Christopher Columbus and His First Voyage

Christopher Colombus, an Italian explorer, was born in Genoa Italy in the year 1451. As a teenager, he worked on a ship until 1470 when his ship was attacked and destroyed. Colombus survived by floating to shore on wood and went to Lisbon where his brother was a chart maker, and he studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography, and navigation. During this time, many European countries sent people to faraway lands as voyagers and to explore hoping to find new lands and wealth.

 Like many other educated men of their time, Christopher Colombus was knowledgeable about the shape of the earth, and he came up with a theory that the ship they used, the caravels could go all the way to the East from the West. People who used to make the maps did not know about other continents or the Pacific Ocean. They used to estimate the size, direction, and locations of different places like Japan. Colombus thought that the distance to Japan was a distance that could be covered with the kind of ships they used. Working as a sugar buyer, he met and talked to navigators and aviators who shared their beliefs that there are islands in the far west.

            By the 14th

Century, Christians from the west were denied passage by Muslims who were in control over the main routes on land to the Orient. Challenges such as raiders, desert heat, sandstorms, the route being too long, and other dangers finally made the alternative routes on land in Europe too risky and too costly. To solve this, Colombus talked to the Portuguese king and the rulers of Spain to allow and sponsor him to look for a better possible passage to the west without success.

 By the end of the 13th

century, Christian empires of Spain, Castile, and Aragon had taken back most of the territories that were previously controlled by Muslims. The two empires came together and became one as a result of a marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in the year 1479. The last of the kingdoms controlled by the Muslims was taken back in 1492. By this time, the Portuguese explorers had started using the sea as their main transport route. Colombus was one of many who believed that one could find more islands by going west. His idea was to go west through the Atlantic Ocean instead of going around the big African continent. His difference was that he was very determined to find a direct route going west from Europe to Asia.

After dismissing Colombus many times, Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella thought better of it as Colombus wanted to take his business to France next. Colombus swore to bring them many riches such as gold, pearls, silver, and spices from his expeditions as well as keeping 10 percent of the wealth he finds and the governorship of the lands he conquers. He also promised to spread Christianity all the way to China. Colombus was after fame and wealth, while Ferdinand and Isabella were after the same thing but were also glad of the chance to spread Christianity all over the world.

The First Voyage

            On August 3, 1492, Colombus and his crew of ninety men started their journey from Spain using three ships known as Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The ships were small; the Santa Maria carried forty men, Pinta twenty-six men, and the Nina twenty-four. The captain of Nina was Martin Alonzo Pinzon, while Pinzon’s brother, Vicente Yanez captained the Pinta. Santa Maria which carried Colombus was bigger and slower than most caravels during the journey in the ocean.

            On October 12th, very early in the morning, the first sign of land was seen. Colombus and his party reached the Island that he first assumed to be Asia, but it was the Bahamas and gave it the name San Salvador. It took Colombus and his men thirty-three days to sail from the coast of Africa to the Bahamas. During the next few weeks, they also discovered more lands like Cuba, given the name Juana by Colombus, Espanola now goes by the name Hispaniola, and Haiti.

            Martin Pinzon began to undermine Colombus and his demands during the journey. When they left Cuba on November 21st, he left Colombus and went on his way in the hope that he will be the first person to find the fictional golden island of Osabeque. He did not find the fictional island, but he was the first person to come upon Haiti, and the river in which he debarked was named after him, the River of Martin Alonso (Morison). He took four men and two girls with the intention of taking them with him as his slaves, but when he reunited with the rest of the party at the coast of Haiti, Colombus forced him to return them.

The three ships traveled almost one fifty miles every day. His seamanship turned out to be incredible while he depended on the navigational equipment, skill, instincts, observation, and estimation to establish where they were. For many months, Colombus and his party went from one island to the next in search of the fortune he had promised his benefactors but did not find a lot. He returned to Spain in March 1493 after leaving forty men in temporary establishments in Hispaniola (Cohen, Ch 28).

