Americas. Following this, in 1874 Rasmus Bjørn Anderson argued that Columbus must have known of the North American continent before he started his voyage of discovery. Most modern scholars doubt Columbus had knowledge of the Norse settlements in America, with his arrival to the continent being most likely an independent discovery.

Europeans devised explanations for the origins of the Native Americans and their geographical distribution with narratives that often served to reinforce their own preconceptions built on ancient intellectual foundations. In modern Latin America, the non-Native populations of some countries often demonstrate an ambiguous attitude toward the perspectives of indigenous peoples regarding the so-called "discovery" by Columbus and the era of colonialism that followed. In his 1960 monograph, Mexican philosopher and historian Edmundo O'Gorman explicitly rejects the Columbus discovery myth, arguing that the idea that Columbus discovered America was a misleading legend fixed in the public mind through the works of American author Washington Irving during the 19th century. O'Gorman argues that to assert Columbus "discovered America" is to shape the facts concerning the events of 1492 to make them conform to an interpretation that arose many years later. For him, the Eurocentric view of the discovery of America sustains systems of domination in ways that favor Europeans. In a 1992 article for The UNESCO Courier, Félix Fernández-Shaw argues that the word "discovery" prioritizes European explorers as the "heroes" of the contact between the Old and New World. He suggests that the word "encounter" is more appropriate, being a more universal term which includes Native Americans in the narrative.

America as a distinct land

The Columbus Monument in Columbus Circle, New York City

Historians have traditionally argued that Columbus remained convinced until his death that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia as he originally intended (excluding arguments such as Anderson's). On his third voyage he briefly referred to South America as a "hitherto unknown" continent, while also rationalizing that it was the Earthly Paradise (Eden) located "at the end of the Orient". Columbus continued to claim in his later writings that he had reached Asia; in a 1502 letter to Pope Alexander VI, he asserts that Cuba is the east coast of Asia. On the other hand, in a document in the Book of Privileges (1502), Columbus refers to the New World as the Indias Occidentales ('West Indies'), which he says "were unknown to all the world".

Shape of the Earth

Further information: Myth of the flat Earth
Columbus Lighthouse, a Museum and Mausoleum in homage to Christopher Columbus in Santo Domingo

Washington Irving's 1828 biography of Columbus popularized the idea that Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan because many Catholic theologians insisted that the Earth was flat, but this is a popular misconception which can be traced back to 17th-century Protestants campaigning against Catholicism. In fact, the spherical shape of the Earth had been known to scholars since antiquity, and was common knowledge among sailors, including Columbus. Coincidentally, the oldest surviving globe of the Earth, the Erdapfel, was made in 1492, just before Columbus's return to Europe from his first voyage. As such it contains no sign of the Americas and yet demonstrates the common belief in a spherical Earth.

In 1492, Columbus correctly measured Polaris's diurnal motion around true north as having a diameter of almost 7°. In 1498, while sailing west through the doldrums 8° north in July and again in August sailing the trade winds 13° north, Columbus reported seeing Polaris with a diurnal motion of 10° in diameter. He accounted for the shift by concluding that Earth's figure is pear-shaped, with the 'stalk' portion (comparing this to a woman's breast) being nearest Heaven and upon which was centered the Earthly Paradise. Although Columbus's later readings were incorrect, 20th-century satellite data happens to indicate that the Earth has a slight pear shape.

Criticism and defense

Columbus has been criticized both for his brutality and for initiating the depopulation of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, whether by imported diseases or intentional violence. According to scholars of Native American history, George Tinker and Mark Freedman, Columbus was responsible for creating a cycle of "murder, violence, and slavery" to maximize exploitation of the Caribbean islands' resources, and that Native deaths on the scale at which they occurred would not have been caused by new diseases alone. Further, they describe the proposition that disease and not genocide caused these deaths as "American holocaust denial". Historian Kris Lane disputes whether it is appropriate to use the term "genocide" when the atrocities were not Columbus's intent, but resulted from his decrees, family business goals, and negligence. Other scholars defend Columbus's actions or allege that the worst accusations against him are not based in fact while others claim that "he has been blamed for events far beyond his own reach or knowledge".

As a result of the protests and riots that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020, many public monuments of Christopher Columbus have been removed.

Brutality

The remains of the pedestal base of the Columbus statue in the Baltimore inner harbor area. The statue was thrown into the harbor on 4 July 2020, as part of the George Floyd protests.

