Misplaced Pages

Christopher Columbus: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 07:12, 24 November 2012 view sourceDoug Weller (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Oversighters, Administrators264,124 edits lead is summary of article and that isn't in the article← Previous edit Latest revision as of 13:31, 4 January 2025 view source Smasongarrison (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers729,587 edits Moving from Category:Prisoners and detainees of Spain to Category:Foreign nationals imprisoned in Spain Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{About|the explorer}} {{Short description|Italian navigator and explorer (1451–1506)}}
{{Redirect7|"Cristoforo Colombo" and "Cristóbal Colón"|other uses of "Cristoforo Colombo"|Cristoforo Colombo (disambiguation)|other uses of "Cristóbal Colón"|Cristobal Colon (disambiguation)}} {{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)}}
{{pp-dispute|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2012}}
{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{pp-move-indef}} {{Pp-move|small=yes}}
{{Pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
{{Infobox person
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
| image = Christopher Columbus Face.jpg
{{Infobox officeholder
| occupation = ]
| title = ] of the ]; ] and Governor of the Indies | honorific-prefix = Admiral of the Ocean Sea
| image = Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus.jpg
| caption = Portrait of Christopher Columbus by ]. It is not known for certain if any portrait of Columbus was painted from real life.<ref> – COLUMBUS MONUMENTS PAGES. Vanderkrogt.</ref>
| 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>}}
| birth_date = before 31 October 1451
| birth_place = ], ], in present-day Italy | order = 1st
| death_date = 20 May 1506 (aged {{circa|54}}) | office = Governor of the Indies
| term_start = 1492
| death_place = ], ], in present-day Spain
| term_end = 1499
| names in other languages = {{lang-la|Christophorus Columbus}}; {{lang-ita|'''Cristoforo Colombo'''}}; {{lang-gal|'''Cristovo Colón'''}}; {{lang-pt|'''Cristóvão Colombo'''}}, formerly ''Christovam Colom''; Spanish: '''Cristóbal Colón'''; {{lang-ca|'''Cristòfor Colom'''}}
| nationality = ] | appointed = ]
| predecessor = Office Established
| other_names = Italian: Cristoforo Colombo<br />Catalan: Cristòfor Colom<br />Spanish: Cristóbal Colón<br />Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo<br />Latin: Christophorus Columbus<br />Genoese: Christoffa Corombo
| religion = Roman Catholic | successor = ]
| spouse = ] | birth_date = Between 25 August and 31 October 1451
| partner = ] | birth_place = ], ]
| death_date = {{death date|1506|05|20|df=y}} (aged 54)
| children = ]<br />]
| death_place = ], ]
| relatives = Giovanni Pellegrino, Giacomo and ] (brothers)
| resting_place = ], Seville, Spain
| signature = Columbus Signature.svg
| spouse = {{marriage|]|1479|1484|end=died}}
| partner = ]
| children = {{hlist|]|]|]}}
| mother = ]
| father = ]
| relatives = ] (brother)
| profession = ]
| signature = Columbus Signature.svg
}} }}


'''Christopher Columbus'''{{efn|In other relevant languages:
'''Christopher Columbus''' (]: ''Cristoforo Colombo''; ]: ''Cristóbal Colón''; ]: ''Christophe Colomb''; circa before 31 October 1451{{spaced ndash}}20 May 1506) was an explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the ], in what is today northwestern ].<ref name="EB-online"> Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online.'' 8 June 2010.</ref><ref> Teaching Resources, Children's Book Recommendations, and Student Activities. Milton Meltzer. Author, ''Columbus and the World Around Him''.</ref><ref> "Columbus, Christopher". World Book Store has the encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, homework help, study aids, and curriculum guides. 2010</ref><ref> "Columbus, Christopher". Questia – The Online Library of Books and Journals. 2010<br /> Country of origin: USA. Pages: 428. Publisher: BiblioBazaar. Publication Date: 2010-01-01.<br /> Authors: Dorothy Lippert, Stephen J. Spignesi and Phil Konstantin. Paperback: 364 pages. Publisher: For Dummies. Publication Date: 2007-10-29.<br /> Author: Nicholas J. Saunders. Hardcover: 399 pages. Publisher: ABC-CLIO. Publication Date: 15 July 2006.</ref> Under the auspices of the ] of Spain, he completed ] across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the ]. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of ], initiated the ] of the ].
* {{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}}
In the context of emerging western ] and ] between ] seeking wealth through the establishment of ]s and colonies, Columbus's speculative proposal, to reach the ] by sailing westward, eventually received the support of the Spanish crown, which saw in it a promise, however remote, of gaining the upper hand over rival powers in the contest for the lucrative ] with ]. During his first voyage in 1492, instead of reaching Japan as he had intended, Columbus landed in the ], at a locale he named ''San Salvador''. Over the course of three more voyages, Columbus visited the ] and ], as well as the ] coast of ] and Central America, claiming them for the ].


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.
Though Columbus was not the first European explorer to reach the Americas (having been preceded by the ] expedition led by ] in the 11th century<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index_e.asp|title=Parks Canada – L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada|publisher=Pc.gc.ca|date=24 April 2009|accessdate=29 July 2009}}</ref>), Columbus's voyages led to the first lasting European contact with the Americas, inaugurating a period of European exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for several centuries. They had, therefore, an enormous impact in the historical development of the modern Western world. Columbus himself saw his accomplishments primarily in the light of the spreading of the ].<ref name="EB-online"/>


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.
Never admitting that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies he had set out for, Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands he visited ''indios'' (Spanish for "]ns").<ref>Hoxie, Frederic E. ed. ''Encyclopedia of North American Indians'' Houghton Mifflin (March 1997) ISBN 978-0-395-66921-1 p.568 {{dead link|date=April 2011}}</ref><ref>Herbst, Philip ''The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States'' Intercultural Press Inc (31 December 1997) ISBN 978-1-877864-97-1 p.116 </ref><ref>Wilton, David; Brunetti, Ivan ''Word myths: debunking linguistic urban legends'' Oxford University Press USA (13 January 2005) ISBN 978-0-19-517284-3 pp. 164–165 </ref> Columbus's strained relationship with the Spanish crown and its appointed colonial administrators in America led to his arrest and dismissal as governor of the settlements on the island of ] in 1500, and later to protracted litigation over the benefits which Columbus 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 ] 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>

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''-->
{{Details|Origin theories of Christopher Columbus|'''Columbus's birthplace''' and '''family background'''}}


{{further|topic=Columbus's birthplace and background|Origin theories of Christopher Columbus}}
]
The name ''Christopher Columbus'' is the ] of the ] '''Christophorus Columbus'''. His name in Italian is '''Cristoforo Colombo''', and in Spanish, it is '''Cristóbal Colón'''. Columbus was born before 31 October 1451 in ], part of modern Italy.<ref>Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. ''The Worlds of Christopher Columbus''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Page 9.<br />"''Even with less than a complete record, however, scholars can state with assurance that Columbus was born in the republic of Genoa in northern Italy, although perhaps not in the city itself, and that his family made a living in the wool business as weavers and merchants...The two main early biographies of Columbus have been taken as literal truth by hundreds of writers, in large part because they were written by individual closely connected to Columbus or his writings. ...Both biographies have serious shortcomings as evidence.''"</ref> His father was ], a middle-class wool weaver who worked both in Genoa and ] and who also owned a cheese stand at which young Christopher worked as a helper. Christopher's 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>Encyclopædia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 16, pp. 605ff / Morison, ''Christopher Columbus'', 1955 ed., pp. 14ff</ref>


] 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>]]
Columbus never wrote in his native language, which is presumed to have been a ] (his name would translate in 16th-century Genoese language as ''Christoffa''<ref>Rime diverse, Pavia, 1595, p.117</ref> ''Corombo''<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=re4OAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA203#v=onepage&q&f=false |first=Torquato|last=Tasso|title=Ra Gerusalemme deliverâ|location=Genoa|year=1755|page=XV-32 |publisher=Ra Stamparia de Tarigo|accessdate=2 February 2012}}</ref> pron. {{IPA-lij|kriˈʃtɔffa kuˈɹuŋbu}}<ref>Çittara zeneize – , Genoa, 1745</ref><ref>Consulta ligure, ''Vocabolario delle parlate liguri'', SAGEP, 1982, ISBN 88-7058-044-X</ref>). 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 ]. Some modern historians have argued that Columbus was not from Genoa, but instead, from Catalonia,<ref>Telegraph, 14 October 2009, </ref> Portugal,<ref>da Silva, Manuel Luciano and Silvia Jorge da Silva, 2008. ''Christopher Columbus was Portuguese''. Express Printers, ]. ISBN 978-1-60702-824-6.</ref> or Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/irizarry/?action=viewpublications|title=Georgetown University |publisher=Explore.georgetown.edu|accessdate=23 February 2010}}</ref> These competing hypotheses have generally been discounted by mainstream scholars.<ref>] (1997, ), ] (1992, )</ref>


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>
]'']]
In 1473, Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro and ] of Genoa. Later, he allegedly made a trip to ], a Genoese colony in the ].<ref>"". Thomas C. Tirado, PhD Professor History. Millersville University.</ref> In May 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry a valuable cargo to northern Europe. He docked in ], England<ref>"It is most probable that Columbus visited Bristol, where he was introduced to English commerce with Iceland." ] and David Buisseret (1992). The Christopher Columbus encyclopedia, Volume 1, University of Michigan Press, republished by Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-13-142670-2, p. 175</ref> and ], Ireland. In 1477, he was possibly in ]. In 1479, Columbus reached his brother Bartolomeo in ], while continuing trading for the Centurione family. He married ], daughter of the ] governor and Portuguese nobleman of Genoese origin ]. In 1479 or 1480, his son ] was born. Between 1482 and 1485, Columbus traded along the coasts of West Africa, reaching the Portuguese trading post of ] at the Guinea coast.<ref name="EB-online">"". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.</ref> Some records report that Filipa died in 1485. It is also speculated that Columbus may have simply left his first wife. In either case, Columbus found a mistress in Spain in 1487, a 20-year-old orphan named ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://columbus-day.123holiday.net/christopher_columbus_2.html|title=Christopher Columbus Biography Page 2|publisher=Columbus-day.123holiday.net |accessdate=29 July 2009}}</ref>


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>
Ambitious, Columbus eventually learned Latin, as well as Portuguese and Castilian, and read widely about astronomy, geography, and history, including the works of ], Cardinal ]'s ''Imago Mundi'', the travels of ] and Sir ], ]'s '']'', and ]'s ''Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum''. According to historian ],


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}}
{{quote|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, the kind of ideas that the self-educated person gains from independent reading and clings to in defiance of what anyone else tries to tell him.<ref name="ESMorgan">{{Cite journal|first=Edmund S.|last=Morgan|title=Columbus' Confusion About the New World|journal=]|year=2009|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Presence-of-Mind-A-World-Too-New.html?c=y&page=1#ixzz0ydVfdyrA}}</ref>}}


], Genoa]]
Throughout his life, Columbus also showed a keen interest in the Bible and in ], and would often quote biblical texts in his letters and logs. For example, part of the argument that he submitted to the Spanish ] when he sought their support for his proposed expedition to reach the Indies by sailing west was based on his reading of the ] (see , which Columbus took to mean that the Earth is made of six parts of land to one of water). Towards the end of his life, Columbus produced a '']'', in which his career as an explorer is interpreted in the light of ] and of ].<ref name=britannica/>
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>

] of the United States of America – 19th century copy from an engraving by ]]]

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>

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>

]'', with his handwritten notes in Latin written in the margins]]

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 ],
<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 == == Quest for Asia ==
] workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus<ref>"Marco Polo et le Livre des Merveilles", p. 37. ISBN 978-2-35404-007-9</ref>]]


=== Background === === Background ===
]'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 Asia (the so-called '']'', or ''Mongol peace''), Europeans had long enjoyed a safe land passage, the so-called "]", to China and India, which were sources of valuable goods such as silk, spices, and ]. With the ] to the ] in 1453, the land route to Asia became much more difficult and dangerous. Portuguese navigators, under the leadership of King ], sought to reach Asia by sailing around Africa. Major progress in this quest was achieved in 1488, when ] reached the ], in what is now South Africa. Meanwhile, in the 1480s, the Columbus brothers had developed a different plan to reach the Indies (then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia) by sailing west across the "Ocean Sea", ''i.e.,'' the ].


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>
=== Geographical considerations ===
]'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|first=Paul F|last=Boller|title=Not So!:Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton|year=1995|isbn= 978-0-19-509186-1|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York}}</ref> In fact, most educated Westerners had understood that the Earth was ] at least since the time of ], who lived in the 4th century BC and whose works were widely studied and revered in ].<ref>Russell, Jeffrey Burton 1991. '']. 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> The sphericity of the Earth is also accounted for in the work of ], on which ] was largely based. Christian writers whose works clearly reflect the conviction that the Earth is spherical include Saint ] the Venerable in his ''Reckoning of Time'', written around AD 723. In Columbus's time, the techniques of ], which use the position of the sun and the stars in the sky, together with the understanding that the Earth is a sphere, had long been in use by astronomers and were beginning to be implemented by mariners.<ref>See, e.g. , Navigation Museum, Institute of Navigation</ref>


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=}}
Where Columbus ''did'' differ from the view accepted by scholars in his day was in his estimate of the westward distance from Europe to Asia. Columbus's ideas in this regard were based on three factors: his low estimate of the size of the Earth, his high estimate of the size of the ]n landmass, and his belief that Japan and other inhabited islands lay far to the east of the coast of China. In all three of these issues Columbus was both wrong and at odds with the scholarly consensus of his day.


