Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer

• Born: Between August 25 and October 31, 1451
• Birthplace: Genoa (now in Italy)
• Died: May 20, 1506
• Place of death: Valladolid, Spain

Columbus’s expedition to the Americas was the first recorded transatlantic voyage. It led directly to Europe’s colonial settlement and exploitation of the New World, and it altered the course of Western history.

Early Life

Christopher Columbus’s father, Domenico, was a wool weaver and gatekeeper in Genoa. In 1470, he moved his family to nearby Savona, where he worked as an innkeeper. Christopher Columbus was the eldest of five children, of whom Bartolomé and Diego played a large part in his life. Christopher had little formal education, having become an apprentice at sea at about age ten, not entirely surprising in the great port city of Genoa. His knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and Latin came with experience.

Columbus’s early days at sea brought him as far as Tunis and Chios, a Greek island that was then a Genoese possession. He next traveled to Ireland, Iceland, and Madeira, where, in 1478, he married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, who was of a noble Portuguese family with a hereditary title to govern Porto Santo, one of the Madeira islands. They had a son, Diego, and Columbus resided in Porto Santo for perhaps three years and worked as a seaman or merchant.

In the early 1480s, having sailed in either capacity to São Jorge da Mina on Africa’s Gold Coast, then the southernmost point in the known world, Columbus gained experience of the south Atlantic. By 1484, his hair prematurely white, he had conceived the plan for a great empresa de las Indias (enterprise of the Indies). In that year, the Portuguese king John II rejected Columbus’s idea of reaching Cathay (China), the islands of Japan, and India by sailing westward. Portugal was deeply committed to its search for an African route to India.

The concept of sailing westward was not new; indeed, it did not even originate with Columbus. A mathematician from Florence, Paolo Toscanelli dal Pozzo, had articulated this idea in a letter with a map sent to Prince Henry the Navigator in 1474. It was, moreover, widely accepted that the world was round. Columbus had researched his plan well. Perhaps he had seen Toscanelli’s letter in the archives. Certainly he had read Marco Polo and Ptolemy. These books and Pierre d’Ailly’s Imago mundi (c. 1483; English translation, 1927), which Columbus had studied (he made hundreds of marginal notes in his copy) were authoritative at that time, though filled with errors tending to understate the size of the earth. The miscalculation of the journey’s length by about two-thirds nearly destroyed Columbus’s project.

By 1486, Portugal’s repeated failure to cut through the Congo (Kongo) or to attain the southern tip of Africa allowed Columbus’s plan a second hearing. In 1488, however, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and Columbus was again disappointed in Portugal. Henry VII of England entertained the offer of Columbus’s agent, his brother Bartolomé. Yet it was Ferdinand II and Isabella of Spain who, after shunting his proposals into committee for four years, finally, in the flush of victory over Muslim Granada early in 1492, awarded him his chance. The Franciscan friar and astronomer Antonio de Merchena had helped him gain an interview with Isabella in about 1490, and court treasurer Luis de Santangel finally gained for Columbus Isabella’s support by pledges of Jewish investment in the project.

During his pursuit of the Spanish royal court, Columbus had acquired in Córdoba a mistress, Beatriz Enríquez de Harana. She bore him a son, Fernando, who wrote an affectionate and thorough biography that is a chief source for modern knowledge about Columbus.

Life’s Work

Fernando relates the exorbitant terms by which the Spanish monarchs agreed to grant Columbus 10 percent of all the gold or other goods acquired in the lands he might discover; he and his heirs were to hold the titles of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy of such lands. He was provided with two ships of the caravel type, the Niña and the Pinta, procured by Martín Alonso Pinzón of the port city of Palos; the round-bellied neotype Santa Maria was chartered from its owner by Columbus. For his efforts in raising money and crews numbering ninety men in all, mostly from Palos, and for his skill in commanding the Pinta, Pinzón would later claim a share in the credit and glory of Columbus’s discoveries. The two smaller vessels were about fifty feet long, and the Santa Maria was about eighty-two feet long. They were equipped for any contingency with weapons, a translator of Hebrew and Arabic to deal with the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan if he was found, and goods to sell for gold.

The first voyage of Columbus left Palos on August 3, 1492. After a stopover at Spain’s Canary Islands, the tiny fleet began its ocean trek on September 6. Constantly favorable trade winds caused the sailors to despair at ever gaining a wind to aid their return home. The southwesterly flights of birds persuaded Columbus to accept Pinzón’s advice to change his course to the southwest. A Niña lookout was the first to sight land. Columbus named the land San Salvador, landed, and, thinking he had reached an outlying island of Japan, claimed it for Spain. In reality, he had reached the Americas, and was the first European of his time to do so.

