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Christopher Columbus

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

The explorer Christopher Columbus made four trips across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain: in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502. He was determined to find a direct water route west from Europe to Asia, but he never did. Instead, he stumbled upon the Americas. Though he did not “discover” the so-called New World—millions of people already lived there—his journeys marked the beginning of centuries of exploration and colonization of North and South America.

Christopher Columbus and the Age of Discovery

During the 15th and 16th centuries, leaders of several European nations sponsored expeditions abroad in the hope that explorers would find great wealth and vast undiscovered lands. The Portuguese were the earliest participants in this “ Age of Discovery ,” also known as “ Age of Exploration .”

Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships known as caravels zipped along the African coast, carrying spices, gold and other goods as well as enslaved people from Asia and Africa to Europe.

Did you know? Christopher Columbus was not the first person to propose that a person could reach Asia by sailing west from Europe. In fact, scholars argue that the idea is almost as old as the idea that the Earth is round. (That is, it dates back to early Rome.)

Other European nations, particularly Spain, were eager to share in the seemingly limitless riches of the “Far East.” By the end of the 15th century, Spain’s “ Reconquista ”—the expulsion of Jews and Muslims out of the kingdom after centuries of war—was complete, and the nation turned its attention to exploration and conquest in other areas of the world.

Early Life and Nationality 

Christopher Columbus, the son of a wool merchant, is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. When he was still a teenager, he got a job on a merchant ship. He remained at sea until 1476, when pirates attacked his ship as it sailed north along the Portuguese coast.

The boat sank, but the young Columbus floated to shore on a scrap of wood and made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually studied mathematics, astronomy, cartography and navigation. He also began to hatch the plan that would change the world forever.

Christopher Columbus' First Voyage

At the end of the 15th century, it was nearly impossible to reach Asia from Europe by land. The route was long and arduous, and encounters with hostile armies were difficult to avoid. Portuguese explorers solved this problem by taking to the sea: They sailed south along the West African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope.

But Columbus had a different idea: Why not sail west across the Atlantic instead of around the massive African continent? The young navigator’s logic was sound, but his math was faulty. He argued (incorrectly) that the circumference of the Earth was much smaller than his contemporaries believed it was; accordingly, he believed that the journey by boat from Europe to Asia should be not only possible, but comparatively easy via an as-yet undiscovered Northwest Passage . 

He presented his plan to officials in Portugal and England, but it was not until 1492 that he found a sympathetic audience: the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile .

Columbus wanted fame and fortune. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted the same, along with the opportunity to export Catholicism to lands across the globe. (Columbus, a devout Catholic, was equally enthusiastic about this possibility.)

Columbus’ contract with the Spanish rulers promised that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches he found, along with a noble title and the governorship of any lands he should encounter.

Where Did Columbus' Ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, Land?

On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Niña , the Pinta and the Santa Maria . On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in the East Indies, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands, likely San Salvador.

For months, Columbus sailed from island to island in what we now know as the Caribbean, looking for the “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever” that he had promised to his Spanish patrons, but he did not find much. In January 1493, leaving several dozen men behind in a makeshift settlement on Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he left for Spain.

He kept a detailed diary during his first voyage. Christopher Columbus’s journal was written between August 3, 1492, and November 6, 1492 and mentions everything from the wildlife he encountered, like dolphins and birds, to the weather to the moods of his crew. More troublingly, it also recorded his initial impressions of the local people and his argument for why they should be enslaved.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

Columbus gifted the journal to Isabella upon his return.

Christopher Columbus's Later Voyages

About six months later, in September 1493, Columbus returned to the Americas. He found the Hispaniola settlement destroyed and left his brothers Bartolomeo and Diego Columbus behind to rebuild, along with part of his ships’ crew and hundreds of enslaved indigenous people.

Then he headed west to continue his mostly fruitless search for gold and other goods. His group now included a large number of indigenous people the Europeans had enslaved. In lieu of the material riches he had promised the Spanish monarchs, he sent some 500 enslaved people to Queen Isabella. The queen was horrified—she believed that any people Columbus “discovered” were Spanish subjects who could not be enslaved—and she promptly and sternly returned the explorer’s gift.

In May 1498, Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic for the third time. He visited Trinidad and the South American mainland before returning to the ill-fated Hispaniola settlement, where the colonists had staged a bloody revolt against the Columbus brothers’ mismanagement and brutality. Conditions were so bad that Spanish authorities had to send a new governor to take over.

Meanwhile, the native Taino population, forced to search for gold and to work on plantations, was decimated (within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island). Christopher Columbus was arrested and returned to Spain in chains.

In 1502, cleared of the most serious charges but stripped of his noble titles, the aging Columbus persuaded the Spanish crown to pay for one last trip across the Atlantic. This time, Columbus made it all the way to Panama—just miles from the Pacific Ocean—where he had to abandon two of his four ships after damage from storms and hostile natives. Empty-handed, the explorer returned to Spain, where he died in 1506.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus did not “discover” the Americas, nor was he even the first European to visit the “New World.” (Viking explorer Leif Erikson had sailed to Greenland and Newfoundland in the 11th century.)

However, his journey kicked off centuries of exploration and exploitation on the American continents. The Columbian Exchange transferred people, animals, food and disease across cultures. Old World wheat became an American food staple. African coffee and Asian sugar cane became cash crops for Latin America, while American foods like corn, tomatoes and potatoes were introduced into European diets. 

Today, Columbus has a controversial legacy —he is remembered as a daring and path-breaking explorer who transformed the New World, yet his actions also unleashed changes that would eventually devastate the native populations he and his fellow explorers encountered.

HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage

Ten years after his 1492 voyage, Columbus, awaiting the gallows on criminal charges in a Caribbean prison, plotted a treacherous final voyage to restore his reputation.

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Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the “New World” of the Americas on an expedition sponsored by King Ferdinand of Spain in 1492.

c. 1451-1506

Quick Facts

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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in the Santa Maria , with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to Asia. Instead, he and his crew landed on an island in present-day Bahamas—claiming it for Spain and mistakenly “discovering” the Americas. Between 1493 and 1504, he made three more voyages to the Caribbean and South America, believing until his death that he had found a shorter route to Asia. Columbus has been credited—and blamed—for opening up the Americas to European colonization.

FULL NAME: Cristoforo Colombo BORN: c. 1451 DIED: May 20, 1506 BIRTHPLACE: Genoa, Italy SPOUSE: Filipa Perestrelo (c. 1479-1484) CHILDREN: Diego and Fernando

Christopher Columbus, whose real name was Cristoforo Colombo, was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, part of what is now Italy. He is believed to have been the son of Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa and had four siblings: brothers Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo, and a sister named Bianchinetta. He was an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business and studied sailing and mapmaking.

In his 20s, Columbus moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled in Spain, which remained his home base for the duration of his life.

Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest he would ever come to Asia.

His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life, as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned, and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore.

He made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. The couple had one son, Diego, around 1480. His wife died when Diego was a young boy, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

After participating in several other expeditions to Africa, Columbus learned about the Atlantic currents that flow east and west from the Canary Islands.

The Asian islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans—but Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East made travel eastward difficult.

Columbus devised a route to sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would be quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles.

Many of Columbus’ contemporary nautical experts disagreed. They adhered to the (now known to be accurate) second-century BCE estimate of the Earth’s circumference at 25,000 miles, which made the actual distance between the Canary Islands and Japan about 12,200 statute miles. Despite their disagreement with Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westward voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.

Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa, and finally to Venice. He was rejected each time. In 1486, he went to the Spanish monarchy of Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their focus was on a war with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected Columbus.

The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer. Columbus continued to lobby the royal court, and soon, the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January 1492. Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition.

In late August 1492, Columbus left Spain from the port of Palos de la Frontera. He was sailing with three ships: Columbus in the larger Santa Maria (a type of ship known as a carrack), with the Pinta and the Niña (both Portuguese-style caravels) alongside.

On October 12, 1492, after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain.

There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors. They exchanged glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of gold the natives wore for adornment.

Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba (which he thought was mainland China) and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Columbus thought might be Japan) and meeting with the leaders of the native population.

During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola. With the help of some islanders, Columbus’ men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de la Navidad (“Christmas Town”) with lumber from the ship.

Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain in 1493, Columbus gave a glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court.

In 1493, Columbus took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred.

Spurning the wishes of the local queen, Columbus established a forced labor policy upon the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population.

Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Giacomo to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing himself he had discovered the outer islands of China.

It wasn’t until his third voyage that Columbus actually reached the South American mainland, exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. By this time, conditions at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point of near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus’ claims of riches and complaining about the poor management of his brothers.

The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and, for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages.

After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on his fourth and final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1502. This time he traveled along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the captain and his sailors on the island of Cuba. During this time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards’ poor treatment and obsession with gold, refused to give them food.

In a spark of inspiration, Columbus consulted an almanac and devised a plan to “punish” the islanders by taking away the moon. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-establish trade with the Spaniards. A rescue party finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola in July, and Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain in November 1504.

In the two remaining years of his life, Columbus struggled to recover his reputation. Although he did regain some of his riches in May 1505, his titles were never returned.

Columbus probably died of severe arthritis following an infection on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain. At the time of his death, he still believed he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.

There are questions about the location of his burial site. According to the BBC , Columbus’ remains moved at least three or four times over the course of 400 years—including from Valladolid to Seville, Spain, in 1509; then to Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic, in 1537; then to Havana, Cuba, in 1795; and back to Seville in 1898. As a result, Seville and Santo Domingo have both laid claim to being Columbus’ true burial site. It is also possible his bones were mixed up with another person’s amid all of their travels.

In May 2014, Columbus made headlines as news broke that a team of archaeologists might have found the Santa Maria off the north coast of Haiti. Barry Clifford, the leader of this expedition, told the Independent newspaper that “all geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship the Santa Maria.”

After a thorough investigation by the U.N. agency UNESCO, it was determined the wreck dates from a later period and was located too far from shore to be the famed ship.

Columbus has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization—as well as blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of the islands he explored. Ultimately, he failed to find that what he set out for: a new route to Asia and the riches it promised.

In what is known as the Columbian Exchange, Columbus’ expeditions set in motion the widespread transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on the planet.

The horse from Europe allowed Native American tribes in the Great Plains of North America to shift from a nomadic to a hunting lifestyle. Wheat from the Old World fast became a main food source for people in the Americas. Coffee from Africa and sugar cane from Asia became major cash crops for Latin American countries. And foods from the Americas, such as potatoes, tomatoes and corn, became staples for Europeans and helped increase their populations.

The Columbian Exchange also brought new diseases to both hemispheres, though the effects were greatest in the Americas. Smallpox from the Old World killed millions, decimating the Native American populations to mere fractions of their original numbers. This more than any other factor allowed for European domination of the Americas.

The overwhelming benefits of the Columbian Exchange went to the Europeans initially and eventually to the rest of the world. The Americas were forever altered, and the once vibrant cultures of the Indigenous civilizations were changed and lost, denying the world any complete understanding of their existence.

As more Italians began to immigrate to the United States and settle in major cities during the 19 th century, they were subject to religious and ethnic discrimination. This included a mass lynching of 11 Sicilian immigrants in 1891 in New Orleans.

Just one year after this horrific event, President Benjamin Harrison called for the first national observance of Columbus Day on October 12, 1892, to mark the 400 th anniversary of his arrival in the Americas. Italian-Americans saw this honorary act for Columbus as a way of gaining acceptance.

Colorado became the first state to officially observe Columbus Day in 1906 and, within five years, 14 other states followed. Thanks to a joint resolution of Congress, the day officially became a federal holiday in 1934 during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt . In 1970, Congress declared the holiday would fall on the second Monday in October each year.

But as Columbus’ legacy—specifically, his exploration’s impacts on Indigenous civilizations—began to draw more criticism, more people chose not to take part. As of 2023, approximately 29 states no longer celebrate Columbus Day , and around 195 cities have renamed it or replaced with the alternative Indigenous Peoples Day. The latter isn’t an official holiday, but the federal government recognized its observance in 2022 and 2023. President Joe Biden called it “a day in honor of our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who contribute to shaping this nation.”

One of the most notable cities to move away from celebrating Columbus Day in recent years is the state capital of Columbus, Ohio, which is named after the explorer. In 2018, Mayor Andrew Ginther announced the city would remain open on Columbus Day and instead celebrate a holiday on Veterans Day. In July 2020, the city also removed a 20-plus-foot metal statue of Columbus from the front of City Hall.

• I went to sea from the most tender age and have continued in a sea life to this day. Whoever gives himself up to this art wants to know the secrets of Nature here below. It is more than forty years that I have been thus engaged. Wherever any one has sailed, there I have sailed.
• Speaking of myself, little profit had I won from twenty years of service, during which I have served with so great labors and perils, for today I have no roof over my head in Castile; if I wish to sleep or eat, I have no place to which to go, save an inn or tavern, and most often, I lack the wherewithal to pay the score.
• They say that there is in that land an infinite amount of gold; and that the people wear corals on their heads and very large bracelets of coral on their feet and arms; and that with coral they adorn and inlay chairs and chests and tables.
• This island and all the others are very fertile to a limitless degree, and this island is extremely so. In it there are many harbors on the coast of the sea, beyond comparison with others that I know in Christendom, and many rivers, good and large, which is marvelous.
• Our Almighty God has shown me the highest favor, which, since David, he has not shown to anybody.
• Already the road is opened to gold and pearls, and it may surely be hoped that precious stones, spices, and a thousand other things, will also be found.
• I have now seen so much irregularity, that I have come to another conclusion respecting the earth, namely, that it is not round as they describe, but of the form of a pear.
• In all the countries visited by your Highnesses’ ships, I have caused a high cross to be fixed upon every headland and have proclaimed, to every nation that I have discovered, the lofty estate of your Highnesses and of your court in Spain.
• I ought to be judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies, to conquer a nation numerous and warlike, with customs and religions altogether different to ours.