Second Voyage

After six months, on September 25 in the year 1493, Christopher Colombus left Spain for his second voyage to the new lands. This time he took seventeen ships with more than one thousand twelve hundred men with the effort of coming up with a long-lasting Spanish territory. His target was La Navidad, the north side of Haiti where he had left forty men on his first voyage living in temporary establishments built from the remains of the destroyed Santa Maria. Two months later when he arrived at his destination on November 28, 1493, he found the temporary establishments destroyed and all his men killed possibly by the natives.

The people of Haiti told him that there were black men who came to the island before him. He left some of his crew members and his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego to help rebuild Haiti. He then started on his way to the west with his set of slaves to proceed with his unproductive search for fortune. Instead of the great fortune he had sworn he will find and send his Spanish benefactors, he only sent 500 slaves to Isabella. The queen was shocked, and since she believed that, the people in the lands that Colombus discovered were now under Spain and hence could not be slaves, she immediately and strictly sent back the gift (Cohen Ch 45).

Third Voyage

Colombus left Spain for the third time on May 30, 1498, with only six ships. After leaving the Canary Islands, the party divided into two groups whereby three ships were to sail directly to Hispaniola to take the men that were left there with supplies, and the other group to the far south side. The group was stranded in the Doldrums, an area away from the coast of equatorial Africa that is famous for never having any winds. After the group changed their course, they saw an island on the west side the same day. Since the island had three ridges, Colombus gave it the name Trinidad after the Holy Trinity.

This group was the first European to go and to see the South American continent as they got water in the Gulf of Paria. This group also contained the first women explorers whom Colombus had agreed to enroll despite being completely outnumbered. Some of his men went on land and discovered natives who used cotton woven handkerchiefs of many colors and whose style of weaving was identical to the style the Moors had found in West Africa. They also discovered that married women used cotton panties which were also a sign of these people possibly influenced by the West African Muslim.

In addition to this, Colombus adjusted his theory of the earth being round when his navigational equipment revealed a bump in the earth at the equator. He suggested that the earth had a pear-like shape with a bump which he compared to a woman’s breast and where he believed the Garden of Eden was based and where no one was allowed to go without asking God’s permission.

After investigating the coast for a short while, Colombus started his journey back to Hispaniola going north. When newcomers from Spain went to the new City of Santo Domingo in 1498, they encountered undisguised animosity to Colombus’ continuing control. The brothers were corrupt and brutal. The situation had deteriorated so much that Ferdinand and Isabella had to send Francisco de Bobadilla to help resolve the situation. Finally, the situation was resolved, and since Bobadilla possessed power over Colombus, he arrested Colombus and his two brothers and took them back to Spain in chains in October 1500 (Cohen Ch 78).

Fourth Voyage

In 1502, exonerated from his most serious charges but no longer in possession of a noble title, the now old Colombus convinced the Spanish King to sponsor one last expedition. By this time he was such a skilled navigator that the journey did not take him long. It took him twenty-one days to travel 3500 miles, but that did not lift his spirits. June 29 ha arrived at Santo Domingo where he requested to enter the dock with his five ships. He requested the governor to keep a convoy of thirty ships ready to travel back to Spain. He predicted that a big storm was coming, but the governor and his aides dismissed and laughed at Colombus calling him a prophet of doom. The governor not only refused to heed Colombus’ advice but also denied him access to the docks. Colombus cursed the governor and went on his way.

Once more Colombus was opposed by people who did not know better. He was not a prophet of doom, just an expert of the sea. All signs of an impending hurricane were there, and since Colombus was not allowed into the harbor, he secured his ships in an area where they were safe from the north and west. He chose a place where if the ships could not hold anymore, they would be driven to the sea and not to the land. Finally, the governor realizing that Colombus was right, he took out his fleet of thirty ships into the ocean whereby, hardly had they gone farther away, they were met by very strong winds (Bergreen).

Within a few hours, twenty ships had sunk with everyone on board. The other nine ships were crushed into the land and destroyed to pieces. Only one ship survived, but twenty-nine ships, great wealth in the form of gold, and more than five hundred men were lost into the sea. Colombus, with every one of his ships secure, they all survived and overcame the disaster. Colombus proved to be a master of the sea; he did not lose a single ship or man to the storm. On this voyage, Colombus reached Panama, almost reached the Pacific Ocean where he had to leave two ships when they were about to be attacked by angry natives. In 1506, Colombus who was by now an old man, he went back to Spain with nothing and died there a disappointed man (Cohen Ch 108).