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>
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 different locations: ] and Syene (modern-day ]).<ref name="Sagan 40,04147">Sagan, Carl. ''Cosmos''; the mean circumference of the Earth is {{convert|40041.47|km|0|abbr=on}}.</ref> Eratosthenes's results were confirmed by a comparison of stellar observations at Alexandria and ], carried out by ] in the 1st century BC. These measurements were widely known among scholars, but confusion about the old-fashioned units of distance in which they were expressed had led, in Columbus's day, to some debate about the exact size of the Earth.


] 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>
]'s notions of the geography of the Atlantic Ocean, which directly influenced Columbus's plans]]
From d'Ailly's ''Imago Mundi'' Columbus learned of ]'s estimate that a degree of ] (or a degree of ] along the Equator) spanned 56⅔ miles, but did not realize that this was expressed in the Arabic mile (about 1,830 m) rather than the shorter ] with which he was familiar (1,480 m).<ref>Morison (]).</ref> He therefore estimated the circumference of the Earth to be about 30,200&nbsp;km, whereas the correct value is {{convert|40000|km|mi|abbr=on}}.


=== Geographical considerations ===
Furthermore, most scholars accepted ]'s estimate that ] spanned 180° ], rather than the actual 130° (to the Chinese mainland) or 150° (to Japan at the latitude of Spain). Columbus, for his part, believed the even higher estimate of ], which put the longitudinal span of the Eurasian landmass at 225°, leaving only 135° of water. He also believed that Japan (which he called "Cipangu", following ]) was much larger, farther to the east from China ("Cathay"), and closer to the Equator than it is, and 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 ]. In this, he was influenced by the ideas of Florentine physician ], who corresponded with Columbus before his death in 1482 and who also defended the feasibility of a westward route to Asia.<ref name="Morison-Admiral">], ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus'', (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1942). Reissued by the Morison Press, 2007. ISBN 1-4067-5027-1</ref>
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.
Columbus therefore estimated the distance from the ] to Japan to be about 3,000 Italian miles (3,700&nbsp;km, or 2,300 statute miles), while the correct figure is {{convert|19600|km|mi|abbr=on}},{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}<!--- citation needs to clarify what distance 19600km is referring to---> or about 12,000&nbsp;km along a ]. No ship in the 15th century could carry 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 ], however, having completed ] in the ], were desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries in the quest for trade with the Indies. Columbus promised such an advantage.


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>
=== 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 possess valuable knowledge about the ], which would prove to be the key to his successful navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. During his first voyage in 1492, the brisk trade winds from the east, commonly called "]", propelled Columbus's fleet for five weeks, from the ] to ]. To return to Spain against this prevailing wind would have required several months of an arduous sailing technique, called ], during which food and drinkable water would probably have been exhausted.


] mapmaking workshop of Bartholomew and Christopher Columbus<ref>"Marco Polo et le Livre des Merveilles", p. 37. {{ISBN|978-2-35404-007-9}}</ref>]]
Instead, Columbus returned home by following the curving trade winds northeastward to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where he was able to catch the "]" that blow eastward to the coast of Western Europe. There, in turn, the winds curve southward towards the Iberian Peninsula.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.columbusnavigation.com/v1a.shtml|title=The First Voyage Log|accessdate=18 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/columbus.html|title=Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Empire|accessdate=18 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange1/08_1.shtml|title=Trade Winds and the Hadley Cell|accessdate=18 April 2008}}</ref>


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>
It is unclear whether Columbus learned about the winds from his own sailing experience or if he had heard about them from others. The corresponding technique for efficient travel in the Atlantic appears to have been discovered first by the Portuguese, who referred to it as the '']'' ("turn of the sea"). Columbus's knowledge of the Atlantic wind patterns was, however, imperfect at the time of his first voyage. By sailing directly due west from the Canary Islands during ], skirting the so-called ] of the mid-Atlantic, Columbus risked either being becalmed or running into a ], both of which he luckily avoided.<ref name="Morison-Admiral" />


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>
=== Quest for support ===
In 1485, Columbus presented his plans to ], ]. He proposed that the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one year's time to sail out into the Atlantic, search for a western route to the ], and return.


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"/>
] (1885).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=es034|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Madrid| accessdate=3 January 2010}}</ref>]]
Columbus also requested he be made "Great Admiral of the Ocean", appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, and given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands.


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>
The king submitted Columbus's proposal to his experts, who rejected it. It was their considered opinion that Columbus's estimation of a travel distance of {{convert|2400|mi|km|-1}} was, in fact, far too low.<ref name="Morison-Admiral"/>
]'', by ]]]


=== Nautical considerations ===
In 1488, Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal once again, and once again, John II invited him to 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 ]). With an eastern sea route to Asia apparently at hand, King John was no longer interested in Columbus's far-fetched project.
{{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}}
Columbus traveled from Portugal to both ] and ], but he received encouragement from neither. Columbus had also dispatched his brother ] to the court of ], to inquire whether the English crown might sponsor his expedition, but also without success.


=== Quest for financial support for a voyage ===
Columbus had sought an audience from the monarchs ] of ] and ], who had united many kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula by marrying, and were ruling together. On 1 May 1486, permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. After the passing of much time, the ] of Spain, like their counterparts in ], replied that Columbus had grossly underestimated the distance to Asia. They pronounced the idea impractical and advised their Royal Highnesses to pass on the proposed venture.
], 17th&nbsp;century]]


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>
However, to keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhaps to keep their options open, the ] gave him an annual allowance of 12,000 '']'' and, in 1489, furnished him with a letter ordering all cities and towns under their domain 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>
], in which Columbus stayed in the years before his first expedition]]
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 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}}
[[File:Columbus Fleet 1893 Issue.jpg|left|thumb|350px|<center>~ Flagship of Columbus ~ Fleet of Columbus ~</center><center> ~ 400th Anniversary Issues of 1893 ~</center>
----
U.S. stamps reflecting the most commonly held view as to what Columbus's first fleet might have looked like. The '']'', the flagship of Columbus's fleet, was a ]—a merchant ship of between 400 and 600 tons, {{convert|75|ft|m}} long, with a beam of {{convert|25|ft|m}}, allowing it to carry more people and cargo. It had a deep draft of {{convert|6|ft|m}}. The vessel had three masts: a mainmast, a foremast, and a mizzenmast. Five sails altogether were attached to these masts. Each mast carried one large sail. The foresail and mainsail were square; the sail on the mizzen was a triangular sail known as a lateen mizzen. The ship had a smaller topsail on the mainmast above the mainsail and on the foremast above the foresail. In addition, the ship carried a small square sail, a ], on the ].</span><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/christopher-columbus-ships.htm|title=Christopher Columbus Ships|publisher=Elizabethan-era.org.uk|accessdate=29 July 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.evgschool.org/Columbus%27s%20Sailing%20Ships.htm|title=Columbus's Sailing Ships|publisher=Evgschool.org|accessdate=29 July 2010}}</ref>]]
<!-- Engravings are offered as illustrations, among the best to be found, and are not offered as 'postage stamps'. Images are nationally famous among historians, and others: esp stamp with Columbus's portrait. -->


=== Agreement with the Spanish crown === === Agreement with the Spanish crown ===
], 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>]]
After continually lobbying at the ] and two years of negotiations, he finally had success in 1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered ], the last ] on the Iberian Peninsula, and they received Columbus in ], in the '']'' castle. Isabella turned Columbus down on the advice of her ], and he was leaving town by mule in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch him, and Ferdinand later claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Phillips|first1=William D.|last2=Phillips|first2=Carla Rahn|title=The Worlds of Christopher Columbus|year= 1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-44652-5|page=132}}</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 son ] later wrote,{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} the monarchs did not really expect him to return.


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}}
In the "]", 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 could 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% of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. Additionally, 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.<ref name="Morison-Admiral">], ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus'', (Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1942) p. 105. Reissued by the Morison Press, 2007. ISBN 1-4067-5027-1</ref>


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>
], as depicted in his '']'' (1502)]]


Columbus was later arrested in 1500 and dismissed from his posts. He and his sons, Diego and Fernando, then conduced a lengthy series of court cases against the ], known as the '']'', 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 continued until 1790.<ref>Mark McDonald, "Ferdinand Columbus, Renaissance Collector (1488–1539)", 2005, British Museum Press, ISBN 978-0-7141-2644-9</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" />


== Voyages == == Voyages ==
{{Main|Voyages of Christopher Columbus}} {{Main|Voyages of Christopher Columbus}}
{{See also|#Legacy|Christopher Columbus Copy Book}}
]
]
Between 1492 and 1503, Columbus completed four round-trip voyages between Spain and the Americas, all of them under the sponsorship of the ]. These voyages marked the beginning of the ] ] and ] of ], and are thus of enormous significance in ]. Columbus himself always insisted, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, that the lands that he visited during those voyages were part of the Asian continent, as previously described by ] and other European travelers.<ref name=britannica /> Columbus's refusal to accept that the lands he had visited and claimed for Spain were not part of Asia might explain, in part, why the American continent was named after the ] explorer ] and not after Columbus.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html|title=The Naming of America|publisher=Umc.sunysb.edu|accessdate=10 April 2011}}</ref>
]


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>
=== First voyage ===
] for ].]]
On the evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from ] with three ships: a larger ], the '']'' ex-''Gallega'' ("Galician"), and two smaller ]s, the '']'' ("Painted") and the ''Santa Clara'', nicknamed the '']'' (<small>lit.</small> "Girl") after her owner Juan Niño of Moguer.<ref>The Columbus Foundation. "".</ref> The monarchs forced the ] inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. The ''Santa María'' was owned by ] and captained by Columbus. The ''Pinta'' and the ''Niña'' were piloted by the ] (] and ]).


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>}}
Columbus first sailed to the ], which belonged to the ], where he restocked the provisions and made repairs. After stopping over in ], he finally departed from ] on 6 September, for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean. A lookout on the ''Pinta'', ] (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermeo), spotted land about 2:00 on the morning of 12 October, and immediately alerted the rest of the crew with a shout. Thereupon, the captain of the ''Pinta'', Martín Alonso Pinzón, verified the discovery and alerted Columbus by firing a ].<ref>Morison (], p.226); Lopez, (], ); Columbus & Toscanelli (], )</ref> Columbus later maintained that he himself 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.<ref>Lopez, (], )</ref>


=== First voyage (1492–1493) ===
]
].<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]]
Columbus called the island (in what is now ]) ''San Salvador''; the natives called it ]. Exactly which island in the Bahamas this corresponds to is an unresolved topic; prime candidates are ], ], or ] (so named in 1925 in the belief that it was Columbus's San Salvador). The ] he encountered, the ], ], or ], were peaceful and friendly. From the 12 October 1492 entry in his journal, in which he wrote of them, "Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language."<ref>Robert H. Fuson, ed., ''The Log of Christopher Columbus'', Tab Books, 1992, International Marine Publishing, ISBN 0-87742-316-4.</ref> He remarked that their lack of modern weaponry and even metal-forged swords or pikes was a tactical vulnerability, writing, "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased."<ref>Columbus (], ). Or "for with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." (Columbus & Toscanelli, ], )</ref>


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.
Columbus also explored the northeast coast of ], where he landed on 28 October. On 22 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 ], where he landed on 5 December.<ref name="Pickering-1st">Keith A. Pickering, </ref>


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>
There, the ''Santa María'' ran aground on Christmas Day 1492 and had to be abandoned. Columbus was received by the native ] ], who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including ], the Converso interpreter, who spoke Hebrew and Arabic, and founded the settlement of '']'' at the site of present-day ], Haiti.<ref>{{cite web|author=Maclean, Frances|title=The Lost Fort of Columbus|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/fort-of-columbus-200801.html|publisher=]|month=January|year=2008|accessdate=24 January 2008}}</ref> He kept sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship, until he encountered Pinzón and the ''Pinta'' on 6 January.


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>
On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop in the New World. He landed on the ], where he met the hostile Ciguayos who presented him with his only violent resistance during his first voyage to the Americas. Because of this and because of the Ciguayos' use of arrows, he called the inlet where he met them ].<ref>Oliver Dunn and James Kelly, The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America (London: University of Oklahoma Press), 333–343.</ref> Today, the place is called the Bay of Rincón, in Samaná, the ].<ref>Robert Fuson, The Log of Christopher Columbus (Camden, International Marine, 1987) 173.</ref> Columbus kidnapped about 10 to 25 natives and took them back with him (only seven or eight of the native ''Indians'' arrived in Spain alive, but they made quite an impression on ]).<ref name=book2>{{cite book|author=James W. Loewen|title=Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong|year=1995|asin=1402579373|unused_data=Touchstone Books}}</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>
]


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>
Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into ]. He anchored next to the King's harbor patrol ship on 4 March 1493 in Portugal. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail for Spain. He crossed the bar of Saltes and entered the harbor of ] on 15 March 1493. Word of his finding new lands ].


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>
=== Second voyage ===
Columbus left the port of ] on 24 September 1493, with a fleet of ] carrying 1,200 men and the supplies to establish permanent colonies in the New World. The passengers included priests, farmers, and soldiers, who would be the new colonists. This reflected the new policy of creating not just "colonies of exploitation", but also "colonies of settlement" from which to launch missions dedicated to converting the natives to Christianity.<ref>Baccus, M. Kazim ''Utilization, Misuse, and Development of Human Resources in the Early West Indian Colonies'', Wilfrid Laurier University Press (2 January 2000) ISBN 978-0-88920-982-4 pp.6–7</ref> Modern studies suggest that, as reported by the ''Washington Post'', "crew members may have included free black Africans who arrived in the New World about a decade before the slave trade began."<ref>"". ]. 18 May 2009.</ref>


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}}
As in the first voyage, the fleet stopped at the ], from which it departed on 13 October, following a more southerly course than on the previous expedition. On 3 November, Columbus sighted a rugged island that he named ] (Latin for Sunday); later that day, he landed at ], which he named ''Santa María la Galante''. After sailing past ] (''Los Santos'', "The Saints"), he arrived at the island of ], which he named ''] de Extremadura'', after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of ], in ], Spain. He explored that island from 4 to 10 November.