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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506 CE, also known as Cristoffa Corombo in Ligurian and Cristoforo Colombo in Italian) was a Genoese explorer (identified as Italian) who became famous in his own time as the man who discovered the New World and, since the 19th century CE, is credited with the discovery of North America, specifically the region comprising the United States.

Actually, owing to the early 16th-century CE popularity of the published letters of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci (l. 1454-1512 CE), detailing his three voyages to the “New World” between 1497-1504 CE, the discovery of the Americas has been credited to him on world maps beginning in 1506 CE which is why the continents bear the feminine version of his name.

Columbus made four voyages to the area of the Caribbean, exploring Cuba, Central America, South America, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the islands of the Bahamas, and others between 1492-1504 CE:

• First Voyage: 1492-1493 CE
• Second Voyage: 1493-1496 CE
• Third Voyage: 1498-1500 CE
• Fourth Voyage: 1502-1504 CE

Columbus never set out to discover a New World, but to find a western sea route to the Far East to facilitate trade after the land route of the Silk Road , between Europe and the East, had been closed by the Ottoman Empire in 1453 CE, initiating the so-called Age of Exploration (also known as the Age of Discovery) which launched many European sea expeditions. Columbus' first voyage brought him to one of the islands of the Bahamas on 12 October 1492 CE, which he claimed in the name of the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife Isabella of Castile of Spain. His next three voyages were made to consolidate Spain's control of the region and establish colonies.

Columbus is acknowledged as the first to establish contact between Europe and the Americas known as the Columbian Exchange whereby people, plants, technology, and other aspects of culture passed between the Old and the New World, transforming both and establishing the foundation for the modern age.

Although modern-day detractors of Columbus cite the Norse community in Newfoundland as the first “discovery of America”, the Vikings under Leif Erikson , who landed in North America centuries before Columbus, had no effect on the indigenous population and their return to Greenland afterwards inspired no further expeditions.

Columbus' journeys, by contrast, opened the way for later European expeditions, but he himself never claimed to have discovered America. The story of his “discovery of America” was established and first celebrated in A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by the American author Washington Irving (l. 1783-1859 CE) published in 1828 CE and this narrative (largely fictional) would eventually contribute to the establishment of Columbus Day as a United States' holiday in 1906 CE, observed up through the present.

In the 1970s CE, however, a revaluation of Columbus and the effects of his voyages on the culture and people of the Americas has increasingly called for discarding this tradition in favor of honoring the indigenous people adversely affected by the four expeditions he made to the New World and the poor treatment of the original population at the hands of the European immigrants afterwards. This debate continues in the present.

Early Life & the Silk Road Closure

Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451 CE which was then in the region of Liguria and only much later (in 1861 CE) would become part of Italy . He had three brothers – Bartolomeo, Giovanni, and Giacomo (regularly referred to as Diego), and a sister, Bianchinetta. His father, Domenico, was a weaver and tavern-keeper whose love of sea travel would significantly influence young Columbus and his mother, Susanna, a housewife.

Little is known of Columbus' early life (though he claims to have been sailing by age ten) but, by the time he was 20 years old, he was already experienced at seamanship (having traveled to Iceland and the Aegean Sea) and, by 1476 CE, he was entrusted with his own command of a trading vessel. He was married to the Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz Perestrelo and had a son, Diego, by 1480 CE and, by 1485 CE, was piloting ships to areas along the coast of West Africa in the service of Portugal's trade interests.

The Silk Road was comprised of numerous routes, parts of which fell under the control of one group or nationality or another at various times in its history. The European explorer Marco Polo (l. 1254-1324 CE) traveled the Silk Road and dictated details of it in his book after he returned which provided later travelers with a kind of guide and also helped them establish distances between Europe and the East.

The Silk Road was predominantly controlled by the Mongol Empire until its fall in 1368 CE after which the Byzantine Empire (330-1453 CE) kept goods flowing in both directions. The Byzantines fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 CE, however, who then closed the overland routes and cut European merchants off from Eastern goods. In an effort to re-establish trade with the East, European merchants took to the sea, launching the so-called Age of Discovery.

The Age of Discovery & Funding

This is not to say that Europeans had no knowledge of sea travel at this time nor that European merchants suddenly scrambled to build ships or hastily draw inaccurate maps. The magnetic compass was known in Europe by 1180 CE and, using ancient texts such as Strabo's Geography and Pliny the Elder 's Natural History as well as long-established maps, European pilots were able to navigate the waters and continue trade with the East via the Black Sea.

The problem they faced, however, was Muslim Arab traders who controlled a number of significant sea routes to the East. Portuguese mariners began looking into other possible sea routes to the East, and one contributor to this effort was the Florentine astrologer and mathematician Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (l. 1397-1482 CE) who had transcribed a map of the world of the ancient geographer Strabo (l. 63 BCE - 23 CE) and presented a copy to King Alfonso V of Portugal (r. 1438-1481 CE), suggesting sailing west in order to reach the Cathay (China) in the East.

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Alfonso V rejected Toscanelli's proposal and so the latter sent the copy of the map to Columbus, who by now had a reputation as an expert navigator and seaman, in 1474 CE. Columbus was still sailing in the interests of Portugal at this time, and he and his brothers were also engaged in working out a sea route to Cathay. Columbus had taught himself Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese and so was able to access a wide range of documents and maps in developing his vision of a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to establish a new trade route with Cathay.

The Columbus brothers put together a plan and, c. 1484 CE, Columbus approached King John II of Portugal (r. 1481-1495 CE) to request funding. Columbus, basing his calculations on Toscanelli's map, Marco Polo's work, and other documents, estimated the distance from the Canary Islands to Cathay at around 2,300 miles (3,700 km), but King John II rejected the plan on the grounds that Columbus' estimate of the distance was too low (which proved to be true, as the distance was actually 12,200 statute miles or 19,600 km). Columbus then brought his proposal to the governments of Genoa and Venice but was rejected by both.

He then turned to Ferdinand II and Isabella I of Spain who also rejected him but were intrigued enough by his plan that they kept him on retainer, paying him a significant sum to keep him from proposing the expedition to any other government. Ferdinand and Isabella were in the midst of their own problems trying to drive the Muslim Arabs, known as the Moors, from their territory in the effort which has since come to be known as the Reconquista (711-1492 CE). The last stronghold of the Moors at Granada fell in 1492 CE, and, afterwards, Columbus was granted the three ships and funding he had requested.

The Voyages

Columbus left port on 3 August 1492 CE in his famous ships the Nina , Pinta , and Santa Maria . His main objective was reaching Cathay, but it was also made clear that he was to claim any lands not already under a sovereign nation for Spain and to the honor of the Catholic Church. To this end, he was given two official documents:

• A contract between him and the crown promising the monarchy 90% of the profits of the venture in return for funding and stipulating that Columbus was awarded the position of viceroy or governor of any lands he took for the crown.
• A letter of introduction from Ferdinand and Isabella requesting any monarch Columbus came in contact with to provide him safe passage and provision as his mission was in the service of the Christian faith.

First Voyage - 1492-1493 CE : He arrived at an island in the Caribbean on 12 October 1492 CE and was greeted by a large gathering of indigenous people on the beach. He summoned the captains of the Nina and Pinta and rowed to shore along with the secretary of the fleet and the royal inspector. He knew he had not landed at Cathay but believed he had discovered an island near to his objective which, as far as he could tell, was not claimed by any sovereign nation and so he claimed it for Spain, and this was duly noted by his witnesses.

He was given to understand by the natives that their island was called Guanahani, but he named it San Salvador (still its present name in the Bahamas). The natives (the Arawaks) probably also gave him the name they called themselves, but he referred to them as indios and so established the use of the term Indian for the people of the region and, later, for those of North, Central, and South America. No mention is made of the reactions of the people who had come to greet them, and, shortly afterwards, the five Europeans and the native islanders exchanged gifts of friendship.

Second Voyage - 1493-1496 CE : Columbus arrived back in the New World as governor of the lands he had claimed with a fleet of 17 ships full of colonists to establish communities for Spain as well as a number of dogs to be used in subduing the natives. The Mastiff had been successfully used by the Spanish against the Moors in the Reconquista and so were included as an important asset in Columbus' second voyage.

The dogs terrorized the native people, hunted down those who were accused of dereliction of duty, and broke any attempts at resistance to the European conquest . When he arrived in Jamaica in 1494 CE, he was opposed by defenders on the beach until he released the savage mastiffs which terrorized the indigenous warriors and scattered them.

The Second Voyage established the encomienda system in which Spanish settlers claimed a large tract of land on which the natives provided labor in return for food, shelter, and protection from those they labored for. By 1495 CE, the indigenous population had decreased, according to the later works of Las Casas, by 50,000 and, although that number is considered an exaggeration by many modern scholars, it is most likely too low.

The natives of the region were reduced from autonomous individuals with an established culture to slaves who could be tortured or killed for any reason at any time and suffered significant losses through European diseases they had no immunity from. Losses also stemmed from a significant portion of the populace shipped off to Europe as slaves.

Third Voyage - 1498-1500 CE : Although the Europeans had now firmly established themselves in the New World, Columbus had yet to find a way through the islands he had so far visited and reach Cathay. He was certain that the lands he had colonized for Spain were outliers of the continent of Asia and so, after his return to Spain in 1496 CE, his Third Voyage was funded to establish this; instead, he located the regions of modern-day Central and South America.

By this time, Columbus' colonists were actively engaged in capturing and selling the natives as slaves and further abusing them daily. Columbus objected to this treatment of the natives and punished the colonists severely which resulted in a charge of tyranny and corruption (as he was interfering with business practices) brought against him in 1499 CE. He and his brother Diego were arrested and sent back to Spain to answer charges. They were acquitted by Ferdinand and Isabella, equipped with new ships, and sent back to the New World.

On his own, Columbus explored the islands off Honduras, mapped Costa Rica and other sites, and was sailing on when a storm drove his ship toward Jamaica where it was wrecked. The natives despised him and refused any aid, and the regional governors of the area felt the same and would not send a rescue ship. Columbus finally frightened the natives into assisting him by claiming he would take the great light from the sky if they did not and then accurately predicted the lunar eclipse of 29 February 1504 CE, claiming to have restored the light once help was promised. He and his men were eventually rescued, largely through their own efforts, and Columbus returned to Spain where, in ill health, he died in Valladolid in May of 1506 CE.

Modern-day evaluations of historical figures and events are frequently guilty of the fallacy of presentism – judging the past by the standards and ideologies of the present – and the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus stand as one of the best, if not the best, examples of this. Prior to the publication in 1828 CE of A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus by Washington Irving, Columbus was almost unknown in the United States. His book on Columbus, more historical or romantic fiction than history, was interpreted as a scholarly work on the life and adventures of an intrepid European explorer who had “discovered America” and went on to inform United States' history up to the present day.

Columbus never claimed to have “discovered America” and neither is there anything in his journals or the writings of near-contemporaries to suggest that scholars of his day believed the earth was flat while he proved it was round (it was well known in 1492 CE that the earth was round), nor that he “got lost” while searching for a route to India , landed in some strange place he thought was his destination, and so named the native people Indians. Most, if not all, of the myths commonly cited as history concerning Columbus were the creations of Irving who was only trying to tell a good story.

Irving's Columbus was a brave and noble adventurer who risked his life and that of his crew to extend European knowledge of the world and establish a vital link between the Old World and New. The book was so popular that it informed the decision of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison (served 1889-1893 CE) to proclaim a national day of observance in Columbus' honor in 1892 CE, on the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival. The state of Colorado would later be the first to observe this holiday in 1906 CE and other states followed suit afterwards.

The present movement to rename and rededicate Columbus Day in honor of indigenous people is understandable and admirable, but the opposing side, arguing to continue the tradition of honoring him, also has merit, especially when one considers what it meant to Italian-Americans, frequently persecuted in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries CE, to have an "American Hero" defined as "Italian" by Irving and recognized as such by the American majority. It was largely the efforts of Italian-American community groups, in fact, which helped establish the holiday to begin with.

Healing past wounds must begin with a dialogue which recognizes the underlying causes and long-term effects of Columbus' atrocities while also acknowledging his accomplishments. However one judges Columbus in the present day, he was a product of his time who behaved toward non-Europeans precisely as one would expect a 15th-century CE European Christian to do and, unfortunately, far better than the colonizers and conquerors who came to the New World after him.

