Malevus

Tag: new world

  • Christopher Columbus: Biography of the Italian Explorer of the New World

    Christopher Columbus: Biography of the Italian Explorer of the New World

    Navigator in the service of the Spanish sovereigns, Christopher Columbus was born on January 1, 1451, in Genoa (Italy). He died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid. Aboard his three ships, he unknowingly sailed toward the New World.


    He is known as “the man who discovered America” in 1492. However, other navigators, such as the Icelandic Leif Erikson (son of Erik the Red), had done so centuries before him. Yet, history remembers the name of the Italian navigator. Columbus had a dream: to find a new route to the Indies. Although he unknowingly failed in this quest, his discovery was no less significant.

    Birth (and youth) of Christopher Columbus

    Cristoforo Colombo, known as Christopher Columbus, was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, although doubts still persist about his birthplace. He was the son of a weaver, Domenico Colombo. Rejecting the life of an artisan, Columbus decided early on to become a sailor. The young man studied navigation and sciences. In 1476, he set sail aboard a ship bound for Lisbon and England. Following an attack by the French, Columbus ended up in Lagos and then joined his brother in Portugal. There, he met Filipa Perestrelo e Moniz, the daughter of one of Madeira’s colonizers. He married her in 1479, and they had a son, Diego.

    The Origin of Christopher Columbus’ Voyage

    Columbus harbored a dream: to discover a new route to the Indies by crossing the Atlantic. Until then, explorers would go around Africa, which was costly. Columbus studied the writings of various scholars. Adhering to the idea that the Earth was round, he believed he could reach Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic. In his mind, Europe wasn’t far from Asia. While Ptolemy estimated the distance to be 16,090 km, Columbus reduced it to 2,414 km.

    The explorer presented his project to a committee of experts appointed by King John II of Portugal. The committee rejected it, and the king refused to finance him. Not giving up, Columbus presented his plan to Isabella of Castile in 1486. She refused in 1490 due to his demands: Columbus wanted to be named Admiral of the Ocean and Viceroy of all discovered lands. The following year, he re-pitched his proposal to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. King Ferdinand’s advisor convinced Queen Isabella by highlighting the financial benefits of the endeavor. She was also swayed by the evangelical goals tied to the expedition.

    Ships

    Replicas of Columbus's three ships (1893)
    Replicas of Columbus’s three ships (1893)

    To chart a new route to the Indies—a quest he would fail but lead to an even more significant discovery—Columbus set sail from Palos, Andalusia, on August 3, 1492. He commanded three ships and a crew of 90 men. These ships are famous: the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña. The Santa María was the largest and the ship Columbus sailed on. The Pinta was the fastest, and the Niña was the smallest, as its name suggests. After a stop in the Canary Islands, the expedition embarked on a two-month-long voyage. Worried, the crew almost mutinied.

    Columbus and America

    On October 10, 1492, land was finally sighted. The ships landed on October 12 on the island of Guanahami, in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus claimed it in the name of the Spanish Catholic Monarchs and named it San Salvador. The navigator believed he had reached the Indies, which is why he called the indigenous people “Indians.” The locals informed him of the presence of gold in Cuba. He arrived on the island on October 28 and declared it Spanish territory.


    The captain of the Pinta deserted to search for gold further west. In December, the Santa María wrecked, and Columbus found himself on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti), where he found gold and left about 40 men in a fort. Columbus returned to Spain aboard the Niña and reunited with the Pinta on the way back. Upon his return to Europe, the success of the expedition increased the Admiral’s ambition, and he was already preparing for another voyage.

    As for the name “America,” it comes from the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci. His name was used by a printer from the Vosges in 1507 when he wanted to reprint Ptolemy’s Cosmographia, the geographic reference of that time. The printer wanted to include the newly discovered lands and called upon the geographer Martin Waldseemüller to map them. Waldseemüller recalled Vespucci’s work Mundus Novus from 1503, which mentioned new lands. He named these lands “America” in honor of the navigator. Vespucci had made several voyages to America, though the exact number and dates are uncertain. He did not precede Columbus but played a part in organizing Columbus’s second voyage, and the two became friends. Though he was not the first to land on the continent, Vespucci was the first to recognize that they had discovered a new continent.