Japan, and Cathay itself, he thought, must be only ten days distant. The search brought him to what would later become Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which together he named Hispaniola (little Spain). The native Arawaks were simple hunter-fishers who wore almost no clothes. Columbus was charmed by their courtesy. The Cubans were equally friendly. Arawak references to the caniba people (cannibals) and Cuban allusions to gold in the interior at Cubanacam further conjured images of Marco Polo’s khan in Columbus’s mind. Establishing the Hispaniola settlement of Navidad, the first in the New World, to organize gold-mining operations, Columbus departed for Spain before a favorable west wind, carrying six Arawak captives and news of the discovery of tobacco.

Having lost Pinzón with the Pinta, which departed on November 21, and lost the Santa Maria on a reef on Christmas Day, 1492, Columbus had only the Niña for his return. He suspected Pinzón of trying to precede him to the khan, or to the sources of the gold, or back to Spain to claim the honor for his own discoveries. Therefore, their meeting at sea on January 6, 1493, precipitated a quarrel between the two captains. It was not until January 16 that the transatlantic return voyage commenced. Storms blew the Niña first into the Portuguese Azores on February 18 and then into Lisbon on March 9, causing King John II to charge Spain with illegal explorations of the African coast and to claim Columbus’s discoveries for Portugal. This litigation was later settled in Spain’s favor by the pope. Columbus’s arrival in Palos on March 14 and subsequent reception by Ferdinand and Isabella at Barcelona at the end of April, accompanied by American Indians in full ceremonial dress, was the admiral’s greatest moment.

The royal announcement of a second voyage was met with numerous volunteers. A fleet of seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men departed Cádiz on September 25, 1493. On board were animals, seeds, plants, and tools for the establishment of a colony. Among Columbus’s discoveries were Dominica Island (spied on Sunday), the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. He found Navidad, however, destroyed by the indigenous and its settlers slain. Farther east on the north coast of what is now the Dominican Republic, he built the first European city in the New World, which he named Isabella. Leaving his brother Diego in charge there, he himself led the exploration of Cibao, the inland mountainous region of Hispaniola. There he founded the fortress settlement of Santo Tomás. He had still not seen the khan, but Columbus did discover Jamaica on May 5, 1494.

Convinced that Cuba was indeed the Asiatic mainland, Columbus forced his crew to sign an agreement to that effect. Back in Isabella, Columbus found the settlers angry and the indigenous people in rebellion. Diego had been inadequate to the task of governing. Columbus’s response was to ship five hundred indigenous people to the slave market at Seville. Those who survived the journey, however, were returned to Hispaniola by the monarchs, who may have had in mind a program of Christianization and agricultural exploitation for the colonies.

Columbus left Hispaniola again on March 10, 1496, leaving his brother Bartolomé to build a settlement at Santo Domingo. In the short space of four years since the coming of the Europeans, a flourishing indigenous population had been decimated by exploitation, massacre, disease, and famine. Charges of misgovernment and cruelty greeted his arrival in Cádiz on June 11.

For Columbus’s third voyage in six ships, there were no volunteers. Indeed, the two-hundred-man crew had to be shanghaied or bribed by release from prison. Departure was from Sanlúcar, near Cádiz, on May 30, 1498. Sailing a more southerly route, the fleet was becalmed eight days in unbearable heat. On July 31, Columbus named three-peaked Trinidad, and the next day, the fleet first spied the South American mainland. The first Europeans landed in the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela on August 5. Noting the fresh water flowing from the Orinoco River and the pearls worn by the women, Columbus believed that this was one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden.

Arriving to find violence and syphilis in Hispaniola, Columbus was returned to reality. He came to terms with his rebellious governor, Francisco Roldán, only by means of the infamous repartimiento, or distribution of indigenous serfs among the settlers as laborers and miners. On August 23, 1500, Francisco de Bobadilla arrived, sent by Ferdinand to replace Columbus as viceroy. In response to the admiral’s resistance, Bobadilla sent Columbus and Diego back to Spain in chains.

Yet Columbus won the sympathy of the royal couple. On May 9, 1502, with brother Bartolomé and son Fernando, age thirteen, Columbus left on his “high voyage” (alto viaje) to find a way through Hispaniola to the Indian Ocean and restore his reputation. He was specifically prohibited, however, from landing at Hispaniola, where Nicolás de Ovando now governed with twenty-five hundred men.

Fernando records Ovando’s flotilla making for Spain after ignoring Columbus’s warnings of a storm at sea; twenty of twenty-four ships were lost. Fernando also relates the discovery of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles, the exploration of the coasts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and the acquisition of gold from the people of Honduras. The Isthmus of Panama blocked all access to an “Indian Ocean.” Ovando could not have known that he was only forty miles from the Pacific Ocean.

Columbus ultimately fared little better. His entry into the unexplored western Caribbean Sea cost him more than a year at sea and the loss of his ships to storm and sea worms. Ovando waited another year before extricating the marooned men from Saint Ann’s Bay in June, 1504. Sick in body and mind but rich with gold and new maps, Columbus reached Sanlúcar on November 7, 1504. The queen would die on November 26. He saw only a disinterested Ferdinand the following spring at Segovia. Columbus himself died on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain.

