Spain and Christopher Columbus
Spain, being recently unified, wanted spices and gold. The gold to them could purchase anything. So they offered Christopher Columbus ten percent of the profit, if he would bring back gold and spices. Christopher Columbus was sent to Asia with three ships: the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
Columbus sailed for thirty-three days not sighting land. It wasn’t until early October of 1492 that he and his crew finally landed. He supposedly was the first to sight land and received a ten thousand maravedis as his reward. It was not him, but a member of his crew who first sighted land, Rodrigo. But Columbus got the credit.
As Columbus and his crew approached the island, they were greeted by the native inhabitants of the island. The natives were the Arawak Indians, and the island they were on was the Bahama Islands. The Arawaks gave them food, water, and incredible gifts. Columbus took some of the natives as prisoners so they could show him where the gold was. They took him to Hispaniola. Hispaniola, as Columbus reported, was beautiful, fertile, ...
Toward the end of pre-colonial times in Europe, due to the fall of Constantinople, many European nations felt the need to find an alternate route to the East Indies. The trade of rare goods such as spices, rice, exotic fruits and silk fabrics were much in demand, but came at extreme prices. In the beginning of the ‘Age of Exploration’, Portugal was in the forefront with the early explorers Henry the Navigator, Zarco and Tristao Vaz Teixeira, and Diogo Silves discovering the Madeira Islands, the Azores, and the exploration of Africa respectively, but King John the II of Portugal was unconvinced by Christopher Columbus’s pleas to fund his plan to sail West to the East Indies. Columbus made many demands for self-profit, including ten percent of any riches with which he returned, and even an ‘Admiralty’. Subsequently, Columbus took his plans to Queen Isabella of Spain. Spain acquiesced, and Columbus set off on his fateful journey. The Roman Catholic Church was very interested in expanding the Christian faith during this time and applied its influence on the monarchy. Religion also played a large personal role as Columbus truly believed that God spoke to him, and guided his hand. Additionally, at this time in Europe, land and food were at a premium. The monarchs of the era were fully aware that the acquisition of more land, slave labor and possible natural resources would greatly increase their power, prestige and subsequent wealth. After learning of Columbus’ successful return and the Treaty of Tordesillas (which divided the New World between Spain and Portugal), King Henry VII of England threw his hat into the ring and sent John Cabot sailing from Bristol on an attempt to find a shorter route to the ‘Indies’. Not to be left out in ...
He left from Spain with six ships, three to deliver supplies to the colonies in the New World, and three for the exploration to find a more direct route to Asia, which Columbus believed he would find. He sailed to the Canary islands, then west across the Atlantic. On this voyage, Columbus got stuck in the “horse latitudes”, areas where the wind is especially calm. During this time, the crews ran low on water. They reached land on the 31th of July, in present day Trinidad. The quantity of fresh water entering the ocean had Columbus conclude he was on a continent. He concluded that the “Garden of Eden” was on this new continent. In the next months, Columbus continued to explore the surrounding areas, looking for gold and the Garden of Eden. Columbus sailed to one of his previous settlements to find citizens there rebelling against the tyrannic rule he had established there. The exact date of his return to Europe was unknown, however in 1500, the Spanish crown stripped him of his Governor
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, and he discovered the new land and wrote a letter to Luis de Sant’ Angel in 1493.Columbus was telling Angel about the island that he landed on it.
Another reason that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella financed the voyage was because they wanted to spread religion. Specifically Christianity and Columbus, being a devout Catholic was enthusiastic about the idea. The deal was that every time Columbus discovered an island or land, he would have to give it to Spain so they would take control and have the opportunity to spread Christianity through missionaries. Religion was popular and had power around the world, but especially in Spain. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella then realized that if a trade route was open then they could spread Christianity and it would spread all the way to Asia, which would give Europeans more power and give Spain control over the Mediterranean.
Columbus' original plan was to prove that early geographers were wrong and that the world was larger than computed (William Howarth). He had sponsorship from the King and Queen of Spain who were finally convinced by Columbus by his belief that he was a divine missionary, ordained by God to spread Christianity (P. J. Riga). When he got to the New World he had found that there was the possibility that there might be an abundance of gold, and gold was the commodity Columbus pursued with obsessive zeal (William Howarth). It would seem to be an item that he had a lust for more than anything. An elder on Tortuga described "within a hundred or more ...
He was intending to reach Asia by sailing west rather than taking the traditional route around the Cape of Good Horn. On October 12, 1492, Columbus and his men landed on an island in the Bahamas. “As European adventurers traversed the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries they initiated the “Columbian Exchange” of plants, animals, and diseases. ”(P. 26). The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of exchanges between the New and Old Worlds.