The Life of Christopher Colombus

There are a lot of controversies and debates surrounding Christopher Colombus. Also, there are many names used to describe Christopher Colombus. He is said to be the one who discovered America, a visionary explorer, a supporter of mass killings, a Christianizing savior, and a coldhearted slave master. Other names used to describe him include a courageous seaman, a greedy thief, a master way finder, a terrible schemer, a savior of helpless people, and a deranged dictator. But the man was a very interesting man, smart, adventurous, dangerous, distrustful, self-absorbed, brutal, and finally in the end, very unhappy.

Christopher Colombus was born in Genoa, Italy in the year 1451. He was the first born son of Domenico Colombo, a small time wool merchant and his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa. His seamanship started as a teenager when he worked for the Portuguese marine. In 1470 when his ship was attacked and destroyed, he survived the wreckage by floating on a piece of wood to the shore. After that, he went to Lisbon in 1476 to join his younger brother Bartholomew, and they both worked as chart makers. In 1477, he traveled to Ireland and Iceland with the marine, and in 1478, he worked as a sugar buyer in Madeira. In 1479, he met and married Dona Felipa, a woman who came from a noble background who gave birth to their son Diego in 1480.  

In the years between 1482 and 1485, he bought and sold merchandise along the Guinea coast and traveled at least once to the Portuguese fortress learning a lot about the Portuguese navigation and the sea winds in the process. His wife Felipa died in the year 1485, and he took a mistress by the name Beatriz Enriquez who gave birth to his second son, Ferdinand. Colombus went to Spain in 1486 to ask the royal family to sponsor his exploration (Toll).

 He was rejected a few times before King, and Queen Isabella gave him their support through the help of a Spanish treasurer. The main purpose of this exploration was to find a batter and direct sea route to China and India. Other reasons that factored into making this happen include the commitment of the Christian Missionaries, the influence of Castile and Aragon, the dread that the Portuguese would find the sea route first, desire for gold and for adventure, yearning for fame, and also because, Europe genuinely needed a dependable source of herbs and spices. All these reasons and more led to the first voyage taking place.

In October 1492, Colombus and his men finally arrived at the Bahamian Island of San Salvador and then went to the south with three ships in search of Cuba and Hispaniola. Believing that he had succeeded in finding the distant kingdoms of East Asia, Colombus went back to Asia triumphantly where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella very happily, gave him the honorary name the Admiral of the Ocean Sea and gave him complete powers over the territories he had conquered. Colombus took three more such voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. On his travels, he met and became friends with some natives and other times he fought them, he experienced two shipwrecks, survived a mutiny and a lot of Spanish rebels (Flint).

These incidents depict him as a very courageous man but less heroic. When dealing with the King and Queen, he came out looking as an adamant exaggerator and a deceiver. That is because he even promised the King and Queen he would spread Christianity to make them agree to help him. When dealing with the Indians, there is no pattern here; he behaved differently towards them. In the beginning, he found them sweet-tempered, inquisitive, charitable and easily swayed. But both the Europeans and the natives kept betraying each other, even when they seemed to be having a good relationship, there was always a very big risk of violence breaking up (History.com).

The European were driven by their craving for fame, for victory, women, and most importantly, for gold. When the European found natives who possessed gold, they forced them to give it to them, and when they did not have it, they were forced to look for it. While in Hispaniola among the Taino people, Colombus announced a process of appreciation whereby, every adult was required to give a specific amount of gold or to die. He was also earnestly bent on spreading Christianity.

He was a complicated man with complicated goals which brings out the questions, was he Christianizing or exploiting the natives or was he converting or enslaving them? Such contradictions are some of the reasons he is considered to be a very contradictory man. For some time, Colombus was hopeful that he was going to resolve the predicament by enslaving the wicked Caribs who were cannibals and converting the more friendly people. But then, even though the European were required to force Christianity on the natives, it was not a guarantee that the Indians would keep observing the Christian morals after the Europeans went back home.