    Christopher Columbus and 1492

    1492… a date that resonates as a major historical event: Christopher Columbus discovers America! Ironically, he was convinced he had reached the Indies and was completely satisfied with having achieved his goal. He would never know that he had discovered a new continent and that his discovery would earn him a place in the annals of geography. To everyone, Christopher Columbus is the one who discovered America. In reality, other navigators, such as the Icelander Leif Eriksson (the son of Erik the Red), had done so several centuries before him. But history has retained the name of the Italian navigator.

    Christopher Columbus and His Other Voyages

    Columbus's handwritten annotations in the margin of his copy of the Book of Wonders.
    Columbus’s copy of The Travels of Marco Polo, with his handwritten notes in Latin written in the margins

    In September 1493, once again mandated by Queen Isabella I of Spain, Christopher Columbus set sail with a fleet of 17 ships and 1,500 men with the goal of establishing a colony. The Admiral discovered the Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and Dominica) and Puerto Rico. He explored the coasts of Cuba and Jamaica. He found the garrison in Hispaniola, which he had established during his first voyage, decimated by syphilis (or by the Indigenous peoples). Columbus settled farther away and founded the colony of Isabela, entrusting its governance to his brother, Bartolomeo Columbus. He discovered that the indigenous people of these islands practiced cannibalism, using this as a pretext to enslave them. He returned to Spain in 1496.

    Shortened Third Voyage

    Christopher Columbus set sail again for the “Indies” in 1498. Five of the eight ships were redirected to Hispaniola to supply it. The Admiral continued his expedition toward the island of Trinidad. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain received complaints about the mismanagement of the colony. They sent Francisco de Bobadilla (a Spanish colonial administrator) to arrest Columbus and his brother. Bobadilla brought them back to Spain for trial.

    Eventful Fourth Voyage

    After the trial, Christopher Columbus was stripped of control over his new lands. However, he was allowed to embark on his fourth voyage in 1502. He reached the coasts of present-day Honduras and discovered an abundance of gold in Panama. However, he had to confront the Indigenous people and lost four of his ships. He took refuge on the island of Jamaica. Eventually, he was rescued and decided to return to Spain in 1504. The great navigator passed away in Valladolid on May 20, 1506, still believing he had reached the Indies but deprived of all his privileges.

    Christopher Columbus’ Logbook

    The explorer’s voyages are compiled in his logbook titled “Logbook (1492-1493),” in which he described the stages of his journeys. These daily notes were later transcribed and abridged by the Dominican priest and Spanish missionary Bartolomé de las Casas (1485-1566), who was also a writer and historian and a defender of the rights of the Indigenous people against the practices of the Spanish colonists. The original logbook of Christopher Columbus had been given by the navigator himself to the Spanish sovereigns (the Catholic Monarchs) upon his return from the expedition but was later lost.

    Christopher Columbus: Key Dates

    Portrait presumed to be of Christopher Columbus, attributed to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio
    Presumed portrait of Christopher Columbus, attributed to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio: blue eyes, elongated face with high forehead, aquiline nose, dimpled chin, hair turned white at the age of 30. Image: Public Domain

    January 1, 1451: Birth of Christopher Columbus

    Cristoforo Colombo, also known as Christopher Columbus, was born in Genoa, Italy. The son of a weaver, he chose a life at sea early on.

    1479: Married

    Christopher Columbus married Filipa Perestrelo e Moniz, the daughter of one of the colonizers of Madeira. She bore him a son and died shortly after.

    1480: He nurtures great ambition

    Columbus studied sciences, navigation, cartography, and cosmography. He began to imagine reaching the Indies by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. His next challenge was convincing the Spanish or Portuguese monarchs to support his project, a task that proved difficult.

    1484: Columbus tries to convince the King of Portugal

    Christopher Columbus presented his project to a commission of specialists appointed by King John II of Portugal. After the commission’s negative recommendation, the king declined.

    1486: Christopher Columbus turns to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain

    Columbus met the Catholic Monarchs and presented his project. A scientific commission was assembled to evaluate the expedition. In 1487, following the commission’s recommendation, the Catholic Monarchs gave him a negative response. Columbus did not give up and would try to convince them again a few years later.