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Bibliography

• Columbus, C. & Cohen, J. The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Penguin, 2004.
• Crosby Jr., A. W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Praeger, 2003.
• de Las Casas, B. & Griffin, N. & Pagden, A. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Penguin Classics, 2000.
• Five Myths about Christopher Columbus by Kris Lane for the Washington Post Accessed 8 Oct 2020.
• Hansen, V. The Silk Road. Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Introduction to Christopher Columbus, Journal of the First Voyage by B. W. Ife Accessed 8 Oct 2020.
• Irving, W. History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Wentworth Press, 2010.
• Morison, S. E. Admiral of the Ocean Sea - A Life of Christopher Columbus. Morison Press, 2007.
• Osborne, R. Civilization: A New History of the Western World. Pegasus Books, 2008.
• Parker, C. H. Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400 -1800. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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1492: An Ongoing Voyage Christopher Columbus: Man and Myth

After five centuries, Columbus remains a mysterious and controversial figure who has been variously described as one of the greatest mariners in history, a visionary genius, a mystic, a national hero, a failed administrator, a naive entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist.

Columbus' enterprise to find a westward route to Asia grew out of the practical experience of a long and varied maritime career, as well as out of his considerable reading in geographical and theological literature. He settled for a time in Portugal, where he tried unsuccessfully to enlist support for his project, before moving to Spain. After many difficulties, through a combination of good luck and persuasiveness, he gained the support of the Catholic monarchs, Isabel and Fernando.

The widely published report of his voyage of 1492 made Columbus famous throughout Europe and secured for him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and further royal patronage. Columbus, who never abandoned the belief that he had reached Asia, led three more expeditions to the Caribbean. But intrigue and his own administrative failings brought disappointment and political obscurity to his final years.

In Search and Defense of Privileges

Queen Isabel and King Fernando had agreed to Columbus' lavish demands if he succeeded on his first voyage: he would be knighted, appointed Admiral of the Ocean Sea, made the viceroy of any new lands, and awarded ten percent of any new wealth. By 1502, however, Columbus had every reason to fear for the security of his position. He had been charged with maladministration in the Indies.

The Library's vellum copy of the Book of Privileges is one of four that Columbus commissioned in 1502 to record his agreements with the Spanish crown. It is unique in preserving an unofficial transcription of a Papal Bull of September 26, 1493 in which Pope Alexander VI extended Spain's rights to the New World.

Much concerned with social status, Columbus was granted a coat of arms in 1493. By 1502, he had added several new elements, such as an emerging continent next to islands and five golden anchors to represent the office of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea.

As a reward for his successful voyage of discovery, the Spanish sovereigns granted Columbus the right to a coat of arms. According to the blazon specified in letters patent dated May 20, 1493, Columbus was to bear in the first and the second quarters the royal charges of Castile and Léon—the castle and the lion—but with different tinctures or colors. In the third quarter would be islands in a wavy sea, and in the fourth, the customary arms of his family.

The earliest graphic representation of Columbus' arms is found in his Book of Privileges and shows the significant modifications Columbus ordered by his own authority. In addition to the royal charges that were authorized in the top quarters, Columbus adopted the royal colors as well, added a continent among the islands in the third quarter, and for the fourth quarter borrowed five anchors in fess from the blazon of the Admiral of Castille. Columbus' bold usurpation of the royal arms, as well as his choice of additional symbols, help to define his personality and his sense of the significance of his service to the Spanish monarchs.

Columbus' Coat of Arms in Christopher Columbus, His Book of Privileges, 1502 . Facsimile. London, 1893. Harisse Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division , Library of Congress

The Book of Privileges is a collection of agreements between Columbus and the crowns of Spain prepared in Seville in 1502 before his 4th and final voyage to America. The compilation of documents includes the 1497 confirmation of the rights to titles and profits granted to the Admiral by the 1492 Contract of Santa Fé and augmented in 1493 and 1494, as well as routine instructions and authorizations related to his third voyage. We know that four copies of his Book of Privileges existed in 1502, three written on vellum and one on paper.

All three vellum copies have thirty-six documents in common, including the Papal Bull Inter caetera of May 4, 1493, defining the line of demarcation of future Spanish and Portuguese explorations, and specifically acknowledging Columbus' contributions. The bull is the first document on vellum in the Library's copy and the thirty-sixth document in the Genoa and the Paris codices. The Library copy does not have the elaborate rubricated title page, the vividly colored Columbus coat of arms, or the authenticating notarial signatures contained in the other copies. The Library's copy, however, does have a unique transcription of the Papal Bull Dudum siquidem of September 26, 1493, extending the Spanish donation. The bull is folded and addressed to the Spanish sovereigns.

This intriguing Library copy is the only major compilation of Columbus' privileges that has not received modern documentary editing. Comprehensive textual analysis and careful comparison with other known copies is essential to establishing its definitive place in Columbus scholarship.

Book of Privileges in [Christopher Columbus], [ Códice Diplomatico Columbo-Americano ], Vellum. [Seville, ca. 1502]. Manuscript Division , Library of Congress

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Exploration of America: Christopher Columbus

• Christopher Columbus
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Internet Resources

• Christopher Columbus: History.com Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who stumbled upon the Americas and whose journeys marked the beginning of centuries of transatlantic colonization.
• Podcast- Christopher Columbus In 1492, Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus – sailing for Spain – became the first European to reach the Americas since the Vikings 500 years earlier. It is one of the most significant events in world history. Columbus would go on to make four voyages to the New World in his lifetime, and our 7-part series on him covers all his exploits. He is, arguably, the most famous explorer in history.

Christopher Columbus Reading List

Research & Reference

• Christopher Columbus: Credo Reference Christopher Columbus, whose voyages to the New World greatly changed the world's history, was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, the son of a middle-class merchant. As a young man, he apprenticed as a business agent for a trading company, and his travels took him as far as Ireland. Europe had long been interested in asea passage to the Far East because the longoverland trip was not very economical

Discovering Columbus

This segment of Sunday Morning is about Christopher Columbus. Mo Rocca embarks on a journey to discover more about the explorer we honor each year.

Source: AVON

Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World

Christopher Columbus set out to find a new route to Asia, but instead became the first Spaniard to set foot in the New World. Evidence now proves that the Vikings reached North America long before him, yet even in his own time, other explorers usurped his glory. From the dream that led him across the horizon to the fortunes that deserted him and the ongoing controversy over his true place in history, this episode of  Biography  sheds light on the life of Christopher Columbus—the man, not the legend. Period accounts, rare art and artifacts, and interviews with world-renowned historians are featured. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (48 minutes) Distributed by A&E Television Networks.

Source: Films on Demand

Books & Films: Check Out at McKee Library

From the author of the Magellan biography, Over the Edge of the World, a mesmerizing new account of the great explorer. Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trading route to China, and his unexpected landfall in the Americas, is a watershed event in world history. Yet Columbus made three more voyages within the span of only a decade, each designed to demonstrate that he could sail to China within a matter of weeks and convert those he found there to Christianity. These later voyages were even more adventurous, violent, and ambiguous, but they revealed Columbus's uncanny sense of the sea, his mingled brilliance and delusion, and his superb navigational skills. In all these exploits he almost never lost a sailor. By their conclusion, however, Columbus was broken in body and spirit. If the first voyage illustrates the rewards of exploration, the latter voyages illustrate the tragic costs- political, moral, and economic. In rich detail Laurence Bergreen re-creates each of these adventures as well as the historical background of Columbus's celebrated, controversial career. Written from the participants' vivid perspectives, this breathtakingly dramatic account will be embraced by readers of Bergreen's previous biographies of Marco Polo and Magellan and by fans of Nathaniel Philbrick, Simon Winchester, and Tony Horwitz.

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books

"Like a Renaissance wonder cabinet, full of surprises and opening up into a lost world." --Stephen Greenblatt "A captivating adventure...For lovers of history, Wilson-Lee offers a thrill on almost every page...Magnificent." --The New York Times Book Review Named a Best Book of the Year by: * Financial Times * New Statesman * History Today * The Spectator * The impeccably researched and vividly rendered account of the quest by Christopher Columbus's illegitimate son to create the greatest library in the world--"a perfectly pitched poetic drama" (Financial Times) and an amazing tour through sixteenth-century Europe. In this innovative work of history, Edward Wilson-Lee tells the extraordinary story of Hernando Colón, a singular visionary of the printing press-age who also happened to be Christopher Columbus's illegitimate son. At the peak of the Age of Exploration, Hernando traveled with Columbus on his final voyage to the New World, a journey that ended in disaster, bloody mutiny, and shipwreck. After Columbus's death in 1506, the eighteen-year-old Hernando sought to continue--and surpass--his father's campaign to explore the boundaries of the known world by building a library that would collect everything ever printed: a vast holding organized by summaries and catalogues, the first ever search engine for the exploding diversity of written matter as the printing press proliferated across Europe. 

Columbus and the World Around Him

This series meets National Curriculum Standards for: Social Studies: Civic Ideals & Practices Individuals, Groups, & Institutions Power, Authority, & Goverance Time, Continuity, & Change

A deeply engaging new history of how European settlements in the post-Colombian Americas shaped the world, from the bestselling author of 1491. Presenting the latest research by biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians, Mann shows how the post-Columbian network of ecological and economic exchange fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa, and for two centuries made Mexico City--where Asia, Europe, and the new frontier of the Americas dynamically interacted--the center of the world. In this history, Mann uncovers the germ of today's fiercest political disputes, from immigration to trade policy to culture wars. In 1493, Mann has again given readers an eye-opening scientific interpretation of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination.

Manifest Destinies

A sweeping history of the 1840s, Manifest Destinies captures the enormous sense of possibility that inspired America’s growth and shows how the acquisition of western territories forced the nation to come to grips with the deep fault line that would bring war in the near future. Steven E. Woodworth gives us a portrait of America at its most vibrant and expansive. It was a decade in which the nation significantly enlarged its boundaries, taking Texas, New Mexico, California, and the Pacific Northwest; William Henry Harrison ran the first modern populist campaign, focusing on entertaining voters rather than on discussing issues; prospectors headed west to search for gold; Joseph Smith founded a new religion; railroads and telegraph lines connected the country’s disparate populations as never before. When the 1840s dawned, Americans were feeling optimistic about the future: the population was growing, economic conditions were improving, and peace had reigned for nearly thirty years. A hopeful nation looked to the West, where vast areas of unsettled land seemed to promise prosperity to anyone resourceful enough to take advantage. And yet political tensions roiled below the surface; as the country took on new lands, slavery emerged as an irreconcilable source of disagreement between North and South, and secession reared its head for the first time. Rich in detail and full of dramatic events and fascinating characters, Manifest Destinies is an absorbing and highly entertaining account of a crucial decade that forged a young nation’s character and destiny.

Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies

Focused on Columbus' voyages and their impact on Europe and the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies presents the voyager as a significant historical actor who improvised responses to a changed world while helping link Africa, Europe, and the Americas in a conflicted economic and cultural symbiosis.

The Worlds of Christopher Columbus

When Columbus was born in the mid-fifteenth century, Europe was isolated in many ways from the rest of the Old World and Europeans did not even know that the world of the Western Hemisphere existed. The voyages of Christopher Columbus opened a period of European exploration and empire building that breached the boundaries of those isolated worlds and changed the course of human history. This book describes the life and times of Christopher Columbus. The story is not just of one man's rise and fall. Seen in its broader context, his life becomes a prism reflecting the broad range of human experience for the past five hundred years.

YouTube Videos

Many people in the United States and Latin America have grown up celebrating the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage. But was he an intrepid explorer who brought two worlds together or a ruthless exploiter who brought colonialism and slavery? And did he even discover America at all? Alex Gendler puts Columbus on the stand in History vs. Christopher Columbus.

Secrets & Mysteries Of Christopher Columbus

Was Christopher Columbus born in Genoa, Italy? An unlikely collection of experts from European royalty, DNA science, university scholars, even Columbus's own living family so he definitely was not.

Source: Kanopy

The Real Life Of Christopher Columbus | The Secrets And Lies Of Columbus | Timeline

Was Christopher Columbus born in Genoa, Italy? Most definitely not, say an unlikely collection of experts from European royalty, DNA science, university scholars, even Columbus's own living family. This ground breaking documentary follows a trail of proof to show he might have been much more than we know.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yoVsZfypQ

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Christopher Columbus and Early European Exploration

This research guide will focus on primary and secondary sources in the collection of the New York Public Library pertinent to the four voyages made by Columbus. It will also cover other Spanish explorations, Native American reactions, and the methodology for researching the Library's catalogs for material on other relevant explorers and countries.

Christopher Columbus undertook his first voyage across the Atlantic over 500 years ago. Since then, the course of history for both the civilizations he encountered and those he represented has been irrevocably altered. This research guide will focus on primary and secondary sources in the collection of the New York Public Library pertinent to the four voyages made by Columbus. It will also cover other Spanish explorations, Native American reactions, and the methodology for researching the Library's catalogs for material on other relevant explorers and countries.

If you need further assistance, visit our reference desk, or e-mail us at  [email protected] .

Using the Library’s Catalogs

General instructions for locating materials are given in the Research Guide, How Do I Find a Book? . Specific methods for locating additional materials on this topic are located at the end of each section.