Significance

Columbus spent his last years in vain demands for his rights and titles under the original royal charter and back pay for his men. Nevertheless, his share of the wealth of what came to be called the West Indies allowed him to live comfortably. His son Diego did retain the titles of admiral and viceroy after a long litigation. Columbus’s library fell to Fernando, who bequeathed it, as the Biblioteca Colombina, to the Cathedral of Seville, where it remains. Columbus’s body was eventually interred in Seville, and then moved to the Cathedral of Santo Domingo (Hispaniola). His remains were later transferred to Cuba, and after that island gained independence they were transferred again to Seville. A competing claim argued that bone fragments discovered in Santo Domingo in 1877 belonged to Columbus, and controversy remains over the identification of Columbus' remains despite DNA analysis in the early 2000s.

Columbus believed himself guided by Providence and biblical prophecy in all his undertakings, a faith that made him intolerant of opposition and capable of great brutality in the name of God. His instincts at sea were regarded by his sailors as divine. He found winds and currents and reckoned directions as if inspired. His achievements were immense. European economic and political power would leave the Mediterranean lands and focus on the Americas for centuries to come.

Commemoration and Controversy

Columbus' great historic influence led to many celebrations of his life and achievements, as well as considerable controversy. The anniversary of his arrival in the Americas is regarded as a holiday in Spain and most countries in the Americas, typically celebrated as Columbus Day around October 12. The four hundredth anniversary of his landing, in 1892, was the inspiration for the World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago world's fair, held in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. As an iconic historical figure widely regarded as the "discoverer" of America throughout the United States and Europe, Columbus has been honored in everything from place names to postal stamps.

Traditional narratives of US history in particular emphasized Columbus as a hero. However, some later historians and many Native American activists reinterpreted the explorer in a more negative light. They asserted that glorifying Columbus as a discoverer of a new world is an ethnocentric view that ignores the pre-Columbian population of the Americas, not to mention earlier Viking contact with North America. In addition, scholars pointed to Columbus' reputation for tyranny and cruelty, as well argued that his voyages led to genocide, slavery, and environmental and economic exploitation. The growing ethnic diversity of the United States in the twentieth century led to greater audiences for these dissenting views, many of which came to prominence in debates over Columbus Day celebrations, particularly surrounding the 1992 five hundredth anniversary of Columbus' landing.

Bibliography

Colón, Fernando. The Life of Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son, Ferdinand. 2nd ed. Transl. by Benjamin Keen. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1992. An intimate and affectionate biography by Columbus’s son. Fernando’s book is the basis of all the extremely favorable accounts of Columbus’s career.

Davidson, Miles H. Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1997. Rigorous reconsideration of Columbus’s life surveys and criticizes decades of Columbus biographers for their unreflective and outright errors. Davidson is especially critical of Morison’s biography, and of those later biographers who follow it. Includes maps, bibliographic references, index.

Fuson, Robert H., trans. The Log of Christopher Columbus. Camden: International Marine, 1987. This translation is based on the abstract of Columbus’s log made by Bartolomé de Las Casas, with additions from his Historia de las Indias (1875-1876) and from Fernando Columbus’s history of the Columbus family.

Heat-Moon, William Least. Columbus in the Americas. Hoboken: Wiley, 2002. Careful reappraisal of Columbus as explorer, colonizer, and man, by a best-selling Native American author. Heat-Moon uses many quotations from Columbus’s journals to provide insight into the thoughts and motives of the explorer. Includes maps.

Landström, Björn. Columbus. London: Allen & Unwin, 1967. Ample illustrations, especially maps and ship designs, are extremely useful for illuminating the background, life, and voyages of Columbus. This is an interestingly written biography.

Lawrence, Calvin, Jr. "Columbus Day 2014: Hero, Villain, or Maybe Both." ABC News. ABC News Internet Ventures, 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 1 May 2015.

Madariaga, Salvador de. Christopher Columbus: Being the Life of the Very Magnificent Lord Don Cristóbal Colón. New York: Macmillan, 1940. An engrossing biography of immense scholarship. Its extensive notes support a thorough discussion of debated Columbian issues. This book must be read by anyone serious about Columbus.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Rev. ed. New York: Book-of-the-Month Club, 1992. This is an eminently readable biography. Emphasizes Columbus as a seaman more than as an administrator. Does not stop at the “water’s edge,” as Morison claims other biographies do.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492–1616. New York: Oxford UP, 1974. Devotes eight chapters to Columbus, viewing him in the larger context of his southern voyages. This volume, by a lifelong student of Columbus, features photographs of coastlines as Columbus might have seen them. Includes forty-two pages of maps.

Summerhill, Stephen J., and John Alexander Williams. Sinking Columbus: Contested History, Cultural Politics, and Mythmaking During the Quincentenary. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2000. Thorough examination of the contemporary legacy of Columbus as seen through the lens of the failure of the planned five hundredth anniversary celebration of his voyage. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, index.