Columbus, Christopher

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER (Cristofor Colombo, 1451–1506), explorer. Born in the Italian republic of Genoa, Columbus acted as a mariner in the Mediterranean and joined the Italian merchant colony in Lisbon in the 1470s. From Portugal, he sailed north to England, Ireland, and possibly Iceland. He also visited Madeira and the Canary Islands and sailed down the African coast to São Jorge da Mina. By his marriage to Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, member of an Italian-Portuguese noble family, he gained access to the Portuguese and Castilian royal courts.

Columbus became convinced that Asia could be reached by sailing west from Europe, based on rumors of undiscovered islands in the Atlantic, unusual objects found on Atlantic shores, and a wide reading of geography and other sources. He believed that the Earth's circumference was smaller than it is and that Asia would not be too far west from Europe.

After failing to interest the Portuguese king John II in his scheme for a westward passage to Asia, Columbus went to Spain. The Spanish monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, assigned experts to investigate the feasibility of a westward voyage. They disputed Columbus's flawed geography, but the spherical shape of the world was never in question. In early 1492, the monarchs, disregarding the skepticism of their experts, agreed to help support Columbus's first voyage at a modest financial risk. They promised to grant him noble status and the titles of admiral, viceroy, and governor-general for any lands he might discover.

With the support of the prominent mariner Martín Alonso Pinzón, Columbus outfitted three vessels for the voyage: the Niña, Pinta, and Mariagalante (Santa María). Leaving in early August of 1492, the fleet sailed first to the Canary Islands and then headed westward with following winds. Columbus and the other pilots in the fleet navigated by dead reckoning, estimating direction by compass, time by sand clock, and speed by eye and feel to plot their course and position.

Early on 12 October the fleet dropped anchor at an island that Columbus renamed San Salvador. Believing they were in Asia, the crew called the natives "Indians." Shortly thereafter, Martín Alonso Pinzón took the Pinta and sailed off to explore and trade on his own. Columbus visited Cuba, vainly seeking the vast commerce and rich ports of Asia, and then sailed to the island he named Hispaniola and explored its northern coast. After the Mariagalante ran aground and wrecked, Columbus founded a settlement for the thirty-nine men he left behind. After Pinzón returned, the Ninña and Pinta set sail for Spain, with seven captured Indians aboard.

Columbus made three other voyages to the Caribbean islands and the mainland of Central and South America. During the second and third he was required to act as a colonial administrator as well as an explorer; his limited administrative skills contributed to growing chaos. A royal investigator arrested Columbus and sent him back to Spain, thus ending his third voyage. The Spanish monarchs allowed him to keep his property, but his titles were thereafter devoid of authority, as the monarchs established a new colonial administration.

On his fourth and final voyage, Columbus mainly explored the coast of Central America, where he encountered fierce local resistance. Turning back, he grounded his two remaining worn-out vessels on the Jamaican coast and spent a miserable year before being rescued. Broken in health, he arrived in Spain on 7 November 1504.

Columbus made every effort to have all his grants and titles restored. Even without them, he was a wealthy man, but he felt betrayed and slighted by his royal patrons. For their part, the Spanish sovereigns justified their withdrawal of support by citing Columbus's mismanagement. Surrounded by family and friends, Columbus died in 1506, rich but dissatisfied. As a man of his time, Columbus was strongly influenced by contemporary norms and beliefs about commerce, religion, and science. Deeply religious, he hoped to supply funds to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims, in fulfillment of Christian crusading ideas and millenarian prophecies. At the same time, he was a shrewd businessman and used geographical and scientific works in newly available printed editions, making scientific observations of sea and wind and flora and fauna. He attempted to calculate longitude, noted the difference between true and magnetic north, and accurately predicted a lunar eclipse. Instead of finding a new route to Asia, Columbus made the lands and peoples of the Western Hemisphere known to Europeans and set in motion a chain of events that engendered today's close connections among all the world's societies.

See also Cartography and Geography ; Colonialism ; Europe and the World ; Exploration ; Shipbuilding and Navigation ; Spanish Colonies: The Caribbean .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Source

Columbus, Christopher. Textos y documentos completos, nuevas cartas. Edited by Consuelo Varela and Juan Gil. Madrid, 1992.

Secondary Sources

Henige, David. In Search of Columbus: The Sources for the First Voyage. Tucson, Ariz., 1991.

Phillips, William D., Jr., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge, U.K., and New York, 1992.

William D. Phillips, Jr.