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}}
Michele da Cuneo, Columbus's childhood friend from ], sailed with Columbus during the second voyage and wrote: "In my opinion, since Genoa was Genoa, there was never born a man so well equipped and expert in the art of navigation as the said lord Admiral."<ref>Felipe Fernández-Armesto, ''Columbus,'' Oxford Univ. Press, (1991) pp. 103–104</ref> Columbus named the small island of "Saona&nbsp;... to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona."<ref>Paolo Emilio Taviani, ''Columbus the Great Adventure,'' Orion Books, New York (1991) p. 185</ref> The same childhood friend reported in a letter that Columbus had provided one of the captured indigenous women to him. He 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."<ref>{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=J.M.|title=The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus|year=1969|publisher=Penguin|location=NY|isbn=978-0140442175|pages=139}}</ref> This letter has been interpreted by some as providing evidence that Columbus knowingly aided the rape of captured indigenous people.


], 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>
Pedro de las Casas, father of the priest ], also accompanied Columbus on this voyage.<ref name="traboulay">{{cite book|last=Traboulay|first=David M.|title=Columbus and Las Casas|year=1994|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=0-8191-9642-8|page=48|url=http://books.google.com/?id=7Jmi4Wb1DdsC&pg=PA48&dq=pedro+de+las+casas+columbus#v=onepage&q=pedro%20de%20las%20casas%20columbus&f=false}}</ref>


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>
]


=== Second voyage (1493–1496) ===
The exact course of Columbus's voyage through the ] is debated, but it seems likely that he turned north, sighting and naming several islands, including:
] at the end of his second voyage before sailing back to Spain.{{Sfn|Morison|1991|pp=498–501}}}}]]
* ] (for Santa María de Montserrate, after the Blessed Virgin of the ], which is located on the Mountain of Montserrat, in Catalonia, Spain),
* ] (after a church in ], Spain, called Santa María la Antigua, meaning "Old St. Mary's"),
* ] (''Santa María la Redonda'', Spanish for "St. Mary the Round", owing to the island's shape),
* ] (derived from the Spanish ''Nuestra Señora de las Nieves'', "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, ]),
* ] (after the Biblical ]),
* ] (''San Martín''), and
* ] (from the Spanish ''Santa Cruz'', meaning "]").


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>
Columbus also sighted the chain of the ], which he named ''Islas de Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes'', "Islands of ] and the 11,000 Virgins" (shortened, both on maps of the time and in common parlance, to ''Islas Vírgenes''). He also named the islands of ] ("Fat Virgin"), ], and ] (''San Pedro'').


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" />
He continued to the ], and landed in ], which he named ''San Juan Bautista'' in honor of ] (a name that was later retained only for the capital city of ]). One of the first skirmishes between ] 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|isbn= 978-0-521-35097-6|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref> occurred when Columbus's men rescued two boys who had just been castrated by their captors.


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>
On 22 November, Columbus returned to Hispaniola, where he intended to visit the fort of ], built during his first voyage and located on the northern coast of ]. Columbus found the fort in ruins, destroyed by the native ] people.<ref> – Latin American Studies – Retrieved 10 July 2011.</ref> Among the ruins were the corpses of 11 of the 39 Spaniards who had stayed behind as the first colonists in the New World.


]
In retaliation for the attack on La Navidad, Columbus demanded that each ] over 14 years of age deliver a hawk's bell full of gold powder every three months or, when this was lacking, twenty-five pounds of spun cotton. If this tribute was not delivered, the Taínos had their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death. Columbus then sailed more than 100 kilometers eastwards along the northern coast of Hispaniola, establishing a new settlement, which he called ], in the present-day ].<ref>"". ''ScienceDaily''. 20 March 2009.</ref> However, ] proved to be poorly located and the settlement was short-lived.


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>
Columbus left Hispaniola on 24 April 1494, arriving at ] (which he named ''Juana'') on 30 April. He explored the southern coast of Cuba, which he believed to be part of a peninsula attached to mainland Asia, as well as several nearby islands, including the ] (which he named ''La Evangelista'', "The Evangelist"). He reached ] on 5 May.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} He retraced his route to Hispaniola, arriving on 20 August, before he finally returned to Spain.


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>
=== Third voyage ===
On 30 May 1498, Columbus left with ] from ], for his third trip to the New World. Three of the ships headed directly for Hispaniola with much-needed supplies, while Columbus took the other three in an exploration of what might lie to the south of the Caribbean islands he had already visited, including a hope-for passage to continental Asia.<ref name="Minster-3rd">Christopher Minster, </ref>


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>
]


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>
Columbus led his 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 ]. As he crossed the Atlantic, Columbus discovered that the angle between North as indicated by a magnetic compass and North as measured by the position of the ] changed with his position (a phenomenon now known as "]"). He would later use his previous measurements of the compass variation to adjust his reckoning.<ref name="EB-online" />


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>}}
After being becalmed for several days in the ] of the mid-Atlantic, Columbus's fleet regained its wind and, dangerously low on water, turned north in the direction of ], which Columbus had visited in his previous voyage. The ships landed on the southern coast of the island of ] on 31 July. After resupplying with food and water, from 4 to 12 August Columbus explored the ], which separates Trinidad from what is now ], near the delta of the ]. He then touched the mainland of South America at the ].


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>
Columbus correctly interpreted the enormous quantity of fresh water that the Orinoco delivered into the Atlantic Ocean as evidence that he had reached a continental landmass. As he sailed the Gulf of Paria, he observed the diurnal rotation of the pole star in the sky, which he erroneously interpreted as evidence that the Earth was not perfectly spherical, but rather bulged out like a pear around the new-found continent.<ref name="EB-online" /> He also speculated that the new continent might be the location of the biblical ]. He then sailed to the islands of ] and ]. He sighted ] (which he named "Bella Forma") and ] (which he named "Concepción").


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>
In poor health, Columbus returned to ] on 19 August, only to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were in rebellion against his rule, claiming that Columbus had misled them about the supposedly bountiful riches of the New World. A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the ], accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. Columbus had some of his crew hanged for disobedience. He 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">Varela (], )</ref> 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..."


=== Third voyage (1498–1500) ===
Columbus was eventually forced to make peace with the rebellious colonists on humiliating terms.<ref name="Pickering-3rd">Keith A. Pickering, </ref> In 1500, the Crown had him removed as governor, arrested, and transported in chains to Spain (see ] section below). He was eventually freed and allowed to return to the New World, but not as governor.
]


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>
=== Fourth voyage ===
]
Before leaving for his fourth voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to the Governors of the Bank of St. George, Genoa, dated at Seville, 2 April 1502.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=TKgKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA128|title='Letter from Christopher Columbus to the Governors of the Bank of St. George, Genoa. Dated at Seville, April 2nd, 1502'|publisher=Google Books|accessdate=10 April 2011|year=1894}}</ref> He wrote "Although my body is here my heart is always near you."<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=TKgKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129|title=The authentic letters of Columbus – Google Books|publisher=Google Books|accessdate=29 July 2010|year=1894}}</ref>


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" />
Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search of the ] to the Indian Ocean. Accompanied by his brother ] and his 13-year-old son ], he left ] on 11 May 1502, with his flagship ''Santa María''<!--not ''Capitana''; that just means "flagship"--> and the vessels ''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 15 June 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 29 June but was denied port, and the new governor refused to listen to his storm prediction. 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 29 of the 30 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 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}}
After a brief stop at ], Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at ] in the ] off the coast of ] on 30 July. Here Bartolomeo found native merchants and a large canoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. On 14 August he landed on the continental mainland at ], near ]. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, ], and ], before arriving in ] Bay in ] on 16 October.


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" />
On 5 December 1502, Columbus and his crew found themselves in a storm unlike any they had ever experienced. In his journal Columbus writes,


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>
{{quote|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, p. 617.</ref>}}


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>
] of 1504.]]


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>
In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. After much exploration, in January 1503 he established a ] at the mouth of the ]. On 6 April one of the ships became stranded in the river. At the same time, the garrison was attacked and the other ships were damaged. ]s also damaged the ships in tropical waters.<ref>The History Channel. Columbus: The Lost Voyage.</ref> Columbus left for Hispaniola on 16 April heading north. On 10 May 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 25 June 1503 they were beached in ].


=== Fourth voyage (1502–1504) ===
For one year Columbus and his men remained stranded on ]. A Spaniard, Diego Méndez, and some natives paddled a ] to get help from ]. The governor, ], 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, successfully won their favor by predicting a ], using the '']'' of the German astronomer ].<ref>], ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', 1942, pp. 653–54. ], ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', 1955, pp. 184–92.</ref> Help finally arrived, no thanks to the governor, on 29 June 1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in ], on 7 November.
{{main|Fourth voyage of Columbus}}
]
] 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>
== Governorship and arrest ==
Under the terms of the ], after his first voyage Columbus was appointed Viceroy and Governor of the Indies, which in practice entailed primarily the administration of the colonies in the island of ], whose capital was established in ]. By the end of his third voyage, Columbus was physically and mentally exhausted: his body was wracked by ] 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. By then, accusations of tyranny and incompetence on the part of Columbus had also reached the Court.


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>
The Court appointed ], a member of the ], but not as the aide that Columbus had requested. Instead, Bobadilla was given complete 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 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=]|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|work=The Guardian |location=UK| date=7 August 2006|accessdate=10 October 2006}}</ref><ref>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.</ref>


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>
]'s best-selling ''Life and Voyages of Columbus'' (1828).</ref> by ], 1843]]
As a result of these testimonies and without being allowed a word in his own defense, Columbus, upon his return, had manacles placed on his arms and chains on his feet and was cast into prison to await return to Spain. He was 48 years old.


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}}
On 1 October 1500, Columbus and his two brothers, likewise in chains, were sent back to Spain. Once in Cadiz, a grieving Columbus wrote to a friend at court:


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" />
{{quote|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....


== Later life, illness, and death ==
I beg your graces, with the zeal of faithful Christians in whom their Highnesses 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>], ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', p. 576.</ref>}}
], 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>
According to an uncatalogued document supposedly discovered very late in history purporting to be a record of Columbus's trial which contained the alleged testimony of 23 witnesses, Columbus regularly used ] acts of torture to govern Hispaniola.<ref>Varela (]).</ref>


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>
Columbus and his brothers lingered in jail for six weeks before busy King Ferdinand ordered their release. Not long after, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to the ] palace in ]. There the royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; restored their freedom and wealth; and, after much persuasion, agreed to fund Columbus's fourth voyage. But the door was firmly shut on Columbus's role as governor. Henceforth ] was to be the new governor of the West Indies.


]]]
== Later life ==
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.
]'', Columbus's flagship during his first voyage, at his ] house.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=es098|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Valladolid|accessdate=3 January 2010}}</ref>]]
]. The remains are borne by kings of ], ], Aragon and ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=es093|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Sevilla|accessdate=3 January 2010}}</ref>]]
While Columbus had always given the conversion of non-believers as one reason for his explorations, he grew increasingly religious in his later years. 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 ] 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=britannica />


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 his later years, Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands, as stipulated in the ]. 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").


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>
== Death ==
]
On 20 May 1506, aged probably 54, Columbus died in ], Spain.
]


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}}
Columbus's remains were first interred at Valladolid, then at the monastery of ] in ] (southern Spain) by the will of his son ], who had been governor of ]. In 1542 the remains were transferred to ], in the present-day ]. In 1795, when France took over the entire island of ], Columbus's remains were moved to ], Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the ] in 1898, the remains were moved back to Spain, to the ],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/12368307610158273876213/p0000001.htm|title='&#39;Cristóbal Colón: traslación de sus restos mortales a la ciudad de Sevilla'&#39; at Fundación Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes|publisher=Cervantesvirtual.com|accessdate=29 July 2009}}</ref> where they were placed on an elaborate ].


== Location of remains ==
However, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus" and containing bone fragments and a bullet was discovered at ] in 1877.
{{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 ].


To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics had been moved to Havana and that Columbus's remains had been left buried in the cathedral at ], ] samples of the corpse resting in ] were taken in June 2003 (''History Today'' August 2003) as well as other DNA samples from the remains of his brother Diego and younger son ]. Initial observations suggested that the bones did not appear to belong to somebody with the physique or age at death associated with Columbus.<ref>], , '']'', 11 August 2004</ref> DNA extraction proved difficult; only short fragments of ] could be isolated. The ] fragments matched corresponding DNA from Columbus's brother, giving support that both individuals had shared the same mother.<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=6 October 2004|accessdate=11 October 2006}}</ref><ref name="autogenerated2006">, '']'', 19 May 2006</ref> Such evidence, together with ] and historic analyses led the researchers to conclude that the remains found in Seville belonged to Christopher Columbus.<ref name="bare_url">{{Cite journal|last=Álvarez-Cubero|first=MJ|coauthors= Martínez-González, LJ; Saiz, M; Álvarez, JC; Lorente, JA|date=8 March 2010|url=http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?pid=S1135-76062010000100002&script=sci_arttext|title=New applications in genetic identification|journal=Cuadernos de Medicina Forense|volume=16|issue=1–2|pages=5–18|issn=1135-7606}}</ref> The authorities in Santo Domingo have never allowed the remains there to be exhumed, so it is unknown if any of those remains could be from Columbus's body as well.<ref name="autogenerated2006"/><ref name="bare_url" /> The location of the Dominican remains is in "]" (''Faro a Colón''), in Santo Domingo. 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>}}


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}}}}
Historians have traditionally argued that Columbus remained convinced to the very end that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia,<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=http://books.google.com/books?id=8NS0OTXRlTMC&pg=PA35 | page=35}}</ref> but writer ] argues that a document in the ''Book of Privileges'' indicates Columbus knew he found a new continent.<ref>Sale, Kirkpatrick (1991). ''The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy'', pp. 204–209</ref> Furthermore, his journals from the third voyage call the "land of Paria" a "hitherto unknown" continent.<ref name="Zeruvabel2003">{{cite book | title=Terra cognita: the mental discovery of America | author1=Eviatar Zerubavel | publisher=Transaction Publishers | year=2003 | isbn=978-0-7658-0987-2 | pages=90–91 | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YkLCiKN0x4UC&pg=PA90}}</ref> On the other hand, his other writings continued to claim that he had reached Asia, such as a 1502 letter to ] where he asserted that Cuba was the east coast of Asia.<ref>Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. ''The Worlds of Christopher Columbus.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 227.</ref> He also rationalized that the new continent of South America was the "Earthly Paradise" that was located "at the end of the Orient".<ref name="Zeruvabel2003"/> Thus, it remains unclear what his true beliefs were.