In 1499, after hearing troubling news from the distant colonies Colombus had conquered, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave a judicial investigator the authority to bring Colombus to justice. The news came with testimony that Colombus had denied Indians the opportunity to be baptized unless they got his consent first (Flint). He did this to make sure he had enough slaves. Other testimonies said that the admiral enacted a rule of terror on his men who were leading the people of Hispaniola. The natives were whipped, some of their body parts cut, or killed without trial for committing minor offenses. Some of these accusations may have been falsified or distorted by people who wanted to see him fail. But after he was arrested and taken back home in shackles, Colombus in tears acknowledged that some of the accusations were true. He was forgiven by the King and Queen, but he was stripped of his noble titles but never again was he ever given the power back to continue being governor of the territories he conquered.

In the year 1493, Ferdinand and Isabella had asked Colombus to try and get the natives on his side and to treat them lovingly and respectfully and not to do them any harm. Instead, he went ahead and did the opposite by letting his people treat them cruelly. After his arrest, he wrote a letter to his sovereigns and made them believe that, even though he had not found wealth the first three times, at least he now knew where to look. He was released and gave him an audience. They agreed that, even though he had proved to be a terrible governor, he was a good navigator and explorer and so, his fourth voyage was taking place (Morison).

In the fourth voyage, due to what had happened in Hispaniola, Ferdinand and Isabella told him not to go there and told him to go back and finish what he was doing on his third voyage which was to find gold a route to India. He disobeyed their orders and went to Hispaniola but he was denied entry, and therefore, he went south. With a lot of adventures going on, Colombus toured the shores of Central America, came upon the Mayan civilization, fought with some of his men who started a mutiny, guided his ships through very strong windstorms, was stranded on a beach in Jamaica for a whole year and frightened some very unfriendly natives by correctly predicting a Lunar eclipse. Facing hostility from the natives and his only remaining ships in worse conditions, made him decide to go back to Hispaniola in August 1504 and finally back to Spain. It was not until November 7th that he made it back to Sanlucar Spain, only to find the Queen had made her will and she was dying.

At home, his health worsened quickly; he was moody, irritated, and hateful. He positioned himself as a martyr and negotiated without success with the King for the fortune and noble titles he believed he had a right to. He was suffering from gout, arthritis, and even possibly, malaria. Even though he and his son Diego were living well in Seville, comparing to what he had hoped and dreamt of, he lived his last few years sick, poor, and in obscurity. The little he had made in 1493 allowed him to live not such bad last days and he died on May 20, 1506, at the age of 54. He was first buried in the Franciscan convent, and then later taken to the family resting place in Seville. Finally, when his son Diego died, his remains together with his sons’ as Diego had wanted in his last will, were laid to rest in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola.

Conclusion

Colombus started the connection between the Old and New Worlds, and this makes him an important person in history. He was a smart and brave seaman who risked everything to pursue his passion and his dreams. This connection led to change in the lives of the Native Americans he found. Such changes include the diseases he and his men took to the natives, and also what they took back to Spain. A lot of attention should be focused on the historical changes that came with him. His delusions about ancestry, his contradictory Christian faith, and his cruel manner in which he treaded the natives changed the lives of many. Colombus’ expertise as a seaman, his courage, his persistence, his dedication, and most importantly, his success as an explorer paved the way for more historical changes and as such should continue to receive the recognition it deserves.

Works Cited

Bergreen,

Laurence. The Four Voyages

Cohen, J.M. The Four Voyages by Christopher Colombus.

Flint, Valerie. Christopher Colombus: Extracts from Journal. (n.d) http://history-world.org/christopher_columbus.htm

History.com. Christopher Colombus. 2009. https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/christopher-columbus

Morison, Samuel. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Colombus. 1942

Toll, Ian. The Less than Heroic Christopher Colombus. 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/books/review/columbus-the-four-voyages-by-laurence-bergreen-book-review.html