Primary Documentation

The four voyages of Columbus (1492-93; 1493-96; 1498-1500; 1502-04) opened the way for the exploration, exploitation, and colonization of the Americas by Europe. There are no surviving manuscripts in Columbus' own hand describing these voyages. Instead, historians have relied upon the following documents:

Letters Journals

The term "Columbus letter" usually refers to one of the fifteenth-century printed editions of a letter from his first voyage announcing his "discovery" of America. A traditional view holds that Columbus wrote three letters: one addressed to Luis de Santangel, Keeper of Accounts of Aragon, dated February 15th, 1493; a second addressed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, of which no copy has survived; a third sent to Gabriel Sanchez, Treasurer of Aragon, dated March 15th, 1493. Recent thinking on the subject is that all three letters were derived from a single manuscript sent to Ferdinand and Isabella from which copies were then made and endorsed to several court officials.

The New York Public Library has facsimile copies of all seventeen surviving editions known to have been published before 1501 in Spanish, Latin, Italian, and German. While the Library is in actual possession of unique copies of both the Santangel and Sanchez letters, these, for obvious reasons, are not offered for public viewing or access. A copy of the Santangel Letter is kept at the Information Desk in Room 315. Ask a librarian there for assistance.

The following list of books includes translations and analyses of these letters which are suitable for most research needs.

Columbus, Christopher, The Letter of Columbus on His Discovery of the New World (Los Angeles: USC Fine Arts Press, 1989). HAN 89-21486.

Major, Richard Henry, The Bibliography of the First Letter of Christopher Columbus Describing His Discovery of the New World (London: Ellis & White, 1872). HAM.

A New and Fresh English Translation of the Letter of Columbus Announcing the Discovery of America (by) Samuel Eliot Morison (Madrid: Graficas Yagues, 1959). JAX B-2175.

Columbo, Cristoforo, The Spanish Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant' Angel, Escribano de Racion of the Kingdom of Aragon, Dated 15 February, 1493 (London: G. Norman and Son, Printers, 1893). *ZH-654.

In the Dictionary Catalog, further items can be found under the relevant subject headings:

• Columbus, Christopher. Letters. Columbus, Christopher. Letter to Sanchez. Columbus, Christopher. Letter to Santagel.

In CATNYP, use a subject or keyword search on:

Columbus Christopher correspondence

The journal that Columbus kept of his first voyage to America and presented to Ferdinand and Isabella upon his return to Spain has not survived in its original form. The journal is known to us today only in the abridgement of Bartolome de las Casas, a partly quoted and partly summarized version of the original. The following are scholarly transcriptions and translations of this document.

Columbus, Christopher, The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492-1493, abstracted by Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr., trs. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989). HAN 89-4493.

Columbus, Christopher, The Journal of Christopher Columbus, Cecil Jane, tr. (L.A. Vigneras, reviser and annotator) (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1960). HAN 1960.

Columbus, Christopher, Journal of the First Voyage of Christopher Columbus, B.W. Ife, ed./tr. (Westminster, England: Aris & Phillips, Ltd., 1990). HAN 91-5853.

Columbus, Christopher, The Log of Christopher Columbus, Robert H. Fuson, tr. (Camden, ME: International Marine Publishing Co., 1987). HAN 88-288.

Columbus, Christopher, Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voyages of Columbus, Including Those Contained in R.H. Major's Select Letters of Christopher Columbus (Reprint: Hakluyt Society, Works, Second Series) (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967). JFL 75-29 / 2nd Series, nos. 65 & 70.

Henige, David, In Search of Columbus: The Sources for the First Voyage (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991). HAN 91-8063.

In the Dictionary Catalog, subject headings for additional items are:

• Columbus, Christopher. Journal
• Columbus Christopher diaries

Secondary/Biographical Sources

There are as many books about Columbus as there are viewpoints about the man and his accomplishments. The following is just a sampling of these divergent perspectives.

Adams, Herbert Baxter, and Henry Wood, Columbus and His Discovery of America (New York: AMS Press, 1971). HAM 72-2082.

Bradford, Ernle Dusgate Selby, Christopher Columbus (New York: Viking Press, 1973). HAM 74-1511; HAM 75-1334.

The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, Silvia A. Bedini, ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992). *R-HAM 91-9569.

Collis, John Stewart, Christopher Columbus (London: Macdonald and Jane's, Ltd., 1976). JFD 77-953; HAM 90-5225.

Columbus, Ferdinand, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand, Benjamin Keen, tr. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1959). HAM.

Columbus and His World: Proceedings of the First San Salvador Conference, Donald T. Gerace, ed. (Fort Lauderdale: Bahamian Field Station, 1987). HAM 90-8696.

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, Columbus (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). *R-HAM 91-8489.

Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, Columbus and the Conquest of the Impossible (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974). HAM 76-937.

Floyd, Troy S., The Columbus Dynasty in the Caribbean, 1492-1526 (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1973). HNB 74-1175.

In the Wake of Columbus: Islands and Controversy, Louis De Vorsey, Jr. and John Parker, eds. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1985). HAM 85-3309.

Koningsberger, Hans, Columbus: His Enterprise (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976). HAM 76-1910.

Litvinoff, Barnet, Fourteen Ninety-Two: The Year and the Era (London: Constable, 1991). JFE 91-7068.

McKee, Alexander, A World Too Vast: The Four Voyages of Columbus (London: Souvenir Press, 1990). HAM 90-9819.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942). HAM 1942.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, Christopher Columbus, Mariner (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1955). HAM.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus (London: Oxford University Press, 1939). HAM 1939.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, and Mauricio Obregon, The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1964). HAI 1964.

Provost, Foster, Columbus: An Annotated Guide to the Study On His Life and Writings, 1750-1988 (Detroit, MI: Published for the John Carter Brown Library by Omnigraphics, Inc., 1991). *RS-HAM 91-5358; available at the South Hall Desk.

Sale, Kirkpatrick, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbia Legacy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990). HAM 90-13326.

Taviani, Paolo Emilio, Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design (London: Orbis, 1985). HAM 87-738.

Taviani, Paolo Emilio, Columbus, The Great Adventure: His Life, His Times, and His Voyages (New York: Orion Books, 1991). JFE 91-8810.

United States. Library of Congress. Division of Bibliography. Christopher Columbus: A Selected List of Books and Articles, Donald H. Mugridge, ed. (Washington, D.C., 1950). HAE p.v. 305.

Wilford, John Noble, The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, The Myth, The Legacy (New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1991). HAM 91-9629.

Look under Columbus, Christopher in the catalogs to find further biographies. Similarly, look under the names of any other specific explorers to find works written about, or by, them.

Post-Columbus: Conquest And Colonization

Subsequent voyages to the Americas by the major European sea powers followed rapidly after Columbus's initial expedition. Following is a brief sampling of the many items in the Library's collection relevant to these travels.

Spain Other European

First Encounters: Spanish Explorations in the Caribbean and the United States, 1492-1570

MDNM¯, Jerald T. Milanich and Susan Milbrath, eds. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press: Florida Museum of Natural History, 1989).

HAI 90-4586.

Gordon, Thomas Francis, The History of America: Containing the History of the Spanish Discoveries Prior to 1520 (Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1831). *Z-5583 no. 1.

Hoffman, Paul E., A New Andalucia and a Way to the Orient: The American Southeast During the Sixteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990). HAI 90-12962.

Kirkpatrick, Frederick Alexander, The Spanish Conquistadores (London: The Cresset Library, 1988). HAI 89-17074.

Nebenzahl, Kenneth, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1990). Map Division 91-7246.

New American World: A Documentary History of North America to 1612 in Five Volumes, David B. Quinn, Alison M. Quinn, Susan Hillier, eds. (New York: Arno Press, 1979). HV 79-1250.

The Spanish in America: 1513-1979: A Chronology and Fact Book, Arthur A. Natella, Jr., ed. (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1980). HAI 80-3036.

Spanish Colonial Frontier Research, Henry F. Dobyns, ed. (Albuquerque, NM: Center for Anthropological Studies, 1980). IT 88-1041.

Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 (Original Narratives of Early American History), Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed. (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1930). *Z-5572 no.2.

Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1526-1543 (Original Narratives of Early American History) (Austin, TX: Texas State Historical Society, 1990). HAI 90-11356.

Weddle, Robert S., Spanish Sea: The Gulf of Mexico in North American Discovery, 1500-1685 (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1985). HAI 85-2619.

Other European

Discovery, An Exhibition of Books Relating to the Age of Geographical Discovery and Exploration

(Bloomington, Indiana: Lilly Library, 1965).

The Hakluyt Handbook, David Beers Quinn, ed. (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1974). *R-KBC 76-3402 and JFL 75-29 2nd Series, nos. 144-145. Lists all the works published by the Society, established in 1846 and renowned for its scholarly editions of records of voyages, travels, and other geographical material.

Pioneers and Explorers in North America: Summaries of Biographical Articles in History Journals, Pamela R. Byrne and Susan K. Kinnell, eds. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 1988). JFE 88-1948.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, The European Discovery of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971-1974). HAI 71-450.

Morison, Samuel Eliot, The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978). *R-KH 79-4650.

Quinn, David Beers, England and the Discovery of America, 1481-1620 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974). HAI 75-216.

Quinn, David Beers, North America From the Earliest Discovery to First Settlements: The Norse Voyages to 1612 (New York: Harper & Row, 1977). HAI 77-2442.

Tomlinson, Regina Johnson, The Struggle for Brazil: Portugal and "The French Interlopers" (1500-1550) (New York: Las Americas Publishing Co., 1970). HFB 72-795.

The following list encompasses the subject headings used to search for further items:

In the Dictionary Catalog:

• America - Description and Travel, to 1800 America - Discovery America - Discovery, Pre-Columbian America - Discovery, Post-Columbian Voyages and Travels, to 1500 Voyages and Travels, 1500-1600 Voyages and Travels, 1600-1700 Voyages and Travels, History (By Century)

(Note: See also names of individual explorers)

• America - Discovery and Exploration Explorers

(Note: these can be geographically subdivided: -Spain; -France; -England; -Portugal; see also names of individual explorers)

The Clash of Cultures

The civilizations and cultures of Native Americans were irrevocably altered after the events of 1492. The resulting clash of cultures continues to the present day.

Berhofer, Robert F., The White Man's Indian: The History of an Idea From Columbus to the Present (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978). HBC 78-1802.

Casas, Bartolome de las, Historia de las Indias (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1951). HBC.

Chamberlin. J.E., The Harrowing of Eden: White Attitudes Toward Native Americans (New York: Seabury Press, 1975). HBC 76-216.

Cultures in Contact: The Impact of European Contacts on Native American Cultural Institutions A.D. 1000-1800, William W. Fitzhugh, ed. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985). HBC 86-1574.

Garcilaso de la Vega, el Inca, Comentarios Reales de los Incas (Lima: Libreria Internacional del Peru, 1959). HHH.

Hanke, Lewis, The First Social Experiments in America: A Study in the Development of Spanish Indian Policy in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935). HNB.

Hecht, Robert, Continents in Collision: The Impact of Europe on the North American Indian Societies (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1980). HBC 81-981 and HBC 81-981 Suppl.

Huddleston, Lee E., Origins of the American Indians: European Concepts, 1492-1729 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1967). HBC.

Jennings, Francis, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1975). IQ 79-525.

Sale, Kirkpatrick, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990). HAM 90-13326.

Thornton, Russell, American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987). HBC 88-564.

Tyler, S. Lyman, Two Worlds: The Indian Encounter With the European, 1492-1509 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988). HBC 88-2810.

Additional items can be found under these subject headings:

• Indians, American Indians, N.A. Indians, S.A.
• Indians of North America - First Contact With Occidental Civilization

(Note: see also Research Guide, Native North America )

Journals And Periodical Literature

Journals and periodicals are a sometimes overlooked source of scholarly research. The following indexes provide citations to a broad array of journals dealing with the field of history, in general, and Columbus and the Quincentennial, in particular.

America: History and Life, Vol. 0 (1954-1963)- (Santa Barbara, CA: American Bibliographical Center: Clio Press, 1972- ). *R-IAA+ (America History and Life).

C.R.I.S.: The Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History, 1838-1974, Annadel N. Wile and Deborah Purcell, eds. (Washington: Carrollton Press, 1977-78). *RS-BAA 77-4040.

Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) (Los Angeles: University of California Latin American Center Publications, 1970- ). *R-*D 78-578.

Historical Abstracts (the series splits after Vol. 17; beginning with Vol. 18 use only Part A: Modern History Abstracts 1450-1914) (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 1955- ). *RB-BAA 74-867.

Humanities Index (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1974- ). *R-*D 75-1125 (online from February, 1984- ).

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (New York: H.W. Wilson, 1900- ). *R-*D (online from 1983- ).

In addition, there are numerous journals chronicling the events and issues related to the Quincentennial. Recent issues (i.e., past year) are available in Current Periodicals, located in Room 108 of the Library.

America 92: Boletin Informativo de la Comision Nacional del V Centenario del Descubrimiento de America (Madrid: La Comision, 1984- ). Available in Room 108.

Cultural Survival Quarterly (Cambridge, MA: Cultural Survival, Inc., 1982- ). JFM 85-121.

Encounters: A Quincentenary Review (Albuquerque, NM: Latin American Institute of the University of New Mexico, 1989- ). JFM 90-214.

(See also Research Guide, How to Find Periodicals .)

The Ages of Exploration

Christopher columbus, age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

He is credited for discovering the Americas in 1492, although we know today people were there long before him; his real achievement was that he opened the door for more exploration to a New World.