== Commemoration == == Commemoration ==
{{Further|List of places named for Christopher Columbus|List of monuments and memorials to Christopher Columbus}}
] of 1893.</center>]]
] of 1893.]]
] in 1893]]
] 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".<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>

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>

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.-->


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 ]).}}
The ] in Chicago, 1893, commemorated the 400th anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. Over 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month duration.


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 ].
The ] participated in the celebration issuing the first US ], a series of 16 postage issues called the ] depicting Columbus, Queen Isabella and others in the various stages of his several voyages. The issues range in value from the 1-cent to the 5-dollar denominations. Under Benjamin Harrison and his Postmaster General ] the Columbian commemorative stamps were made available and were first issued at the ] in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. Wanamaker originally introduced the idea of issuing the nation's first commemorative stamp to Harrison, the Congress and the U.S. Post Office. To demonstrate his confidence in the new Columbian commemorative issues Wanamaker purchased $10,000 worth of stamps with his own money. The Columbian Exposition lasted several months and, and over $40&nbsp;million dollars in commemorative postage stamp had been sold.<ref name="JOHN WANAMAKER PMG">{{cite web |url=http://www.usps.com/postalhistory/_rtf/PMGWanamaker.rtf. |publisher=United States Postal Service |title=JOHN WANAMAKER, Postmaster General |accessdate=19 January 2011}}</ref> The 400th anniversary Columbian issues were very popular in the United States; more than a billion of the two-cent editions were printed.{{citation needed|date=June 2011}}


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>
In 1982, a second Columbian issue was released that was identical to the first to commemorate the 500th anniversary. These issues were made from the original dies of which the first engraved issues of 1893 were produced. In 1992 along with the United States, Spain also issued an almost identical series of Columbian issues, (using 'Spain' instead of 'United States of America') celebrating the 500th anniversary of the voyages.{{citation needed|date=June 2011}}


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>
{{Clear}}


== Legacy == == Legacy ==
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>
]<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=do003|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Santo Domingo|accessdate=3 January 2010}}</ref>]]
]. The landing of Columbus became a powerful icon of American genesis in the 19th century.]]
Although among non-Native Americans Christopher Columbus is traditionally considered the discoverer of America, Columbus was preceded by the various cultures and civilizations of the ], as well as the Western world's ] at ]. He is regarded more accurately as the person who brought the Americas to the forefront of Western attention. "Columbus's claim to fame isn't that he got there first," explains historian Martin Dugard, "it's that he stayed."<ref name=dugard>Dugard, Martin. The Last Voyage of Columbus. Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2005.</ref> The popular idea that he was the first person to envision a rounded earth is false. The ] had already been known since ].
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>
].]]
]'s travel journals, published 1502-4, convinced ] that the discovered place was not India, as Columbus believed, but a new ], and in 1507, a year after Columbus's death, Waldseemüller published a world map ] ''America'' from Vespucci's Latinized name "Americus". According to Paul Lunde, "The preoccupation of European courts with the rise of the ] in the East partly explains their relative lack of interest in Columbus's discoveries in the West."<ref>"". Paul Lunde. '']''. May/June 1992.</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>
] in ], Colorado<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=usco01|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Denver|accessdate=3 January 2010}}</ref>]]


]'' sculpture, depicting Columbus and a cowering Indian maiden, stood outside the ] from 1844 to 1958.]]
Historically, the British had downplayed Columbus and emphasized the role of the Venetian ] as a pioneer explorer, but for the emerging United States, Cabot made for a poor national hero. Veneration of Columbus in America dates back to colonial times. The name ] for "America" first appeared in a 1738 weekly publication of the debates of the British Parliament.<ref>.</ref> The use of Columbus as a founding figure of New World nations and the use of the word "Columbia", or simply the name "Columbus", spread rapidly after the American Revolution. Columbus's name was given to the federal capital of the United States (]), the ] of two U.S. ] (] and ]), and the ]. Outside the United States the name was used in 1819 for the ], a precursor of the modern ]. Numerous cities, towns, counties, streets, and plazas (called Plaza Colón or Plaza de Colón throughout Latin America and Spain) have been named after him. A candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church in 1866, celebration of Columbus's legacy perhaps reached a zenith in 1892 with the 400th anniversary of his first arrival in the Americas. Monuments to Columbus like the ] in Chicago and ] in New York City were erected throughout the United States and Latin America extolling him.
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>
In 1909, descendants of Columbus undertook to dismantle the Columbus family chapel in Spain and move it to ] near ], Pennsylvania, where it may now be visited by the public.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=uspa14|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Boalsburg|accessdate=3 January 2010}}</ref> At the museum associated with the chapel, there are a number of Columbus relics worthy of note, including the armchair that the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" used at his chart table.


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.
More recent views of Columbus, particularly those of Native Americans, have tended to be much more critical.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.newhumanist.com/md2.html|title=Christopher Columbus and the Indians|author=Howard Zinn|publisher=Newhumanist.com|accessdate=5 September 2008|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080729234240/http://www.newhumanist.com/md2.html<!-- Bot retrieved archive -->|archivedate=29 July 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/columbus.html|title=Jack Weatherford, Examining the reputation of Christopher Columbus|publisher=Hartford-hwp.com|date=20 April 2001|accessdate=29 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/100.html|title=Pre-Columbian Hispaniola – Arawak/Taino Indians|publisher=Hartford-hwp.com|date=15 September 2001|accessdate=29 July 2009}}</ref> This is because the native Taino of Hispaniola, where Columbus began a rudimentary tribute system for gold and cotton, disappeared so rapidly after contact with the Spanish, because of overwork and especially, after 1519, when the first ] struck Hispaniola,<ref>Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, Westport, 1972, pp. 39, 47.</ref> because of European diseases.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Austin Alchon|first=Suzanne|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YiHHnV08ebkC&pg=PA62&dq&hl=en#v=onepage&q=&f=false|title=A pest in the land: new world epidemics in a global perspective|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|year=2003|page=62|isbn=0-8263-2871-7}}</ref> Some estimates indicate case fatality rates of 80–90% in Native American populations during ] epidemics.<ref>"''''". Arthur C. Aufderheide, Conrado Rodríguez-Martín, Odin Langsjoen (1998). ]. p. 205. ISBN 0-521-55203-6.</ref> The native Taino people of the island were systematically enslaved via the ] system,<ref>"" (PDF). Latin American Studies.</ref> which resembled a feudal system in Medieval Europe.<ref>Lyle N. McAlister (1984). "''''". University of Minnesota Press. p.164. ISBN 0816612188.</ref> The pre-Columbian population is estimated to have been perhaps 250,000–300,000. According to the historian ] by 1548, 56 years after Columbus landed, fewer than five hundred Taino were left on the island.<ref>Alfred Crosby, ''The Columbian Exchange'' (Westport, 1972) p. 45.</ref> In another hundred years, perhaps only a handful remained. However, some analyses of the question of Columbus's legacy for Native Americans do not clearly distinguish between the actions of Columbus himself, who died well before the first pandemic to hit Hispaniola or the height of the ''encomienda'' system, and those of later European governors and colonists on Hispaniola.


===Originality of discovery of America===
There is evidence that the first voyage also brought ] back from the New World.<ref>{{cite web
{{main|Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories|Norse colonization of North America}}
|url = http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000148
] commemorates the voyages of discovery of ] ({{Circa|1000|lk=no}}) and Christopher Columbus (1492).]]
|title = On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach
|accessdate =21 January 2008
|last = Harper, Kristin, et al.
|year = 2008
|month = January}}</ref> Many of the crew members who served on this voyage later joined the army of ] in his invasion of Italy in 1495 resulting in the spreading of the disease across Europe and as many as 5 million deaths.<ref>{{cite news
|url = http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/14/syphilis-columbus.html
|title = Study traces origins of syphilis in Europe to New World
|accessdate =15 January 2008
|last = CBC News Staff
|year = 2008
|month = January}}</ref>


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>
The anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landing in the Americas is usually observed as ] on 12 October in Spain and throughout the Americas, except Canada. In the United States it is observed annually on the second Monday in October.


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>
The term "]" is usually used to refer to the peoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and his European successors.


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>
{{Clear}}
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 ===
== Physical appearance ==
] in ], New York City]]
]'', 1531–36]]
Although an abundance of artwork involving Christopher Columbus exists, no ] contemporary ] has been found.<ref>Alden, Henry Mills. '']''. Volume 84, Issues 499–504. Published by ], 1892. Originally from ]. Digitized on 16 December 2008. . Retrieved on 8 September 2009. 'Major, Int. Letters of Columbus, ixxxviii., says "Not one of the so-called portraits of Columbus is unquestionably authentic." They differ from each other, and cannot represent the same person.'</ref> ], author of '']'', said that the various posthumous portraits have no historical value.<ref>Loewen, James W. ''Lies My Teacher Told Me''. . ISBN 0-684-81886-8. 55.</ref>


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>
Sometime between 1505 and 1536, ] painted an altarpiece, '']'', that includes a depiction of Columbus. The painting was commissioned for a chapel in Seville's ] (House of Trade) and remains there to this day, as the earliest known painting about the discovery of the Americas.<ref>John Noble, Susan Forsyth, Vesna Maric, Paula Hardy. Andalucía. Lonely Planet, 2007, p. 100</ref><ref>Linda Biesele Hall, Teresa Eckmann. ''Mary, mother and warrior'', University of Texas Press, 2004, p. 46</ref>


=== Shape of the Earth ===
At the 1893 ], 71 alleged portraits of Columbus were displayed; most did not match contemporary descriptions.<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus'', pg. 47–48, Boston 1942.</ref> These writings describe him as having reddish or blond hair, which turned to white early in his life, light colored eyes,<ref>Bartolomé de Las Casas, ''Historia de las Indias'', ed. Agustín Millares Carlo, 3 vols. (Mexico City, 1951), book 1, chapter 2, 1:29. ''The Spanish word garzos is now usually translated as "light blue," but it seems to have connoted light grey-green or hazel eyes to Columbus's contemporaries. The word rubio can mean "blonde," "fair," or "ruddy." The Worlds of Christopher Columbus'' by William D. and Carla Rahn Phillips, p. 282.</ref> as well as being a lighter-skinned person with too much sun exposure turning his face red. Accounts consistently describe Columbus as a large and physically strong man of some six feet or more in height, easily taller than the average European of his day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christopher-columbus.eu/dna-tests.htm|title=DNA Tests on the bones of Christopher Columbus's bones, on his relatives and on Genoese and Catalin claimaints|accessdate=9 February 2009}}</ref>
{{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>
The most iconic image of Columbus is a portrait 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 and cannot, therefore, have been painted from life. Furthermore, the inscription identifying the subject as Columbus was probably added later, and the face shown differs from other images, including that of the "Virgin of the Navigators."<ref name="Met-Piombo">, Metropolitan Museum of Art</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>
== Popular culture ==
] under dome of ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=usca05|title=Columbus Monuments Pages: Sacramento|accessdate =3 January 2010}}</ref>]]
Columbus, an important historical figure, has been depicted in fiction, cinema and television, and in other media and entertainment, such as stage plays, music, cartoons and games.


=== Criticism and defense ===
;In games
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>
*Christopher Columbus appears as a Great Explorer in the 2008 strategy video game, '']''.<ref> "CivFanatics" Retrieved on 4 September 2009</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>
;In literature
*In 1889, American author ] based the time traveler's trick in '']'' on Columbus's successful prediction of a lunar eclipse during his fourth voyage to the New World.
*In 1941 the British author ] published a novel '']'', based on a screenplay he had written for a planned film. The story provided the inspiration for the 1949 film about Columbus.
*In 1958, the Italian playwright ] wrote a satirical play about Columbus titled ''Isabella, tre caravelle e un cacciaballe'' (Isabella, three tall ships and a con man). In 1997 Fo was awarded the ]. The play was translated into English in 1988 by ] and is downloadable on the internet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/dariofoarchive/isabella.html|title=Dario Fo Archives online | accessdate =12 October 2009|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20091021210924/http://geocities.com/dariofoarchive/isabella.html|archivedate=21 October 2009}}</ref>
*In 1991, author ] published a fictional representation of Columbus in '']'', "Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship, Santa Fe, January, 1492".<ref>''The New Yorker'', 17 June 1991, p.&nbsp;32.</ref>
*In '']'' (1996) science fiction novelist ] focuses on Columbus's life and activities, but the novel's action also deals with a group of scientists from the future who travel back to the 15th century with the goal of changing the pattern of European contact with the Americas.
*British author ] includes Columbus's quest for royal sponsorship as a crucial historical event in his 2007 science fiction novel ''Navigator'' (ISBN 978-0-441-01559-7), the third entry in the author's ''Time's Tapestry Series''.
*American novelist ]'s 2012 book ''The Columbus Affair'' revolves around the premise that Columbus's voyages held a secret purpose, with clues to an ancient Jewish treasure.