    April 17, 1492: The Capitulations of Santa Fe

    The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, convinced by Columbus’s arguments, agreed to finance his project to cross the Atlantic. They signed the Capitulations of Santa Fe (named after the camp near Granada), which allowed Columbus to outfit ships and gave him the title of Viceroy of the lands to be discovered. The generosity of the monarchs can be attributed to their euphoria following their victory over Granada, ending Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula. Columbus would return triumphantly to Seville on March 31, 1493, believing he had discovered the Indies by sailing west.

    August 3, 1492: Christopher Columbus leaves Spain

    The Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus departed from the port of Palos (Andalusia), hoping to reach the East Indies and their spices by sailing west. Portugal, having discovered the route to the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope, had rejected his plan. But the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, eager to evangelize the world, agreed to finance his voyage.


    Three caravels—the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña—left Spain, sailing westward. Two months later, they would arrive in the Caribbean, believing they had reached the Indies.

    October 28, 1492: Columbus discovers Cuba

    A few days after setting foot on the first Caribbean islands (October 12), Christopher Columbus encountered the large island of Cuba. He claimed it for Spain and named it “Juana” in honor of the son of the Catholic Monarchs: Prince Juan.

    September 25, 1493: Columbus embarks on his second voyage to the New World

    The Genoese navigator began his second voyage to what he still believed were the Indies. Mandated once again by Queen Isabella of Spain, he led a fleet of 17 ships. During this expedition, he discovered the Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe and Dominica) and Puerto Rico. He explored the coasts of Cuba and Jamaica. In Haiti, he found the garrison he had established during his first visit had been decimated by syphilis. He discovered that the indigenous peoples of these islands were cannibals and enslaved them under this pretext. Columbus did not find the riches and gold he sought and returned to Spain in 1496.

    May 3, 1494: Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica

    Columbus’s fleet discovered the island of Jamaica, then called Xaymaca by the indigenous Arawak people, the first inhabitants of the island. The Spanish would establish a colony, massacre the indigenous people, and import African slaves to work on tobacco and sugar plantations. The English seized the island in 1655, and Jamaica gained independence within the Commonwealth in 1962.

    1498: A shortened third voyage

    The Admiral set sail again with eight ships for a third voyage. On July 31, five ships were redirected to the Hispaniola colony to supply it with basic goods. Columbus himself reached the island of Trinidad. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, having received complaints about Columbus’s poor governance of the colony, sent Bobadilla to arrest Columbus and his brothers and bring them back to Spain. Following his trial, the great navigator lost all his privileges.

    1502: Fourth and final voyage

    Columbus was granted permission to depart again in 1502. He landed on the coasts of Honduras, where he found gold but faced hostility from the indigenous people. He lost four ships and requested help from the Hispaniola colony. The colonists eventually intervened, finding Columbus in poor condition. He returned to Spain for good in 1504.

    May 20, 1506: Death of Christopher Columbus

    The great navigator died in Valladolid, Spain, still believing he had reached the Indies but stripped of all his privileges.

  • Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): Splitting the World in Two

    Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): Splitting the World in Two

    Signed on June 7, 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas established an imaginary line running across the Atlantic to the west of the Cape Verde Islands, demarcating the overseas possessions of Spain and Portugal. By this treaty, which would later be ratified by a papal bull, the Catholic Monarchs and King John II of Portugal shared the New World, which was still unexplored. Other European maritime powers were denied any rights to these new lands.

    King Francis I of France would demand to see “the clause of Adam’s will that excludes him from this division.” The Native American, African, and Asian populations, however, were not consulted during the negotiation of Tordesillas…

    Spain and Portugal Divide the World

    As early as the mid-15th century, Portuguese navigators and explorers ventured into the Atlantic Ocean in search of a new trade route to Asia, establishing trading posts along the African coasts. The passage around the Cape of Good Hope, the gateway to the Indian Ocean, by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 paved the way to Asia. But soon, Portugal found itself in competition with the rising power of Spain. In the 1480s and 1490s, Portugal was forced to cede its territorial claims to the Canary Islands in favor of Queen Isabella, which was formalized by the Treaty of Alcáçovas in 1479.