Some historians have criticized Columbus for initiating the widespread colonization of the Americas and for abusing its native population. On St. Croix, Columbus's friend Michele da Cuneo—according to his own account—kept an indigenous woman he captured, whom Columbus "gave to ", then brutally raped her.

According to some historians, the punishment for an indigenous person, aged 14 and older, failing to pay a hawk's bell, or cascabela, worth of gold dust every six months (based on Bartolomé de las Casas's account) was cutting off the hands of those without tokens, often leaving them to bleed to death. Other historians dispute such accounts. For example, a study of Spanish archival sources showed that the cascabela quotas were imposed by Guarionex, not Columbus, and that there is no mention, in the primary sources, of punishment by cutting off hands for failing to pay. Columbus had an economic interest in the enslavement of the Hispaniola natives and for that reason was not eager to baptize them, which attracted criticism from some churchmen. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, stated that "Columbus's government was characterized by a form of tyranny. Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place." Other historians have argued that some of the accounts of the brutality of Columbus and his brothers have been exaggerated as part of the Black Legend, a historical tendency towards anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic sentiment in historical sources dating as far back as the 16th century, which they speculate may continue to taint scholarship into the present day.

According to historian Emily Berquist Soule, the immense Portuguese profits from the maritime trade in African slaves along the West African coast served as an inspiration for Columbus to create a counterpart of this apparatus in the New World using indigenous American slaves. Historian William J. Connell has argued that while Columbus "brought the entrepreneurial form of slavery to the New World", this "was a phenomenon of the times", further arguing that "we have to be very careful about applying 20th-century understandings of morality to the morality of the 15th century." In a less popular defense of colonization, Spanish ambassador María Jesús Figa [es] has argued, "Normally we melded with the cultures in America, we stayed there, we spread our language and culture and religion."

British historian Basil Davidson has dubbed Columbus the "father of the slave trade", citing the fact that the first license to ship enslaved Africans to the Caribbean was issued by the Catholic Monarchs in 1501 to the first royal governor of Hispaniola, Nicolás de Ovando.

Depopulation

Further information: Taino § Depopulation See also: Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas

Around the turn of the 21st century, estimates for the pre-Columbian population of Hispaniola ranged between 250,000 and two million, but genetic analysis published in late 2020 suggests that smaller figures are more likely, perhaps as low as 10,000–50,000 for Hispaniola and Puerto Rico combined. Based on the previous figures of a few hundred thousand, some have estimated that a third or more of the natives in Haiti were dead within the first two years of Columbus's governorship. Contributors to depopulation included disease, warfare, and harsh enslavement. Indirect evidence suggests that some serious illness may have arrived with the 1,500 colonists who accompanied Columbus' second expedition in 1493. Charles C. Mann writes that "It was as if the suffering these diseases had caused in Eurasia over the past millennia were concentrated into the span of decades." A third of the natives forced to work in gold and silver mines died every six months. Within three to six decades, the surviving Arawak population numbered only in the hundreds. The indigenous population of the Americas overall is thought to have been reduced by about 90% in the century after Columbus's arrival. Among indigenous peoples, Columbus is often viewed as a key agent of genocide. Samuel Eliot Morison, a Harvard University historian and author of a multivolume biography on Columbus, writes, "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."

According to Noble David Cook, "There were too few Spaniards to have killed the millions who were reported to have died in the first century after Old and New World contact." He instead estimates that the death toll was caused by smallpox, which may have caused a pandemic only after the arrival of Hernán Cortés in 1519. According to some estimates, smallpox had an 80–90% fatality rate in Native American populations. The natives had no acquired immunity to these new diseases and suffered high fatalities. There is also evidence that they had poor diets and were overworked. Historian Andrés Reséndez of University of California, Davis, says the available evidence suggests "slavery has emerged as major killer" of the indigenous populations of the Caribbean between 1492 and 1550 more so than diseases such as smallpox, influenza and malaria. He says that indigenous populations did not experience a rebound like European populations did following the Black Death because unlike the latter, a large portion of the former were subjected to deadly forced labor in the mines.

The diseases that devastated the Native Americans came in multiple waves at different times, sometimes as much as centuries apart, which would mean that survivors of one disease may have been killed by others, preventing the population from recovering. Historian David Stannard describes the depopulation of the indigenous Americans as "neither inadvertent nor inevitable", saying it was the result of both disease and intentional genocide.