==== Brutality ====
;In music
] in the Baltimore inner harbor area. The statue was thrown into the harbor on 4 July 2020, as part of the ].]]
*Christopher Columbus is regularly referred to by singers and musical groups in the ] as an example of a European oppressor. The detractors include ] (''Christopher Columbus''), ] (''Capture Rasta''), and ] (''You Can't Blame The Youth'', ''Here Comes The Judge'').


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,
;On Screen
<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}}}}
*'']'' is a 1949 film starring ] as Columbus.
*The 1985 TV ], '']'', features ] as Columbus.
*Columbus was portrayed by ] in the 1992 film by ], '']''. Scott presented Columbus as a forward-thinking idealist, as opposed to the view that he was ruthless and responsible for the misfortune of Native Americans.
*'']'' is a 1992 comedy. ]]]
*'']'', is a 1992 biographical film by ].
*The 42nd episode of '']'', entitled "]" (2002), addresses the controversies surrounding Columbus's legacy from the perspectives of numerous identity group members.


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>
;In sculpture
* ''Isabella and Columbus'' by ], 1874, ], ]
* ''Christopher Columbus'', by ], Arrigo Park, Chicago. Illinois, 1891<ref>Bach, Ira and Mary Lackritz Gray, ''A Guide to Chicago's Public Sculpture'', The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1983 p. 226</ref>
* '']'', also known as the ''Columbus Monument'' by ], Chicago, Illinois, 1892<ref>Riedy, James L., ''Chicago Sculpture'', University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1981 pp. 203–204</ref>
* ''Christopher Columbus'' by ], St. Louis, Missouri, 1884, This work is different from most in that it shows a bearded Columbus. It is believed to be the first bronze statue of Columbus in the United States.<ref>McCue, George, Photographs by David Finn and Amy Binder, ''Sculpture City: St. Louis, Sculpture in the "Gateway to the West"'' Hudson Hills Press NY and Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, 1988, pp. 43–45</ref>
* Colossal Columbus statue by ], 1893, at the ], Chicago, Illinois,<ref>''Photographs if the World's Fair: An elaborate Collection of Photographs of the Buildings, Grounds and the Exhibits of the World's Columbian Exposition with a special description of The Famaous Midway Exposition'', The Werner Company, Chicago, 1894, p. 191</ref>
* ''Columbus'' by ] ca. 1895 ], Washington D.C.<ref>Small, Herbert, ''The Library of Congress: The Architecture and Decoration'', Classical America, WW Norton & Company, New York, 1982, p. 93</ref>
* ''Christopher Columbus Memorial'' by Pietro Piai 1904, ]. "Colorado was the first state to make Columbus Day a legal holiday in 1905 and this is reportedly the first monument to Columbus erected in the United States."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=13M64M73230B9.17425&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!333900~!28&ri=2&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Outdoor+Sculpture+--+Colorado+--+Pueblo&index=OBJEC&uindex=&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2 |title=Christopher Columbus Memorial, (sculpture) |publisher=Siris-artinventories.si.edu |accessdate=15 August 2011}}</ref>
* ''Christopher Columbus'', by ], Detroit, Michigan, 1910,<ref>Nawrocki, Dennis Alan, ''Art in Detroit Public Places'', Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan, 1980, p. 26</ref>
* ], by ], 1912, Washington D.C.
* ''Christopher Columbus'', by Virgil Rainer, Chicago, Illinois,<ref>Riedy, James L., ''Chicago Sculpture'', University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 1981, pp. 204–205</ref> 1924<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=usil14 |title=Chicago – Christopher Columbus |publisher=Vanderkrogt.net |date=21 November 2010 |accessdate=2 February 2012}}</ref>
* ''Christopher Columbus'' by Charles Brioschi, assisted by ], ], 1931<ref>Harris, Moira A., ''Monumental Minnesota: A Guide to Outdoor Sculpture'', Pogp Press Inc., 1992, p. 17</ref>
* ] by Charles Brioschi, ], 1933<ref>Bach, Ira and Mary Lackritz Gray, ''A Guide to Chicago's Public Sculpture'', The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1983, pp. 9–10</ref>
* ''Christopher Columbus'', by ], ], 1958<ref>Evert, Marlyn and Vernon Gay, photographs, ''Discovering Pittsburgh's Sculpture'', University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1983, pp. 182–183</ref>
* ''Christopher Columbus Monument'' by David W. Oswald, ], 1988<ref>Beajer and Style, ''Public Sculpture in Wisconsin: An Atlas of Outdoor Monuments, Memorials and Masterpieces in the Badger State'', SOS! Wisconsin, Save Outdoor Sculpture and Fine Arts Conservation Services, Madison Wisconsin, 1999, p. 106</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}}
;In space
*] ] is named in his honour.


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>
== References ==


=== Footnotes === ==== Depopulation ====
{{Further|Taino#Depopulation}}
{{Reflist|30em}}
{{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>
=== Bibliography ===

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
}}

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>

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>

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>

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}} {{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}}
* ] (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.
* {{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 * {{cite book
| first1= Christopher | first1= Christopher
Line 354: Line 406:
|title=The Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage) |title=The Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage)
|publisher=Cambridge University Press |publisher=Cambridge University Press
|url=http://books.google.com.au/books?id=MI7dzFQZHOoC&printsec=frontcover |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MI7dzFQZHOoC
|year=2010 |year=2010
|origyear= 1893 |orig-date= 1893
|isbn= 978-1-108-01284-3 |isbn= 978-1-108-01284-3
}}
|ref=harv}}
*{{cite book * {{cite book
| first1= Christopher | first1= Christopher
| last1= Columbus | last1= Columbus
|title=First Voyage to America: From the log of the "Santa Maria" |title=First Voyage to America: From the log of the "Santa Maria"
|publisher=Dover |publisher=Dover
|url=http://books.google.com.au/books?id=OxbLxcS5uYgC&printsec=frontcover |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OxbLxcS5uYgC
|year=1991 |year=1991
|origyear= 1938 |orig-date= 1938
|isbn= 0-486-26844-6 |isbn= 978-0-486-26844-6
|ref=harv
}} }}
* {{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}}
* Cook, Sherburn and Woodrow Borah (1971) ''Essays in Population History, Volume I''. Berkeley CA: University of California Press
* Crosby, A. W. (1987) ''The Columbian Voyages: the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians.'' Washington, DC: American Historical Association. * Crosby, A. W. (1987) ''The Columbian Voyages: the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians.'' Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association.
* {{citation
| title= Columbus then and now: a life reexamined
| first= Miles H.
| last= Davidson
| year=1997
| publisher= University of Oklahoma Press
| location= Norman, OK
| url= http://books.google.com.au/books?id=BR6Ek48GgzEC&printsec=frontcover
| ref=harv
| isbn= 0-8061-2934-4
}}
*Fuson, Robert H. (1992) ''The Log of Christopher Columbus''. International Marine Publishing
* {{Cite book |title=] |author=Irving, Washington |authorlink=Washington Irving |year=1828 |publisher=John Murray (UK), G. & C. Carvill (USA)}}
* Keen, Benjamin (1978) ''The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand,'' Westport CT: Greenwood Press.
* Loewen, James. ''Lies My Teacher Told Me''
* {{Cite book * {{Cite book
| title= The Rediscovery of North America | title= Columbus then and now: a life reexamined
| first= Barry | first= Miles H.
| last= Lopez | last= Davidson
| year=1997
| publisher=University Press of Kentucky
| publisher= University of Oklahoma Press
| location= Lexicon, KY
| location= Norman
| year= 1990
| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BR6Ek48GgzEC
| ref= harv
| isbn= 0-8131-1742-9 | 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 }}
| url= http://books.google.com.au/books?id=wyh9-rhsaQgC&printsec=frontcover}}
* Fuson, Robert H. (1992) ''The Log of Christopher Columbus''. International Marine
* {{Cite book
* {{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}}
| title= Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus
* {{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}}
| first= Samuel Eliot
* {{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}}
| last= Morison
* {{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}}
| authorlink= Samuel Eliot Morison
** {{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}}}}
| publisher=Little, Brown and Company
** {{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}}}}
| location= Boston
* {{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}}
| year= 1942
* {{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}}
| ref= harv
* {{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}}
| url= http://books.google.com/books?id=T5x5xjsJtlwC
* {{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}}
| isbn= 978-1-4067-5027-0}}
*Morison, Samuel Eliot, ''Christopher Columbus, Mariner'', Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1955
*{{citation
| title= The worlds of Christopher Columbus
| first1= William D.
| last1= Phillips, Jr
| first2= Carla Rahn
| last2= Phillips
| year=1992
| publisher= Cambridge University Press
| location= Cambridge, UK
| url= http://books.google.com.au/books?id=8jhtmzLlX70C&printsec=frontcoverr
| ref=harv
| isbn= 0-521-35097-2
}}
* ] ''The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy'', Plume, 1991
* Turner, Jack (2004), ''Spice: The History of a Temptation'', New York: Random House.
* {{cite book
| title=La Caída de Cristóbal Colón
| last=Varela
| first= Consuelo
| location=Madrid
| publisher= Marcial Pons
| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=SwtMUtesSDEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q&f=false
| year = 2006
| ref = harv
}}
* Wilford, John Noble (1991), ''The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy'', New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
{{refend}} {{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 == == External links ==
{{wikisource author|Christopher Columbus}} {{Wikisource author}}
{{Commons|Christophorus Columbus|Christopher Columbus}} {{Commons|Christophorus Columbus|Christopher Columbus}}
{{Wikiquote-inline}} {{Wikiquote}}
{{Library resources box}}
*{{worldcat id|id=lccn-n78-85478}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Columbus,+Christopher |name=Christopher Columbus}}
*
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Christopher Columbus}}
*
* {{Librivox author |id=348}}
*
* '''', translated and edited by ] in ] format
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control|VIAF=17231583|LCCN=n/78/85478}}
* (overview of monuments for Columbus all over the world)
<!-- * Selections from the Collections of the Library of Congress (This link takes you to a page with thumb images but link chain is defunct. -->
* , Tiziano Thomas Dossena, ''Bridgepugliausa.it'', 2012.

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


{{Persondata
|NAME=Columbus, Christopher
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Cristoforo Colombo, Cristóbal Colón
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=] and an ] for the ]
|DATE OF BIRTH=c. 1451
|PLACE OF BIRTH=Genoa
|DATE OF DEATH=20 May 1506
|PLACE OF DEATH=], Spain
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Columbus, Christopher}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Columbus, Christopher}}
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
]
]
]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]

{{Link FA|ca}}
{{Link FA|de}}
{{Link FA|es}}
{{Link FA|ta}}
{{Link GA|it}}
{{Link GA|cs}}
{{Link GA|zh-classical}}
{{Link FA|nl}}