Name : Christopher Columbus [Kri-stə-fər] [Kə-luhm-bəs]

Birth/Death : 1451 - 1506

Nationality : Italian

Birthplace : Genoa, Italy

Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain

Christopher Columbus aboard the "Santa Maria" leaving Palos, Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1933.0746.000001

Introduction We know that In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what did he actually discover? Christopher Columbus (also known as (Cristoforo Colombo [Italian]; Cristóbal Colón [Spanish]) was an Italian explorer credited with the “discovery” of the Americas. The purpose for his voyages was to find a passage to Asia by sailing west. Never actually accomplishing this mission, his explorations mostly included the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, all of which were already inhabited by Native groups.

Biography Early Life Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, part of present-day Italy, in 1451. His parents’ names were Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo; and a sister named Bianchinetta. Christopher became an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business, but he also studied mapmaking and sailing as well. He eventually left his father’s business to join the Genoese fleet and sail on the Mediterranean Sea. 1 After one of his ships wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he decided to remain there with his younger brother Bartholomew where he worked as a cartographer (mapmaker) and bookseller. Here, he married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and had two sons Diego and Fernando.

Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s famous book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the mid 15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through. 2 This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia. There were rumors from other sailors that Asia could be reached by sailing west. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. He went to King John of Portugal who turned him down. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Each declined his request for funding. After seven years of trying, he was finally sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Voyages Principal Voyage Columbus’ voyage departed in August of 1492 with 87 men sailing on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Columbus commanded the Santa María, while the Niña was led by Vicente Yanez Pinzon and the Pinta by Martin Pinzon. 3 This was the first of his four trips. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 12 land was sighted. He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani. 4 Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. He even proposed that the island of Cuba was a part of China. Since he thought he was in the Indies, he called the native people “Indians.” In several letters he wrote back to Spain, he described the landscape and his encounters with the natives. He continued sailing throughout the Caribbean and named many islands he encountered after his ship, king, and queen: La Isla de Santa María de Concepción, Fernandina, and Isabella.

It is hard to determine specifically which islands Columbus visited on this voyage. His descriptions of the native peoples, geography, and plant life do give us some clues though. One place we do know he stopped was in present-day Haiti. He named the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola today includes both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. Due to rough seas, he was forced to land in Portugal, an unfortunate event for Columbus. With relations between Spain and Portugal strained during this time, Ferdinand and Isabella suspected that Columbus was taking valuable information or maybe goods to Portugal, the country he had lived in for several years. Those who stood against Columbus would later use this as an argument against him. Eventually, Columbus was allowed to return to Spain bringing with him tobacco, turkey, and some new spices. He also brought with him several natives of the islands, of whom Queen Isabella grew very fond.

Subsequent Voyages Columbus took three other similar trips to this region. His second voyage in 1493 carried a large fleet with the intention of conquering the native populations and establishing colonies. At one point, the natives attacked and killed the settlers left at Fort Navidad. Over time the colonists enslaved many of the natives, sending some to Europe and using many to mine gold for the Spanish settlers in the Caribbean. The third trip was to explore more of the islands and mainland South America further. Columbus was appointed the governor of Hispaniola, but the colonists, upset with Columbus’ leadership appealed to the rulers of Spain, who sent a new governor: Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus was taken prisoner on board a ship and sent back to Spain.

On his fourth and final journey west in 1502 Columbus’s goal was to find the “Strait of Malacca,” to try to find India. But a hurricane, then being denied entrance to Hispaniola, and then another storm made this an unfortunate trip. His ship was so badly damaged that he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for two years until help from Hispaniola finally arrived. In 1504, Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain .

Later Years and Death Columbus reached Spain in November 1504. He was not in good health. He spent much of the last of his life writing letters to obtain the percentage of wealth overdue to be paid to him, and trying to re-attain his governorship status, but was continually denied both. Columbus died at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, due to illness and old age. Even until death, he still firmly believed that he had traveled to the eastern part of Asia.

Legacy Columbus never made it to Asia, nor did he truly discover America. His “re-discovery,” however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys. 5 Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America. Columbus day was made a federal holiday in 1971. It is recognized on the second Monday of October.

• Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 30.
• Fleming, Off the Map , 30
• William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142-143.
• Phillips and Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus , 155.
• Robin S. Doak, Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005), 92.

Bibliography

Doak, Robin. Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World . Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005.

Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration . New York: Grove Press, 2004.

Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Map of Voyages

Click below to view an example of the explorer’s voyages. Use the tabs on the left to view either 1 or multiple journeys at a time, and click on the icons to learn more about the stops, sites, and activities along the way.

• Original "EXPLORATION through the AGES" site
• The Mariners' Educational Programs

Ohio State nav bar

The Ohio State University

• BuckeyeLink
• Find People
• Search Ohio State

Historic change comes with Violence

Statements:

I want to raise up an idea at this point, sometimes, when consider both side of a question, we’d better compare the pros and cons of it. Moreover, some historic change would come with violence, and those are unavoidable at some points, also simultaneously those benefits outweigh huge negative impacts. Such person as Christopher Columbus, such person as the first emperor of China in Qin Dynasty. Yin Zheng was described as a tyrant in history books, taking the lives of people and holding blood in his hands. But, if take a look in the opposite perspective, he unified currency, language, etiquette and music by his own. Based on the unified society, China became one of the largest and strongest nation among the world. Christopher Columbus killed some natives when he was at his voyages, but we need to look at the positive event that he has done. For example, he opened the gate of international business, and being an inspirational public figure.

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was the result of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to discover the new world. The European population benefitted a lot from all of the things that were discovered in the Americas but the New World underwent the majority of the positive effects as a developing area of the world. Through international trade, the Old World provided crops such as wheat, rice, barely and more.  Before Columbus and his crew set foot on the soil of the Americas, the natives had never heard of or seen any of these crops that we now use in our daily diets.  The New World had crops such as potatoes, maize, fish and turkey, all of which had never been tasted or seen by a European settler.  Similarly, the old world had cows, sheep, horse and goats while the New World had llamas, dogs and alpaca. Clearly after the Columbian Exchange, both the Old and New Worlds had all of the animals and crops that they did not have before (http://columbianexchange.org/). With all of this trade occurring, ecosystems began to diversify and expand.  Through the newly established international trade routes, the new and old worlds created relationships with one another that most likely would not have happened without the discoveries of Columbus and his team. This period of time opened doors that triggered colonization and better communication between nations across the globe (http://cdaworldhistory.wikidot.com/the-columbian-exchange-and-global-trade).  The world would be a completely different place if Columbus did not set sail in 1492 and accidentally find the Americas. His encounters were the catalysts that jumpstarted and groomed the world so that it could develop and prosper into the society and cultural that we live in today.

Villain Arguments and Rebuttals

Counter/Rebuttal:

• Typical of that time (He was not the first)
• Founding fathers were guilty of this
• Not exclusive to just bad people
• He was responsible for other people’s actions
• Past leaders have been jailed- MLK, Ghandi
• He wasn’t one of them
• Sailors were power hungry
• Lots of pressure
• Not avoidable
• No idea what to expect when they arrived  
• Went both ways, Indians gave Europeans sphyillis which killed 5 million in Europe
• He opened America to rest of the world
• Trade route
• Benefits outweigh the costs
• Doesn’t have to do with argument
• He’s not a villain

Sources: Bravery, Leadership

Charlotte Vine, Zach Bradford

Christopher Columbus Leadership Bravery

• Cooke, Charles C. W. “Celebrating Columbus, Brave and Bright.” National Review . National Review, 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2017.

Excerpt: “This, like most political correctness, is a grievous mistake. As the historian William J. Connell argues, Columbus may not have been the first of the voyagers to discover America, but he was undoubtedly the most important. “His arrival,” Connell explains, “marks where we as a country and a hemisphere began our identity.” Unlike previous landings, Columbus’s mattered. It was the first to lead to a permanent settlement and the first enduring landing from a civilization that boasted modern ideas such as a belief in science, reason, individual achievement, and Christianity. Ultimately, Columbus’s story serves as the introduction to a story of immeasurable historical importance. To dismiss celebration of the man because he didn’t make it to America first would be akin to declaring that we must scorn Isaac Newton’s contribution to science because he wasn’t actually hit by an apple.”

Statement: First of all, Columbus’ leadership is responsible for the first permanent settlement and first lasting civilization with modern ideas and beliefs. Columbus and his crew brought beliefs in science, reason, individual achievement, and Christianity to this part of the world for the first time. Columbus’ leadership paved the way for a “New World”. As the historian William J Connell of Seton Hall University says, “His arrival marks where we as a country and a hemisphere began our identity”.

• Weiner, Eric, and Russell Freedman. “Coming to America: Who Was First?” NPR . NPR, 08 Oct. 2007. Web. <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15040888>.

Excerpt: “None of the sailors had ever been so long away from the sight of land, and as the days passed, they grew increasingly restless and fearful. The Ocean Sea was known also as the Sea of Darkness. … And if the Earth was flat, as many of the men believed, then they might fall off the edge of the world and plunge into that fiery abyss where the sun sets in the west.”

Statement: Columbus was brave for going on a voyage never done before. His crew was afraid, however he was determined to sail on. His bravery showed when insisted the crew continue even though they wanted to throw him overboard. If Columbus turned around, they never would have opened up the Americas to Europe.

Opening Statement

Many tales and stories came to mind when we pondered the definition of a hero and a villain. To classify Christopher Columbus into one of those categories is difficult given the history. To firmly declare him a villain, to us, is simply unfair given the circumstances. To explore and find a new world such as he did would lead to many new experiences and decisions, and obviously high tension. While we are sure Columbus had seen and read about violent historical events, morals during that time were not significant and not developed. To face this new world with pressure from the wealthy, powerful country of Spain, Columbus was willing to do what was necessary to keep up the expansion of European culture to the new territory. While their measures were unmoral and deadly, to their status quo they were getting a job done, it’s somewhat ugly to say but it’s how our government and society came to be. We can talk hypotheticals and say the new world would have still been found and it could have been settled peacefully but this is history and what happened has happened. But to label Columbus a villain and slain his bravery and heroism for his exploration efforts isn’t correct. A villain performs acts of violence and destruction based off of pure hatred. This situation, while not completely peaceful, was not out of hate, but rather a lack of morality and sympathy to others different than their own.

Sources: Science

Impact on Science

“The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia.” Google Books. Ed. Silvio A. Bedini. Simon & Schuster Inc., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

• “During the voyages of Columbus in the last decade of the fifteenth century, science was still traditionally medieval but, because of the humanist quest for original classical treatises and the introduction of printing, the groundwork had been laid for the great changes in science that would occur in the next two centuries.”
• Science had not advanced much throughout the 15 th century
• Columbus’ voyages helped set the framework for changes in science over the next two centuries
• Columbus started the idea of pursuing original discoveries of either physical things or original ideas and theories, which is what led to the scientific developments across the Earth.

“The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia.”  Google Books . Ed. Silvio A. Bedini. Simon & Schuster Inc., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

• “They worried that it was impossible to sail across the torrid zone at the equator, that only the northern hemisphere was inhabitable, and that the circumference of the earth was so great as to require three years to sail across the Atlantic.”
• Columbus proving the Earth is round and not flat is a myth
• It helped determine the actual size of the Earth
• The Southern hemisphere and other parts of the world were indeed habitable
• There were more places that were now thought possible to sail to

Sources: Closing Statement

“Biographical Sketch of Christopher Columbus.” The Belfast Monthly Magazine, vol. 7, no. 40, 1811, pp. 381–390., www.jstor.org/stable/30072936

About the source:

The Belfast Monthly Magazine is a publication from the nineteenth century. I found this source on JSTOR. This biographical sketch paints Columbus in a pretty positive light. It’s about 10 pages and it’s primarily focused on the Columbus’ notorious years in the late 15th century.

What I used it for:

There was a couple quotes on pg. 384 that discussed about the poor condition of the ships that Columbus was employed. There were also a couple passages on pg.385 that talked about some of the difficulties of their travels like a mutinous crew. I would supply some excerpts here but its not a document you can copy text from.

Myint, B. “Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?” Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 02 Apr. 2017. <http://www.biography.com/news/christopher-columbus-day-facts>

This is a pretty good article published on a respected site. I thought it adequately defends both sides of the debate. Most of the information on the site is shared knowledge and it doesn’t bring a ton of valuable insight/information; it’s a good refresher and a place to jump off from.

What I used it for: 

I mainly used this source for its last paragraph. It brought up a pretty nice argument for him being a hero: “In what has become known as the Columbian Exchange, Columbus’ voyages enabled the exchange of plants, animals, cultures, ideas (and, yes, disease) between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Once the Europeans were able to reach nearly all parts of the globe, a new modern age would begin, transforming the world forever.”

Sources: Economy

By: Alli Pollack

Columbus is a Hero:

Economic Impact on the World Economy

• Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. “The Columbian exchange: A history of disease, food, and ideas.”  The Journal of Economic Perspectives 2 (2010): 163-188.

“First, it introduced previously unknown species to the Old World. Many of these species—like potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cassava (also known as manioc)—resulted in caloric and nutritional improvements over previously existing staples. Second, the discovery of the Americas provided the Old World with vast quantities of relatively unpopulated land well suited for the cultivation of certain crops that were in high demand in Old World markets. “

After Columbus accidentally introduced the world to the untapped resources and overall opportunity of the Americas and western hemisphere in general, the overall world economy grew and become stronger. Columbus’s heroic journey to find new resources opened the door to strengthening international relationships and broadening trade to a global level.

• Findlay, Ronalad, and Kevin O’Rourke. “Mr. Columbus’s Economic Bombshell.”  BBC History d.: 41-43.  BBC History . May 2006. Web. 04 Apr. 2017. <http://www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/orourkek/BBC%20History.pdf>.

From 1500 to 1800, there was a steadily increasing silver flow from Latin America to not only Europe, where it led to widespread price inflation, but to Asia as well, either directly (via the Philippines) or indirectly (via Europe, which used the silver to pay for imports of Chinese goods such as silk and ceramics, Indian cotton textiles and Indonesian spices).

  Abstract:

The journey made by Columbus jump started the entire world economy and further encouraged other governments and economies to become interested in the resources available in America. This was the start of today’s current large scale globalization.

• Beding, Silvio A., ed.  The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia . Springer, 2016.

“Both European trade and population expanded considerably in the countries after Columbus sailed, and the governments rose that could to the resources of their people and use them to pursue national goals. Among t hose goals were new sources of food and trade goods to enhance their countries’ wealth.”

Although Columbus’s encounter with the natives ended in violence and the destruction of almost all of the native people, it too resulted in a growing interest in America, thus in the long time increasing the population as more and more people settled there.

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Morison, Samuel Eliot (1887-1976) Journals and other documents on the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus.

NOT AVAILABLE DIGITALLY Online access and copy requests are not available for this item. If you would like us to notify you when it becomes available digitally, please email us at [email protected] and include the catalog item number.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC08616 Author/Creator: Morison, Samuel Eliot (1887-1976) Place Written: New York, New York Type: Book Date: 1963 Pagination: 1 v. : xv, 417 p. : illus. col. : maps. ; 31 cm. Order a Copy

Translated and edited by Samuel Eliot Morison. Illustrated by Lima de Freitas. Printed for members of the Limited Editions Club. One of 1500 copies, signed by the artist.

At the time of the first discoveries, Europeans tended to view the New World from one of two contrasting perspectives. Many saw America as an earthly paradise, a land of riches and abundance, where the native peoples led lives of simplicity and freedom similar to those enjoyed by Adam and Eve in the Biblical Garden of Eden. Other Europeans described America in a much more negative light: as a dangerous and forbidding wilderness, a place of cannibalism and human misery, where the population lacked Christian religion and the trappings of civilization. This latter view of America as a place of savagery, cannibalism, and death would grow more pronounced as the Indian population declined precipitously in numbers as a result of harsh labor and the ravages of disease and as the slave trade began transporting millions of Africans to the New World. But it was the positive view of America as a land of liberty, liberation, and material wealth that would remain dominant. America would serve as a screen on which Europeans projected their deepest fantasies of a land where people could escape inherited privilege, corruption, and tradition. The discovery of America seemed to mark a new beginning for humanity, a place where all Old World laws, customs, and doctrines were removed, and where scarcity gave way to abundance. In a letter reporting his discoveries to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) paints a portrait of the indigenous Taino Indians as living lives of freedom and innocence near the biblical Garden of Eden.

....The people of this island [Hispaniola] and of all the other islands which I have found and seen, or have not seen, all go naked, men and women, as their mothers bore them, except that some women cover one place with the leaf of a plant or with a net of cotton which they make for that purpose. They have no iron or steel or weapons, nor are they capable of using them, although they are well-built people of handsome stature, because they are wondrous timid. They have no other arms than the arms of canes, [cut] when they are in seed time, to the end of which they fix a sharp little stick; and they dare not make use of these, for oftentimes it has happened that I have sent ashore two or three men to some town to have speech, and people without number have come out to them, as soon as they saw them coming, they fled; even a father would not stay for his son; and this was not because wrong had been done to anyone; on the contrary, at every point where I have been and have been able to have speech, I have given them of all that I had, such as cloth and many other things, without receiving anything for it; but they are like that, timid beyond cure. It is true that after they have been reassured and have lost this fear, they are so artless and so free with all they possess, that no one would believe it without having seen it. Of anything they have, if you ask them for it, they never say no; rather they invite the person to share it, and show as much love as if they were giving their hearts; and whether the thing be of value or of small price, at once they are content with whatever little thing of whatever kind may be given to them. I forbade that they should be given things so worthless as pieces of broken crockery and broken glass, and lace points, although when they were able to get them, they thought they had the best jewel in the world.... And they know neither sect nor idolatry, with the exception that all believe that the source of all power and goodness is in the sky, and in this belief they everywhere received me, after they had overcome their fear. And this does not result from their being ignorant (for they are of a very keen intelligence and men who navigate all those seas, so that it is wondrous the good account they give of everything), but because they have never seen people clothed or ships like ours.

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The Columbus Day Problem

• Posted October 5, 2017
• By Leah Shafer and Bari Walsh

Once upon a time, teachers celebrated Columbus Day by leading children in choruses of song about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. If the commemorations dealt at all with the impact of European exploration on the indigenous civilizations already flourishing in these “discovered” lands, it was often fleeting. In recent years, the conversation has become more nuanced, as educators — and people across the country — have begun to explore the many reasons why celebrating Christopher Columbus is problematic: the violent abuse of indigenous peoples, the launch of the transatlantic slave trade, and the introduction of a swath of lethal diseases to an unprepared continent.

Just as the country grapples with the meaning and problems of Confederate monuments, so too are schools, towns, and even whole states grappling with “Columbus Day.” Many are deciding to rename and refocus the holiday, choosing to call it Indigenous Peoples' Day to honor the people whose lives and cultures were irreparably damaged by the colonial conquest that the age of exploration ushered into being.

We asked Eric Shed , a veteran history teacher who now directs the Harvard Teacher Fellows Program , to share perspectives on the changing currents around Columbus Day and the challenges of learning and teaching history, as distinct from celebrating it. 

Current views on Columbus Day:

Trends are really hard to detect in a country as divided as ours, but I’ve noticed two developments in my work teaching high school and teaching at Harvard.

• There’s definitely a trend toward questioning Columbus Day. Some schools, cities, and institutions, such as the Harvard Graduate School of Education , have adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead. I think that’s part of a larger push nationwide to be critical of our past.
• Some of my students entered high school aware of the problematic nature of Columbus — but their thinking is, “Well, Columbus is not important to study, because he didn’t do anything.” We have to push back on that. We need students to understand that Columbus is important, even if he isn’t someone to be celebrated.

We need students to understand that Columbus is important, even if he isn’t someone to be celebrated. He initiated a turning point in our history.

Why the Columbus controversy matters for students:

Understanding controversies — what Columbus did, how he did it, whether we should be commemorating him — builds skills that are fundamental for understanding history and social studies.

• It involves really unpacking the past, looking for complications, and making a deep exploration into the people that made history happen, rather than just looking for a glossy overview.
• It requires looking at dominant narratives and counternarratives. Dominant narratives tend to speak about heroes in a simple sense; counternarratives can be much more critical.
• It involves grappling with multiple perspectives, a fundamental skill for historians. And those multiple viewpoints may help engage students who might feel otherwise unrepresented in a history class, such as females and students of color.

The Columbus controversy can also help students see that history is still applicable today. Right now, across the country, cities and schools are faced with the question, “Should we celebrate Columbus?” We’re facing similar questions about how we commemorate the confederacy and the Civil War. Historical knowledge can help students create an argument to answer those questions.

And in general, we want to students to engage with controversy. That’s when learning happens. If we have a holiday honoring somebody, the question on everyone’s mind should be, “Why are we honoring them? What were his actual contributions?” Those are important questions we want to ask as citizens.

Why we should still teach Columbus:

Columbus did not “discover America,” but his voyages began the Columbian exchange, a turning point in world history involving the massive transfers of human populations, cultures, ideas, animals, plants, and diseases. Turning points are powerful lenses through which students need to view our past.

Teaching Columbus accurately and age-appropriately:

I don’t think it’s ever too young. We don’t want to expose young kids to graphic accounts of brutal treatment of Native Americans, but I think you want them to begin to question: What did this person do? Why is he important? Why are we celebrating him? How could we look at this from a different perspective?

Based on my experience, I think it’s vitally essential that teachers engage kids as young as sixth grade in questions that really interrogate Columbus. Students need to grapple with these multiple perspectives in history and the not-so-pleasant aspects of our past. And it’s fundamentally important that they do so.

Student activities that can help:

• Engage students in a structured academic controversy , in which they look at multiple viewpoints around the question “Should we celebrate Columbus Day?” The goal isn’t to win a debate, but to articulate both sides of the question and form a conclusion based on the critical analysis of evidence.
• Have students write letters to their Congressperson, school board, or other institutional leaders, explaining their opinion on how Columbus Day should be commemorated, if at all.
• Ask students to rewrite textbook passages so that they more authentically account for what happened.
• Discuss the Columbian exchange as a class. Look at Columbus as a turning point in history, and ask, “What impacts do we still see today?”
• Explore how Columbus Day originated.  President Benjamin Harrison proposed it in an election speech in 1892, at a time in which huge numbers of Catholic and Italian immigrants had entered the country, changing the voter demographic. Why is that historical context important? (See this additional resource  on the origins of the holiday.)
• Examine the culture and contribution of indigenous people through primary source analysis.
• Examine Columbus’s "discovery" of America from the perspective of an indigenous person.
• With older students, explore what Indigenous Peoples’ Day would really mean. Should we celebrate the contributions of indigenous folks? Share their voices and culture? Or should we engage in some sort of reconciliation work?

I want to make sure we do justice to indigenous folks. I think there is a ton of potential in celebrating an Indigenous Peoples' Day, but what that is, what it looks like — we need to start with asking indigenous folks to define it.

Resources for teachers:

James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me , and his shorter Lies My Teacher Told Me about Christopher Columbus , critique how textbooks have covered Columbus. For instance, they lay out what specific textbooks omitted about Columbus’s involvement with the slave trade and genocide. They also show evidence that at least 12 other groups of people entered the Americas before Columbus.

Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States includes horrific, detailed eyewitness accounts of how the Spanish explorers treated the Native Americans. The Zinn Education Project also includes a bunch of primary sources related to Columbus, such as writings by Bartolomé de La Casas.

These books have fueled the trends I mentioned around Columbus Day. As these texts have become popular, and more history teachers have read them, more students have learned a more accurate account of Columbus from a younger age.

Columbus Day? Indigenous Peoples’ Day?                    

Personally, I don’t think we should celebrate Columbus Day. A genocide happened in "the Americas," and it began with Columbus.

When it comes to celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day, I want to make sure we do justice to indigenous folks. I think there is a ton of potential in celebrating an Indigenous Peoples' Day, but what that is, what it looks like — we need to start with asking indigenous folks to define it.

It’s the responsibility of our school system to talk about Columbus as part of our work to prepare students to be citizens. As a citizen, you need to be able to critically engage and reflect in a discourse around the public celebration and honoring of historical events and figures. You need to be able to deeply understand the profoundly problematic past of this great nation. 

I think history teachers have a responsibility to prepare students to comment critically and participate critically in the discourse about who we are honoring, who we are celebrating, and how we are doing it. Because that’s public history. We all own it. We need to own it.

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Why do we even celebrate Columbus Day?

by Dylan Matthews

It's somewhat old hat at this point to point out that Christopher Columbus — in whose name children are off school and mail isn't delivered today — was a homicidal tyrant who initiated the two greatest crimes in the history of the Western Hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade, and the American Indian genocide.

Rehashing all of his crimes would require a much longer article, not least because evaluating the claims of contemporary primary sources is a somewhat tricky historiographical enterprise. Philadelphia Magazine's Michael Coard has a good survey here ; Howard Zinn's work on this is controversial, but you can find a good excerpt at Jacobin and an illustrated version at the Oatmeal .

Here are just a handful of specific cases, mostly culled from Laurence Bergreen's recent biography, Columbus: The Four Voyages , of almost unimaginable cruelty inflicted by Columbus and his crew during their time in the Caribbean.

1) Columbus kidnapped a Carib woman and gave her to a crew member to rape

Bergreen quotes Michele de Cuneo, who participated in Columbus's second expedition to the Americas (page 143):

While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful woman, whom the Lord Admiral [Columbus] 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. 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 she had been brought up in a school for whores.