Navigational expertise

Biographers and historians have a wide range of opinions about Columbus's expertise and experience navigating and captaining ships. One scholar lists some European works ranging from the 1890s to 1980s that support Columbus's experience and skill as among the best in Genoa, while listing some American works over a similar timeframe that portray the explorer as an untrained entrepreneur, having only minor crew or passenger experience prior to his noted journeys. According to Morison, Columbus's success in utilizing the trade winds might owe significantly to luck.

Physical appearance

The Virgin of the Navigators by Alejo Fernández (1531–1536)Close-up for Fernández's depiction of Columbus

Contemporary descriptions of Columbus, including those by his son Fernando and Bartolomé de las Casas, describe him as taller than average, with light skin (often sunburnt), blue or hazel eyes, high cheekbones and freckled face, an aquiline nose, and blond to reddish hair and beard (until about the age of 30, when it began to whiten). One Spanish commentator described his eyes using the word garzos, now usually translated as "light blue", but it seems to have indicated light grey-green or hazel eyes to Columbus's contemporaries. The word rubios can mean "blond", "fair", or "ruddy". Although an abundance of artwork depicts Columbus, no authentic contemporary portrait is known.

A well-known image of Columbus is a portrait by Sebastiano del Piombo, which has been reproduced in many textbooks. It agrees with descriptions of Columbus in that it shows a large man with auburn hair, but the painting dates from 1519 so cannot have been painted from life. Furthermore, the inscription identifying the subject as Columbus was probably added later, and the face shown differs from that of other images.

Sometime between 1531 and 1536, Alejo Fernández painted an altarpiece, The Virgin of the Navigators, that includes a depiction of Columbus. The painting was commissioned for a chapel in Seville's Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in the Alcázar of Seville and remains there.

At the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, 71 alleged portraits of Columbus were displayed; most of them did not match contemporary descriptions.

See also

Notes

  1. There are no known authentic portraits of Columbus.
  2. In other relevant languages:
  3. Though the modern state of Italy had yet to be established, the Latin equivalent of the term Italian had been in use for natives of the region since antiquity; most scholars believe Columbus was born in Genoa.
  4. In an account of his fourth voyage, Columbus wrote that "Jerusalem and Mount Sion must be rebuilt by Christian hands".
  5. Ferdinand later claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered."
  6. ^ Felipe Fernández-Armesto points out that Columbus briefly described South America as an unknown continent after seeing the mainland for the first time. Vespucci seems to have modeled his naming of the "new world" after Columbus's description of this discovery. Further, mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller eventually retracted his naming of the continent after Vespucci, seemingly after it came to light that a claim that Vespucci visited the mainland before Columbus had been falsified. In his new map, Waldseemüller labelled the continent as Terra Incognita ('unknown land'), noting that it had been discovered by Columbus.
  7. This map is based on the premise that Columbus first landed at Plana Cays. The island considered by Samuel Eliot Morison to be the most likely location of first contact is the easternmost land touching the top edge of this image.
  8. According to Samuel Eliot Morison, San Salvador Island, renamed from Watling's Island in 1925 in the belief that it was Columbus's San Salvador, is the only island fitting the position indicated by Columbus's journal. Other candidates are the Grand Turk, Cat Island, Rum Cay, Samana Cay, or Mayaguana.
  9. Torres spoke Hebrew and some Arabic; the latter was then believed to be the mother tongue of all languages.
  10. Omitted from this image, Columbus returned to Guadeloupe at the end of his second voyage before sailing back to Spain.
  11. The tribute system had all but collapsed by 1497.
  12. Bobadilla's 48-page report, derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about the treatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers—had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in 2005 in the Spanish archives in Valladolid. It contained an account of Columbus's seven-year reign as the first governor of the Indies. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him had to admit the atrocities that had taken place."
  13. DNA from Columbus's presumed remains in Seville were to be used to conduct further ancestral studies, with results initially expected in 2021.
  14. This same year, dust collected from these remains was placed in a locket, which was placed inside the stern of a silver model caravel. Two tiny portions of dust from the same source were placed in separate vials.
  15. Osborne erroneously cited the bullet as evidence that the remains belonged to Columbus. (England's Francis Drake, a subsequent infamous explorer, took the ball of an arquebus in the Indies.)
  16. In his 2008 book, author Tony Horwitz recounts his attempt to see these remains, which are apparently briefly displayed in their crypt (behind a sheet of glass) once a year on Columbus Day.
  17. See: Columbus Monument, Barcelona (1888), Monument to the Discoverers (1892), Monument to Columbus (Madrid) (1892), Monument to Isabella the Catholic (Granada) (1892), Monument to Columbus (Salamanca) (1893), Monument to Columbus (Valladolid) (inaugurated in 1905, but whose inception dates to an earlier date and a tentative location in Spanish Havana).
  18. Cuneo wrote,