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

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

  1. Lester, Paul M. (January 1993). "Looks are deceiving: The portraits of Christopher Columbus". Visual Anthropology. 5 (3–4): 211–227. doi:10.1080/08949468.1993.9966590. ISSN 0894-9468.
  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
  9. Mills, Keneth and Taylor, William B., Colonial Spanish America: A Documentary History, p. 36, SR Books, 1998, ISBN 0-8420-2573-1
  10. Praga, Corinna; Laura Monac (1992). Una Giornata nella Città [A Day in the City] (in Italian). Genoa: Sagep Editrice. p. 14.
  11. Preste, Alfredo; Alessandro Torti; Remo Viazzi (1997). "Casa di Colombo". Sei itinerari in Portoria [Six itineraries in Portoria] (PDF) (in Italian). Genova: Grafiche Frassicomo. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  12. Edwards, J. (2014). Ferdinand and Isabella. Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-317-89345-5.
  13. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 91.
  14. wikisource-logo.svg Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Columbus, Diego (brother)". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. – The names Giacomo and Diego are cognates, along with James, all sharing a common origin. See Behind the Name, Mike Campbell, pages Giacomo, Diego, and James. All retrieved 3 February 2017.
  15. Bergreen 2011, p. 56.
  16. King, Ross (2021). The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-8021-5853-6.
  17. ^ Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 96.
  18. Galante, John Starosta (2022). On the Other Shore: The Atlantic Worlds of Italians in South America During the Great War. Univ of Nebraska Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-4962-2958-8. Ligurian pronunciation: [kriˈʃtɔffa kuˈɹuŋbu] Consulta Ligure (1982). Vocabolario delle parlate liguri [Vocabulary of Ligurian Speech: Specialized Vocabulary]. Sage. ISBN 978-8-8705-8044-0.
  19. Sánchez, Joseph P.; Gurulé, Jerry L.; Broughton, William H. (1990). Bibliografia Colombina, 1492–1990: Books, Articles and Other Publications on the Life and Times of Christopher Columbus. National Park Service, Spanish Colonial Research Center. p. ix.
  20. Bedini, Silvio A. (2016). Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. viii. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  21. Wilgus, Alva Curtis (1973). Latin America, 1492–1942: A Guide to Historical and Cultural Development Before World War II. Scarecrow Reprint Corporation. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8108-0595-8.
  22. (in Portuguese) "Armas e Troféus." Revista de História, Heráldica, Genealogia e Arte. 1994, VI serie – Tomo VI, pp. 5–52. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  23. Davidson 1997, p. 3.
  24. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 85.
  25. Lyon, Eugene (1992). "Navigation and Ships in the Age of Columbus". In McGovern, James R. (ed.). The World of Columbus. Mercer University Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-86554-414-7.
  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.
  28. Ureland, P. Sture (2011). "Introduction". In Ureland, P. Sture; Clarkson, Iain (eds.). 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. Walter de Gruyter. p. 14. ISBN 978-3-11-092965-2.
  29. Graves, Charles (1949). Ireland Revisited. Hutchinson. p. 151.
  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.
  31. ^ Paolucci, Anne; Paolucci, Henry (1992). Columbus, America, and the World. Council on National Literatures. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-918680-33-4. Many Columbists ... have doubted that Columbus could ever have gone to Iceland.
  32. ^ Kolodny, Annette (2012). In Search of First Contact: The Vikings of Vinland, the Peoples of the Dawnland, and the Anglo-American Anxiety of Discovery. Duke University Press. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-0-8223-5286-0.
  33. ^ Quinn, David B. (1992). "Columbus and the North: England, Iceland, and Ireland". The William and Mary Quarterly. 49 (2): 278–297. doi:10.2307/2947273. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 2947273.
  34. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (1991). Columbus. Oxford University Press. p. xvii. ISBN 978-0-19-215898-7.
  35. Freitas, Antonio Maria de; Maney, Regina (1893). The Wife of Columbus: With Genealogical Tree of the Perestrello and Moniz Families. New York: Stettinger, Lambert & Co. p. 32.
  36. Alessandrini, Nunziatella (1 January 2012). "Os Perestrello: uma família de Piacenza no Império Português (século XVI)" [The Perestrellos: A Piacenza family in the Portuguese Empire (16th century)] (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. p. 90. Finally, the most famous son of Filippone, Bartolomeu Perestrello (I), who participated in the rediscovery of the island of Madeira in 1418, and was captain 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.
  37. Suranyi, Anna (2015). The Atlantic Connection: A History of the Atlantic World, 1450–1900. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-317-50066-7.
  38. Dyson 1991, p. 63.
  39. Taviani, Paolo Emilio (2016). "Beatriz Arana". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  40. Taviani, "Beatriz Arana" in The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, vol. 1, pp. 24–25.
  41. Morgan, Edmund S. (October 2009). "Columbus' Confusion About the New World". Smithsonian Magazine.
  42. Davidann, Jon; Gilbert, Marc Jason (2019). Cross-Cultural Encounters in Modern World History, 1453–Present. Routledge. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-429-75924-6.
  43. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 108.
  44. Boxer, Charles Ralph (1967). The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650. University of California Press.
  45. ^ Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 227.
  46. ^ Murphy & Coye 2013.
  47. Muzio, Tim Di (2017). The Tragedy of Human Development: A Genealogy of Capital as Power. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-78348-715-8.
  48. Echevarría, Roberto Gonzalez; Pupo-Walker, Enrique (1996). The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-521-34069-4.
  49. Johanyak, D.; Lim, W. (2010). The English Renaissance, Orientalism, and the Idea of Asia. Springer. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-230-10622-2.
  50. King, William Casey (2013). Ambition, A History: From Vice to Virtue. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18984-1.
  51. Sheehan, Kevin Joseph (2008). Iberian Asia: the strategies of Spanish and Portuguese empire building, 1540–1700 (Thesis). OCLC 892835540. ProQuest 304693901.
  52. Delaney, Carol (8 March 2006). "Columbus's Ultimate Goal: Jerusalem" (PDF). Comparative Studies in Society and History. 48 (2). Cambridge University Press: 260–92. doi:10.1017/S0010417506000119. JSTOR 3879352. S2CID 144148903. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2020.
  53. Hamdani, Abbas (1979). "Columbus and the Recovery of Jerusalem". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 99 (1). Ann Arbor, Michigan: American Oriental Society: 39–48. doi:10.2307/598947. JSTOR 598947.
  54. Murphy & Coye 2013, p. 244.
  55. Willoz-Egnor, Jeanne (2013). "Mariner's Astrolabe". Institute of Navigation. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  56. Smith, Ben (1 January 2002). "An astrolabe from Passa Pau, Cape Verde Islands". International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. 31 (1): 99–107. Bibcode:2002IJNAr..31...99S. doi:10.1006/ijna.2002.1021.
  57. Ridpath, Ian (2001). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Universe. New York: Watson-Guptill. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8230-2512-1.
  58. Sagan, Carl (1980). Cosmos. New York: Random House. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-0-3945-0294-6. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  59. Freely, John (2013). Before Galileo: The Birth of Modern Science in Medieval Europe. New York: Abrams Books. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4683-0850-1.
  60. "Marco Polo et le Livre des Merveilles", p. 37. ISBN 978-2-35404-007-9
  61. Randles, W. G. L. (January 1990). "The Evaluation of Columbus' 'India' Project by Portuguese and Spanish Cosmographers in the Light of the Geographical Science of the Period" (PDF). Imago Mundi. 42 (1): 50. doi:10.1080/03085699008592691. ISSN 0308-5694. S2CID 129588714. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  62. Khairunnahar; Mahmud, Khandakar Hasan; Islam, Md Ariful (2017). "Error calculation of the selected maps used in the Great Voyage of Christopher Columbus". The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II. XLI. Jahangirnagar University: 67. ISSN 1682-7422. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  63. ^ McCormick, Douglas (9 October 2012). "Columbus's Geographical Miscalculations". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  64. Gunn, Geoffrey C. (2018). Overcoming Ptolemy: The Revelation of an Asian World Region. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-1-4985-9014-3. 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."
  65. Zacher, Christian K. (2016). Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. pp. 676–677. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  66. Dilke, O. A. W. (2016). "Marinus of Tyre". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 452. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  67. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1974). The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages A.D. 1492–1616. Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-19-501377-1.
  68. Butel, Paul (2002). The Atlantic. Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-134-84305-3.
  69. Morison 1991.
  70. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 110.
  71. Edson, Evelyn (2007). The World Map, 1300–1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation. JHU Press. p. 205. ISBN 978-0-8018-8589-1.
  72. Taylor, Alan (2002). American Colonies: The Settling of North America (The Penguin History of the United States, Volume 1). Penguin. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-14-200210-0.
  73. Jensen, De Lamar (1992). Renaissance Europe (2nd ed.). Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company. p. 341. ISBN 978-0-669-20007-2.
  74. Gómez, Nicolás Wey (2008). The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies. MIT Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-262-23264-7. 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.
  75. Morison 1991, p. 132.
  76. Morison 1991, p. 314.
  77. Rickey, V. Frederick (1992). "How Columbus Encountered America". Mathematics Magazine. 65 (4): 219–225. doi:10.2307/2691445. ISSN 0025-570X. JSTOR 2691445.
  78. Morison 1991, pp. 198–199.
  79. Rickey, V. Frederick (1992). "How Columbus Encountered America". Mathematics Magazine. 65 (4): 224. doi:10.2307/2691445. ISSN 0025-570X. JSTOR 2691445.
  80. Morison 1991, pp. 68–70.
  81. Pinheiro-Marques, Alfredo (2016). "Diogo Cão". In Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  82. Symcox, Geoffrey; Sullivan, Blair (2016). Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents. Springer. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-1-137-08059-2. 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.
  83. Dyson 1991, p. 84.
  84. Durant, Will The Story of Civilization vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, p. 260.
  85. Dyson 1991, pp. 86, 92.
  86. Dyson 1991, p. 92.
  87. Morrison, Geoffrey (15 October 2015). "Exploring The Alhambra Palace And Fortress In Granada, Spain". Forbes. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  88. ^ Phillips & Phillips 1992, pp. 131–132.
  89. Phillips & Phillips 1992, pp. 131–32.
  90. Lantigua, David M. (2020). Infidels and Empires in a New World Order: Early Modern Spanish Contributions to International Legal Thought. Cambridge University Press. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-108-49826-5. 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.
  91. Morison 1991, p. 662.
  92. ^ González Sánchez, Carlos Alberto (2006). "Capitulations of Santa Fe". In Kaufman, Will; Francis, John Michael (eds.). Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 175–176. ISBN 978-1-85109-421-9.
  93. Sánchez-Barba, Mario Hernández (2006). "Cristóbal Colón en presencia de la muerte (1505–1506)" (PDF). Cuadernos Monográficos del Instituto de Historia y Cultural Naval (50). Madrid: 51. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  94. Márquez, Luis Arranz (1982). Don Diego Colón, almirante, virrey y gobernador de las Indias (in Spanish). Editorial CSIC – CSIC Press. p. 175, note 4. ISBN 978-84-00-05156-3.
  95. ^ McDonald, Mark P. (2005). Ferdinand Columbus: Renaissance Collector (1488–1539). British Museum Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7141-2644-9.
  96. Specht, Joshua; Stockland, Etienne (2017). The Columbian Exchange. CRC Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-351-35121-8.
  97. ^ Morison 1991, p. 381.
  98. Horodowich, Elizabeth (2017). "Italy and the New World". In Horodowich, Elizabeth; Markey, Lia (eds.). The New World in Early Modern Italy, 1492–1750. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-108-50923-7.
  99. Cohen, Jonathan. "The Naming of America". Umc.sunysb.edu. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  100. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2007). Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America (1st ed.). New York: Random House. pp. 143–144, 186–187. ISBN 978-1-4000-6281-2. OCLC 608082366.
  101. Pickering, Keith A. (August 1994). "Columbus's Plana landfall: Evidence for the Plana Cays as Columbus's 'San Salvador'" (PDF). DIO – the International Journal of Scientific History. 4 (1): 13–32. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2009.
  102. ^ Morison 1991, p. 228.
  103. ^ Dyson 1991, p. 102.
  104. "The Original Niña". The Niña & Pinta. British Virgin Islands: The Columbus Foundation. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
  105. Phillips & Phillips 1992, pp. 146–147.
  106. Nicholls, Steve (2009). Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery. University of Chicago Press. pp. 103–104. ISBN 978-0-226-58340-2.
  107. Morison 1991, p. 226.
  108. Lopez, (1990, p. 14); Columbus & Toscanelli (2010, p. 35)
  109. Lopez, (1990, p. 15)
  110. Bergreen 2011, p. 99.
  111. William D. Phillips Jr., 'Columbus, Christopher', in David Buisseret (ed.), The Oxford Companion to World Exploration, (Oxford University Press, online edition 2012).
  112. Dunn, Oliver; Kelley, James E. Jr. (1989). The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492–1493. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 67–69. ISBN 978-0-8061-2384-4.
  113. Hoxie, Frederick (1996). Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 568. ISBN 978-0-395-66921-1.
  114. Keegan, William F. (2015). "Mobility and Disdain: Columbus and Cannibals in the Land of Cotton". Ethnohistory. 62 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1215/00141801-2821644.
  115. ^ Zinn 2003, pp. 1–22
  116. Columbus (1991, p. 87). 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, 2010, p. 41)
  117. Figueredo, D. H. (2008). A Brief History of the Caribbean. Infobase. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-4381-0831-5.
  118. Deagan, Kathleen A. (2008). Columbus's Outpost Among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498. Yale University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-300-13389-9.
  119. Hunter, Douglas (2012). The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery. Macmillan. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-230-34165-4.
  120. Magasich-Airola, Jorge; Beer, Jean-Marc de (2007). America Magica: When Renaissance Europe Thought It Had Conquered Paradise (2nd ed.). Anthem. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-84331-292-5.
  121. Anderson-Córdova, Karen F. (2017). Surviving Spanish Conquest: Indian Fight, Flight, and Cultural Transformation in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. University of Alabama Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-8173-1946-5.
  122. Murphy & Coye 2013, pp. 31–32.
  123. ^ Morison 1991, p. 145.
  124. ^ Deagan, Kathleen; Cruxent, José Maria (1993). "From Contact to Criollos: The Archaeology of Spanish Colonization in Hispaniola" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. 81: 73. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  125. Maclean, Frances (January 2008). "The Lost Fort of Columbus". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
  126. Gužauskytė, Evelina (2014). Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation. University of Toronto Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-4426-6825-6.
  127. Fuson, Robert. The Log of Christopher Columbus (Camden, International Marine, 1987) 173.