2) On Hispaniola, a member of Columbus's crew publicly cut off an Indian's ears to shock others into submission

After an attack by more than 2,000 Indians, Columbus had an underling, Alonso de Ojeda, bring him three Indian leaders, whom Columbus then ordered publicly beheaded. Ojeda also ordered his men to grab another Indian, bring him to the middle of his village, and "'cut off his ears' in retribution for the Indians' failing to be helpful to the Spaniards when fording a stream." (Bergreen, 170-171)

3) Columbus kidnapped and enslaved more than a thousand people on Hispaniola

According to Cuneo, Columbus ordered 1,500 men and women seized, letting 400 go and condemning 500 to be sent to Spain, and another 600 to be enslaved by Spanish men remaining on the island. About 200 of the 500 sent to Spain died on the voyage, and were thrown by the Spanish into the Atlantic. (Bergreen, 196-197)

4) Columbus forced Indians to collect gold for him or else die

Columbus ordered every Indian over 14 to give a large quantity of gold to the Spanish, on pain of death. Those in regions without much gold were allowed to give cotton instead. Participants in this system were given a "stamped copper or brass token to wear around their necks in what became a symbol of intolerable shame." (Bergreen, 203)

5) About 50,000 Indians committed mass suicide rather than comply with the Spanish

Bergreen explains, page 204:

The Indians destroyed their stores of bread so that neither they nor the invaders would be able to eat it. They plunged off cliffs, they poisoned themselves with roots, and they starved themselves to death. Oppressed by the impossible requirement to deliver tributes of gold, the Indians were no longer able to tend their fields, or care for their sick, children, and elderly. They had given up and committed mass suicide to avoid being killed or captured by Christians, and to avoid sharing their land with them, their fields, groves, beaches, forests, and women: the future of their people.

6) 56 years after Columbus's first voyage, only 500 out of 300,000 Indians remained on Hispaniola

Population figures from 500 years ago are necessarily imprecise, but Bergreen estimates that there were about 300,000 inhabitants of Hispaniola in 1492. Between 1494 and 1496, 100,000 died, half due to mass suicide. In 1508, the population was down to 60,000. By 1548, it was estimated to be only 500.

Understandably, some natives fled to the mountains to avoid the Spanish troops, only to have dogs set upon them by Columbus's men. (Bergreen, 205)

7) Columbus was also horrible to the Spanish under his rule

While paling in comparison to his crimes against Caribs and Taino Indians, Columbus's rule over Spanish settlers was also brutal. He ordered at least a dozen Spaniards "to be whipped in public, tied by the neck, and bound together by the feet" for trading gold for food to avoid starvation. He ordered a woman's tongue cut out for having "spoken ill of the Admiral and his brothers."

Another woman was "stripped and placed on the back of a donkey … to be whipped" as punishment for falsely claiming to be pregnant. He "ordered Spaniards to be hanged for stealing bread" (Bergreen, 315-316). Bergreen continues:

He even ordered the ears and nose cut off one miscreant, who was also whipped, shackled, and banished from the island. He ordered a cabin boy's hand nailed in public to the spot where he had pulled a trap from a river and caught a fish. Whippings for minor infractions occurred with alarming frequency. Columbus ordered one wrongdoer to receive a hundred lashes — which could be fatal — for stealing sheep, and another for lying about the incident. An unlucky fellow named Juan Moreno received a hundred lashes for failing to gather enough food for Columbus's pantry.

8) Settlers under Columbus sold 9- and 10-year-old girls into sexual slavery

This one he admitted himself in a letter to Doña Juana de la Torre , a friend of the Spanish queen: "There are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid."

9) Indian slaves were beheaded when their Spanish captors couldn't be bothered to untie them

Benjamin Keen, a historian of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, noted that multiple sources confirmed accounts of "exhausted Indian carriers, chained by the neck, whose heads the Spaniards severed from their bodies so they might not have to stop to untie them."

Update: A prior version of this article used another translation of Columbus's letter that wasn't as clear that he was speaking of 9- and 10-year-old girls; a different translation was substituted for clarity.

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Christopher Columbus’s Achievements

Introduction.

Background and Early Career

Preparation for the voyages.

First Voyage (1492–93) 

Second and third voyages (1493–1500), fourth voyage (1502–04), columbus’s legacy.

Christopher Columbus Research Paper

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School children across the United States immediately recognize the name Christopher Columbus. He has assumed iconic status as the instigator of European imperialism in the Americas. Much of the historical Columbus, though, became obscured by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mythology that valorized the sailor.

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Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, Cristoforo Colombo in Italian) first approached the king of Portugal in 1484 with a bold plan to reach Asia by crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The king’s advisors, however, scorned Columbus’s ideas. Contrary to folklore, most educated Portuguese conceptualized the earth as a sphere by 1484. Skeptics of Columbus’s plans, in other words, did not believe that Columbus would sail off the edge of a flat world. Rather, Columbus’s dubious calculations about the size of the earth troubled many in the Portuguese court. Columbus proposed that only three thousand nautical miles separated Europe and Asia, a distance that ships of the day could easily traverse. Portuguese authorities did not know about the existence of North and South America, but they understood, based on their own calculations, that Columbus had seriously underestimated the globe’s size. Indeed, reaching Asia via the Atlantic would mean traveling a distance of 10,600 nautical miles, more than three times the distance Columbus predicted. Portuguese scientists conjectured that Columbus and his crew would starve before reaching Asia, and they likely would have had they not happened upon the Western Hemisphere. Rather than adopting Columbus’s westward plan, Portugal banked on reaching Asia by voyaging around Africa.

Rejected by Europe’s major naval power, Columbus looked to Portugal’s emerging rivals, Spain’s Queen Isabella (1451–1504) of Castile and King Ferdinand (1452–1516) of Aragon. When Isabella and Ferdinand married, they united Spain’s two largest kingdoms and ruled jointly. Isabella initially rejected Columbus’s proposals as fantastical and expensive. Columbus persisted for seven years, however, eventually winning Isabella’s approval on his third official proposal. Ferdinand later claimed credit for convincing Isabella to set aside her misgivings about Columbus. The Catholic sovereigns financed Columbus, offered him the title of governor for the lands that he claimed for Spain, and provided him with a modest fleet of three ships: the Niña and Pinta , two caravels, and the Santa Maria , a square-rigged vessel.

Columbus’s ships crossed the Atlantic in twenty-nine days. The crew aboard the Pinta first spotted land on October 7, 1492, and made landfall three days later. Columbus encountered the indigenous Taíno (or Arawak) on Guanahani island, which he renamed San Salvador. During his first voyage, Columbus scouted various other islands throughout the Caribbean, including Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Cuba.

Columbus did not understand or accept that he had arrived on lands unknown to contemporary Europeans. Instead, he steadfastly claimed to have reached Asia. The inexperienced navigator believed Cuba’s mountains to be India’s Himalayas, and he thus dubbed the indigenous people Indians .

Having lost the Santa Maria off the coast of Cuba, Columbus set sail with the Niña and Pinta for Spain on January 4, 1493. Encountering wicked storms and bad luck, he did not return to Castile until March.

Columbus found much glory when he entered the royal court. Spaniards marveled at the many unknown items he displayed from his first voyage, including a tobacco plant, a turkey, and a pineapple. He also showed several kidnapped natives, whom Columbus suggested would not interfere in Spain’s colonization efforts.

Columbus’s second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, which lasted from 1493 to 1496, showed the brutality and limits of European imperialism. Columbus had seventeen ships and 1,200 men to colonize the Taíno and Arawak territory. He created an elaborate design for the colonial capital, which he named Isabella. The town and expedition, however, largely failed.

Columbus navigated and charted islands in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. He also advocated enslaving the indigenous populations. Though Isabella and Ferdinand shunned the idea of outright enslavement, Columbus ultimately took 1,600 Arawaks into bondage. He dispatched around 550 of these Arawaks to Spain, but almost half died during the journey. Those who did survive spent a lengthy time imprisoned as Spain’s legal system decided their fate. Ultimately, Spain ordered that they be shipped back to their native lands.

Columbus continued to petition the monarchy to consider their new colonies as a source for slaves. They, however, consistently refused. The monarchs’ refusals over unconditional slavery, however, did not mean that they did not expect the indigenous to labor on their behalf as repayment for their conversion to Christianity.

Perhaps the greatest brutality during the second voyage resulted from the Spaniards’ search for gold. Though they found some precious metals, Columbus’s men could not locate the massive reserves that he had imagined existed. On the island of Haiti, Columbus imposed an unrealistic quota system on the indigenous population. The governor ordered the hands chopped off of any adult over the age of fourteen who failed to reach his quota in the gold mines. Even with this viciousness, Columbus failed to collect much gold during his second journey. He left behind, however, several permanent colonies for Spain.

Columbus’s third journey to the Americas was notable for two reasons. First, a young Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566) traveled onboard one of the six ships. Las Casas would later gain fame for chronicling the abuse of indigenous people at the hands of Spain’s colonists. Second, royal authorities arrested Columbus on August 23, 1500. Many of the colonists had grown angry with Columbus and his unfulfilled promises of wealth. Spain’s monarchs eventually released Columbus, but stripped him of his title of governor.

Columbus’s final trip to the Western Hemisphere lasted from 1502 to 1504. During this voyage, Columbus continued to hunt for gold and other material treasures. He made landfall in Central America, probably along the coasts of the modern-day nations of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Bad weather, though, ultimately resulted in Columbus spending most of his final year in Jamaica. He returned to Spain on November 7, 1504, and never returned to the Americas again.

Columbus spent the last few years of his life fighting court battles in Spain. The seafarer sued the Spanish Crown, demanding it honor its original contract with him, which guaranteed 10 percent of the profits from his explorations. The court battles ultimately extended across five decades, with Columbus’s heirs losing the fight.

Legacy of Christopher Columbus

Columbus’s entry into the Western Hemisphere radically changed the direction of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Ideas about imperial expansion had already become part of Europe’s most powerful kingdoms. European society quickly recognized that they could use their existing technology to colonize lands previously unknown to them.

In 1494 Spain and Portugal almost went to war over control of the world. Spain argued that the route and lands encountered by Columbus belonged to them. Portugal countered that Columbus could not have succeeded without Portuguese technology. Pope Alexander VI (1431–1503) negotiated a settlement, the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), that pleased both Spain and Portugal. Essentially, the pontiff divided the globe on a line located 270 leagues west of the Azores. Any lands west of that line went to Spain, any lands to the east went to Portugal. Europeans had little idea of the size or shape of the Americas, but the line resulted in Portugal’s claims to Brazil and Spain’s initial dominance in North America. Alexander VI and the Iberian powers ignored whatever concerns the indigenous inhabitants might have had about this arrangement.

Most historians argue that Iberian subjugation of the Canary Islands became the model for the initial settlement of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. Establishing colonies in the Canary Islands created imperial apparatuses for controlling lands and populations thousands of miles away from the center of government. Ostensibly a mission of religious conversion, Christian invaders interpreted resistance as a divine sanction for their colonial enterprise. Moreover, authorities rarely recognized the rights of baptized Canarians. Within a short period, Iberians sold tens of thousands of Canarians into slavery and confiscated their lands.

Columbus’s immediate legacy, therefore, involved Spain importing these brutal methods to take control of indigenous lands in the Americas. By 1512 as many as ten thousand Spaniards lived in Hispaniola, supported by the forced labor of the original inhabitants. Puerto Rico, Cuba, and all the lesser islands soon fell to Spain’s conquistadors. The Arawaks and Caribs faced exploitation under the guise of religious conversion.

Starting around 1515, Spaniards began to construct sugar mills, importing both technicians and African slaves to replace the indigenous people dying from disease and mistreatment. In 1519 Hernando Cortés (c. 1484–1547) entered to the core of the Aztec Empire in the center of modern-day Mexico. By 1600 Spain’s imperial authority extended from the Río Grande del Norte to the Río de la Plata in southern Peru. Other European powers soon followed, including Portugal, Britain, France, and the Netherlands.

European invasion of the Americas brought profound suffering and death to indigenous groups. Overwork and lack of adequate provisions compounded the spread of disease as epidemics ravaged the Americas. The Mesoamerican population dropped from more than twenty million to as little as two million during the first century of contact. Populations on the Greater Antilles almost entirely disappeared.

Many historians frame Columbus’s legacy around notions of exchange. As already suggested, the most profound exchange that occurred involved the transmission of diseases. Europeans brought typhus, measles, strains of influenza, and smallpox to the Americas for the first time. Some debate exists about whether syphilis originated in the Americas and, therefore, had been previously unknown in the Eastern Hemisphere. Recent studies, however, suggest that Europeans already had experiences with syphilis before Columbus set sail.

Outside of disease, the exchange of different plants, animals, and cultural practices radically altered the landscape and diets of Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans. Native Americans had never seen pigs, sheep, sugar, or domestic cattle. Arguably the most important addition, however, was the horse. Horses had not roamed the Americas since the last Ice Age. Native Americans quickly adapted the horse to their needs, using them for hunting, transportation, and warfare.

American crops, likewise, transformed European and African life and nutrition. Columbus brought back nutrient-packed maze (corn) on his first trip. During the next century, American beans, squash, potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes all became European staples. Tobacco became a prized commodity in Europe by the seventeenth century.

Columbus’s voyage also had tremendous significance for Europe’s minority populations, particularly the Jewish community. On March 30, 1492, less than a month before Columbus signed his crown contract, Isabella and Ferdinand issued a decree expelling Jews from Spain. Those Jews who did not convert to Christianity by August 2 forfeited their property to the royal couple and had to leave their kingdom.

Jews had already faced centuries of persecution throughout Europe. A sizable group opted to convert to Christianity, some out of religious faith, others for expediency. Their Christian neighbors, however, continued to disdain these conversos (converts), despairingly naming them marannos (literally, swine). Many conversos, often referred to as crypto-Jews , secretly maintained their Jewish faith and practices. This community, however, faced dire consequences if discovered. Under the Catholic Church’s Inquisition, these conversos came under intense scrutiny. Church authorities executed any conversos who showed signs of practicing Judaism.