Christopher Columbus was a renaissance explorer in 1492. he was sent by queen Isabelle and king Ferdinand of Spain to look for a trade route to east Asia
After obtaining funding for his explorations to reach Asia from the seizure and sale of properties from Spanish Jews and Muslims by order of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Columbus headed out to explore a new world with money and ships. Upon arrival, Columbus and his expedition of weapon laden Spaniards met the Arawaks, Tainos and Lucayans—all friendly, according to Columbus’ writings. Impressed with the friendliness of the native people, Columbus seized control of the land in the name of Spain. Soon after arriving, Columbus wrecked the Santa Maria and the Arawaks worked for hours to save the crew and cargo. Columbus quite literally landed in what is now known as the Bahamas and later Hispaniola, present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. “They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things… They willingly traded everything they owned…. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. Finally we came to an agreement in such manner that I can tell you that she seemed to have been brought up in a school of harlots.” Several accounts of cruelty and murder include Spaniards testing the sharpness of blades on Native people by cutting them in half, beheading them in contests and throwing Natives into vats of boiling soap. Bartolome De Las Casas, a former slave
Under the monarchy of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, Spain was provided with many advantages in its conquest of the Western Hemisphere. Spanish monarchs supported several explorers ' expeditions and one of them was Christopher Columbus. In 1492 Columbus was on the look out for a better, cheaper, and faster route to Asia in order to acquire better trade goods, expand Spanish empires, and spread Christianity. It was also his last chance to sail and prove to the Spanish monarchs that he was capable of finding riches for them. Instead, he sailed west where he ran into the Western Hemisphere and discovered new lands and new people, where he thought he found India.
Before Columbus and the Europeans, there was a time where there were many struggles and many ideas not even thought yet. All of this changed when the ancient civilizations started to live in the Americas. This was a time when ancient civilizations expanded brought the Americas and had a unique way of living. The ancient civilizations in the Americans and in Europe were different from cultures, adaptations, and foods.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search for the all-water route to Asia, but instead achieved fame for making landfall in the Caribbean Sea. Columbus' plan was based in part on two major miscalculations. First, he underestimated the circumference of the world by about 25 per cent. Columbus also mistakenly believed that most of the world consisted of land rather than water. This mistake led him to conclude that Asia extended much farther east than it actually did. In 1492, Columbus embarked on his first voyage. Queen Isabella of Spain ordered that the port of Palos supply him with three ships the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria. A total of about 90 crew members sailed aboard the three ships. In addition to the officers and sailors, the expedition included a translator, three physicians, a servant for each captain, a secretary, and an accountant. On October 12, 1492, at 2:00 in the morning he spouted a small island, which he called San Salvador. In January, the Santa Maria was wrecked off the coast of Espanola. The Nina, with Columbus in command, along with the Pinta began the homeward voyage in January 1493. The storms drove the ships first to the Azores and then to Lisbon, Columbus arrived in Palos, Spain, in March. He was enthusiastically received by the Spanish Monarchs. Columbus planned immediately for a second expedition, with about 1500 men, which left Spain in September 1493. They landed on the island of Dominica, Gaudeloupe. His stop at Puerto Rico is the closest he came to setting foot on land that would later form part of the United States, the main foundation for the claim that Columbus “discovered America.”
Some explorers were not looking for land to claim, but faster routes. Columbus went exploring trying to find a faster way to Asia/India for spice trading. The reason for this was because his country was receiving Asian Spices from Muslims(Document 3). In order to get the spices from the Muslims, high prices had to be paid since it was exchanged from person to person. Columbus went sailing and found an area that had inhabitants who looked like people he has never seen before which he assumed were Indians. Columbus saw they had foods he never had before and he started trading with them. He brought over foods such as the Irish Potato, Florida Oranges, Colombian Coffee, and French Vanilla Ice cream, for trading purposes(Document 6). All of those
In 1492 Christopher Columbus was said to be the first arrival on American soil from the East.
Columbus and Champlain were both devoted to the success of their expeditions; however, Columbus had far more selfish intentions. Columbus was an Italian who sought aid for a journey that would travel across the Atlantic Ocean in search for riches in the East. His support did not come easy as he was rejected by the courts of Portugal, France, and England. Ultimately, Columbus was able to gain authorization and funding for a voyage to begin in 1492 by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel. After starting the long awaited expedition in April, Columbus was able to reach the West Indies by October of that year. Upon encountering the New World, Columbus immediately claimed the land along with its natives for his Spanish sovereigns.
Though Christopher Columbus and Bartolomé de Las Casas interacted with different groups of Native Americans, or Indians as they were mistakenly referred as, during different centuries, they both encountered similar experiences. Christopher Columbus, the first European to make contact with the Indians of the Bahamas, landed on an island inhabited with docile, rudimentary Native Americans who treated the explorers with hospitality instead of hostility. Christopher Columbus wrote this about the natives; “they are very simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have; none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. They exhibit great love towards all others in preference to themselves: they also give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little or nothing in return.” These natives owed the conquistadores nothing but gave generously regardless. Bartolomé de Las Casas also observed similar traits of humanity. “They have been endowed with excellent conduct…. for they are not stupid or