  128. Yewell, John; Dodge, Chris (1992). Confronting Columbus: An Anthology. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-89950-696-8. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  129. Markham, Clements R. (1893). The Journal of Christopher Columbus. London: Hakluyt Society. pp. 159–160. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  130. Dunn, Oliver; Kelley, James E. Jr. (1989). The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492–1493. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 341. ISBN 978-0-8061-2384-4.
  131. Catz, Rebecca (1990). "Columbus in the Azores". Portuguese Studies. 6: 19–21. JSTOR 41104900.
  132. Kamen, Henry (2014). Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict. Routledge. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-317-75500-5.
  133. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2007). Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6281-2.
  134. Caballos 2004; Ostapkowicz 2023, pp. 314–316.
  135. Ife, Barry (1992). "Early Modern Spain: Introduction to the Letters from America". King's College London. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  136. Diffie, Bailey Wallys (1977). Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580. Winius, George D. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 173. ISBN 0-8166-0782-6. OCLC 3488742.
  137. Veciana-Suarez, Ana (22 January 2017). "This college donation is truly historic. And it's not just the artifacts involved". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  138. Morison 1991, pp. 498–501.
  139. ^ Deagan, Kathleen A.; Cruxent, José María (2008). Archaeology at La Isabela: America's First European Town. Yale University Press. p. xxxix (5). ISBN 978-0-300-13391-2.
  140. ^ Bedini, Silvio A. (2016). Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 705. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  141. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1986). The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America. Oxford University Press. pp. 440, 448–449. ISBN 978-0-19-504222-1.
  142. Morison 1991, pp. 423–427.
  143. Antonio de la Cova. "The Spanish Conquest of the Tainos". Latin American Studies. Antonio Rafael de la Cova. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  144. 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
  145. "Teeth Of Columbus's Crew Flesh Out Tale Of New World Discovery". ScienceDaily. 20 March 2009.
  146. ^ Austin Alchon, Suzanne (2003). A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective. University of New Mexico Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-8263-2871-7. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  147. Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages, pp. 118–130
  148. Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages, pp. 117–118
  149. Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, Background and the 2nd and 4th Voyages, pp. 130–134, 137–138, 147–149
  150. Yeager, Timothy J. (3 March 2009). "Encomienda or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America". The Journal of Economic History. 55 (4): 842–859. doi:10.1017/S0022050700042182. JSTOR 2123819. S2CID 155030781.
  151. Lyle N. McAlister (1984). Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492–1700. University of Minnesota Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-8166-1218-8.
  152. 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
  153. 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
  154. Morison 1991, pp. 482–85.
  155. 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.
  156. ^ Stannard, David E. (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-19-983898-1.
  157. Koning, Hans. Columbus, His Enterprise: Exploding the Myth. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976: 83–83.
  158. Deagan, Kathleen A.; Cruxent, José María (2008). Columbus's Outpost Among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-300-13389-9.
  159. ^ Dyson 1991, pp. 183, 190.
  160. Cohen, Rhaina; Penman, Maggie; Boyle, Tara; Vedantam, Shankar (20 November 2017). "An American Secret: The Untold Story Of Native American Enslavement". NPR. Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  161. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2007). Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America. New York: Random House. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-1-4000-6281-2.
  162. Morison 1991, p. 497.
  163. Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-521-62730-6.
  164. ^ Saunders, Nicholas J. (2005). The Peoples of the Caribbean: An Encyclopedia of Archaeology and Traditional Culture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-1-57607-701-6.
  165. Flint, Valerie Irene Jane (2017). The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus. Princeton University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-1-4008-8717-0.
  166. ^ Fuson, Robert H. (1997). "The Columbian Voyages". In Allen, John Logan (ed.). North American Exploration. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 180–181. ISBN 978-0-8032-1015-8.
  167. Bergreen 2011, p. 249.
  168. ^ Zerubavel, Eviatar (2003). Terra Cognita: The Mental Discovery of America. Transaction Publishers. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-7658-0987-2.
  169. Cervantes, Fernando (2021). Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest. Penguin. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-101-98128-3.
  170. Bergreen 2011, p. 258.
  171. Morison, Samuel Eliot; Obregón, Mauricio (1964). The Caribbean as Columbus Saw it. Little, Brown. p. 11.
  172. Bergreen 2011, pp. 284–285.
  173. Brink, Christopher (2019). Christopher Columbus: Controversial Explorer of the Americas. Cavendish Square Publishing. p. 78.
  174. Hofmann, Heinz (1994). "Columbus in Neo-Latin Epic Poetry". In Haase, Wolfgang; Meyer, Reinhold (eds.). The Classical Tradition and the Americas: European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition (2 pts.). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-011572-7.
  175. Phillips & Phillips 1992, p. 125.
  176. Bergreen 2011, pp. 276–277.
  177. ^ Tremlett, Giles (7 August 2006). "Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  178. Bergreen 2011, pp. 283.
  179. "Columbus Controversy". A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  180. ^ Hale, Edward Everett (2021). The Life of Christopher Columbus. Prabhat Prakashan.
  181. Columbus, Christopher (2010). Select Letters of Christopher Columbus: With Other Original Documents, Relating to his Four Voyages to the New World. Richard Henry Major, Diego Alvarez Chanca. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-70808-4. OCLC 889952068.
  182. Felipe Fernández-Armesto (2010). Columbus on himself. Christopher Columbus. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-60384-317-1. OCLC 794493189. 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.
  183. "National Association of Scholars – Remembering Columbus: Blinded by Politics by Robert Carle". www.nas.org. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  184. Cervantes, Fernando (2021). Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest. New York: Penguin. pp. 46–47. ISBN 978-1-101-98128-3.
  185. Bergreen 2011, p. 276.
  186. Gužauskytė, Evelina (2014). Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation. University of Toronto Press. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-4426-6825-6.
  187. Cervantes, Fernando (2021). Conquistadores: a new history of Spanish discovery and conquest (1st ed.). New York: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-101-98126-9. OCLC 1258043161.
  188. 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.
  189. Leon, Istvan Szaszdi (1 January 2012). "Castilian Justice and Columbian Injustice. The end of the Columbian Government in Hispaniola". Journal on European History of Law. 3 (2): 9.
  190. Varela, Consuelo; Aguirre, Isabel (2006). La caída de Cristóbal Colón: el juicio de Bobadilla (in Spanish). Marcial Pons Historia. p. 175. ISBN 978-84-96467-28-6.
  191. Some scholars, including Sauer, say the fleet sailed 11 May; Cook says 9 May.
  192. ^ Sauer, Carl Ortwin (2008). The Early Spanish Main. Cambridge University Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-0-521-08848-0.
  193. Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-521-62730-6.
  194. Bergreen 2011, pp. 288–289, 302–303.
  195. Gužauskytė, Evelina (2014). Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation. University of Toronto Press. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-4426-6825-6.
  196. Bedini, Silvio A. (2016). Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 200. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  197. Armas, Antonio Rumeu de (1985). Nueva luz sobre las capitulaciones de Santa Fe de 1492 concertadas entre los Reyes Católicos y Cristóbal Colón: estudio institucional y diplomático (in Spanish). Editorial CSIC – CSIC Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-84-00-05961-3.
  198. Colindres, Enrique Ortez (1975). Integración Política de Centroamérica (in Spanish). Editorial Universitaria Centroamericana. p. 20. El 14 de agosto de 1502 Cristóbal Colón descubrió Punta Caxinas, hoy Punta Castilla o Cabo de Honduras.
  199. Calvo, Alfredo Castillero (2004). Historia general de Panamá: Tomo 1. Las sociedades originarias; El orden colonial. Tomo 2. El orden colonial (in Spanish). Comité Nacional del Centenario de la República. p. 86. ISBN 978-9962-02-581-8.
  200. Bedini, Silvio A. (2016). Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. pp. 720, 724. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  201. Stirling, Matthew Williams; Stirling, Marion (1964). Archeological Notes on Almirante Bay, Bocas Del Toro, Panama. U.S. Government Printing Office.
  202. Bergreen 2011, p. 330.
  203. Bergreen 2011, p. 330–332.
  204. Méndez, Diego (2020). "VIII: Shipwrecked by Worms, Saved by Canoe: The Last Voyage of Columbus". In Roorda, Paul (ed.). The Ocean Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Duke University Press. p. 300. doi:10.1515/9781478007456-065. ISBN 978-1-4780-0745-6. S2CID 241132438.
  205. ^ Vigneras, Louis André (1 November 1978). "Diego Méndez, Secretary of Christopher Columbus and Alguacil Mayor of Santo Domingo: A Biographical Sketch". Hispanic American Historical Review. 58 (4): 680. doi:10.1215/00182168-58.4.676. ISSN 0018-2168. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  206. Hakim, Joy (2002). The First Americans. Oxford University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-19-515319-4.
  207. Clayton J., Drees, The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal: 1300–1500 a Biographical Dictionary, 2001, p. 511
  208. Kadir, Djelal (1992). "IV: Charting the Conquest". Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 67.
  209. Rivera, Luis N.; Pagán, Luis Rivera (1992). A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-664-25367-7.
  210. Watts, Pauline Moffitt (1985). "Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus's "Enterprise of the Indies"". The American Historical Review. 90 (1): 92. doi:10.2307/1860749. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 1860749.
  211. ^ "Christopher Columbus Suffered From a Fatal Form of Arthritis" (Press release). University of Maryland School of Medicine. 6 May 2005. Archived from the original on 23 January 2018.
  212. Hoenig, Leonard J. (1 February 1992). "The Arthritis of Christopher Columbus". Archives of Internal Medicine. 152 (2): 274–277. doi:10.1001/archinte.1992.00400140028008. PMID 1472175.
  213. Arnett, F.; Merrill, C.; Albardaner, Francesc; Mackowiak, P. (September 2006). "A Mariner with Crippling Arthritis and Bleeding Eyes". The American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 332 (3): 125. doi:10.1097/00000441-200609000-00005. PMID 16969141. S2CID 6358022.
  214. Tarver, H. Micheal; Slape, Emily (2016). Tarver, H. Micheal; Slape, Emily (eds.). The Spanish Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-61069-422-3.
  215. "Esclarecen causas de muerte de Cristóbal Colón". El Universal (in Spanish). 25 February 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  216. Scott, Ian C.; Galloway, James B.; Scott, David L. (2015). Inflammatory Arthritis in Clinical Practice. Springer. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-4471-6648-1.
  217. Ritchlin, Christopher T.; FitzGerald, Oliver (2007). Psoriatic and Reactive Arthritis: A Companion to Rheumatology. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-323-03622-1.
  218. Cuartero y Huerta 1988, p. 74.
  219. Kadir, Djelal (1992). "Chapter VII Making Ends Meet: The Dire Unction of Prophecy". Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. pp. 193–194.
  220. Cuartero y Huerta, Baltasar (1988). "Los Colón en la Cartuja" (PDF). Boletín de la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras: Minervae Baeticae. 16: 74. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  221. Dyson 1991, p. 194.
  222. ^ Dyson 1991, p. 196.
  223. Nash, Elizabeth (2005). Seville, Cordoba, and Granada: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press, US. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-19-518204-0.
  224. ^ "'Columbus bones' for DNA tests". The Guardian. 3 June 2003. Archived from the original on 27 August 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  225. Olaya, Vicente G. (24 May 2021). "Study of Christopher Columbus' DNA set to reveal his true origins". El País. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  226. Captain George Farquar of Lord Stanley brought the news to Liverpool in 1796 that while he had been at Havana, the Spanish ship of the line San Lorenzo 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."
  227. ^ Associated Press (20 May 2006). "DNA verifies Columbus' remains in Spain". MSNBC. Archived from the original on 31 October 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  228. Tremlett, Giles (11 August 2004). "Young bones lay Columbus myth to rest". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
  229. Álvarez-Cubero, M.J.; Martinez-Gonzalez, L.J.; Saiz, M.; Álvarez, J.C.; Lorente, J.A. (June 2010). "Nuevas aplicaciones en identificación genética" [New applications in genetic identification]. Cuadernos de Medicina Forense (in Spanish). 16 (1–2). doi:10.4321/S1135-76062010000100002.
  230. "Countdown begins to discover where Columbus came from". AP News. 19 May 2021. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  231. ^ Bergreen 2011, pp. 363–364.
  232. Thacher, John Boyd (1904). 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. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 570–73.
  233. ^ "Columbus Buried In San Domingo?". Evening Star. 17 July 1913. p. 11. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  234. Bergreen, Laurence (2021). In Search of a Kingdom. Boston: Mariner Books. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-06-287535-8.
  235. Álvarez-Cubero, M.J.; Mtnez.-Gonzalez, L.J.; Saiz, M.; Álvarez, J.C.; Lorente, J.A. (June 2010). "Nuevas aplicaciones en identificación genética" [New applications in genetic identification]. Cuadernos de Medicina Forense (in Spanish). 16 (1–2). doi:10.4321/S1135-76062010000100002.
  236. Horwitz 2008, pp. 89–90, 92.
  237. West, Delno (April 1992). "Christopher Columbus and His Enterprise to the Indies: Scholarship of the Last Quarter Century". The William and Mary Quarterly. 49 (2): 254–277. doi:10.2307/2947272. ISSN 0043-5597. JSTOR 2947272. 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."
  238. Bercovitch, Sacvan (2014). The Rites of Assent: Transformations in the Symbolic Construction of America. Routledge. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-317-79619-0. 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.
  239. Bushman, Claudia L. (1992). America Discovers Columbus: How an Italian Explorer Became an American Hero. University Press of New England. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-87451-576-3.
  240. Bartosik-Vélez, Elise (2014). "The Incorporation of Columbus into the Story of Western Empire". The Legacy of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. New Nations and a Transatlantic Discourse of Empire (PDF). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-8265-1953-5.
  241. ^ Burmila, Edward (9 October 2017). "The Invention of Christopher Columbus, American Hero". The Nation.
  242. Dewey, Donald (2007). The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons. NYU Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-8147-1985-5.
  243. Stanford, Jack A.; Hauer, F. Richard; Gregory, Stanley V.; Snyder, Eric B. (2011). "Columbia River Basin". In Benke, Arthur C.; Cushing, Colbert E. (eds.). Rivers of North America. Elsevier. p. 501. ISBN 978-0-08-045418-4.
  244. Zeuske, Michael; Otálvaro, Andrés (2017). "La construcción de Colombeia: Francisco de Miranda y su paso por el Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, 1785–1789". Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura. 44: 177. doi:10.15446/achsc.v44n1.61224. ISSN 0120-2456.
  245. "Bird's-Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893". World Digital Library. 1893. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  246. Bolotin, Norm; Laing, Christine (2002). The World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World's Fair of 1893. University of Illinois Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-252-07081-5.