Columbus benefited from both the Jewish community and also their persecution. While in Lisbon, Columbus consulted with prominent Jewish and converso scientists like Joseph Veinho and Martin Behaim (1459–1507). Columbus also received substantial funding for his expedition from a converso in Ferdinand’s royal court. Moreover, he employed numerous conversos in his crew, some just barely out of the Inquisition’s clutches. Many recently baptized Christians even held key positions in his first fleet, including Rodrigo Sanchez, the comptroller; Alfonso de la Calle, the second mate; Maestro Bernal, the physician; and Luis de Torres, Columbus’s interpreter. The purge of Jews from Spain, though, also provided part of the royal funding for Columbus’s various voyages. Seizure of Jewish property provided an immense budget for the second voyage, in particular. Much of the money for that expedition derived directly from the confiscation of Jewish lands and valuables, including some priceless synagogue artifacts.

Spain’s expansion into the Americas, though, also provided unexpected opportunities for conversos and crypto-Jews. Colonization’s first century offered a literal escape from Europe’s Inquisition. Though officially forbidden from settling in Spain’s new colonies, conversos often found the royal court more than willing to sell exemptions. If one could not obtain royal sanction, captains in the imperial navy also showed themselves ready to provide transport for the right price. By the 1630s, conversos could be found in almost every town in Spain’s empire. Frontier locations, such as New Mexico or Florida, attracted a disproportionate number because of their remoteness from the Inquisitors’ grasps.

The Historical Columbus and the Columbus Legends

Though widely known today, Columbus’s name had almost been forgotten even before his death in 1506. In December 1500, Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) published a sensational account of his travels across the Atlantic. Vespucci claimed credit for finally establishing that Europeans had encountered previously unknown continents in the Western Hemisphere. When an authoritative German cartographer printed the first major world map in 1507, he gave the continents the name America , a feminine version of Vespucci’s first name.

During the eighteenth century, however, Columbus’s fame experienced a resurgence thanks, in part, to the tensions between North American colonists and the British government. As early as 1700, British colonists used Columbia as another name for the Americas. After U.S. independence, the historical Columbus and the feminine coinage Columbia became symbols for distinguishing the fledgling republic from its European counterparts. King’s College in New York, for instance, found a new start as Columbia College. In 1791 the seat of government became known as the District of Columbia. Though 1692 passed with little fanfare, the leaders of the newly created United States made 1792 a year of fetes. Celebrating three centuries since his first journey, U.S. leaders declared Columbus the first “American” hero.

Columbus gained even greater notoriety with the publication of Washington Irving’s (1783–1859) threevolume biography in 1828. Publishers have issued over 175 different editions of Irving’s hefty study. In 1844 federal authorities commissioned a statute of the sailor for the U.S. Capitol building. His popularity continued to serge in the United States through the second half of the nineteenth century. Between 1830 and 1860, the U.S. Catholic population grew from three hundred thousand to over three million. These foreign-born immigrants faced intense hostility by nativist Protestants who believed Catholicism irreconcilable with U.S. nationalism. In response, the Catholic Church used Columbus as a symbol of Catholic legitimacy in the nation. A renewed mythology developed around the explorer as a man who brought Christianity to the Americas. A prominent Catholic fraternal group, for instance, assumed the name the Knights of Columbus in 1882. The immigration of Italians, which added roughly another four million Catholics to the United States between 1880 and 1920, increased the worship of Columbus. Because of Columbus’s connection to Genoa, Italians felt a special claim to him. The increased fervor around the explorer resulted in spectacular celebrations in 1892 to mark the four hundredth anniversary of his sailing.

Through the twentieth century, scholars and activists became more critical of Columbus and his legacy. By 1992 almost equal attention was being given to the devastating consequences that befell indigenous and African populations following Columbus’s journey five hundred years earlier. Though he became an iconic hero, conjecture abounds about Columbus’s ancestry. Around the turn of the twentieth century, the Spanish historian Celso Garcia de la Riega speculated that a fifteenth-century Galcian family named Colón might have been Columbus’s progenitor. Moreover, de la Riega suggested that the Galcian Colóns had married into a seemingly Jewish family, leading the historian to propose that Columbus had been a Jew or a “New Christian.” Scholars have also pointed to Columbus’s frequent references to the Hebrew Bible in his logs and letters. Moreover, he used the Jewish calendar for his personal records. His private letters also tantalize modern historians with their frequent references to such Hebrew Bible figures as King David and Moses.

Other theories developed that questioned the traditional story that Columbus hailed from Genoa, Italy. Among these propositions were theories that Columbus was Greek, Basque, and Portuguese. The most astounding and least plausible story proposed that Columbus was really Native American, had been blown by a storm to Europe, and proposed his naval venture as a means to return home.

Though this type of wild speculation continues, few new historical documents related to Columbus actually surfaced during the twentieth century. In early 2006, an international team of genetic researchers launched an ambitious DNA research project. Composed of scientists from Spain, the United States, Italy, and Germany, this team hopes to use the known remains of Columbus’s brother and son to end the controversy about Columbus’s origins.

Bibliography:

• Cohen, J. M., ed. and trans. 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 Other Contemporary Historians . Hammondsworth, U.K.: Penguin.
• Crosby, Alfred. 1972. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 . Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
• Phillips, William D., Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips. 1993. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus . Cambridge, U.K. and New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Provost, Foster. 1991. Columbus: An Annotated Guide to the Scholarship on His Life and Writings, 1750 to 1988 . Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics for the John Carter Brown Library.
• Sale, Kirkpatrick. 1990. Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Colombian Legacy . New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Schlereth, Thomas J. 1992. Columbia, Columbus, and Columbianism. Journal of American History (Discovering America: A Special Issue) 79 (3): 937–968.

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The Columbus monument removed from Wooster Square represents true courage

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Neil Proto, an attorney and author, published an opinion piece, “New Haven Italian-American sculpture represents true courage (without Columbus),” about the new immigrant statue at Wooster Square in New Haven. Proto was handpicked by Mayor Justin Elicker to serve as a historian and consultant to the Wooster Square Monument Committee.

Instead of defending the Italians of the last 128 years, members of the committee agreed to Mayor Elicker’s demands to create a new immigrant statue to replace the Columbus monument. Proto’s opinion piece seems to outline Mayor Elicker’s legal defense to the Italian-American Defense League’s lawsuit.

Proto’s facts are fuzzy

Proto promotes himself as an expert and historian, which seems doubtful. For example, Proto wrote, “On July 21, 1892, President William Henry Harrison proclaimed , as ‘authorized and directed’ by Congress, a one-time national holiday on Oct. 21, 1892 …”. Did you find Proto’s mistake? President William Henry Harrison died 51 years before 1892. It was President Benjamin Harrison who made the first presidential proclamation to honor the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America.

Christopher Columbus: an Italian-American icon

First, Proto minimizes the importance of Columbus to Italian immigrants and suggests that Columbus was not important to Paul Russo, who led Italian United Societies. Proto’s opinion is illogical because Russo and these Italian immigrants funded, erected, and dedicated the Columbus monument.

At the Columbus monument’s dedication on Oct. 21, 1892 , Russo stated, “the Italian United Societies of New Haven have caused to be erected a monument of this great and illustrious countryman, Christopher Columbus.” Proto is putting a modern-day spin on history in Russo’s speech. According to Russo, Columbus had everything to do with being Italian-American in New Haven.

Second, Proto indicates that the Columbus monument was a gift to the City of New Haven in contrast to the words that Russo actually said. Russo stated that the Columbus monument was “to be presented through you, Mr. Mayor [Joseph Sargent] to the citizens of New Haven, and in their name and behalf I, who have been selected to perform this pleasant duty, formally tender the same and to remain here forever.” The words, “through you” and Mayor Sargent’s statement, “Where the people to-day welcome the gift of this statue I accept the same,” strengthen the case that the statue was a gift to New Haven citizens.“ Mayor Sargent replied, “It will stay here as a pledge of the loyalty of the Italians of this country to the nation and its flag.

Columbus: An Italian Catholic icon

Proto emphasizes Columbus’ status as an Anglo-Saxon, Protestant icon and diminishes the explorer’s role as a Catholic figure to the Italians of New Haven.

In Giuseppe Garibaldi’s letter to Abraham Lincoln on Aug. 6, 1863, Garibaldi refers to Italians as “ Free children of Columbus. ” This letter was written 19 years before Russo’s Columbus statue dedication in New Haven.

A historian is required to have a broad understanding of history in context and should know that Columbus was not only a historical icon to Anglo-Saxons in the United States, but was also a historic icon in Italy. Furthermore, it was the Protestant National Council of Churches that led efforts to eliminate Columbus Day and promote a revisionist narrative in 1992 on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ first landing in America.

Proto seems to think that even though Italian immigrants of 1892 erected a statue of Christopher Columbus on Columbus Green next to St. Michael’s Church, their Catholic Church, Columbus was not an important Catholic figure in the lives of New Haven Italians.

Columbus monument: A response to the New Orleans lynching of 11 Italians

Proto mentions Yale’s role in the eugenics movement and Gov. Dean Wilbur Cross’s belief in the sterilization of Southern Italians. Sadly, the City of New Haven keeps the namesake of Wilbur Cross for one of its high schools, while eliminating the Columbus statue, which represents the very Italians targeted by the eugenics movement and victims of the March 14, 1891, lynching of 11 Italian immigrants .

The Yale New Haven Teachers Institute published research showing that a New Haven barber and physician called a meeting in response to the New Orleans lynchings of Italians which led to the 1892 Columbus Day celebrations and dedication of the Columbus monument at Wooster Square.

According to the Yale New Haven Teachers Institute, The New Haven Register, “reported that thirty-five Italians in New Haven had met at 796 Chapel Street to consider a mass meeting to denounce the lynchers. Callers of the meeting included Dr. Botello of 111 Hill Street, an Italian physician and head of the Italian-American Democratic Club, and Donato Vece, barber, of 179 Congress Avenue.

Increasing pride in Italian heritage was shown by a massive Columbus Day celebration in New Haven on Oct. 11, 1892, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus. Many thousands took part in the parade, which extended for miles and included 36 and 11 drum corps. On the following evening a number of local Italian societies sponsored the laying of the cornerstone of a statue of Christopher Columbus in Wooster Square on Chapel Street, overlooking New Haven harbor, which at that time came up to Water Street. The monument, unveiled and presented to the city on October 21, 1892, was paid for solely by contributions from Italian-Americans.”

Presidential proclamation: an apology for the lynching

Following the March 1891 lynchings, U.S. Secretary of State James G. Blaine and the Italian government participated in an international dispute regarding damages to be paid to the families of the Italian immigrant victims, who were unfairly accused of being in the mafia .

The Pittsburg Press reported on April 16, 1891, “We do not believe the Italian government will declare war against the United States, but it does look as if it would be driven to a complete suspension of friendly intercourse with the government by Blaine’s letter.” In May 1891, the Italian Consul of New Orleans recalled its ambassador to Rome to give testimony to the Italian government about the lynchings. After a year of diplomatic talks on April 16, 1892, the United States Government agreed to pay the families of the immigrants $28,000 in damages.

The Sydney Mail reported on April 11, 1891, that Benjamin Harrison, “deplores the unfortunate occurrence at New Orleans , and he promises to institute a searching inquiry into the circumstances of the outbreak.” In response, Marquis Di Rudini, the Italian Premier, stated, “diplomatic relations can only be resumed on the commencement of the prosecution of the men who shot Italian subjects at New Orleans.” After listening to the Italian Premier’s request, it was reported that President Harrison, “has formally demanded that the Governor of the State of Louisiana, shall arrest the lynchers of the Sicilians for trial in the Federal Court.”

President Benjamin Harrison attended ceremonies to unveil the shaft of the new Columbus monument presented by Italian societies in New York in 1892 and honored Columbus for the discovery of America with the first presidential proclamation in honor of Columbus for the 400th Anniversary of Columbus’s landing in America. Fast forward to April 12, 2019, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell apologized for the government’s role in the March 14, 1891, lynchings of Italian immigrants.

Back in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1891, Donato Vece and Dr. Botello, assumingly knew of the international crises and called a meeting. As a result, Italians of New Haven participated in a patriotic display of Americanism on Columbus Day in 1892 and days later culminating with the dedication of New Haven’s Columbus monument . Columbus became a symbol of courage for Italian immigrants in their newly adopted home country as Americans.

With that understanding, it is clear why Communist USA members Howard Zinn and New Haven’s Al Marder distorted Columbus’s history to tear it down: Columbus was a patriotic symbol, Catholic, and patriarchal. Too many people and news media still repeat the genocide lies spread by Zinn.

Throughout the Columbus statue’s history, it has been a target of bigotry and hate. Italians repaired the statue after vandalism and protested its removal on more than one occasion. The Wooster Square Monument Committee needs to return Columbus to restore the reputations of its members.

Unlike Italians of the past, Proto and members of the Monument Committee appeared to have bowed to pressure. Until members publicly support the return of Columbus, their reputations will be tarnished as they are siding with Communists and historical revisionists, instead of 128 years of courageous Italians.

Matthew Guarnieri is president of the Italian-American Defense League (IADL) which promotes education, portrays Italians positively, and preserves traditions.