    It was especially the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus that made it urgent to establish a dividing line between the spheres of influence of the two Iberian countries. In 1493, a papal bull by Pope Alexander VI set the “demarcation” line from pole to pole 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. This was a victory for the Spanish, but the King of Portugal soon requested that this line be renegotiated. Negotiations began in May 1493 in Tordesillas, in the province of Valladolid.

    The Treaty of Tordesillas

    Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).
    Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). (Image: Jl FilpoC, Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0)

    By the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed on June 7, 1494, between the Catholic Monarchs and King John II of Portugal, Spain and Portugal set the line dividing their future overseas possessions: this line, originally established by Pope Alexander VI in 1493 at 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde, was moved, at the request of the Portuguese, to 370 leagues. Any land discovered to the east of this line was to belong to Portugal; to the west, to Spain. The Treaty of Tordesillas was confirmed by Pope Julius II in 1506 (Bull Inter Caetera). Henceforth, all lands discovered to the east of this line would be Portuguese, and all territories to the west would belong to the Spanish Crown.

    The treaty reserved for Portugal the most coveted trade routes, those leading to the precious spices of the East, establishing trading posts along the African coasts and in Asia. The adjustment made by Tordesillas granted Portugal rights over the American continent, where the small Iberian kingdom would establish its only settlement colony, Brazil.

    On the other hand, Spain would be able to create a vast empire beginning with Mexico and Peru, rising to the rank of Europe’s leading power. The wealth from the gold and silver flowing from the Americas would finance its wars in Europe while stimulating the economy of the old continent. By 1550, Spain controlled almost all of South America, Central America, Florida, Cuba, and in Asia, the Philippines.

    The newly found areas outside of Europe were split between Portugal and Castile by the Treaty of Tordesillas (7 June 1494).
    The newly found areas outside of Europe were split between Portugal and Castile by the Treaty of Tordesillas (7 June 1494).

    A Quickly Contested Treaty

    By the 16th century, the two nations began to make breaches in the Treaty of Tordesillas. The Portuguese colony of Brazil expanded far beyond the demarcation line, and in Asia, Spain seized the Philippines and Ternate, which were supposed to be within the Portuguese sphere of influence. The demarcation line and all associated agreements were abolished in 1750 by a treaty settling a conflict regarding the southwestern border of Brazil. The 1750 treaty was itself abrogated in 1761, and new disagreements between the two countries were settled by another treaty in 1779.

    The northern European maritime nations (England, France, and the Netherlands) paid little attention to the various treaties signed by Spain with the papacy and Portugal, and from 1520 onward, their merchant ships increasingly entered the Caribbean Sea, supplying the major islands with African slaves. In the 17th century, as Portugal and Spain declined, they could only watch helplessly as new colonial empires emerged within their spheres of influence defined by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

    Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) at a Glance

    Is the Treaty of Tordesillas still in effect today?

    The Treaty of Tordesillas is no longer in effect, as it was superseded by subsequent treaties and agreements that shaped the geopolitical landscape in the centuries following its signing. However, its historical significance in shaping early European colonial expansion remains noteworthy.

    What were the long-term consequences of the Treaty?

    The Treaty of Tordesillas had significant long-term consequences for the division of colonial territories. It established Spain and Portugal as major colonial powers and laid the groundwork for their respective overseas empires.

    How did the Treaty impact indigenous peoples?

    The Treaty of Tordesillas did not consider the rights of indigenous peoples in the New World. As European colonization progressed, indigenous populations were often subjected to exploitation, forced labor, and cultural assimilation.

    What led to the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas?

    The signing of the Treaty was prompted by the 1493 papal bull, Inter caetera, issued by Pope Alexander VI. This papal bull divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian line, giving each empire exclusive rights to claim and colonize territories on their respective sides.

    What was the purpose of the Line of Demarcation in the Treaty?

    The Line of Demarcation was a key element of the Treaty of Tordesillas. It was an imaginary line drawn north to south on a map, approximately 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Lands discovered to the west of this line would belong to Spain, while those to the east would belong to Portugal.

    Bibliography

    1. Roland Chardon, “The linear league in North America“, (1980).
    2. Horst Pietschmann, Atlantic history: history of the Atlantic System 1580–1830, (2002).