  247. Handler, Richard (June 2016). "Mining the time-space matrix: Commemorative postage stamps and US world's fairs, 1893–1915". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 6 (1): 296–300. doi:10.14318/hau6.1.017. S2CID 159668550.
  248. West, Chris (2014). A History of America in Thirty-six Postage Stamps. Macmillan. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-250-04368-9.
  249. Marcilhacy 2011, pp. 135–138.
  250. Marcilhacy, David (2011). "Las fiestas del 12 de octubre y las conmemoraciones americanistas bajo la restauración borbónica: España frente a su pasado colonial" (PDF). Jerónimo Zurita. 86: 135–138. ISSN 0044-5517. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  251. "Columbian Exposition Souvenir Sheets", Arago: people, postage & the post, National Postal Museum online, viewed 18 April 2014.
  252. Bedini, Silvio A. (2016). Bedini, Silvio A. (ed.). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 489. ISBN 978-1-349-12573-9.
  253. "Columbus Day". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  254. Bello, Manuel; Shaver, Annis N. (2011). "Representation of Columbus in History Textbboks". In Provenzo, Eugene F. Jr.; Shaver, Annis N; Bello, Manuel (eds.). The Textbook as Discourse: Sociocultural Dimensions of American Schoolbooks. Routledge. p. 152. ISBN 978-1-136-86063-8.
  255. Boivin, Nicole; Fuller, Dorian Q; Crowther, Alison (September 2012). "Old World globalization and the Columbian exchange: comparison and contrast". World Archaeology. 44 (3): 452–469. doi:10.1080/00438243.2012.729404. JSTOR 42003541. S2CID 3285807.
  256. McFarlane, Anthony (2004). "Pre-Columbian and colonial Latin America". In King, John (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Modern Latin American Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-521-63651-3.
  257. Nunn, Nathan; Qian, Nancy (Spring 2010), "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas" (PDF), Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24 (2): 163–188, doi:10.1257/jep.24.2.163
  258. Wilford, John Noble (1991). "Columbus and the Labyrinth of History" (PDF). The Wilson Quarterly. 15 (4): 79–80. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  259. Bartosik-Vélez, Elise (2014). "The Incorporation of Columbus into the Story of Western Empire". The Legacy of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. New Nations and a Transatlantic Discourse of Empire (PDF). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-8265-1953-5.
  260. ^ Paul, Heike (2014). "Christopher Columbus and the Myth of Discovery'". The Myths That Made America (PDF). transcript Verlag. pp. 53, 59. ISBN 978-3-8394-1485-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  261. Paul 2014, pp. 58, 60.
  262. Fryd, Vivienne (2001). Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815–1860. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. pp. 37, 89, 91, 94, 99–100, 105.
  263. "Persico's Columbus". The United States Magazine and Democratic Review. 15: 95–97. November 1844 – via Google Books.
  264. Out West. University of Nebraska Press. 2000. p. 96.
  265. Congressional Globe, 28 April 1836, p. 1316.
  266. Paul 2014, pp. 63–64.
  267. Dennis, Matthew (2018). Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: An American Calendar. Cornell University Press. pp. 119–120. ISBN 978-1-5017-2370-4.
  268. Wilford 1991, p. 80.
  269. Connell, William J. (2013). "Who's Afraid of Columbus?". Italian Americana. 31 (2): 136–147. JSTOR 41933001.
  270. Armitage, David (1992). "Christopher Columbus" (PDF). History Today. 42 (5): 55. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  271. Axtell, James (1992). "Moral Reflections on the Columbian Legacy". The History Teacher. 25 (4): 407–425. doi:10.2307/494350. ISSN 0018-2745. JSTOR 494350. ... 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.
  272. Houbert, Jean (2003). "Creolisation and Decolonisation". In Jayasuriya, Shihan de S.; Pankhurst, Richard (eds.). The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean. Africa World Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-86543-980-1.
  273. Phillips, William D. (2000). Testimonies from the Columbian Lawsuits. Brepols. p. 25. ISBN 978-2-503-51028-6. 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.
  274. Nedkvitne, Arnved (2018). Norse Greenland: Viking Peasants in the Arctic. Routledge. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-351-25958-3.
  275. ^ Little, Becky (11 October 2015). "Why Do We Celebrate Columbus Day and Not Leif Erikson Day?". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  276. "History – Leif Erikson (11th century)". BBC. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  277. "Rafn, Carl Christian, 1795–1864". Wisconsin Historical Society. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  278. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "De Costa, Benjamin Franklin". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 915.
  279. Restall, Matthew (2021). Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest: Updated Edition. Oxford University Press. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-19-753729-9.
  280. Berkhofer, Robert F. (1979). The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian, from Columbus to the Present. Vintage Books. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-394-72794-3.
  281. Coronil, Fernando (1989). "Discovering America Again: The Politics of Selfhood in the Age of Post-Colonial Empires". Dispositio. 14 (36/38). Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: 315–331. ISSN 0734-0591. JSTOR 41491365. 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.
  282. Nuccetelli, Susana (31 October 2020). "Setting the Scene: The Iberian Conquest". An Introduction to Latin American Philosophy. pp. 16–17. doi:10.1017/9781107705562.002. ISBN 978-1-107-70556-2. S2CID 234937836.
  283. Lazo, Rodrigo (1 December 2013). "The Invention of America Again: On the Impossibility of an Archive". American Literary History. 25 (4): 755. doi:10.1093/alh/ajt049.
  284. Fernández-Shaw, Félix (May 1992). "Five hundred years from now | From Discovery to Encounter". The UNESCO Courier. 45 (5, Rediscovering 1492). UNESCO Digital Library: 45. Retrieved 8 February 2022. 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.
  285. Thomas F. McIlwraith; Edward K. Muller (2001). North America: The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7425-0019-8.
  286. Sale, Kirkpatrick (1991) . The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. New York: Plume. pp. 204–209. ISBN 0-452-26669-6. OCLC 23940970.
  287. Boller, Paul F. (1995). Not So!: Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509186-1.
  288. Hannam, James (18 May 2010). "Science Versus Christianity?". Patheos.com. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
  289. Bergreen 2011, p. 244.
  290. Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1991). Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and modern historians. New York City: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-95904-3.
  291. Morison 1942a, pp. 241–242, 270–271.
  292. Randles, W.G.L. (2011). "Classical Geography and Discovery of America". In Haase, Wolfgang; Meyer, Reinhold (eds.). European Images of the Americas and the Classical Tradition. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-087024-4.
  293. Morison 1942b, pp. 513–515, 517, 544–546.
  294. Willingham, Elizabeth Moore (2015). Mythical Indies and Columbus's Apocalyptic Letter: Imagining the Americas in the Late Middle Ages. Liverpool University Press. p. 293. ISBN 978-1-78284-037-4.
  295. Tyson, Neil deGrasse (2014) . Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-393-06224-3. OCLC 70265574.
  296. 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.
  297. Defense Mapping Agency (1983). Geodesy for the Layman (Report) (4th ed.). United States Air Force.
  298. ^ Tinker, George E.; Freeland, Mark (2008). "Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline" (PDF). Wíčazo Ša Review. 23 (1): 37. doi:10.1353/wic.2008.0002. S2CID 159481939. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. 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.
  299. Lane, Kris (8 October 2015). "Five myths about Christopher Columbus". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  300. Flint, Valerie I.J. (26 July 1999). "Legacy of Christopher Columbus". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
  301. Brito, Christopher (25 September 2020). "Dozens of Christopher Columbus statues have been removed since June". CBS News. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  302. Bigelow, Bill (1992). "Once upon a Genocide: Christopher Columbus in Children's Literature". Social Justice. 19 (2): 106–121. JSTOR 29766680..
  303. Weatherford, Jack (20 April 2001). "Examining the reputation of Christopher Columbus". Hartford-hwp.com. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  304. "Pre-Columbian Hispaniola – Arawak/Taino Indians". Hartford-hwp.com. 15 September 2001. Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  305. Morison 1991, p. 417.
  306. Cohen, J.M. (1969). The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. NY: Penguin. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-14-044217-5.
  307. Horwitz 2008, p. 69.
  308. Deagan, Kathleen A.; Cruxent, José María (2002). Archaeology at La Isabela: America's First European Town. Yale University Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-300-09041-3.
  309. Koning, Hans (1976). Columbus. Monthly Review Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-85345-600-1. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  310. Lynch, Lawrence Dixson (1993). "Columbus in Myth and History". In McCrank, Lawrence J. (ed.). Discovery in the Archives of Spain and Portugal: Quincentenary Essays, 1492–1992. Primary Sources & Original Works. Vol. 2. Haworth Press. p. 265. doi:10.1300/J269v02n01_09. ISBN 978-1-56024-643-5.
  311. Varela, Consuelo; Aguirre, Isabel (2006). "La venta de esclavos" [The sale of slaves]. La caída de Cristóbal Colón: el juicio de Bobadilla [The fall of Christopher Columbus: the Bobadilla trial] (in Spanish). Marcial Pons Historia. pp. 111–118. ISBN 978-84-96467-28-6.
  312. Hanke, Lewis (1 February 1971). "A Modest Proposal for a Moratorium on Grand Generalizations: Some Thoughts on the Black Legend". Hispanic American Historical Review. 51 (1). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press: 112–127. doi:10.1215/00182168-51.1.112. JSTOR 2512616.
  313. Keen, Benjamin (1 November 1969). "The Black Legend Revisited: Assumptions and Realities". Hispanic American Historical Review. 49 (4). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press: 703–719. doi:10.1215/00182168-49.4.703. JSTOR 2511162.
  314. Keen, Benjamin (1 May 1971). "The White Legend Revisited: A Reply to Professor Hanke's 'Modest Proposal'". Hispanic American Historical Review. 51 (2). Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press: 336–355. doi:10.1215/00182168-51.2.336. JSTOR 2512479.
  315. Soule, Emily Berquist (23 April 2017). "From Africa to the Ocean Sea: Atlantic slavery in the origins of the Spanish Empire". Atlantic Studies. 15 (1): 16–39. doi:10.1080/14788810.2017.1315514. S2CID 218620874. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  316. Fusco, Mary Ann Castronovo (8 October 2000). "In Person; In Defense Of Columbus". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  317. Horwitz 2008, p. 84.
  318. Davidson, Basil (January 1992). "Columbus: the bones and blood of racism". Race & Class. 33 (3). Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publishers: 17–25. doi:10.1177/030639689203300303. S2CID 145462012.
  319. Bigelow, Bill (10 October 2015). "Columbus Day must be abolished". The Ottawa Herald. Archived from the original on 24 May 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  320. Jennings, Evelyn (2020). Constructing the Spanish Empire in Havana: State Slavery in Defense and Development, 1762–1835. LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-7464-7.
  321. Zinn 2003, p. 5.
  322. ^ Keegan, William F., "Destruction of the Taino" in Archaeology. January/February 1992, pp. 51–56.
  323. Fernandes, D.M.; Sirak, K.A.; Ringbauer, H.; et al. (23 December 2020). "A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean". Nature. 590 (7844): 103–110. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2. PMC 7864882. PMID 33361817.
  324. Dutchen, Stephanie (23 December 2020). "Ancient DNA shines light on Caribbean history, prehistory". Harvard Gazette. Archived from the original on 23 December 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  325. ^ Horwitz 2008.
  326. Crosby, Alfred W. (1972). The Columbian Exchange. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-8371-7228-6.
  327. Mann, Charles C. (2011). 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-307-27824-1.
  328. ^ Hickel, Jason (2018). The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. London, England: Windmill Books. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-78609-003-4.
  329. ^ Treuer, David (13 May 2016). "The new book 'The Other Slavery' will make you rethink American history". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  330. Crosby (1972) p. 45.
  331. Koch, Alexander; Brierley, Chris; Maslin, Mark; Lewis, Simon (1 March 2019). "Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492". Quaternary Science Reviews. 207: 13–36. Bibcode:2019QSRv..207...13K. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004.
  332. Schuman, H.; Schwartz, B.; D'Arcy, H. (28 February 2005). "Elite Revisionists and Popular Beliefs: Christopher Columbus, Hero or Villain?" (PDF). Public Opinion Quarterly. 69 (1): 2–29. doi:10.1093/poq/nfi001. S2CID 145447081. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2020.
  333. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1955). Christopher Columbus, Mariner. New York: Little Brown & Co (T); First edition. ISBN 978-0-316-58356-5.
  334. Cook, Noble David (1998). Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 9–14. ISBN 978-0-521-62730-6.
  335. Fenner F, Henderson DA, Arita I, Ježek Z, Ladnyi ID (1988). "The History of Smallpox and its Spread Around the World" (PDF). Smallpox and its eradication. History of International Public Health. Vol. 6. Geneva: World Health Organization. p. 236. hdl:10665/39485. ISBN 978-92-4-156110-5. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  336. Oliver, José R. (2009). Caciques and Cemí idols: the web spun by Taíno rulers between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico (. ed.). Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-0-8173-5515-9. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  337. "Deadly Diseases: Epidemics throughout history". CNN. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  338. Aufderheide, Arthur C.; Rodríguez-Martín, Conrado; Langsjoen, Odin (1998). The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-521-55203-6.
  339. Crosby (1972) pp. 39, 47
  340. Martin, Debra L.; Goodman, Alan H. (2002). "Health conditions before Columbus: paleopathology of native North Americans". Western Journal of Medicine. 176 (1). London, England: BMJ: 65–68. doi:10.1136/ewjm.176.1.65. PMC 1071659. PMID 11788545.
  341. Reséndez, Andrés (2016). The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-547-64098-3.
  342. Koch, Alexander; Brierley, Chris; Maslin, Mark; Lewis, Simon (1 March 2019). "Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492". Quaternary Science Reviews. 207. Wollongong, New South Wales: Elsevier: 13–36. Bibcode:2019QSRv..207...13K. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.004. 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
  343. Stannard, David E. (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-19-983898-1.
  344. Peck, Douglas T. (2009). "The Controversial Skill of Columbus as a Navigator: An Enduring Historical Enigma" (PDF). The Journal of Navigation. 62 (3): 417–425. Bibcode:2009JNav...62..417P. doi:10.1017/S0373463309005359. S2CID 59570444. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  345. Morison 1991, pp. 59, 198–199.
  346. Morison 1991, pp. 43–45.
  347. Bartolomé de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, ed. Agustín Millares Carlo, 3 vols. (Mexico City, 1951), book 1, chapter 2, 1:29.
  348. Phillips & Phillips 1992, pp. 85–86.
  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.

Sources

Further reading

External links

Library resources about
Christopher Columbus
History of the Americas
History
Settlement
Societies
Related
Lists
Chronology
Spanish Empire
Timeline–immersed
Territories
Europe
North America
Central America
South America
Asia and Oceania (Spanish East Indies)
Africa
Antarctica
Administration
Organization
Law
Titles and positions
Administrative subdivisions
Viceroyalties
Captaincies General
Governorates
Audiencias
Economy
Currencies
Trade
Military
Armies
Strategists
Mariners
Conquistadors
Notable battles
Old World
Won
Lost
New World
Won
Lost
Spanish conquests
Other civil topics
Categories: