The Voyages and Events

The voyages and events

The First voyage

Columbus was given the title “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” in April 1492. He wanted to lead his own expedition and was a trained sailor and ready to lead. However, he needed someone to fund his voyage, so he went to the king of Portugal, John II, who immediately declined. Columbus turned then to queen Isabella of Spain who reluctantly funded him.^[12] On the evening of August 3, 1492, Columbus departed from Castilian Palos de la Frontera with three ships (Niña, Pinta, and the Santa Maria). The ships were property of Juan de la Cosa and the Pinzón brothers, (Martín Alonso Pinzón and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón), but the monarchs forced the Palos de la Frontera inhabitants to contribute to the expedition. Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, which were ruled by the Crown of Castile, where he restocked provisions and made repairs. While securing provisions from the island of La Gomera, Columbus received word that three Portuguese caravels had been seen hovering near the island of El Hierro with the supposed intention of capturing him.^[17] However, on September 6, 1492 the westward voyage began without incident.^[18]

On September 6, he departed San Sebastián de la Gomera for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.

Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Diameter of Earth and travel distance estimates

A spherical Earth had been the general opinion of Ancient Greek science, and this view continued through the Middle Ages (for example, Bede mentions it in The Reckoning of Time). In factEratosthenes had measured the diameter of the Earth with good precision in the 2nd century BC.^[10]Where Columbus did differ from the generally accepted view of his time was in his (very incorrect) arguments that assumed a significantly smaller diameter for the Earth, claiming that Asia could be easily reached by sailing west across the Atlantic. Most scholars accepted Ptolemy's correct assessment that the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of the terrestrial sphere, and dismissed Columbus' claim that the Earth was much smaller, and that Asia was only a few thousand nautical miles to the west of Europe. Columbus' error was attributed to his insufficient experience in navigation at sea.

Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Castilian (Spanish) procurement

King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1469, formally uniting the two largest kingdoms in what is now Spain. They were known jointly as theCatholic Monarchs, and ruled their kingdoms independently, but had common internal and foreign policies.

Columbus was granted an audience with them; on May 1, 1489, he presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who referred them to a committee. They pronounced the idea impractical, and advised the monarchs not to support the proposed venture.^[5]

However, to expand the Spanish empire and Catholicism in the name of Spanish Kings, and to assure a better market position in trading, the Queen gave Columbus an annual allowance of 12,000 maravedis and part of the newly conquered lands.

After continually lobbying at the royal court and enduring two years of negotiations, Columbus finally succeeded in 1492. Queen Isabella's forces had just conquered the Moorish Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold of Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula, for Castile. Isabella and Ferdinand received Columbus in the Alcázar (castle) in Córdoba to support his plans.

The monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous but, as his son later wrote, the monarchs were not confident of his return.

Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Funding campaign

In 1485, Columbus presented his plans to King John II of Portugal. He proposed the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one year's time to sail out west into the Atlantic, search for a western route to India, and return. Columbus also requested he be made "Great Admiral of the Ocean Sea" ( Atlantic Ocean ), appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, and be given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands. The king submitted the proposal to his experts, who rejected it after several years. It was their considered opinion that Columbus' estimation of a travel distance of 2,400 miles (3,900 km) was, in fact, far too short.^[4]

In 1488 Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal and once, again John II invited him to an audience. It also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal following a successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa. With an eastern sea route now under its control, Portugal was no longer interested in trailblazing a western trade route to Asia crossing unknowns seas. Columbus traveled from Portugal to Spain to convince the Catholic Monarchs of Spain to finance the expedition.

Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Background
Portugal had been the main European power interested in pursuing trade routes overseas. Their next-door neighbors, Castile(predecessor of Spain) had been somewhat slower to begin exploring the Atlantic due to the bigger surface to re-conquer in Spain. It was not until the late 15th century, following the unification of Castile and Aragon and the completion of the reconquista that Spain emerged and became fully committed to looking for new trade routes and colonies overseas. In 1492 the joint rulers of the Spanish nation conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada, which had been providing Castile with African goods through tribute. After failing to convince Portuguese king to open a new route, Columbus presented the idea to the new Kings of Spain and they decided to fund Christopher Columbus' expedition that they hoped would bypass Portugal's lock on Africa and the Indian Ocean reaching Asia by traveling west.^[3]

Voyages of Christopher Columbus

In the early modern period, the voyages of Christopher Columbus initiated European exploration and colonization of the American continents and are thus of great significance in world history. Christopher Columbus was an Italian navigator from the Republic of Genoa that became an admiral for Spain. He made four voyages to the Americas, the first being in 1492.

Asians who crossed the Bering Strait to North America in prehistoric times (between 12,000 and 42,000 years ago) were the first to discover America. Vikings established a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland circa 1000. While Columbus was not the first European to voyage to the New World and did not reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498, his voyage led to the widespread knowledge of the existence of a new continent. The breakthrough in geographical science led to the colonization of the New World by major European sea powers and is sometimes cited as the start of the Modern Era.^[1]

Spain, Portugal and other European kingdoms sent expeditions and established colonies throughout the New World, converted the native inhabitants to Christianity and built large trade networks across the Atlantic which introduced new plants, animals, and food crops in both continents. The search for a westward route to Asia continued in 1513 when Nuñez de Balboacrossed Central America and became the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. The search was completed in 1521, when the Spanish Magellan-Elcano expedition sailed across the Pacific and reached Southeast Asia.

JODHA AKBAR by Karthikeyan.N