    While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.

  19. Author Tony Horwitz notes that this is the first recorded instance of sexuality between a European and Native American.
  20. Bartolomé de las Casas estimated that there were three to four million Taínos in Hispaniola, and said 500,000 Lucayans were killed in the Bahamas. Most modern historians reject his figures.

References

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  2. "Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words". Dictionary.com.
  3. ^ Delaney, Carol (2011). Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem (1st ed.). United States of America: Free Press/Simon and Schuster. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-4391-0237-4.
  4. ^ Flint, Valerie I.J. (16 May 2021). "Christopher Columbus". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  5. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2010). Columbus on Himself. Hackett Publishing. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-60384-317-1. The date of Fernando's birth, November 1488, gives a terminus ante quem early in that year for the start of Columbus's liaison with Beatriz Enríquez. She was of peasant parentage, but, when Columbus met her, was the ward of a well-to-do relative in Cordoba. A meat business gave her income of her own, mentioned in the only other record of Columbus's solicitude for her: a letter to Diego, written in 1502, just before departure on the fourth Atlantic crossing, in which the explorer enjoins his son to 'take Beatriz Enriquez in your care for love of me, as you your own mother'. Varela, Cristóbal Colón, p. 309.
  6. Taviani, Paolo Emilio (2016). "Beatriz de Arana". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9. Columbus never married Beatriz. When he returned from the first voyage, he was given the greatest of honors and elevated to the highest position in Spain. Because of his discovery, he became one of the most illustrious persons at the Spanish court and had to submit, like all the great persons of the time, to customary legal restrictions on matters of marriage and extramarital relations. The Alphonsine laws forbade extramarital relations of concubinage for "illustrious people" (king, princes, dukes, counts, marquis) with plebeian women, if they themselves were or their forefathers had been of inferior social condition.
  7. ^ Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 126.
  8. Dowlah, Caf (2020). Cross-Border Labor Mobility: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3-030-36506-6. Most researchers however trace the beginning of the early modern era to Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas in the 1490s
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  23. Davidson 1997, p. 3.
  24. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 85.
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  26. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 93.
  27. Vigneras, L. A. (2016). "Columbus in Portugal". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9. It is most probable that Columbus visited Bristol, where he was introduced to English commerce with Iceland.
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  30. ^ Enterline, James Robert (2003). Erikson, Eskimos & Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America. Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. p. 247. ISBN 978-0-8018-7547-2. Some writers have suggested that it was during this visit to Iceland that Columbus heard of land in the west. Keeping the source of his information secret, they say, he concocted a plan to sail westward. Certainly the knowledge was generally available without attending any saga-telling parties. That this knowledge reached Columbus seems unlikely, however, for later, when trying to get backing for his project, he went to great lengths to unearth even the slightest scraps of information that would add to the plausibility of his scheme. Knowledge of the Norse explorations could have helped.
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  349. Wilson, Ian (1991). The Columbus Myth: Did Men of Bristol Reach America Before Columbus?. Simon & Schuster. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-671-71067-5. Of Columbus, too, none of the familiarly reproduced portraits is thought to have been made in his lifetime.
  350. "Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) | Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus (born about 1446, died 1506)". The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  351. Hall, Linda B. (2004). Mary, Mother and Warrior: The Virgin in Spain and the Americas. University of Texas Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-292-70595-1.
  352. Phillips, Carla Rahn (20 November 2018). "Visualizing Imperium: The Virgin of the Seafarers and Spain's Self-Image in the Early Sixteenth Century". Renaissance Quarterly. 58 (3): 816. doi:10.1353/ren.2008.0864. ISSN 0034-4338. S2CID 233339652.
  353. Morison 1991, pp. 47–48.

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